Criteria to choose host for reselling?

[bandboy]

It is a tricky situation. You are searching hard to have a host to resell with. Since this is going to be a business and has your reputatino at stake, will you host with any Tom-Dick-Harry or you have any criteria whereby you signup with a reliable and secure host which shall influence your reselling business in positive sense?

Share your criteria as to how you go about finding good hosts whom you can resell with?

*Please don't advertise hosts or their hosting plans. We are just discussing criterias you use to reach such hosts.*

 

[ldcdc]

Well, I'm not a reseller myself, but after following the experiences of others as portrayed on various hosting forums, it seems quite crucial to me that the provider must have at least 1 year of experience selling reseller packages, and feedback from customers must be positive overall. In other words, the provider's business model must be time tested.

Too often a new company will spring up offering low priced reseller hosting plans, sell them for a couple of months, everything seems great, and then, all of a sudden, things start to deteriorate. What happens is that the resellers gradually start using what they've bought up to levels that the provider did no anticipate, and cannot sustain while maintaining profitability. The result is chronic overloading of servers, and a possible sale of the company somewhat longer down the road.

No need for me to tell you the extent of issues that a sale can cause if it is mismanaged, and what the chances are of a company such as the one I've described to manage the transfer of ownership properly.

 

[bandboy]

Thats some useful information.

Now, another thing i need to know is how to identify genuine resellers?
I mean very often we find those resellerpanel or similar reseller packages and problem comes when they are being provided thru a domain online for more than a year and when host has anonymous WHOIS records.

Like a reseller that uses a domain online for more than three years (now domain may have been registered three yrs ago and passed from one owner to other or used for any thing diff. earlier but now for hosting or any such assumptions), then whois records show you that company (domain) has been in business for three years.

Next you try to find info thru their nameservers and DNS records but they are anonymous or you can't go beyond a certain point, so how do we find whereabouts or genuiness of such hosts providing reseller packages?

 

[ldcdc]

now domain may have been registered three yrs ago and passed from one owner to other or used for any thing diff. earlier but now for hosting or any such assumptions

One way to find what a website looked like/was dealing in over the years, is www.archive.org.

 

[bandboy]

Thanks, Archive.org is a good tool to see how site looked in past, but that wouldn't help you locate genuine resellers or reseller providers. By genuine i mean those who really resell from their servers and not like sub-resellers or sub-sub-resellers and so on.

 

[Mabus]

Talk with the hosting company on a daily basis. Feel them out. Get a small plan feel out the services/support.

Don't jump into anything for price like you said reseller relationships are for the long run.

 

[Blue]

You need to take your time and test your potential host before you decide to host other sites or start a business based on hosting.

Time in business is an important factor, of course, but there are many hosts out there who just seem to dry up and disappear even after a few years being online.

Your main concern should be response time.
You are the go between for your clients essentially. If it takes X amount of time for you to answer a support request Plus X amount of time for your request to your host a lot of time can expire before your client has an answer.

Test out your potential host by getting an account and using features. That way you will get a good indication of network stability and response time to support requests.

Search the forums for recommendations.

Above all, if you are getting into a business seriously you should be prepared to invest some money.
My recommendation would be to bypass a reseller account and find yourself a good VPS.

 

[bandboy]

Thanks everyone for steering me into right direction. At times these replies can just help you make a decision which you wanted to but had something withoulding you from making it.

I guess, i'll need to spend some time testing before i am in positino to start the business for this.

All replies appreciated. Thanks for your time and advises.

 

[Addmember]

Is there a way to tell a reseller from a genuine provider?

 

[ldcdc]

Is there a way to tell a reseller from a genuine provider?

that's politically incorrect. A reseller is a genuine provider. Most provide support for example.

To answer your question, yes, in most cases on can determine if a reseller account is being used.

 

[iNetManila]

My recommendation would be to bypass a reseller account and find yourself a good VPS.

Getting a VPS is a good thing if you have the budget. But if not, you can settle for a reseller account and work your way to earning some good amount of money then get a VPS if your budget permits it.

A good reseller account should provide quick response time. Response time should be 8 hours tops. Slow replies from your webhost can cause serious delay and would show unprofessionalism, hence you would lose clients.

I had dealt with some no-name webhosting companies where I experienced some down time but because of their excellent customer service and prompt replies I sticked with them.

 

[othellotech]

Is there a way to tell a reseller from a genuine provider?

What makes you think a reseller isnt "genuine" ? Many resellers provide an excellent value-add service in supporting their clients and providing additional services that their "upstream provider" would not offer.

The real thing is whether the provider (be they reseller or whatever) is *honest* with their potential and actual customers - every day I see sites of hosts claiming "their datacentre this" and "their cisco network" and "their bgp routers" etc, when any level of investigation would show they have a sigle dedicated server with "cheap-sh!t-dedis" etc.

Traceroutes can tell a lot, looking up the IP netblock can tell a lot, investingating who routes their IPs can tell a lot.

There is *NOTHING* wrong with being a reseller, and nothing *WRONG* with hosting with a reseller.

As with all things in business, it should come down to you paying a price you feel is fair, for a service you feel is acceptable, on a product you feel matches your needs.

Yes there is the "risk" that a problem may be out of the resellers control. But similarly if they have backups, a well though out business continuity plan and your best interests at heart, they could move to another provider almost instantly, and be up and running elsewhere if the brown-and-sticky has gone fanward.

I know some resellers that are more succesful than their upstreams, and others that are so clueless its just a matter of time before they fold and screw over their clientbase. Similarly I know "real" hosts that do very well, and others that teeter in the edge of bankruptcy every month. The problems are "business" issues not really realted to them being or not being a reseller.

 

[bandboy]

Well said othellotech.


It is all about how truthful and dedicated the host is, irrespective of it being reseller or a dedicated server host.

Honestly with only say useage of 5Gb space and 50Gb bandwidth, paying for a 2x160Gb space, 1200Gb bandwidth dedicated server, seems rather foolish apart from a status symbol that you host on a dedicated server. You can always use the money you save here for other things which your hosted clients will find more useful. You can upgrade as and when need is there.

Good reseller is what you need to look for. Many are sub-reselling a reseller package and that is where it can hurt business because you will depend on host which depends on reseller and reseller depends on server host. So, reply time increases dramatically and if you don't get help when you need the most, it matters least how low the price may be.

 

[jimcpweb]

It is a tricky situation. You are searching hard to have a host to resell with. Since this is going to be a business and has your reputatino at stake, will you host with any Tom-Dick-Harry or you have any criteria whereby you signup with a reliable and secure host which shall influence your reselling business in positive sense?

Share your criteria as to how you go about finding good hosts whom you can resell with?

*Please don't advertise hosts or their hosting plans. We are just discussing criterias you use to reach such hosts.*

hi,
i think only one thing is important and it is reliablity and high end service at any cost

Regard

 

[urka]

I'd add an in-house support too.

 

[jimcpweb]

yes,ulka is right