| Posted by kanan, 08-21-2004, 11:06 AM | | I'm thinking about opening a reseller hosting.
so i want to know what my customers want.
what features do they want?
my goal is to maintain both quality and profit at the same time.
any suggestion would be appreciated.
thank you.
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| Posted by Lubby, 08-21-2004, 02:57 PM | | Do you mean offering reseller accounts to people or getting a reseller account and offering shared hosting to people?
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| Posted by bluzman32, 08-22-2004, 02:59 PM | | Friendly support is always good, you may want to use the search feature because I remember a few threads like this.
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| Posted by Tomer, 08-22-2004, 03:17 PM | | I think he wants to offer reseller accounts to his customers, so he want's to know what to expect, well usually, WHM makes them happy.
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| Posted by Nilomedia, 08-22-2004, 03:44 PM | | Agree. Be sure to include WHM, cPanel and some fantastic addon "fantastico" and a charm skin! Yes, they love to have a nice looking control panel.
Your customers love to have all their features set to "unlimited". so maybe it's a good idea to give them unlimited features.
Additionally, try to give them much space and bandwidth.. but still positive with your plans costs.
one last thing, If you can host unlimited domains, why not allow your customer to host unlimited domains.
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| Posted by encoderX, 08-22-2004, 04:44 PM | | Hi
From a customers perspective:
My present host (please see my sig) for my domains is a reseller and I've never been happier
What impressed me to join them:
The website was clear, concise and to the point of what you get in the generous package - not package(s).
Payment methods were easy - offered monthly and yearly.
Contact by online ticket submit, Instant Messenger and email.
He replied to pre and post email support queries with speed, courtesy and truth.
The site FAQ answered my queries quite well - it answered the nameservers, the datacenter, account and billing - so I knew everything before sign-up.
The welcome email had the basics of how to access my account before and after the nameservers change.
Support contact info and billing info.
The biggest single thing that impressed me most was even though I knew the answers (from the website) I asked some really newbie questions to see his response - he replied on first name basis (great), answered all my questions with courtesy and even offered me 3 addon domains free so I could bring my other domains in too my account. I liked the fact he thought and considered me lol
Make sure you choose a good datacenter. Cpanel with fantastico.
Just my opinion, hope it helped in some way.
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| Posted by IHSL, 08-22-2004, 05:23 PM | | Well, not to fly in the face of 'popular' opinion, but here is my humble opinion on what makes a good reseller web hosting provider:
1: Powerful, but easy to use control panel. (order of preference: H-Sphere, Plesk, CPanel)
2: Ability to support the control panel, 100%.
3: A good business plan and foundation - without this, you have a limited "life" as a business of 6 months +/-
4: Sensible pricing. See above.
5: Are you willing to be a true reseller hosting provider? by this, you must make sure yourself, and any applicable staff are tuned in to resellers' needs/wants. Remember, end-users, and resellers are two very different ball games.
6: Easy to use, but comprehensive support documentation and tutorials. This is key. Your resellers won't want to contact you about everything - make sure it's always one click away from them. If not, they'll leave and find a provider that gives them this.
7: Solid hardware: Hardware is key. Place your resellers on a 1Ghz celery at your own risk. This goes back to points 3 and 4 again.
8: Good datacenter: This doesn't mean "pretty" or "well known", it means a datacenter that any/all of your employees can call, at any time, and have a task done in minutes. In most cases you won't need to speak to the datacenter more than once a month (unless shipping new servers down, or leasing new servers), but you need to know that they are going to be there, should it all go pear shaped at 3am.
9: Good remote hands. Do you/your techs know what they are doing? Remember, a good tech can be the difference between 5 minutes downtime, and 55 minutes downtime. 55 minutes downtime will cost you money and/or clients.
10: Actually support your customers. This doesn't mean just when they send in a trouble ticket.. this means cut them off at the pass - give them so much help before hand, that they really only need you when something is actually wrong. (See points 6, 7, 8, 9).
Just a few pointers
Simon
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| Posted by Indiepath, 08-23-2004, 08:18 AM | | 1) WHM, cPanel
2) reasonable costs with proper storage & bandwidth (like if you get $200 server from theplanet.com and sell it $40 for ten customers I'd be one of them )
3) excellent uptime. 99.7% or more at least. and I don't mean any 99.999% quarantees. I don't want quarantees, I want uptime.
4) Support: I think I could need support only few times per year, but when I need support I'd like to get few hours of your time and quick answers. So - it would be like "peak hours support".
5) Nameservers. (I want to get ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com)
6) Possible to start small and grow big & easy upgrades. (I'd like to start with $5-$10 package and when my business grows I
could move into $20 or $50 or $100 package)
7) Honest & reliability. People really trying to help me. I don't care if you know linux and root/crontab/whatever magical tricks if you don't want to solve my problem. I want you to help me.
These are the factors I'm hunting for. Currently HomeTownHosting.com is on my list but I'm still checking few things with them... If you plan to start your business, you could contact me - you could get a customer.
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| Posted by Wapture, 08-23-2004, 10:11 AM | | The following is based on what our customers expect and get:
1.) Reliable servers with hardly any if any downtime.
2.) Excellent customer support with a response time of 30 minutes or less.
3.) Affordable and realistic plans and packages.
4.) Helpful customer support responses - no one liners or "soz car help ya". lol
5.) Easy to use control panels for both resellers and shared hosting clients.
6.) An easily navigationable website (our website, not theres).
7.) A money back guarantee.
I can't think of much more..
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| Posted by sphere, 08-23-2004, 11:48 AM | | These are my consideration when purchase a reseller account:
1. Cheap price.
2. Nearly unlimited bandwidth and space. :p
3. Anonymous server
4. Min. 2 IPs for Private NS.
5. Dual Xeon server.
6. CPanel/WHM.
7. Fast and friendly support.
8. Fast network.
9. Hear good thing about the company here on WHT or never heard (even a little) bad thing about them.
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| Posted by Raptors, 08-23-2004, 01:31 PM | | Good price, stable servers, fast and friendly support
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| Posted by deet, 08-23-2004, 05:19 PM | | Just wanted to add, When you do have down time, Answer all emails! dont ignore them like some host do...
Always inform your customers when there is a problem!
setup a forum for others to help others' when they have a problem. cuts down on support email's etc,
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| Posted by snickn, 08-23-2004, 05:32 PM | | Communcation Communication and more Communication.
Servers aren't perfect, they will have problems, but there is no reason not communicate those problems.
Fast Support and Stable Servers come in a distant second/third.
Price shouldn't be a primary concern for something you are basing your whole business around (if your business plans are solid at least price wise.)
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| Posted by Haddy, 08-23-2004, 07:07 PM | | No server can host unlimited domains. There is always a limit on each server. When we fill a server up we have to buy a new server. When a customer fills up their reseller account they get to upgrade or purchase a new account...
In the end it should all be about support....Your company can only be as strong as the one you buy from....
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