Is Reselling Profitable?

[theprimehost]

This might be a niche market, but it's just like any other in this regard. Buy low when there's not a lot of demand then sell high when there is.

I suppose you could say that this statement is the core essence of any business, however some products just move faster at "special rates" than otherwise as clients feel like they're getting more for their money. A greater value, if you will.

 

[easyhostmedia]

I suppose you could say that this statement is the core essence of any business, however some products just move faster at "special rates" than otherwise as clients feel like they're getting more for their money. A greater value, if you will.

yes most businesses work this way.

outside of hosting i sell toys at summer fairs/country shows. several years ago i got a deal of fishing nets if i purchased a gross, which i did even though i knew they would sell but not a fast seller ( they would do for a couple of seasons). | started selling these at 50p each at the first few fairs and sold none, so decided on a marketing strategy and increased single price to £1 or buy 1 get 1 free and suddenly these flew off sale and these never lasted a single season (so i got my 50p each for nets and buyers thought they were getting 1 free)

 

[Dedispec]

Looks like the OP definitely got the answer he was looking for but figured I'd just toss my opinion into the jar.

Is reselling profitable? Sure, it's a great way to start getting your feet wet in the hosting industry. Once you have learned from experience/mistakes you can slowly move into areas such as colocating your own hardware and what not. But yes Reselling is a great way to first start and learn quite a bit, and even better if you have a partner/employee who has some knowledge in the industry too.

Just like any business, it also depends how hard you're willing to work. Work passively and you may get some clients, or do some serious work building your client base and do much better

 

[euro-space]

Lets have a look on this from client-side. If I'm going to host my site online, what do I look for? Of course for a reliable company with positive reviews, good reputation , etc. showing that there's a real company I'm going to stand with.
Another approach is a personal recommendation - ex. my webmaster or website developer recommends me a hosting solution.
In any case, doing reseller business requires lots of hardwork, passion and time to be developed on the market and your provider plays important role on this, as well as the best place to start is to have some personal client-base.

 

[PremiumVM]

I'm planning to start a resller business , but i'm totally new to the business and need a good advice from all the members here, The tips and tricks and also how we can do this business in a much profitable manner.

I think that reselling is certainly profitable. If you mean reseller hosting, then yes it's definitely profitable. If you mean reselling others services then that is also profitable because you just add a certain amount onto the cost of the service and then add some value-added extras (such as management, or something like that)

 

[ughosting]

I don't agree.

A VPS is better than a Standard OS configuration possibly.

If the host is using CloudLinux, then each user has the same kind of Isolation that a VPS would have, and so to make general statements like VPSs are better, is a nonsense.

A small VPS would not beat a 10Gb connected 64GB RAM MultiCore Xeon monster of a server with CloudLinux, even if that server had 1000s of users.
And many shared hosts are using this type of server!

 

[easyhostmedia]

One important piece of information is missing. If your VPS runs OpenVZ then CloudLinux does not come into it as CloudLinux is not compatible with Open VZ

 

[TimeRider]

To the topic, Yes Reselling is profitable. I have done this practically. It can be much more profitable If you know some people whom you can sell your services.

Yes, a VPS with good system is better anyways.

 

[Artashes]

To the topic, Yes Reselling is profitable. I have done this practically. It can be much more profitable If you know some people whom you can sell your services.

Isn't it what reselling is... umm... by definition?

And what does "I have done this practically" mean?

 

[slashpro]

Isn't it what reselling is... umm... by definition?

And what does "I have done this practically" mean?

I'd also like to know what that means! Reselling is an issue if you don't have the funds to properly support it... you need to make sure people are having a reliable, professional hosting service unless it's just to your friends otherwise you aren't going to do good at all.

 

[vanixhosting]

I can be, it depends on the niche your in and what type of hosting it is.

 

[Gintonic]

This has to be one of most competitive industries ever. And there is also very little brand recognition.
I did some search and didn't found real number but it has to be in tens of thousands

I found this site http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/global/

which basically tracks biggest hosts but below this there has to be much more.

I would describe this as probably most cutthroat online business.

I am thinking about reselling but when you look at sheer number of companies out there one has to ask how to stand out.

It would be good if some of older members could describe how they gained traction.

 

[easyhostmedia]

This has to be one of most competitive industries ever. And there is also very little brand recognition.
I did some search and didn't found real number but it has to be in tens of thousands

I found this site http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/global/

which basically tracks biggest hosts but below this there has to be much more.

I would describe this as probably most cutthroat online business.

I am thinking about reselling but when you look at sheer number of companies out there one has to ask how to stand out.

It would be good if some of older members could describe how they gained traction.

That link is for just another site that hosts etc. pay to be higher up in the list

 

[Gintonic]

That link is for just another site that hosts etc. pay to be higher up in the list

Ok does anyone have any study which shows just how many hosts are out there?

I didn't find any reliable study.

On one hand it is industry with global competition as you and host Australian site in Finland etc.

It seems however that small resellers are also able to get customers.

I would really like to see some study on how many hosts are out there?

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Ok does anyone have any study which shows just how many hosts are out there?

I didn't find any reliable study.

On one hand it is industry with global competition as you and host Australian site in Finland etc.

It seems however that small resellers are also able to get customers.

I would really like to see some study on how many hosts are out there?

You won't find such a study with hundreds of hosts (kid ops) opening & closing on a daily basis. Fact is this business is very cheap to enter with the reseller options (I mean our reseller packages include free whmcs, dedi ip, ssl, domain name, adwords voucher etc... and is a mere $20 - $25/m) for everything you need - When a "business" is so inexpensive to get into of course you will see people trying to get a piece of the market.

Of course in some cases reselling can be very profitable. Take a look at HostGator as one of the many thousands of web hosts that started on a reseller package. As time goes and your company gets bigger and bigger over the years you can start to cut out less middlemen going up to your own hardware and offering premium reseller packages like ours.

 

[ughosting]

One important piece of information is missing. If your VPS runs OpenVZ then CloudLinux does not come into it as CloudLinux is not compatible with Open VZ

I'm saying you don't really need a VPS, it will probably be under powered and possibly less secure and have less features than shared hosting on a CloudLinux server

 

[zahiid]

All right. Reseller is profitable. As starting you should not carry a server cost. Start with reseller.

 

[znetwebhost]

it is really profitable. You should have to plan a good pricing scheme.

 

[WizzSolutions]

As long as you plan it right, build good and promising support conditions for your customers, ensuring the level of service you can give them and finding providers that can give you good rates allowing you up-sale yours. Yes its profitable and can lead you to a very successful business.

 

[Gintonic]

You won't find such a study with hundreds of hosts (kid ops) opening & closing on a daily basis. Fact is this business is very cheap to enter with the reseller options (I mean our reseller packages include free whmcs, dedi ip, ssl, domain name, adwords voucher etc... and is a mere $20 - $25/m) for everything you need - When a "business" is so inexpensive to get into of course you will see people trying to get a piece of the market.

Of course in some cases reselling can be very profitable. Take a look at HostGator as one of the many thousands of web hosts that started on a reseller package. As time goes and your company gets bigger and bigger over the years you can start to cut out less middlemen going up to your own hardware and offering premium reseller packages like ours.

Hi Alex,

Thanks. I just checked that Hostgator story and it is amazing. I would never thought that HG was started that simply. I always thought that they were some huge initial investment.

I suggest to all guys wondering here if reselling is profitable to Google that story. Basically they were started by teen kid almost accidentally after he has failed with one hosting company because of poor customer service.

There are couple of important take aways from that story and main one is:

Do not start hosting company with crappy service.

Thanks again. Very cool insight.