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Resellers Help
| Posted by garysmith, 07-13-2001, 06:42 AM |
| I've got a task of building a reseller service...and not sure where to start...only details I have to go on are % discounts on the hosting packages to offer different levels of re-seller discounts.
Does anyone know what the best way of doing it is?
I've looked at sites such as pair.com who if you have 1/50 re-sold accoounts you get x% discount and x% services if over 50 you get all sorts more..
So whats the best way of doing it that users want?
many thanks
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| Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 07:07 AM |
| Speaking as an end user who is reselling space for a variety of clients needs I have to say I prefer the account type where you get a sort of bulk account...
i.e:
X bandwidth
X diskspace
and a heap of options (PHP, MySQL and/or MSSQL, ASP, etc...)
That gives me the flexibility to create accounts that fit my clients needs. Pre-determined packages are not although they are easier to setup. That said I've seen hosts who offer both options.
With the "bulk account" option make sure you set reasonable and attainable limits and avoid silly/high additional charges per domain. Charging them £20 a domain per year (allegedly for setting up the server) when your clients do it all through a control panel is not going to get you customers. Say a nominal charge per extra domain after a sensible 'free' number is ok as it helps keep loads down and users from going silly.
There's a whole load of other things that are important too such as load balancing, etc... which mean you'll need to look at sensible limits on things like the number of sites a reseller can host or CPU usage, etc... You'll find that the quality reseller (and client who's been the "cheap" way) will be willing to pay the extra to get a good speed service.
Ok, enough waffling... hope that gets the ball rolling... Oh and remember I'm a reseller so you'll be wanting opinions from actual hosts as to how they view/do it too.
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| Posted by lukas, 07-13-2001, 07:14 AM |
| Gary, the only host I know of that offers a program such as you describe is resellermatrix.net. I've been using them for almost 6 months, they have what they call "sub-resellers" which means resellers can not only offer hosting plans but their own reseller programs as well. It's pretty cool. Plus you can manage the resellers below you.
Does anyone know of anyone else who's doing this?
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| Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 07:25 AM |
| Uhm.. Lukas I'm not convinced on re-reading the original post that they're looking for a reseller - offering sub-resellers.
And for my 2p worth that's tantamount to a sort of pyramid scheme where the bottom of the chain has to wait for the message to filter back from the top when something goes wrong. Not conducive to good business.
Of course, I could be completely out to lunch .. speaking of which... FOOD!!
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| Posted by garysmith, 07-13-2001, 07:35 AM |
| ahh thanks all for the help...I'm not sure if there is already what you would call a reseller plan in place..
We offer a normal hosting account, 100MB of space then for £10 one time fee you can add the domain to your account and you use x amount of your master accounts bandwidth, disk space, pop accounts etc.
What I'm trying to do is get people to sign up and sign up other clients with the same hosting plan as them..not just adding a domain to there account?
Do you see what I mean? are these the same thing or two different types of re-sellers?
As a re-seller who is just re-selling lots of accounts and taking a % who would do the technical support? the host? or the re-seller?
duh me sorry
thanks
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| Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 07:47 AM |
| Ok problem number one. That policy is confusing as you're essentially saying that you buy a package for your client, then pay MORE to get them put under your control. So far I see no reason to use the service.
You'll need to explain this better to customers.
Unless I'm mistaken, the kind of thing you're referring to here is a referral program... Your referrer gets other users to sign up to your service and as a result you reward the referrer with something like money off their next years hosting fees.
If that's correct then you could not expect the user to take any responsibility for support as they're providing you with a customers via a recommendation.
Pair.com do something similar I think.
To be honest though it sounds like you're trying to make more money out of the deal whilst provising less. As it stands at the moment... if I were looking I wouldn't go for either program.
Hope that helps
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| Posted by garysmith, 07-13-2001, 08:02 AM |
| what they do now is buy an account thats it..they can re-sell hosting within that account and just pay us x amount.
But I see loads of other hosts and hundreds of posts in here of people who have say 20 or 30 accounts with one host...they pay £10 a month for there first account and then £5 a month for every other account..but when hosts do this...is it a referral program in which the client just passes the order on...or is it where the client is billed for all the 20 accounts and does all the support etc so the re-sellers clients would never contact the real host?
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| Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 08:17 AM |
| Ok, that's not what I understood from your first post... So to clarify you're saying that currently your resellers pay a flat rate for for X space, bandwidth, etc... and resell chunks of that to their own clients.
Ok, yes that's the other option I mentioned... So, again to clarify: your client has their own single domain account with you (at full rate) but your client resells your packages to their own customers but at a discounted rate.
In this scenario they are still reselling your service and would provide support accordingly (or at least that's my general understanding of the deal)
A referral program is when the client just recommends their own hosts packages but has no other involvement. Because the client only recommended your service though, they don't pay for it or support it...
Ok, I hope that's cleared up the confusion...
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| Posted by lukas, 07-13-2001, 02:35 PM |
| It's no more a pyramid scheme than reselling is in general. You're bringing up issues that effect all business and all resellers whether they're in web hosting or not. Not sure what your point is.
But perhaps I misread Gary's post....
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| Posted by WebSnail.net, 07-13-2001, 02:42 PM |
| I guess that's true.. perhaps 4 layers ie: host, reseller, reseller, then customer just seems like a lot to go through.
As for the post in general, I'm not sure I understood exactly what was being asked anymore... it got a mite confusing.
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| Posted by md201, 07-13-2001, 03:18 PM |
| Please do not advertise on the boards. Please read the forum rules. >>
Last edited by kunal; 07-14-2001 at 02:44 AM.
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