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The Reseller Hosting business model.
Reseller hosting is when you ‘lease’ server space from a Web Hosting Provider, then sell that server space to your own customers so they can host their own websites. Resellers usually buy this web server space in bulk up front, since the more space they buy, the cheaper their monthly costs.
You can then allocate portions of the server space you’ve leased and “resell” it to customers of your own.
Once you pay the Web Hosting Provider the set fixed monthly fee for the server space, you can then charge your customers whatever you like and profit the difference.
This results in a revenue stream that can easily be added to an existing web services business like creating and running websites for clients etc.
Is Reseller Hosting Profitable?
Reseller hosting can be extremely profitable.
In fact, if you are in the business of developing WordPress websites, for local businesses in your area who are not web savvy, but would like a web presence of their own without having to rely on social media web pages, then adding hosting to your business model is a great way to not only earn money by creating WordPress websites for your local clients, but to host them as well.
How do reseller hosts make money?
Reseller hosts make money by simply offering a variety of hosting plans. For example: shared hosting, VPS, Cloud Hosting or even a dedicated server hosting.
You buy your hosting in bulk from one of the hosting providers who offer reselling plans and you simply offer to host your client’s WordPress website through your business.
You of course, mark up the hosting costs between what you pay for and tack on any profit and expenses for your time etc. The difference is your profit.
It’s as simple as that. You can offer tiered pricing as well as various discounts, if clients pay by the month, quarter or yearly etc.
How do I start a reseller hosting business?
You can simply check out the various reseller programs and plans from various hosting providers and choose the one you like best. That’s a simplistic version.
However, you might want to check the hosting companies reviews as well as their prices and limitations in those plans.
Then you simply offer the various plans to your clients as part of your web development services.
So, if you’re a Web Developer making custom WordPress websites, many times your clients will have no idea about website hosting as well as the costs in setting up their websites on the internet.
Many of your clients will be totally clueless for example, on how to cPanel. Some may not even know how to point their name servers to their new host.
There’s a lot of pitfalls to having a website live on the web that most of us who have websites learned early on.
Most local businesses don’t want to bother with all that, but they still want a presence on the web that’s not controlled by a big platform like Facebook.
Setting up not only your client’s WordPress website, design, functionality etc. but as well as managing it and keeping it live on the web is key and it’s something most local businesses don’t want or have the knowledge of doing themselves.
I would not simply set up a reseller hosting business in and up itself though, unless I was of course, developing websites as well.
To truly offer a profitable reseller hosting business, you should also encompass most aspects of having a website.
What is the best reseller hosting company?
Unfortunately, neither I, nor anyone else can truly answer the question, “What is the best hosting company? This is because most hosting companies do have some mixed reviews.
Some have excellent experiences with them and never have a problem. Their calls and inquiries are answered in a very timely and efficient manner.
They have very little problems with website downtime for themselves or their clients.
Therefore, of course, these people are going to give rave reviews of their particular Reseller Hosting company.
However, there will be some who have quite the opposite experience with the very same Web Hosting Reseller Provider than the ones who praise it do.
You need to take into account both the positive and negative reviews and weigh them out for yourself unfortunately.
If you are into website development you should check with the bloggers in this sphere, that you may read on occasion, for their recommendations.
You may notice a common theme among them recommending basically the same two or three companies.
Although even if you trust your favorite bloggers, you should also know that most, if not all Web Hosting companies that offer reseller plans also have affiliate programs that pay nice commissions to these very same bloggers.
That’s not to say that these bloggers’ opinions can’t be unbiased, but this is something you should also keep in mind.
As a result, I personally cannot recommend one particular company over another for their reseller plans.
Is reseller web hosting a good business?
Reseller web hosting can not only be a good business, but a profitable one as well.
However, it could be a troublesome business as well if you don’t know the Hosting Company that you have your reseller account through very well. It’s more important than ever, if you are a Hosting Reseller, that you have proper support from your Hosting Company.
Proper support meaning of course customer service, responses to hosting issues like downtime, security issues like hacking etc.
This is why reading reviews and becoming familiar with the hosting company you plan getting your reseller plan from is vital.
First, I would check the reviews. Then I would contact the hosting company themselves and put them through the ringer as far as asking them the questions that you have.
It’s important that whomever you’re dealing with from that Hosting Company knows how to answer these questions in a quick and timely fashion.
If they can do this, then this is a good sign that the Hosting Company you plan on getting your reseller plan from is a good one.
What is a reseller hosting account?
A reseller hosting account is basically an account with a web hosting company that allows you to buy hosting in bulk based on the type of posting for example: Shared, VPS, Cloud Hosting or Dedicated Server Hosting etc. and allows you to sell disc space on these particular servers to your own clients.
Usually reseller accounts are limited by the amount of disk space, storage as well as server space that you can parcel off and sell to individual domains to host their websites on.
You can always upgrade your reseller package if you need to offer more disc space through the Web Hosting Provider to your clients. You can also charge more for this as well.
In fact, your clients won’t not even know who the real Web Hosting Provider is because most reseller accounts are “White Label” meaning that your own Web Services Company will be listed as their Web Hosting company.
Reseller hosting business model, conclusions.
As you can see, the reseller hosting business model can be quite simple. You buy the web hosting in bulk from one of the reseller plans a web hosting provider offers.
Then you simply offer to host various websites on your reseller plan and you pocket the difference between what you buy the web hosting in bulk and what you want to sell it for to your clients.
A Reseller Hosting business model should be part of your overall web development business offerings and services that you provide to your clients. If you do it the right way, it can be a very lucrative addition to your business as well.
