What is Reseller Hosting & What are its Benefits?
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A business needs a host with whom it can host its website, which is what makes web hosting services such an inherent part of maintaining an online presence these days. There are thousands of companies that offer hosting services at competitive prices. Comparing hosting packages across these providers is a good way to choose the right host for your website. When comparing providers, you’ll find that hosting is classified into three broad categories, viz. shared hosting, dedicated hosting and reseller hosting. The Lancaster web hosting scene offers quality services across all three types but it is the lattermost that we are going to talk about here.
What is Reseller Hosting?
When a web host buys a bulk hosting plan from another hosting provider and sells it to end users, it is known as a reseller hosting service. After buying this bulk plan, the web host further divides it into several smaller plans before selling them to individuals or small businesses. This model enables the reseller to sell bandwidth and space from a rented or leased dedicated server. In certain cases, the reseller can also seek authorization to sell bandwidth and space from a shared server. Hosting bought in this manner is the cheapest way to host a website on the web.
For end users, reseller hosting is nothing short of a boon. It is affordable, reliable and flexible and ensures every business, regardless of how small it is, can aspire to create and maintain an online presence for itself. Hosting resellers are basically like connectors that act between large hosting companies and much smaller end users.
On their own, dealing with hosting services can be cumbersome as the customers require a basic level of web hosting technical knowledge for setting up and maintaining their websites. When running a business, these issues can be an unwelcome distraction. Reseller web hosting takes care of all that for their customers which frees them up to focus on growing their respective businesses.
Benefits of Reseller Hosting Business
The single biggest advantage of the hosting reseller business is the low capital you need to begin operations. This is unlike other businesses where a fair bit of spending is required to get things going. But in the hosting business, the cost of bandwidth and disk space when bought in bulk is pretty low. Growing competition has further ensured the prices will remain low for the foreseeable future.
On top of that, reseller hosting plans also pack in a higher number of features as compared to basic plans. The reseller also has to pay very nominal maintenance charges and if any technical issues do arise, it is the parent hosting company that take cares of it instead of the reseller. While some amount of basic hosting knowledge is desirable for those wanting to get into the reseller business, it is by no means mandatory. For example, you can simply choose to hire a professional to manage all technical aspects of your reseller hosting business while you concentrate on non-technical aspects of pricing, marketing, bookkeeping etc.
With a reseller package, you are given access to features that allow full control of the disk space usage. This enables you to directly control and oversee every aspect of the website. The package also lets you sell your space to other users at a price of your choice. By opting for a reseller hosting package, you benefit from a lower price, more space and resources, lower maintenance, greater control and more income generation. Use the entire disk space for your website or sell a part of it to other users, the choice is totally yours.
Closing Points
Hassles that web hosting services normally deal with (like security and server updates) are not faced by hosting resellers. The only thing you need to be aware of is how much resources you allocate to your customers. Proper allocation of resources is desirable in order to ensure better customer experience. And only when your customers are happy will your reseller hosting business grow.
If you run a business that is already part of the website industry in some way, getting into reseller hosting is a natural progression as you already possess the experience essential for providing quality and reliable customer service. You can start off by searching for proven hosting companies that offer attractive reseller hosting packages. Once you have a handful of names, sort through their respective reseller hosting plans and pick one most suited to your needs. Ideally, the hosting company should offer a good balance between quality and pricing. Too low a quality and your customers will suffer; too high a price and your profit margins will suffer.
As an aside, vetting the reputation and reliability of a hosting company is an idea worth pursuing. You could visit hosting forums and boards, read up on hosting focused blogs, and talk with other customers to get a fair idea of the company’s track record.
