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HOW TO RESELL WEB HOSTING FOR A PROFIT

Why should I become a web hosting reseller?

Just think about it. Every day thousands of websites are added to the worldwide web. Today there are millions upon millions of websites, and millions more are added each year. And guess what? EVERY single one of those websites has to have a host! If they didn't have a host, nobody would be able to see their website. As you can already imagine, the web hosting business is a hugely profitable and rapidly growing industry. There are already thousands of web hosts; but don't think for a moment that there are already too many. There are literally so many websites being added to the web each day that if you could even capture 1/100th of 1 percent you could be rich!

Most web hosting companies start by reselling web space provided by other companies through web hosting reseller programs. Especially if you are not experienced with running a web hosting company, it's best to start your web hosting business by purchasing webspace from a company with a web hosting reseller program. Start by buying a small account and reselling pieces of it. A web hosting reseller program of one company can differ significantly from a web hosting reseller program of another company. Here are some of the common types of reseller programs:

Affiliate Programs - You, as a reseller, act like an agent for that web hosting company. You merely advertise the service, and you clearly mention that the service will be provided by the actual web hosting company. The customer will buy directly from the original web hosting company and you, for the "advertising service", get a few percent from each sale that originated from you (your website).

Another type of affiliate program is where you, the reseller, act as a marketer for the web hosting company. Again, you simply advertise the service and mention the actual web hosting company. The customer buys the service from you instead of the actual company, but all further contacts (support, complaints) do not involve you. They will be handled directly by the web hosting company. Affiliate programs are OK if you don't want to make very much money. We offer affiliate programs as well, kindly email us at sales@avalueweb.com for more information.

Per-Account Programs - Your company appears to be a web hosting company in its own right. You will be handling sales and support, but in effect only putting your own brand on someone else's service. You buy the service at a lower price and resell it to your customer at a higher one. The customers are yours and they will contact you for support. For example the "mother company" sells you hosting at $5/month per domain. You operate your own website where you sell hosting for $10/month per domain. Each time a customer orders from you, you go to the mother company's website and set up the account. The mother company emails the account details to you, and you then email the details to your customer. In this situation you can make some money, but you have no control over your hosting plans, and are very dependent upon the mother company. You can make some money using this type of program, but it's totally inferior to the next type of program. We do offer a per-account program called Integrity A-la-Carte. However, since we offer true reseller programs starting at such a low price, there is no reason for you to use this program unless you really don't want to handle setting up your own accounts. This program is geared toward people who have very little web hosting experience and don't want to learn how to run their own WHM panel, but still want to sell web hosting for a profit. We do not encourage this program. On the other hand if you want to make some SERIOUS money, keep reading...

Private Label Reseller Programs - This is the final category. You, the reseller, purchase a rather large chunk of web space and bandwidth (there are other features to take into account, but these are the most important ones) from the web hosting company. You are provided with the ability to slice that into pieces as you like, enabling you to create your own web hosting packages. This is the highest degree of independence that you can get from a web hosting reseller program. Typically you get a reseller manager control panel (ours is the cPanel/WHM control panel--the best in the industry). You set up your customers accounts and provide basic support for them; basically you have total control over your business. You ARE a web hosting company! You can make a TON of money using this type of program. If you are ready to sign up now, please go to our order page and select a Reseller Account from the order form toward the bottom of the page. For more information about this money-making program keep reading...

How much money can I make?

Most examples you see are best-case scenarios (for example 10 sales per day), which in reality rarely happens. Most calculations do not consider the number of customers that quit their service, nor do they take into account marketing expenses such as advertising. Of course you are only limited by the amount of time and effort you want to invest in your business. We know of resellers making US$15,000 - US$20,000 per month and more! Here is a very realistic projection of how you can make US$3,000 per month net profit.

Are you convinced yet? Go to the order page and select a Reseller Account from the order form at the bottom of the page.

What kind of experience do I need so I can support my customers?

It's good to have a little tech expertise in order to be able to help your customers with their basic needs like answering their questions on setup and administration of their hosting account package that you provide for them. Luckily, most of this is stuff involves the use of a control panel, and that's something that you (and most of your customers) should be able to learn with reasonable ease. If you already know how to use cPanel for your own domain, you're at least halfway there. WHM is just the management side of cPanel, and it uses the same user-friendly type of interface that you're used to. If you have the ability to learn, NO EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED. Additionally, you will have access to all the resources on our support page, such as our Tech Team, and 1 hour response time, and plenty of good documentation and flash tutorials on how to use cPanel and WHM. That's one of the best parts about being a reseller-- we are there to help you if you run into a snag. In fact, we feel that our resellers are the most important part of our business and you will be treated as such!

