Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » reseller account http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:48:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Starting a Web Hosting Companyhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/01/13/starting-web-hosting-company/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/01/13/starting-web-hosting-company/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:09:08 +0000 Dmitry http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=3583 It seems many people today want to start a web hosting company. Just by typing in “web hosting” into a search engine such as Google, one can see that there are many people trying to break into this market. The concept of starting a web hosting company seems very simple – start with a generic template, get a reseller account, configure some things, and start making money. But things can become much more complicated than that very quickly. There are definitely some things to keep in mind before starting a new web hosting company.

The first thing that needs to be done is to get the website going. This includes getting a template, creating pages that describe the company, its plans, and its services. When that is done, a program such as WHM Autopilot needs to be configured. This is so that when someone orders the web hosting, the order will automatically be received. Not only do these things need to be done but they need to be aesthetically pleasing as well.

Then comes the more difficult part of starting a web hosting company – the selling. As mentioned earlier, this is a very competitive market. The company needs to find people who need the service and will check out the website. On top of that, they need to find the price reasonable. A marketing plan must be developed before taking this step as there are usually cheaper, more reputable companies trying to get those same customers.

Once the company has their website and has customers, customer support becomes a big issue. The first thing to keep in mind is that customers are going to want technical support available twenty-four hours a day. If the company can’t provide this, they’re more likely to look somewhere else. Also customers will usually be paying around ten dollars a month for the hosting service. This is not very much. Because of this, when customers need to be consulted or they have a problem that needs fixing, the rate of pay for the company can drop very quickly. Larger hosts usually hire technicians to deal with these sorts of issues but that may not be a possibility until the hosting company becomes a little more established.

When running larger websites, the hosting company will usually need to offer dedicated hosting services. This is due to the fact that shared hosting only provides for a certain amount of storage space and bandwidth and this is not often enough for the larger sites. The speeds are also much faster with dedicated services than they are with shared. However, there are challenges that come with dedicated servers. They require time, maintenance, and the cost is much more than that of a shared server. The lowest a dedicated server will cost is usually around one hundred dollars but quality servers will usually cost hundreds of dollars each month to own.

For companies that aren’t going to offer plans that have major requirements, a shared server will do just fine. If a company does want to offer those plans, the advantages and disadvantages of owning a dedicated server must be looked at in great detail to know if it is the right decision.

Starting a web hosting company is definitely possible. However before one takes the plunge, it’s important to look at all aspects of it. It’s also important to make sure that there is plenty of time available to run the business and to deal with customers.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2011/01/13/starting-web-hosting-company/feed/ 0 Introduction to Reseller Hostinghttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/12/04/introduction-to-reseller-hosting/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/12/04/introduction-to-reseller-hosting/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:03:18 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=101 Web hosting comes in many different flavors, but one of its most unique variations is reseller hosting.  Reseller hosting is the type of hosting plan where you purchase an account and are provided with a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth which can be sold to other people.  It essentially gives you a way to purchase bulk amounts of server capacity and then sell hosting packages to your own customers.  Reseller accounts offer a means for average people to break into the industry and earn money from the hosting business.  As it doesn’t call for you to have much technical knowledge, practically anyone familiar with the internet can succeed with their own reseller business.

An Emerging Hosting Solution

The concept of reseller hosting is growing fast as more startup businesses are discovering the benefits.  This hosting solution is typically used by individuals who simply want to earn money online along with developers, consultants and other professionals who are familiar with web-based technologies.  Requiring a minimal investment, reselling hosting is a cost effective way to generate income from an industry that is already bringing in billions of dollars each year.  By employing sound business practices and ensuring that your customers are taken care of, you can use this platform as your vehicle to success.  You would be surprised at how many small businesses started with a reseller account and went on to become prominent web hosting companies.

What You Get with Reseller Hosting

Most providers give you the freedom to build custom reseller packages, allowing you to deliver hosting plans best suited for prospective clients.  Others offer predefined packages that are ready to be sold directly to customers.  In either case, you are generally provided with enough disk space and bandwidth to not only sell hosting plans, but create a website for yourself as well.  The reseller hosting provider sets you up with a control panel such as H-Sphere or cPanel’s WHM (Web Host Manager).  These programs allow you to manage your reseller account, providing access to various features such as payment systems, statistics and applications.  From the control panel interface you can create hosting plans, setup domains, view resource usage and much more.  In many cases, the reseller provider also supplies your clients with similar control panels so they can manage their own hosting accounts.

Conclusion

Reseller hosting is ideal for small businesses and individuals who want to make money from the flourishing web hosting industry.  Getting started requires a minimal investment and little effort as most companies set you up with packages that are fully loaded with features and ready to be sold.  If you sign up with the right company, you can operate a reseller business so efficiently that customers have no idea they are dealing with a middleman.  This is especially true when you have the ability to offer all the features and services found in conventional web hosting plans.   When considering how the hosting business continues to thrive, it is very likely that reseller accounts will offer tremendous opportunities for some time to come.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/12/04/introduction-to-reseller-hosting/feed/ 0 Reseller Control Panelshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/10/27/reseller-control-panels/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/2008/10/27/reseller-control-panels/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:30:37 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=35 There is a lot that needs to be taken into consideration when investing in a reseller account.  One of the most important factors of all is the control panel.  Since the control panel interface is where you will spend most of your time, it is essential to find an intuitive program that meets the needs of your reseller business.

What is a Control Panel?

A control panel is a software program that allows you to administer your hosting account.  This type of software acts as the back-end of your account and can only be seen by you.  Nearly every web hosting provider offers some type of control panel though not all programs are created equal.

Some applications are clunky, poorly designed and limit the control you have over the account.  The average software used in the modern day hosting industry will grant you various administrative powers including the ability to create email accounts, add domains, upload files via FTP, backup your website and more.  There is a big difference between the software used for a typical shared hosting account and a reseller account.  However, two of the most popular control panels tend to perform well in both environments – cPanel and Plesk.

cPanel vs Plesk

cPanel and Plesk are respectively the most widely used control panels on the market.  Both are very powerful and offer a GUI (graphical user interface) that can be easily accessed by nearly any web browser.  Both provide you with basic options for configuring your account and advanced configurations as well.  And while the interfaces of both programs are clean and easy to maintain, these two programs are very distinct.

A reseller account that comes with the cPanel package offers the highest level of administrative capabilities in a control panel known as WHM (Web Host Manager).  Unlike the cPanel software on a shared hosting account, WHM is strictly intended for the administrator as it interacts directly with the server.  This program allows you to create individual web hosting accounts, perform backups for the entire system and also make configurations for a number of services hosted on the server.  Your web hosting clients are provided with the cPanel interface which gives them administrative control over their sites.  One of cPanel’s best features is the Fantastico script installer which gives individual users the ability to incorporate of number of free programs such as the WordPress blogging application and the Joomla CMS.  The latest version of Fantastico comes loaded with over 40 programs.

Plesk has established a solid reputation for being stable and secure.  Resellers and end-users both appreciate its simple interface and ability to create professional sites.  Plesk grants control on four different levels: Administrator, Client/Reseller, Domain Owner and Mail User.  Users at each level have control over their own operation  For instance, control at the mail user level will allow clients to access messages, change their password and configure autoresponders all without needing to access the control panel intended for the domain owner.  Plesk comes packed with features and also supports a number of add-ons including Site Builder, a module that offers more than 300 templates, allowing users to create sites without any knowledge of FTP or HTML.

Conclusion

As a reseller, the control panel is one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal.  With the backing of a reliable program, managing your clients will be much easier, putting you a step closer to becoming successful in the web hosting industry.

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