Web Hosting Box

Everyone who wants a website on the internet needs to have a web host. The large number of potential customers has made web hosting a very profitable business. However, launching your own hosting company is normally very difficult. To set up a hosting company from scratch you would need to purchase your own servers and maintain them. A simpler option has evolved in reseller web hosting.

Reseller Hosting

There is a much easier way of offering hosting services to your customers. The easiest way of doing this is to sign up for a reseller hosting account. Reseller accounts can host multiple domains and websites on a single server.

By registering a reseller hosting account it is possible to sell hosting space without owning servers yourself. It is also possible to make money from this method and it’s much easier than setting up your own hosting company.

Reseller Control Panel

Most reseller hosting accounts include an internet based control panel. This makes it very easy to create new accounts and make adjustments to the settings of your hosting account. The most popular control panel used for reseller hosting is WHM as this integrates nicely with cPanel.

The reseller control panel is slightly more complicated than a basic hosting control panel. The business reseller control panel needs to be used to create new users, suspend accounts, back up all the sites on the server and install new updated services.

Finding Reseller Hosting Accounts

If you are interested in a reseller hosting account then you will need to take your time and choose carefully. Your reseller hosting account will be part of your business. This means that you will need to make ensure that it offers everything you need for the lowest price possible.

Important things to look out for include the following:

• Reliability – It’s essential that you can offer a reliable service to your customers. Look out for a service with an uptime guarantee.
• Cost – It is possible to find reseller hosting packages in a variety of different price brackets.  Choose one which offers everything you need.  Avoid the very cheap services on eBay though because these are normally very unreliable.
• Automation – Some of the better hosting accounts allow you to automate the process of signing up new customers.  This is very useful since your customers do not need to wait to use their account. WHMCS can be used with WHM hosting packages; this is worth looking for from your reseller hosting company because a separate license is very expensive.

Reseller hosting accounts can be utilized as a good way of starting a hosting business from scratch. When your business expands it’s then possible to purchase your own hardware and servers so you can continue to offer more services.

Reseller hosting is essentially the wholesale/drop shipping sector of the web hosting industry, giving you the ability to purchase server resources at low prices, rebrand them, and then resell them for a generous monthly profit. These plans include all of the tools needed to create your own hosting web site, market it, brand your customer’s control panels and establish your own successful hosting business.

Unfortunately, most resellers are using a set formula to build their sites with templates and are having a hard time standing out from the crowd. The main issue resellers have is trying to compete with larger hosting companies in terms of price. Without a bit of creativity and marketing savvy, this roadblock often proves to be the stumbling block of many novice resellers. Fortunately, there is a way to compete in the web hosting market, however first you must decide whether you are going to focus on building a site and marketing it, or personally soliciting a client base via online communication.

Complacency vs Aggressive Marketing

So, you’ve decided to begin marketing your hosting business, but you are not sure which route to take. Most novices start by taking their free advertising coupons and starting a PPC campaign with little to no success, while other begin trying to compete with massive web hosting companies in the search engines. Obviously, both of these paths will take a lot of hard work, and maybe even a miracle. However, if you think outside the box and are not complacent about the growth of your hosting business you’ll have a lot more success.

Rather than waiting for the clients to come to you, consider joining a web hosting forum. Become an active member and offer other members discounts while using the forums to advertise your services as a new hosting provider. Try brokering other services and combining your hosting plans with these services to broaden your client bas into other internet -based industries. Using this mindset you can begin building a client base rather than just building a web site.

Build The Site First

Some people would misconstrue the above advice as to say that a web site is not needed for a successful hosting business. While it is possible for you to build a large client base without a site if you offer other web-based services, the fact is you cannot maximize your profits without your own web site. If you want to increase your visibility and professionalism, you need to design a web site that you can link prospective clients to when they are curious about what you have to offer. The majority of webmasters simply will not purchase a hosting plan form you if you do not have a professional site set up. Thu, your first step should always be creating a useful web site before beginning your marketing endeavors, regardless of your marketing approach or strategy.

Offering Referrals

The main advantage that the larger hosting companies have over you is that they do not really need to try to solicit new clients – whereas you have to put forth a concerted effort to do so. Thus, you must personalize your services and create relationships with your client  base. Offer them discounts on their monthly hosting costs if they refer people to using your hosting services, and consider setting up a multi-tiered referral system that will encourage your clients to promote your hosting business for you.

Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting that gives you access to wholesale server resources and the tools and resources needed to build, market and maintain your own web hosting business. Becoming a hosting reseller and starting your own web hosting company does not require any skill or previous experience, and many people have had success building their own clients base of web hosting customers in very little time.

One of the main aspects of becoming  a successful hosting reseller is choosing the right plan that will accommodate your needs and give you the lowest price. In most cases the most expensive hosting plan will provide the cheapest server resources, as in every other industry, when you buy in bulk you get more for less. Premium reseller hosting plans differ greatly from their less-expensive counterparts, and the following attributes are considered to be the most important features offered with premium reseller hosting plans.

Site Building and Branding Tools

Perhaps the most important aspect of establishing a successful web hosting business is the creation and branding of your web site, which will ultimately be responsible for marketing your hosting services. Fortunately, premium reseller hosting plans include site builders that let you design professional web sites with ease using thousands of templates and a plethora of web development tools geared towards novices.

After the site is created, you can then develop your own custom logo, and even design a custom control panel for your clients. Setting yourself apart from the competition is imperative when marketing your hosting services, which is why branding is so important. Some hosting providers even include hundreds of brandable video tutorials for your hosting clients, which greatly reduce the burden of providing excessive and unnecessary customer support.

