I currently own 40 domains and have 7 different shared hosting accounts, and I'm shelling out around $500 a year for hosting currently. I found Host Department (http://www.hostdepartment.com/resellersandpartners.html) which has two reseller programs: One for $25 per month and one for $50 a month. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is other the the amount of storage, transfer, and cpanel accounts. The idea of getting a few customers to cover my hosting bill for me is very appealling, and I have a few web design clients that would probably switch to my hosting if I offered it. What are the caveats of being a reseller like this? I'm sure its not as simple as sign up, pay $xx a month, and watch the money pour in. Will my 40 domains use up all the cPanel accounts? Is Host Department reputable? Is their someone better? I'm a fairly technical guy, but I've never managed a web server. How much knowledge is required to be a reseller? Any advice anyone can give would be much appreciated.
Sounds like a good idea. You will need a reliable host or you will waste a lot of time handling complaints from your clients. http://www.resellerzoom.com is pretty reliable and good if you want to host a lot of small sites. They aren't so good for hosting forums that rely on database connections.
Thanks bogart. I'd rep you again, but the system tells me I have to spread more before repping you again. You say they aren't so good for sites that rely on database connections. 90% of my sites use Joomla! and/or php Link Directory; both database reliant scripts. My busiest site gets about 8,000 - 10,000 pageviews per day. With all the mods, I'm betting this will add up to 50k-100k sql hits per day. Do you figure they're biggest failover plan would handle that?
Resellerzoom won't work for you. Better to go with http://www.micfo.com/ check out the reller page http://www.micfo.com/resellers-web-site-hosting.html
one of the pitfalls with reseller accounts is most oversell, most restrict sql queries on an hourly bases, most limit your use of cpu time and ram usage, some restrict ftp upload speed so it is almost imposable to work with. and none of them mention the above they mention unlimited this that and the other, well get real, everything has a limit even life has limits. the problem is this, once you buy in and start selling to your customers, it is very hard to get out again, your customers will install their scripts to work with the server and you'll have a nightmare if you try and move your customers to another host because their servers will have different setups on them and they will have different limits of the things that they forget to mention limits on. you are far better asking people that have their own dedicated server for some space, most like mine comes with WHM for setting up reseller accounts, and you'll have one person to contact and they would be more willing to change something for you than the big boys, and most dont limit your access like the bigboys on the things you need. but will have to setup a package that you want and a price thats a little more than the bigboys, but less restrictions.
I would check out bluewho.com I used them for many years without a glitch and their site is based on a forum just like this which is the appeal. They don't hide anything. If you are familiar with CPanel just learn WHM for controlling your Cpanel accounts; its easy.