Reseller hosting is usually a bit more expensive than individual-level shared hosting, but the profits can be great if you happen to be in a business like web design that puts you in contact with lots of paying clients who happen to need their own hosting services.
In the era of ultra-specialization, people tend to focus exclusively in a narrow field of vision – but maximizing profitability means thinking outside of those boxes and specialties. Since many web designers see themselves primarily as visual artists, they can miss out on the opportunity provided by administering some hosting accounts.
With reseller resources available, a designer can provide the full life cycle of website creation and support. If clients need a site built, chances are good that they’ll need somewhere to host it as well. Rather than making a one-time sale, a designed providing hosting can turn his or her sale into a regularly recurring pay check.
A few shared hosts provide reselling capacities – check out these discounts available for Hostgator and Dreamhost before you pay full price.
Of course, not ever designer wants to put up with the potential work that goes alng with providing hosting services. Its one thing to create a visual template for an existing CMS and another thing to keep the server safe with regular software updates. If you’ve got plenty of new business coming in, you may not have a need to turn a quick job into long term alliance. Then again, if you don’t like the sales and marketing aspects as much, a little bit of FTP-related work doesn’t sound so bad – does it?
Internet bubbles are popping left and right – and from my point of view it seems like there’s been a general drop in new web projects springing up. In the future, success may be more dependent on keeping current customers loyal than relying on finding new ones.
There are tons of small things you can do to add services and promote long term client relationships – are you passing up good future business in the meantime? The more you can offer your customers, the fewer customers you need!
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