The web hosting industry grows by 16% each year (according to Market Research Future). This means that there’s plenty of room for resellers to create a profitable and successful business. Reseller hosting requires that you purchase hosting wholesale and then divide up portions of your server and domain resources to your own customers. Essentially, you act as an intermediary between a hosting provider’s infrastructure and potential new audiences.
If you’re thinking about starting a reseller hosting business, the first step is to take the time to look at the industry in the context of the goals you want to achieve. For instance, do you want to make reselling your primary source of income? Or do you want to offer hosting as an additional feature to services like design and development? Research the industry and look for opportunities to make a profit. Take special note of who you’ll be competing against. You should also look at what features you want to offer your customers.
The next step is to choose a provider. Start by looking for companies that offer wholesale reseller plans. Companies such as GreenGeeks, InMotion, HostGator, and GoDaddy all offer these types of plans. However, before you simply choose the cheapest plan, you need to examine what each company is offering. The performance, support, and security that a provider offers can significantly affect what you can offer your customers. The more services your host provides, the more you can offer your clients. Some features that your provider should have are:
- Custom nameservers
- A domain name reseller account
- Unlimited cPanel licenses
- Simple white-labeling services
- Dedicated IP address
- Automatic backups
- Versatile email configurations
- Free WHMCS installation
- Free website or cPanel migrations
- Softaculous installation scripts
- Strong performing solid-state rives
- Powerful security platforms
Additionally, the host’s reputation and dependability will also affect the services you offer your client. For this reason, it’s essential that you carefully research a host’s customer reviews.
To set yourself apart from your competitors, it’s a good idea to find your niche market. In general, web hosts will concentrate on a specific area. This can include things like marketing tools, easy-to-use site builders, speed or scalability. You should also consider this when choosing a hosting provider. You want to choose a host that has features that align with your goals. For example, GreenGeeks offers SSD hard drives that provide incredibly fast page loads. If one of your goals is to provide your customers with quick page loads, then this would be an ideal host to meet your goals.
Once you’ve decided on a web host and the features you’re going to offer your customers, you need to design a customer service plan. How you solve your customer’s problems can make or break your business. Additionally, you want to encourage positive reviews to boost your business’ reputation. The best way to keep your customers happy is to be responsive and readily available to see to their concerns. This could mean replying promptly to emails, offering a live chat, or providing a knowledge base of articles to help customers troubleshoot common problems.
Lastly, you’ll want to invest some time in marketing your business. Begin by asking your friends and family to get the word out. Then look into becoming proficient in search engine optimization so you can increase the chances of being found through search engines. You may also want to invest in social media marketing to spread the word further.
In sum, to start a reseller hosting business, you need to start by defining your goals. You need to decide how you’re going to set yourself apart from competitors and what services you’ll offer. Then you need to choose a provider that will provide you with the features you need. Your provider should also be reliable, high-performing, supportive, and secure. Next, you need to plan on how you’ll support your customers. Finally, you need to devise a marketing plan that will get the word out about your business.