Automated Billing and Personalized Plans

Being able to automatically bill your clients on a monthly basis is absolutely imperative when you have a lot of customers to take care of, especially if you’re in the practice of providing personalized hosting plans. When all of your plans are uniquely designed to meet the needs of your customers, it can become quite confusing at the end of the month when it is time to bill each customer correctly.

Fortunately, premium reseller hosting plans not only let you design custom plans that can accommodate the specific requirements of your clients, they also let you input customer billing details for automatic fund collection via email at the end of each specified billing period. In fact, the entire billing, payment and receipt issuing process is completely automated via the inter gated resources offered with your premium reseller hosting plans.

Unlimited Features

When purchasing a premium hosting plan it is also very important to make sure you have access to unlimited features so that the expansion of your hosting business is not hindered. Some of the unlimited features offered with premium reseller plans include unlimited domains, sub domains, email accounts, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, and unlimited control panel accounts for your clients. With premium reseller hosting plans starting at only $100 per month, and all of the aforementioned features included, it wouldn’t make any sense to settle for less.

Shared hosting is often the entrance point for inexperienced webmasters that need a cheap and simple solution to host their first web site. However, even though shared hosting is the cheapest form of web hosting, there are several types of shared hosting that need to be considered.

Most people don’t realize that they are using shared hosting because it operates under many names and is almost never referred to as shared hosting. Ecommerce and reseller hosting both operate under the shared hosting environment, however they are much more capable than a standard $10 per month shared hosting plan. The way the shared hosting environment behaves has a lot to do with what operating system is being used. If you are unsure whether to use Windows or Linux hosting then you may want to consider the following information.

Cost and Compatibility

When it comes to cost, Linux is the cheaper solution, primarily because Linux is an open source software that is inexpensive and easy to manage. However, with that being said, Linux is also much more compatible with third party applications than Windows because Microsoft’s software is not open source. Windows web hosting of all types usually costs more because of the service involved with repairing bugs in the operating system when they occur. With Linux bugs can be fixed quickly and easily by anyone with the development experience. Even though Linux is more easily compatible with new development, it is important to note that anyone planning on using a server side Microsoft application will need a Windows hosting plan.

Reliability and Resources

When it comes to server resources there is not a huge difference between Windows shared hosting and Linux shared hosting, as both of them seem to perform the same until a bug arises. However, once problems do occur, it seems as if Linux wins in terms of reliability because there is often a quicker fix available due to the open source nature of the operating system. As far as server resources are concerned, Windows shared hosting may be more limiting than Linux simply because Windows consumes more RAM to operate than Linux, which ultimately takes away from the amount of Ram you have allocated to your partition of the shared web server.

Popularity and Alternatives

In terms of popularity, Linux web hosting seems to have Windows beaten, even though there is a portion of webmasters that prefer a Windows web hosting account due to their need to operate Microsoft software. It should be noted however that Windows Cloud VPS hosting is currently becoming more popular than Linux VPS cloud hosting because it is a new addition to the hosting industry.

Some people like to use Linux dedicated hosting and then install a virtualization software in order to use Windows on a Linux hosting account. However, this option is not available for shared Linux hosting, which means you have to choose between the two. Overall, if you are looking for the most convenient form of shared web hosting then you should consider Linux shared hosting.

Reseller hosting gives the average webmaster the ability to offer comprehensive hosting plans that are marketed using their own professional hosting site, which are built with user-friendly tools provided by the reseller hosting company. Indeed, reseller hosting is one of the best opportunities for upcoming internet entrepreneurs that want to make a residual income with minimal effort.

Unfortunately, many people simply don’t know where to start when selecting a reseller hosting plan, and as more people realize the necessity of cheap reseller hosting, there are many companies suddenly appearing that are scamming people out of their hard earned money by providing services that are either too expensive for th resource provided, or are completely fraudulent altogether. If you’re interested in becoming a hosting reseller but you would like to avoid being scammed, then you many want to consider the following information.

Too Good To Be True

While it may seem cliche, any reseller hosting plan that is too good to be true, often is. The first step in choosing a reputable and reliable reseller hosting plan is finding a group of hosting providers that are trustworthy and well established. If the prospective hosting provider does not have adequate credentials and experience in the hosting industry, or if they are offering deals that are far cheaper than their competitors, then this may be sign that the company should be avoided. Plans that include no fees, and are priced extremely low with a lot of features should be purchased with caution.

Compare and Know Pricing

The main issue people have with finding a reliable reseller hosting plan is their unfamiliarity with reseller hosting prices in general. Knowing what the industry standards are is a great way to avoid being scammed by companies that prey on people who’ve not yet educated themselves about the reseller hosting industry and the prices of reseller hosting plans. In general, plan pricing tends to decrease as you purchase more server resources, so the largest plans will always be the best value. If the price is lower than every other competitor in the industry and you’ve never even heard of the company, then this should be an instant red flag.

Avoid Email Advertisements

You should never purchase a hosting plan from a company that contacted you via email without your permission. First and foremost, any company that sends you an unsolicited email is actually engaging in spam, which is a legal activity in and of itself. Thus, any company that uses these unethical and aggressive marketing tactics should not be trusted and should be avoided altogether. In fact, as a responsible webmaster you should report companies that advertise using the email addresses of unsuspecting people. In most cases, companies that advertise via email without the permission of the recipients are actually spammers and scam artists that will quickly steal your money without thinking twice. Email advertisements are also used for phishing as well, which is the practice of stealing passwords from people, so it is important to be weary of any unfamiliar emails.