What is reseller hosting?

To understand the concept behind reseller hosting, an individual has got to foremost understand the concept of web hosting. So the most logical place to begin this article is from the question: What is web hosting? Web hosting in the most basic of definitions refers to the act of housing a website on a given server. This act is responsible for the dissemination of this website to the public via the World Wide Web. These services are provided by web hosting entities that also dabble in the provision of internet connectivity.

The scope of hosting a website is on a cline that varies from the simple( where you have a basic web page being hosted or a small scale file hosting entity) to the complicated( where one requires database support and application development platform).This is the most basic definition of what web hosting is all about. Web hosting has many divisions-free web hosting, shared web hosting, and yes reseller hosting. This then brings the article to its second part. The question to address at this point is; what is reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting is a concept where an account holder of a network server has the ability to use their allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host the websites of third parties. An entity can go about doing this by two ways. The first option involves the reseller renting a dedicated server from a hosting company and mortgages this service. The second option involves the reseller selling shared hosted services. In this scenario, the reseller is essentially given the opportunity to share a portion of their bandwidth and hard drive space. This is the basic concept behind reseller hosting.

Reseller hosting essentially does not require hands on knowledge on matters technical about web hosting. Your ordinary reseller hosting entity primary job is to be the public relations man in so far as the interaction with clients is concerned. Matters troubleshooting – network infrastructure, the maintenance of hardware, and issues that deal with the server are simply beyond the ken of the reseller host. Your typical web hosting reseller is under normal circumstances a web developer, or a web design firm , or even a systems integrator. These entities set up and manage customer’s accounts via a web interface.

In this business, there are four basic schemes that reseller will elect to pursue. This schemes have the following texture:

• Foremost the reseller might elect to act as an agent of the web hosting entity. In advertising for the service , the name of the entity is actually used. If the transaction is a success, the agent gets a commission.

• The second scheme involves the agent acting as a marketer for the entity. In the event that customers successfully purchase some bandwidth, then the agent gets a commission. The service is purchased under the name of the reselling agency.

• The third scheme involves a seller purchasing the service from a reseller who then purchases web space from a third party at a lower cost. The client is of course out of loop in all the above transactions. This scheme has a variant – the consumer is invoiced by the web hosting entity but via the name of the agent. This is to perpetuate the illusion that the seller is a web hosting entity in his or her own right.

• The last scheme, and which is the most common involves the reseller purchasing a large chunk of bandwidth from the web hosting entity and then decimating this into smaller portions that are later sold to the clients out there. These are the basic schemes out there, which involve reseller web hosting.

When you are in the market for a reseller hosting entity what you need to look out for are the following:

• What is the fee that is charged to clients out there? The fee that is normally charged by these entities is not standardized. This is on account of the fact that different resellers obtain their product read bandwidth at different prices. Price as such is a negotiable. The second issue because of fee is regard to its billing. You have to understand whether the billing is on a monthly rate or an annual rate. Choose what suits you best.

• The second consideration that you should look into is the kind of customer support service that is provided by the entity. By customer support the article is alluding to issues such as the response time, and the general friendliness of the client with regard with how they deal with their clients.

The other issues that could be raised with regard to reseller hosting are issues that could potentially affect the individual who would want to invest in this business. The questions that one need to ask if they have such an objective in mind is as follows:

• Foremost you have to ask yourself how many clients you can potentially serve at any one time. This is a question that you need to ask because of the fact that in this business the bottom line is essentially what counts.

• The second question that you ought to ask a s a potential investor is this: Is the plan upgradeable? In other word can you add more clients if business begin to soar. What amount of space do you get when you purchase data bandwidth? This is an issue that you got to look into.

• The third issue that you have to factor in as a potential investor is whether you get a user-friendly control panel with the service. Ordinarily reselling hosting is essentially not a technical issue. As you do not get involved in the technical end of things you will only be provided with maintenance tools for a layman. Question you need to ask is this: What kind of maintenance tools will you be provided with? This are ordinarily some of the questions that you need to ask yourself whether you are on the business end of issues or whether you are a client.