Web Hosting Reseller Tips: Be At the Top of the Pack

Web hosting resellers provide hosting services to their own customers, via a larger web hosting company. Resellers are able to buy a large package, or the use of a whole server, at a discounted rate and pass that discount onto customers in order to drum up business. Many times, resellers can also split their ‘plans’ anyway that want to, enabling them to serve both small and large customers. If you are a new reseller or have considered becoming a reseller, the tips below will help you get your business off to a successful start.

1. Give your customers better service. As a reseller provider, your number one priority should be customer service. This is where you can shine above the larger companies, since they likely have many customer service representatives who are likely not monitored regularly. Even more, they may even hire overseas representatives to keep their overhead low. By providing excellent customer services, you have the best chance at building a strong customer base. The number one rule a reseller should live by is MAKE SURE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE HAPPY.

2. Know how to grow. As a reseller, you will be responsible for growing your own customer base. For this reason, it is important to know where to market and who to market to. Small business owners are a good start. You can advertise that you, the owner, will work directly with them whenever they have any questions, concerns, or need technical help. This is give them the comfort of knowing that they will not have to deal with a customer service representative if something happens with their account.

3. Customize your hosting plans. If you are able to split your ‘plans’ up how you want them, advertise that you can make a customized plan specific to the customer’s individuals needs. You can also let them know that, as their business or website grows, their plan can grow with them. You may also want to split up some very tiny plans and sell them for $1-2 a month. These would have just enough space for a 5-10 page basic personal website and include no extras. To someone who needs a very small amount of space, such as a parent whose child wants a website, $1 a month will look much better that $5-$10. You can also require that a year or so is paid in advance, to make this tactic worth your time. If you are able to gain enough customers via this method, it may be much more profitable that selling larger plans.

4. Offer discounts for current customers who refer new customers. To make sure you come out ahead, you can always stipulate that the new customers must remain a customer for so many months before the discount is given to the current customer. A good idea is to offer 1-3 months worth of free service in exchange for a customer that buys a 6-12 month plan. You can also offer several different awards based on how long the new customer stays. For example, pretend Jack referred Jill to your company. After Jill has been there for 4 months, Jack gets one month free. After Jill had been there 8 months, Jack gets another month free. After Jill has been there a full year, Jack gets another month free. What kind of rewards you are able to offer will depend on how much profit you are making from your hosting plans.

5. Choose a reliable service. As a web hosting reseller, you have a responsibility to your customers if you want to keep them around. This responsibility includes making sure that you are reselling services from a reliable company. If you choose a bad company that has significant downtime and does not have enough resources to support all of the customers that they have taken on, you are liable to lose most of the customers that you bring in. It will be better to make less of a profit per person -- because you are reselling from a reliable company -- and have more customers because you offer a good service, than making a larger profit per customer, but then losing most of them after only month or two.

6. Do your homework or hire someone who has. Lastly, if want to run a reselling business, it is always a good idea to know something about servers, scripting languages, and other issues that may arise with your customers. This will allow you to respond to their questions and concerns quicker than if you have to look up the answers yourself. Some companies will give you a customer service phone number when you buy a web hosting plan, but you never know what level of service your customers are receiving. If you earn enough profit, you may even want to look into hiring two or three technical service agents to help your customers with troubleshooting issues, and then you can deal with customer service issues yourself.

Reselling is a great business to start and offers a lot of profit opportunity if you know how to market your business correctly. You have the potential to grow a booming business quickly with very little overhead, since your only necessary expense is your reseller package (which can start at as little as $50) and everything is done online. No building maintenance, employees (unless you choose), or high start up costs to worry about.