Web Servers

[spritelhs]

I can't get dsl where I live. Any other ways I can host websites for a little bit of extra income?

[alchiba]

You could lease a server from a hosting provider, but the most cost-effective approach is to purchase a reseller plan from a reputable host. This requires the least up-front money. Reseller plans typically come in two flavors: one, where you simply purchase the host's existing plans at a discount and resell them at whatever mark-up you want; and the second is the bulk-type plan where you purchase a large amount of disk space and bandwidth and divide that space up into your own hosting plans. The second method costs a little more, but has the greatest profit potential.

Of course, the most important aspect (besides being somewhat server-literate) is to choose a professional hosting company that has been in the business for at least a year and is responsive to your questions and support needs.

HTH

[the AIT guy]

Actually alchiba is 100% right, and not that I'm in the selling mode, but my company does this. Not sure how many companies do the 2nd model, but we've seen tremendous reseller success (I can name thousands of resellers that have been able to do nothing but design and hosting while adding their own flavor to this business model).

We're always concerned about our resellers, and I'd say that we have a pretty niche market with that. Heck, we use to be a reseller ourselves when we started. So, anybody can do it. Keys to success are a.) provide the customer with a product they can afford, b.) perform what they need in terms of support to make them successful and c.) ensure resellers can profit from any product that is deployed. I think we've done a good job at it.

Michael J. Roberts
VP, Operations
http://www.ait.com

[alchiba]

Michael, I'll second that.

We've offered bulk reseller plans for a while and it's proven highly popular. The appeal is the fixed montly cost and a certain amount of independence.

To clarify one point: By saying "server literate" I didn't mean that a reseller needs to be immensely technical. A reseller should at minimum be familiar enough with the basic components of a Web server (email, dns, etc.) to better represent the hosting service and to serve his/her clients.

[the AIT guy]

I agree with you. This "class" of server is specifically build for Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurs, not necessarily for the most technical people only. It's almost for both, but not exclusively for either one.

Michael Roberts
VP, Operations
http://www.ait.com

[punaboy]

spritelhs,
My 2 cents on being a reseller...

Having a good host will help, but you do need technical knowledge to be successful.

Providing hosting specifically for "extra income" may not be the best idea. Even if you have a great host, reselling can take up a lot of your time. The market is so saturated that if you can't provide the best customer service possible your customers can easily move on. It will require a lot of dedication.

If you're just starting out and don't have money to just "throw out", a pay per plan or 50/50 type reseller account would probably be your best option. You only pay if you have customers (you still have to pay for your account). Although, you can only sell pre-made plans that your host provides.

A bulk reseller account will give you the most freedom to divide up your space into whatever type of plans you want. It's great if you have a lot of customers. If you're just starting out with little or no customers it can be expensive because you pay for the entire space/plan wheather you have customers or not.

Maybe even greater than the technical knowledge, you do need business sense, great public relations, and people skills.

[the AIT guy]

I agree also. Some technical knowledge is necessary (computer, FTP, HTML at least, if not PHP or ASP), and I think the ones that are more technical than business savey actually go under and go out of business. We've seen this recently in our reseller base. To combat it, we've launched a simple, free service that allows business owners to email the AIT CEO, and other senior staff members (CFO, Sr. VPs, VPs) and ask questions about how to improve efficiency, cut costs, drive demand, and improve customer relations. Like I said before, we've been successful with it, so we figured why not share that with our customers. URL is below.

http://www.ait.com/content.php?id=247

Michael J. Roberts
VP, Operations
http://www.ait.com

[sof0782]

Yep...

I started a home grown hosting company few years ago using AIT. Excellent reseller program and lots of built in potential for markup. Check it out...
www.aitcom.net

also just for giggles check out

www.joecartoon.com

[sandman]

If you are just looking for some free basic hosting check out Doteasy (http://affiliate.doteasy.com/index.cfm?M=red&B=3&T=185477&A=de851). I've been using them for couple years now and no problems. They have a decent affiliate program too.

~Sandman

[samatva]

... the most cost-effective approach is to purchase a reseller plan from a reputable host. ...

On the other hand, you could get ripped off by letting Alchiba (aka Edward French, dba Linkstream) charge your credit card for months AFTER cancelling your hosting account.