Most new web hosting business owners are concerned about the amount of support tickets they're going to receive. However, the number of requests won't be overwhelming. You can expect new clients to ask some questions, but as you get along, most of the clients won't even need support unless the servers are down. If you don't want to handle any support, an alternative option is to outsource all of your support so that you do not handle any customer support issues at all. A good outsourcing company will remain invisible to your customers, but will be there if any of your customers need help, 24/7. We do offer our own support solutions, which is a nice advantage because we have the most direct access to our servers (vs. you hiring an outside company to provide support). If you need this area of support, kindly email us at sales@avalueweb.com. At this time we only offer this service for resellers whose accounts are located on our own servers.

How do I get started?

When you sign up, we will instantly set up your reseller account for you. You will receive a detailed welcome email with all of your account information, login details, and basic instructions. You can start setting up websites the moment we set up your account. Essentially, you just go into your WHM panel, fill out some fields, click a button, and BANG! You just set up your first account. Many reseller accounts with other companies have less user-friendly controls, more and complicated processes to set up accounts. With us you can hit the ground running and start making money from day one! If you are ready now, go to our order page and select a Reseller Account from the order form at the bottom of the page.

Will my customers know I'm a reseller?

Only if you tell them. We will remain invisible to your customers. All of our name servers are anonymous, meaning there is no website set up on those domains. We will never contact your customers. They will only see you as their web hosting provider. This is a very important feature especially if you plan on becoming a big company. For reseller (WHM) accounts we also offer the option of setting up your own custom name servers at no additional charge.

What kind of control panel will I get?

One of the most important factors to consider is the control panel. There are many different control panels used by web hosts. What you want is a control panel that is easy for you to use AND easy for your customers to use. Our control panel (cPanel/WHM) is widely considered to be the best control panel available. It has a sleek, user-friendly interface while providing all the powerful tools that you and your customers need. For more information about cPanel you can go to cpanel.net.

Does reselling really work?

Yes it does, especially if you work hard at it, develop an attractive package and market yourself well. Think about this: each day thousands of websites are added to the world wide web. Every single one of those websites needs to have a web host!

How do I get customers?

There are many ways to find customers. One excellent strategy is to find a niche market for yourself (for example--web hosting for churches). That doesn't mean you should come up with a totally new niche. You can simply find a niche with growth potential or little competition.

What is your local market like? Many businesses like to buy their hosting locally. Local (small) business users generally will pay more than the average web hosting buyer. So, if that is your target market, then you'll be able to sell your plans at higher prices. Your pricing and plans should reflect your target. If you have a target market, an industry, a group, etc. it will be a lot easier to understand the needs of your customers and provide a viable service to meet those needs. If you are targeting local businesses, don't sell cheap. The market can take higher prices. Keep in mind that you will either be competing against no one or against local ISPs that don't offer enough features and charge pretty high. $20 a month is nothing to a business, so price accordingly, but don't forget to do a little market research first.

Provide an excellent service. Word of mouth is clearly the best and most effective form of advertising in the web hosting business. If you provide a good service at a good price, your clients will bring you more business.

Do I need a business plan?

You can certainly sign up for a reseller account and start making some extra income even if you have no plan in mind; however, if you are serious about the business and you want to make it a career, you should develop some sort of business plan. It doesn't have to be a formal plan; you're not going to present it to the bank for a loan. A couple of pages detailing the general direction will help a lot. Price your plans right! Don't go for "I'm going to be the cheapest web hosting company around". You will not be able to sustain it. Also, try to include all your costs, including your time. And enjoy your business! If you don't enjoy it, your customers will feel it, and they won't be happy either.

Here's a short list of things that you should to take care of:

• Reseller account (Choose a plan from AValueWeb.com)
• Payment Processor (What forms of payment will you accept? For example, paypal.com, 2checkout.com, worldpay.com, check or money order?)
• Billing solution (Will you use Paypal subscriptions, or make your own spreadsheet, or use a billing program?)
• Support system/helpdesk (Will you just offer email support, or telephone, or helpdesk programs?)

Are you ready to start making some real money? Please go to the order page and select a Reseller Account from the order form at the bottom of the page.