Does anyone here resell hosting?

I was wondering if it was profitable to offer hosting as a reseller.

If anyone has experience with this,  I want to hear your story!

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I think it is not easy at all to make money as a reseller, as the hosting industry in general is over populated.

So I think that to make money this way you should allready have a big site relative to webmasters or something, but as I never tried to work as a reseller(the only hosting I sell is for my web development clients) I can't really tell.

I think there are some people here in the forum that sell hosting. So let's wait for their answers

Okay.  But for now, tell me more about selling hosting to your clients who, no doubtedly, need it anyways?  Is it easier to say 'Here's your 5 page website... oh and hey, did you want to get hosting too? If so, I can get you a great deal on ...<package options>' ?

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I use a little different model for this.

As the most of my jobs are web development projects, before we start I tell them that I own the code of their site so if they want to host it anywhere else they should pay me the cost of the source code, which is at least 10x times the ammount for the non source code project.

This way they agree, plus most of the clients don't want just a designer meaning that they want a person/company who will be able to do whatever they need in internet. They will use this guy/company for design, hosting, advertisment, SEO, so in the most cases it goes this way.

Very interesting.

I once had a client who knew nothing about the internet benefits.  I built a site quickly and slapped it up on a godday acct, 1 year paid in full.  My fee was nominal since I was a part of his organization.  I was also the tech-go-to-guy when it needed updating on a daily basis. (it was a poker league)  We grew into 2 cities and I asked for a raise and he fired me.

I gave him the FTP logon and password and he never got anything done with it anymore.  He even called me to complain that I sabotaged his site because he tried to hire "professionals" and they couldn't make heads or tails from my code. (I used css)  They were using MS Front Page. I later found out they weren't pros, they were other players.

That site is paid until Sep '06 and it's all going to waste. (http://valleyclubpoker.com ) 

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Those situations really s**k

Anyway here in Greece, the most of the business don't have a clue about internet in general, so the deal is that you have to learn the client some stuff so the client will be able to know how and why something costs when we are talking for web development, plus you are the guy for everything related to this.

I even get calls when they can't figure how to connect to internet or they have a virus. LoL

That's messed up!

That's why I no longer sell used computers to my friends and family.  They think they're getting free tech support with their purchase.  And if I don't help them, they bring back the eq and bad mouth me to the rest of the extended family.  Oh, and they expect their money back to boot.

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That's the bad side of being a geek in general I guess

But it is a good side also isn't it?

I offer hosting as a reseller, but I can't say I really make any money with it. But thats oke, 'cause that was never the plan anyways. I got a reseller deal because I have several sites of my own and it was way cheaper to host them with reseller hosting.
I do like the fact that I can offer webdesign clients the complete package (webdesign + hosting) and the clients like that too. I only charge enough to cover my hosting expences so there's really no profit for me, but the clients cover the complete reseller package costs so I basicly have my own sites hosted for free, which was the whole point of getting into reseller hosting...

I resell hosting but I've only sold it to my design clients, so far.  I've considered setting up an actual automated site for hosting and try to sell to people other than my clients but I don't like the thought of having to make myself available as a one man tech support and taking calls day and night.

I don't like the thought of having to make myself available as a one man tech support and taking calls day and night.

Then you should use a different reseller account... I can assign one of my e-mail address (like support@mysite.com) to the 24/7 available support staff at the data center. Whenever one of my clients sends a support request it will be answered by them. The only problem I have with this is that the tech support only speaks English, which is a problem for some of my Dutch clients...

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That's a cool idea Mind_nl, but I have a problem with that too.

My clients know my telephone number.....

I used to resell but had to stop since it was taking up too much of my time.  It is profitable but it can drive you a little crazy with the support that you have to provide.  Better to have someone else do that.

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