Web Hosting Box

Reseller hosting has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years, as more online business owners are realizing the profit potential of an ever-expanding web hosting industry. As a web hosting reseller you do not have to own your own web servers or hire any employees, because all of the tools and resources needed to build, maintain, and market a professional web hosting site are included within your web hosting control panel.

In essence, as a reseller you receive server resources at wholesale cost, and then split these resources into different plans which can then be allocated to your clients for a residual monthly profit. Perhaps the most sought-after type of web hosting plan is dedicated hosting, which gives the user access to a completely private web server that is only utilized for their websites. The following information outlines the benefits of reselling dedicated web hosting plans.

The Ongoing Demand for Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is often seen as the pinnacle of the hosting industry, and nearly every webmaster aims to lease their own dedicated server sooner or later. In fact, the majority of webmasters begin their online endeavors by purchasing a shared hosting plan, before gradually progressing to a virtual private server, and then finally to a dedicated hosting plan. Thus, there is an ongoing demand for dedicated servers being renewed each year, as new webmasters reach a skill and traffic level that requires the use of a more powerful web server. As a web hosting reseller you have the opportunity to capitalize on this popularity and demand by offering dedicated hosting plans for a small monthly profit.

Providing Dedicated Hosting Was Reseller Hosting Partitions

The majority of reseller hosting plans allow you to allocate a specific amount of server resources to each client through customized plans. However, it is usually not possible to resell entire dedicated servers to your clients. Thus, as an alternative you’ll have to resort to mimicking a dedicated hosting environment with a large reseller hosting partition. This can be done by finding out the exact specifications and server resources offered with an average dedicated hosting plan, and then allocating the same amount of server resources to your clients, in order to provide an equivalent service to dedicated hosting.

Mediating the Sale of Dedicated Hosting

As a web hosting reseller you also have the option to earn a commission on each dedicated web hosting plan that you sell. Instead of trying to mimic the capabilities of the dedicated hosting plan for your clients, you can recommend them to a dedicated hosting provider and earn an affiliate commission for each sale generated. This can be incredibly profitable if you have the capability to refer enough customers per month, however it will not create the ongoing residual income that is often seen as being a beneficial aspect of reseller hosting. Nonetheless, if your reseller hosting plan is not extensive enough to offer partitions that mimic the capabilities of a dedicated server, then you may need to resort to collecting affiliate commissions by mediating the sale of dedicated hosting plans.

When you’re aspiring to start your venture online, collecting the money from clients once they have chosen to purchase is a really puzzling task.

Merchant accounts, gateways, shopping carts, security issues, authorization services, and third-party verification is overwhelming. Here is a concise summary of understanding Internet and the choices of how you can collect money.

Mail/Fax Orders

This is the uncomplicated way to get started online. You just make a website with your goods – an online directory, if you will – and you allow orders just by fax or postal mail. Various small ventures begin this way, but nearly all upgrade ultimately. This system doesn’t need a merchant account or any details of credit card approval online. The drawback is that if you don’t allow credit cards, you are basically turning down most of your potential clients.

What you need: All you need to run this method is a website and something to sell. The shopping cart program is not obligatory and every requisition can be emailed, faxed, or postal mailed to you.

3rd Party Acceptance Site

This is a great idea as compared to accepting credit cards yourself. Mostly this is the greatest way to begin online for small corporations. First you create your website and shopping cart program and then connect everything with a third-party credit card processor such as PayPal. Some give you a shopping cart as well! While a few of these facilities seem amateurish in contrast with accepting cards yourself, they work just fine.

You require: A website with goods to sell and an account with any 3rd party processor. A shopping cart program will probably required.

Offline Processing

Several existing businesses have a merchant account for recognizing credit cards. But generally these are unusable online. They are regarded as “CP” or Card Present merchants that bear minor threats. To handle cards online with an offline merchant account, you perhaps are entailed to modify the conditions of your account or employ a gateway processor or authorization service as an intermediary from your site to your bank. This implies more money per deal as middleman needs to be paid by someone.

To evade this, several businesses acknowledge the details online and then collect it and process the credit card offline via their merchant account. From the customer’s perspective, the order was processed immediately, but from the merchant’s perspective, the card is processed by hand when the order is received (usually via email or fax, depending on how it is set up on the website). Before exercising this option, you have to make certain your merchant bank is acceptable with it as you can get into trouble if you don’t follow your merchant contract.

You require: A website with goods to sell, a merchant account, a shopping cart that acknowledges data and sends an encrypted/secure email or fax it. Generally, you should hire a skilled web developer or Webmaster to connect the system for you.

Full Online Order Processing

This is the wish of every webmaster and online merchant: the 24/7 automatic order processing system, which entails owners least participation or care. It contains real-time credit card processing, approval, and acceptance. It’s suitable and efficient. The drawback is that you’ll spend extra for this. For numerous businesses this additional spending is compensated by using less man power. It is difficult to get everything connected and operational, but when linked properly, it works on its own.

You require: A website with goods to sell, a merchant account, a shopping cart system, and a gateway or authorization service to connect the cart and the merchant account. You will require a skilled web developer and/or Webmaster to connect everything and make it operational.

The cloud hosting environment has revolutionized the industry by providing an incredible hosting solution that is powered by a network of servers, rather than being limited by the restrictions of a single web server. When a command is issued to a web server within the cloud hosting environment, the system finds the most capable server on the network and directs traffic to it to maximize bandwidth and disk space optimization. By ensuring that traffic is always sent to the most capable web server on the network, it is possible to minimize site downtime, slow page loading times, and the majority of hosting problems associated with cheaper web hosting plans. The following information discusses a new type of cloud hosting that is revolutionizing the online business world – enterprise cloud hosting.

