Resell Hosting Options


Resell Hosting Options As a Web hosting reseller, you have several options when it comes to purchasing your packages. This choice is a particularly important one for your business because it can have an effect on what you are able to offer to your customers, how you advertise, and how much profit you pull in. These three options include pre-determined packages, a ‘lot’ of space and bandwidth that you can divvy up as you please, and affiliate reselling. Pre-Determined Packages Pre-determined packages are where the seller that you buy from already has your customer’s packages sliced up for you. For example, you may buy a package that has 100 units and each unit consists of 500 MB of disk space, 1 GB of bandwidth, and several other extras. You would then sell each one of these 100 packages -- as they already are -- at you own price. While this may keep things simple, it also restricts your ability to respond to the specific needs of your customers and offer them a variety of choices. On the other hand, having just one or two packages available may help you manage your reselling business more effectively and make re-pricing the packages easier. Making Your Own Packages You can also buy a ‘lot’ of disk space and bandwidth, which you can then slice up however you want. This allows you to be more flexible to your customers’ needs by having several different packages to choose from or by allowing your customers to customize their own packages. Offering such flexibility may give you the ability to pull in specific customers who don’t want to be forced to choose between a few pre-determined packages, which will give you a definite edge over the competition. On the other hand, this variety may make it more difficult to manage your reselling business, especially as you attract more and more customers. But, if your profit allows it, you can always hire someone with experience to manage it for you. This option can definitely go both ways depending on your knowledge and/or budget. Affiliate Reselling Affiliate reselling is special from the previous two types of reselling because you can do it without any upfront cost. This is where you team with a Web host and sell their packages at your own price. You do NOT pay for packages in advance and then try to sell them. When a customer signs up, the Web host will receive the base amount that is in your agreement and you will receive everything else. Some even have you collect all of the money and then you pay them, rather than the customer placing an order through them and you having to wait for your cut. These companies will even give you a pre-built website of your own to help you drum up business. Although there will be ZERO cost to you for being an affiliate reseller, you will not be able to choose from different packages to sell and some of these companies only have one or two packages available. This leaves you with no variety to offer potential customers. These types of affiliate reselling programs are still few and far between, but are there and available for those who want to take advantage of them. Deciding to become a Web hosting reseller is a decision that one should make only after they evaluate their own skills and personality traits. To be successful at this business, you will have to be a good sales person, know how and where to market to potential customers on the Internet, and be able to offer your customers technical support if it is not offered by the company you are reselling through. It is important to be honest with yourself before trying your hand in this field. If you do not possess these abilities, or cannot hire someone to do the work for you, then reselling Web hosting services may not be for you.