Another possible Web business
Wednesday November 8, 2006
Everyone who posts a Web page needs a place to host their pages. And while margins can be very tight, it is possible to set up a business to resell Web hosting. I've even considered doing it. The About Guide to Online Business shows you
How To Resell Web Hosting.
Comments
It’s funny you posted about this… I just mentioned Reseller hosting in a recent blog post as a Stupid Tech Startup Idea.
“Even if you can cut out, say, the hard parts of the above hosting setup, reseller hosting means being a middle-man for another hosting provider. You still get to provide 24/7 support, whether or not you like it. But you also deal with the billing and legal issues. Even if it’s not your fault, you get to field the angry phone calls and make refunds (which you then negotiate with your provider so you aren’t losing money). And you come back to the fact that you’re charging more than someone else – not only will your customers will know this, but you’ll struggle to really make any serious money.”
I’ve been working hard to get out of reselling hosting to my clients. Though I made a few thousand dollars last year on hosting, I found it was not worth the hassle. I find it little more than a distraction from the work I want to do.
I think that Chas has an excellent insight on this!
You hit the nail on the head with why I never got into it.
But it does work for some people.
I have done this a little bit and find it is good for other reasons besides making money. I personally like to have control over every aspect of the servers so I rent space on a VPS server farm. Another plus is that it gives you almost constant contact with customers and keeps you fresh in their minds for other work.
I stumbled over DAThorn.com, and signed up for a reseller account to host my own two sites and one customer. I had run afoul of an Earthlink dirty trick — they had mis-installed one Perl module, and wouldn’t justify the cost to repair all their servers.
DAThorn has excellent performance, service, and uptime. The amenities are attractive and useful. The terms of use preclude adult sites or spamming, but that works for me. And my websites are faster for being on DAThorn’s servers, and I have much less downtime that on other hosts.
I don’t really try to be competitive. I interface with the hosting, provide a base level of service, and combine facilities of the host account with site development. While most basic level hosting seems to be in the $3-6 / month range, I charge $9, or let my customers pick a favorite host. For me the reselling, at least so far, is about service and convenience rather than revenue.
I like clear honest communication. I have no desire to resell space to my customers. That would leave me in the arena of, say, customers going elsewhere but continuing to use my reselling services. Not what I want. I just want to educate people I work with, I expect the same in return. Hopefully, I will find a niche where my ideas don’t screw myself. [hopeful].