Hosting - to resell or not?

information on reselling hosting

[jenn21dw]

I have developed a few of my own sites using WP, and am managing a business group locally who will offer website development as one of its services. I have subcontractors who do this work for me. I am looking into ways the company can earn from hosting. What would be great would be if customers could click through my companies affiliate link to purchase their hosting then send me the account info and bam we earn there, but when it comes to new clients, the simpler it is for them the better. One option is to collect their billing info and do it for them but not all people are open to writing down that info, and then im assuming if one ip address is constantly purchasing through the same affiliate link that may be an issue on its own. I know there is an option to be a reseller. I want to know if anyone could tell me 1.)how much can be earned 2.) how complicated can it get when you have several subcontractors managing several accounts 3.) is there any long term issues you can forsee with this if down the line i hand the clients completely over to the developers that work for me?
Any other suggestions i may be missing? I earn right now 100$ each new hosting plan from my affiliate program.
Thanks

[coopster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, jenn21dw.
It truly starts with evaluating your business model and business plan. Sure, you CAN earn money, but will it be worth it? It can indeed get complicated with multiple hands in the mix as each will use their own standards and specifics for server side configurations, but I guess that could happen at the design/development level as well. Long term you could easily stand to lose your customers to the developers that you subcontract. It has happened to others.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Virtually every host out there has an affiliate program, some giving cash in return, some giving discounts to your own bills with them. Others have reseller programs, where you buy a larger slice of a server and your referrals get placed onto it.

Perhaps an easier way to provide hosting is to incorporate it into your 'package' of services. I imagine if you're dealing with lots of non-web savvy clients, they'll come to you whether it's an issue with their site, or with their server... regardless, you'll have to waste time on it. In that sense, it's easier for you to control the server and deal with issues more quickly, and charge for it (if that's a job you're comfortable doing).

Hosting can be as little as $15/year if you're buying it on a one-by-one basis. VPS' are quite popular and you could easily charge $100 for the hosting while also being in control of the server.

Alternatively, you can buy a dedicated server and place clients sites on it. From what I've seen, a well priced dedicated server is comparable in price to the smaller VPS when you compare cost and hardware.

[cmendla]

With today's litigious society I made the decision to stay away from reselling hosting. I'm even getting very cagey about which hosts I would recommend and how I recommend them.

Tinfoil hat stuff.. You resell to someone and they host copyrighted materials.. You get a summons to appear in federal court 100 miles away to explain your part in the reselling and document things. Not worth the aggravation.

Scenario 2 - you host and through no fault of your own (ie ddos on another user) someone's site goes down for 2 weeks. They sue for damages..

Scenario 3 - You resell and someone is posting terrorist manuals and how tos.. You look out the window and see a small, funny looking aircraft. there is a flash under the wing and something starts streaking toward your wind)*(#)#(