From the article: What is a Hosting Reseller
Reselling hosting is a great way to increase your bottom line and give your Web design business an extra feature, but it can add complications to an already complicated situation. Learn why other Web designers chose to become hosting resellers and why they didn't. Share Your Rationale
I create the website & host as a package
- I have a couple of clients that don't have a clue about web design and even email for that matter. Therefore, I find it much easier to provide the whole package, do their updates, create their internet marketing, and provide business advice in general. They are also most appreciative they don't have to figure it out for themselves. The 'done-for-you' strategy works well for me.
- —Guest bestbuys4business.com
Providing hosting services
- Many of my customers don't have a website when they come to me. For those customers, I tend to arrange hosting for them with a large, well-established Hosting Service Provider. If at some point down the road there's a problem, then my customer will have access to 24*7 support to solve that problem. I've spoken to a woman (who used a different web development firm) who was set up with a Hosting Service Provider in India. One day the hosting-server went down. Many phone-calls later, it never did come back up. She was able to re-create what was missing, but it was painful.
- —Guest Michele Marik
Reselling hosting space
- I resell hosting space to my clients as well as clients who wish to design their own web sites. I find that offering hosting to a client takes the some of the burden of decision off of the client. It also gives me control of their account in the event that you have a client who is slow to pay. With my reseller pkg, I am allowed to size the space according to my client's needs as well. I can turn on or off any settings or basically configure the account according to that client's needs. Yes, it can be a pain cost-wise. In order for me to make a profit, I have charge a little more than say, GoDaddy, or some other hosting service. However, with the service I use, they allow me certain benefits as a reseller which allows me as the web designer a lot more flexibility.
- —hafnerdesigns
What's the use
- No! I don't resell hosting. Stick to your primary service; the one discipline that you spent all money and time training to do. Proverb: it is hard to make a living if you don't know what you are doing. that's all
- —Guest leroi14
Yes, I do
- Most of my clients are non-technical and don't want to handle their own hosting. I insist that they purchase their own domains, though, and warn them to stay away from any developer who provides them with their domain 'for free'. I also tell them that if they ever want to switch to someone else, I will give them all their site source code etc. for a previously stated fee. It's not unethical to openly provide a service that your clients want. I don't buy in a chain - I purchase my hosting from a medium sized, very reputable hosting company. My hosting price is competitive so I really don't make much if any money from the hosting -- the hosting fee is not high enough to cover much support. But it's easier for me to support sites that are on a server and with a hosting company that I know well and know is reliable.
- —Guest jean
YES!
- I know what I am good at and how much time I have available each day. Now that that is said... Outsourcing my hosting needs is the best decision for me at this time. I earn 50%+ on each hosting account every year and the server provider is VERY quick to handle any problems if they arise. Only once has the need occurred to contact them for a solution and it was taken care of in less than an hour. I do not mind only earning around 50% when I don't have to maintain the server equipment myself or learn more technology than I need to so far. I am a designer not a IT mechanic ;)
- —WebDodger
Not fond of the idea
- I also think it's a bit unethical. The fact that you are (re)selling something you do not take responsibility for, and at a (most certainly) higher rate than the original seller would offer it (all parts need a profit, right?), makes me not want to be your client (not that I will ever be a web design client). Even Jennifer made a point in an earlier article that companies, offering hosting together with their design services, not as a main service, are probably not serious or reliable. If I know what I am doing, and if I were the client, I would first buy the resources, then hire the designer. But many would probably settle for resellers, because they seem more convenient or comfortable. But companies who just register/buy the hosting for you at it's initial price from a hosting company, aside from the design job expense, and hand over all credentials to you, are a good choice to me. I, as a designer, certainly would not resell hosting services. Just a personal opinion.
- —snaketrouble
Affiliate Hosting Works Better for Me
- Reseller hosting is a big hassle and can eat into time better spent on Web design work that I enjoy. I recommend one very reliable and affordable Web hosting service to all of my clients and let the hosting service take care of all any hosting related questions or problems.
- —WingsDove
Yes, well, I kind of do
- I used to offer hosting as a bundle with a design job. I am with MediaTemple so they are relatively reliable, at least I have never had a problem with them. The only issues I have seen are email related where there servers might have been undergoing maintenance or were temporarily offline. As a stipulation to hosting a clients site under my account, I always made it clear that I was going through a 3rd party and that I was not responsible or liable for any outages. It really cut down on any calls or complaints and/or the immediacy to respond to them as I had to refer the problem to MT support and await response. Now I just host the occasional friend's site.
- —Guest Breklin
In a way, yes.
- I have designed various websites for different non-profit organizations and we decided to share the hosting. It made my life easier having all the same server resources for all my 'clients'.
- —Guest Dwight
Yes, I do.
- It great having most, not all, of my clients on the same server. From one web site I can change their bandwidth, their hosting package (web space), temporarily suspend their site if they don't pay (although I've never had to do that), and I can over-sell my purchased web space. I don't have hosting issues at 2 AM like Guest Maos. The reseller hosting company handles all that. I just sell their product. Although I don't have a terrific profit margin (about 50%), I love the convenience. And I still send some clients "outside" to one of two good hosting companies I recommend. ~ Bill Williams
- —B.Williams
yes
- I'm upfront with my clients and tell them I am a reseller. In return I give them great hosting pricing and I get to make a little extra money. Most of my clients aren't interested in any of the cpanel features other than checking web stats, so it works out fine for them. As for the tech support, for times when you are unavailable, there are a few resellers who offer end user support - they field your support inquiries using your own identity, so the client is assured they are dealing directly with you. I just signed up with one such hosts last month. This is good for when you are away on vacation or at a conference.
- —fatcatdesign
There are *many* reasons to be unwilling
- Hello. First reason that comes to mind: host reselling may be on a chain, i.e. you buy hosting reselling from a hosting reseller who in turn buys from a hosting reseller, etc. That way, culprit of problems may be several levels deep and be close to impossible to solve in a timely manner. Another good reason is money: having to manage your own hosting means having someone dedicated to it, because you also have to do web designing and hosting mantainance sucks up time and money. Plus, you must have a company certificate for your https - whoever will do a purchase on HTTP these days? Even internet dummies are aware you shall have a lock icon in your address bar before purchasing. HTTPs also means *managing* certificates and make sure users' firefox or IE browser won't refuse to display the page. Hosting reselling also deeply affects your brand: if a problem arises somewhere in your root hosting provider, it will look like YOU made the mistake. Andrew
- —Guest Andrea Raimondi
NO, I think it's unethical!
- I can't tell you how many clients I have gotten because unethical designers have done the reselling thing without their client knowing and when they try to fire them, can't get their site back - and turns out they don't own their own domain name either. It feels to me that if I am a designer, i should make my money designing - NOT by getting extra money without my client knowing it. I want my recommendations to be based on good service NOT because I am scamming more money out of them. I hate that I am in a profession with so many unethical people.
- —Guest guest designer
Have been for many years
- I never have a problem with my hosting company. There are dozens out there who offer less expensive plans but my ongoing experience with them keeps me there. It's an easy stream of revenue. I charge a development cost fo the site and then set the hosting price depending on the amount of maintenance /updating I will likley have to do to the site itself which, if the site is built well to begin with, is minimal. An added benefit is that I can develop a number of sites for myself with a net hosting cost of zero.
- —cspgsl
No, I don't
- I was reselling space on my server, but I found that it was more trouble than it was worth. So I switched to a cheaper hosting plan, and I recommend several hosting services to my clients. This works great. Yeah, I don't get the extra cash, but I don't have to fix hosting issues at 2am.
- —Guest Maos