What Makes Enterprise Cloud Hosting Different?

Conventional cloud hosting plans usually utilize a plethora of VPS (virtual private servers) that evenly distribute traffic within an infinitely expandable server network. However, with enterprise cloud hosting, instead of utilizing VPS servers within the network, all of the servers are dedicated servers, which are significantly more powerful. Each dedicated server is capable of handling dozens or even thousands of websites by itself, hence the reason why dedicated hosting is an enterprise-level solution that is often utilized by large corporations and online entrepreneurs. An enterprise cloud hosting plan gives you unlimited access to an entire network of dedicated servers that your websites can utilize at any time. Thus, enterprise cloud hosting provides the same versatility as conventional cloud hosting, yet with the additional power of dedicated servers.

The Unique Billing Structure of Enterprise Cloud Hosting

Fortunately, in order to gain access to such a network of dedicated servers business owners do not have to pay an exuberant amount each month. In fact, the enterprise cloud hosting environment is unique because you only pay for the server resources that you utilize on a monthly basis. Enterprise cloud hosting providers use proprietary applications to monitor the use of server resources by each web hosting client. At the end of the month, the total amount due is calculated based on a set rate that is charged for each type of server resource. For example, the hosting company may charge a specific amount for every gigabyte of bandwidth that was used during the month. This means that you’ll never have to worry about paying for too many server resources, or having inadequate server resources to make sure your websites are functioning optimally.

The Infinite Expansion of Enterprise Cloud Hosting

The majority of web hosting providers either own or have access to state-of-the-art data centers that hold hundreds of web servers simultaneously. With a cloud hosting plan, you have the ability to utilize all of these web servers at any given time, so your websites should never experience downtime and your visitors should never encounter slow loading pages. With an enterprise cloud hosting plan you never have to upgrade to another level of hosting, as this will happen automatically as your traffic levels and disk space needs increase. In essence, you’ll have access to all the hosting your online business will ever need, without ever paying more than you need to.

Site downtime is a normal part of the web hosting industry, and is a common problem associated with less reliable hosting plans like shared hosting and free hosting. However, some hosting providers and plans are more unreliable than others, and even hosting companies that uphold a 99 percent uptime guarantee can have as much as eight hours per month or three days per year downtime without violating this promise. It is important to realize that hosting companies make these guarantees on a monthly basis, and even when an uptime guarantee is violated, may hosting companies provide no retribution. Thus, it is imperative to ensure that frequent uptime does not become a routine problem, as there is no way to turn back time and regain the site visitors that you could lose during the downtime. If your site is experiencing downtime at the moment here are some questions you can ask your hosting provider to assess the situation.

What is the Cause of the Downtime?

Determining the cause of the downtime is extremely important, especially when it lasts for more than a couple of minutes. It is a good habit to call your hosting provider’s support line immediately any tie you notice that the site is down, in order to inquire about the downtime in a timely manner before it is resolved. The most probable cause is server maintenance and resets, however downtime can also be a result of more serious issues like server crashes and security issues. If the downtime is the result of a security lapse on behalf of the hosting company it may be time to find a new hosting company.

How Long Will the Downtime Last?

Length of downtime is another important factor to consider, especially if you own an eCommerce site that generates profit based on the numbers of daily visitors. Note how long the downtime is expected to last based on the opinion of the customer service representative, and if the downtime lasts longer than this, call back to inquire about the status. Repeated lengthy sessions of  downtime without an explanation and or false predictions is unacceptable and a sure sign of an unreliable host. Most cases of downtime last for less than an hour and resolved without data loss, however there are rare occurrences in which an entire site can be lost and/or offline for several days. If you own a shared hosting plan, the downtime could also be the result of a server shutdown due to abuse by one of your fellow webmasters. IN which cases the hosting company would work with you to find the best course of action to get your site back up and running.

Will I Receive a Discount?

If the downtime lasts for longer than an hour and you suspect that you have lost a sale or some sort of revenue as a result, you should inquire about possible reparations in the form of hosting discounts or a free month of hosting. If the hosting company refuses to offer compensation for the downtime then it may be time to consider another company that is more serious about being loyal to their customers. Many times a customer service representative simply does not have the power or jurisdiction to offer discounts or compensation of any kind, so it may be necessary to speak with a supervisor that can deal with the situation.

Dedicated hosting can be categorized into two types- managed hosting and unmanaged hosting. Here we will discuss both types.

Managed Hosting

If you are the owner of a big business and still don’t want to have your own IT department then you should opt for managed hosting. The hosting provider will keep and mange your server, control it, back it up, update software, install firewall, and mange security issues. Troubleshooting and fixing of your problems will be done even before any one of your customer complains of a website downtime. Also if you have signed a deal with a credible hosting provider you will get 24/7 customer support so you can be heard whenever you have a problem at hand.

A good hosting provider shall give you a 99.99 % guaranteed uptime. An excellent uptime also gives you the assurance of knowing that even if they do have good contingency plans in action, server downtime will be less and so will be complaints from your side (or that of your customers). Disaster recovery and server backup are part of contingency plans of leading hosting providers.

You will be peacefully able to handle other task of your business like marketing, finance, advertising, SEO campaign etc. It saves you time by offering a simple control panel which can be operated by a novice easily. You can handle control panel features without much technical knowledge.

Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

As the name suggests unmanaged dedicated hosting is not managed by the hosting provider. You will have to take care of it or assign the services to your office webmaster. Even in unmanaged hosting, the physical resources of the server machine, network connectivity and the operating system will still be provided by the dedicated hosting provider, you will just have to take care of the rest. Maintenance, troubleshooting, fixing will all be handled by you. Obviously, this brings down the cost a lot, so you may consider this option as well when you are keeping your budgetary considerations in view.