Has anyone tried reseller web hosting?

If your unfamiliar with reseller web hosting, this is where you buy server space from a web hosting company, and resell it in 'chunks' at your own price.

I tried this for a while and did make some money from it, but its a time consuming venture, and I didn't have the time to put into it. That day job kept getting in the way.

It's a great business if you have some web design experiece and time in the day to provide support to your customers.

Reseller web hosting can be very profitable if you put time into it. Using a reseller package rather than getting your own dedicated server prevents you from having to worry about maintaining box security or uptime. All you really need to do is get some form of a billing system and then your ready to go!

About how much time does it take? I have a reseller account to host my own domains and have thought about starting a hosting business to use up the rest of the space I'm paying for, but the market seems too saturated and competitive.

I'm thinking of a reseller account too. Do you recommend a company that accepts paypal as payment and with low cost?

Also, I got a question. What's the difference between a reseller's account and the hosting package that says unlimited domains? Or are they the same thing.

Thanks!

Yes, there are some resellers out there that accept paypal and will charge you on a monthly basis. Starter packages are anywhere from about $6/mo up to $30+ a month for package, depending up on company and services provided.

Unlimited domains ususally are referring to the number of sites you can add to your allotted server space. For example, if your purchase a reseller package for $10/month and it gives you 5 GB web space, you can divide that into smaller packages to resell. So if you decide to resell web hosting at $5/mo for 100MB of space, you can host 50 sites with your 5GB's of space. Potential profit of $240.

The unlimited is kind of a sales gimmik because you would only be able to host a given amount of domains on your allotted space, but it would give you more flexibility of determining your web package size, because some hosts will only let you have a given number of domains per GB of space purchased to resell.

Sapphira, I too have a reseller account to host my own web sites. Most of you time commitment will come from having to provide support for your clients. You can create a knowledge base site to instruct your clients on how to do various things, such as adding email accounts, or creating sub-domains, etc.... But if the knowledge base does not help them resolve their issue, they will need a way to contact you to solve their problem.

Many resellers contract out their support, or provide it themselves during business hours, so it is a huge time commitment. You could, of course provide email support and specify that it may be up to 24 hours before a reply is given - but most clients want immediate support.

I've also heard of some people using their email on their cell phones to reply to support calls, when first starting out - so they can responded quicker and still work a day job until the business gets off the ground. They will usually respond on breaks or lunch.

However, you are right - very saturated, competitive business. But you can find a niche (ex. specialize in forum hosting, or real estate, etc.) , or offer other services - such as web design or web mastering.

This is sadly true, and one of the things that you want to look into before you purchase a reseller hosting package! You do not want to be stuck with a host that will take even up to 3 hours to answer your ticket! Use a host that has various methods of support and gets replies back to you fast (preferably 24/7 support).

After reading the OP, the reseller scheme seems more understandable to me now. What would it take for you to set up your own server and sell the service? And why would people want to go to a middle man to buy the service instead of buying it directly from the host?
I imagine you get reseller server space for less than what is offered to the regular consumer? And if so, couldn't you just buy some reseller space and use it for yourself in the first place?

Okay, sorry about all the questions, but I'm curious about this still.

Freewebs offers a Reseller Web Hosting for only $90 per year. I guess it's not bad. I'm considering on buying one someday.
http://reseller.freewebs.com/

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Looks like a good business to get into, I thought about it many times. I tried to resell some hosting on a plan I bought, but was unsuccessful when trying to compete with other prices.

It's good if you have a lot of startup money.