Reseller Hosting, The Facts

What Is A Hosting Reseller?
Hosting reseller accounts can offer a lot of different things to different people and organizations. The question “why be a reseller” may seem a simple one to answer but it isn’t always as black and white as you might imagine. It is true that there is the potential to make a handsome profit if you can market your service well and offer something that other hosts do not. But, it’s also true that web programmers offer a hosting plan as part of their product because it helps to sweeten the deal for the customer. After all, we all love to get something for nothing.

Who Pays For Reseller Accounts?
Essentially there are three groups of people that purchase reseller accounts. As well as the expected resellers that want to make money directly through the sale of hosting plans there are also service or product providers that want to use hosting as a value added extra, and Webmasters that use the accounts for themselves.

Network Owners And Large Site Webmasters
Webmasters that own a network of large sites or a handful of very large sites could do worse than a reseller account. Shared hosting accounts are limited in their features and their disk space and bandwidth but moving to colocation or a dedicated server plan is a financial outlay that many baulk at. Reseller accounts offer much more disk space and much greater bandwidth while still providing comparatively low prices. A reseller account is generally a lot cheaper than paying for the equivalent in shared accounts.

Reselling Hosting For Profit
Selling hosting plans is obviously profitable. Even the smallest of reseller accounts charges as little as half the price that the hosting accounts would normally cost. A Webmaster that is capable of good marketing and sales campaigns can quickly pay for the reseller account and justify taking on larger reseller plans. In some cases, when you have been looking for hosting for your own site there is a very good chance that you have in fact been looking at reseller accounts.

One of the most effective methods for Webmasters reselling hosting plans to make profit is to offer something that other hosts don’t offer. Sweetening the deal in this way provides an excellent marketing tool as well as a reason for Webmaster to purchase your plans. If you are a designer then consider offering a free logo design, or a discount against website design. If you are a copywriter then offer some free homepage content with each hosting package sold. By providing this extra feature you have the upper hand over many of the hosts on the market but you will still need to be able to market your site well.

Giving Hosting As A Value Added Extra
The reverse of offering your product in a bid to sell hosting is to offer hosting as an added extra with your product or service. Web designers and programmers can offer some free hosting for larger orders. This persuades customers to purchase because it means they don’t necessarily have to pay for the hosting themselves straight away. And, because you are only paying a fraction of the price that hosting would normally cost it’s a minor addition to your financial expenditure.

Reseller hosting packages really do have a number of genuine uses. Whether you want to establish yourself as a genuine reseller and purely sell hosting packages, or you have something to add to the deal to make it more attractive to consumers, or even if you want to include hosting as part of a product or service of your own then look around for the best reseller hosting package.

Looking For A Reseller Account
There are an increasing number of hosting companies on the Internet. Many of them offer a reseller package that is available in varying levels. Usually you must pay a monthly fee up front to guarantee a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth and once you have paid this you are free to resell hosting packages however you see fit. Some companies even directly give smaller packages away in order to attract people to purchase account extras or pay for premium services.

Cost And Conclusion
The cost of a reseller package can range dramatically but generally they cost only a fraction of the price that hosting would normally cost through that company. This is true even with the smaller reseller packages although the bigger the package the better the discount you will receive. Whatever your reason for wanting a reseller account be sure that the main host offers the features you believe your clients want. You will be offering the same control panel and, usually, the same set of features as well as any you offer yourself.