Marcia - 5:04 am on Jan 25, 2001 (gmt 0)

luckynh, I didn't want to pay for a master account because I wasn't sure I would go ahead with offering the package, and wasn't sure how it would work out for me. So I did not want any kind of a large commitment. I pay $7.95 a month for my basic (reseller) account, and with only that, additional accounts I add as a reseller are $4 each - no setup fees, and monthly billing. If either I or the client cancel out, I just remove that domain from my account. Each and every one has a unique IP number - which isn't overly critical, because I have oversight of all of them, but I still highly prefer having a unique for each.

There are two hosting companies that charge $40 a month for the reseller account, and an unlimited number of domains can be added on the account, with only a setup fee charged -each has its own IP - I emailed to double check.

There are sometimes potential clients I know I won't want to do this with - those I would rather send to another hosting company, just to avoid an excessive PITA factor, or where I have my doubts about whether I want a continuing relationship with them other than an occasional update based on a per item or hourly fee.

This will, therefore, limit the number of sites I'll do this way. At a certain point I might do the $40, but I'm in no hurry to take on more than the basic commitment on two of the sites that are my own.

For this reason I would also like to find a company that has a good affiliate program or "free hosting month for a recommendation." I do not refer people to where I host, because it is not their business what I pay, and they are not knowledgeable enough to do a whois search.

Whether it's for either the hosting or the billing part, it's important to crunch the numbers and do what's called a "differential analysis" on the total cost for a given number number of sites.

As it stands now, I can decide to move other sites to another host in 6 months, discontinue the plan I currently offer, and still be paying $12 a month total for my own 2 sites. If I were intending to do a high volume or actually offer hosting services, I might look at it differently.

Right now I intend to continue with mail and PayPal billing, and add the option of the secure order form through this third party person. It's a difference between about 3% and 6%, but I can incorporate it into an online agreement handled using formmail, and it will be a very simple process, with the return page being a set of instructions on what the next steps are.

I think there are probably different criteria for reselling and billing options, depending on whether a person wants to actually become a hosting service. In that case, where other people are in control of their sites, I would be even more adamant about having a unique IP for each as a requirement.