| you own a website and want to get it hosted on a | | | | engineers are most likely to be so who would be |
| server, you might contact the hosting company | | | | interested in offering a complete range of web |
| directly or a master hosting reseller. A reseller is an | | | | solutions to clients under one roof. The hosting |
| intermediary who sells website space/bandwidth to | | | | reseller manages clients via the web interface or |
| clients on some other person's servers. In doing so, | | | | 'control panels’ (Plesk, Helm, cpanel). |
| the reseller may be acting in any one of the following | | | | Why Is Reseller Hosting Important?a) Hosting |
| capacities with respect to the web hosting | | | | companies can either directly sell or can rent out their |
| company:a) As an agent: In this capacity, s/he is | | | | capacities for a decent earning.b) Individual resellers |
| entitled to get a commission from its principle. The | | | | are better placed to pull in more clients within a |
| reselling business is done in the name of the hosting | | | | region in less time. This enables faster sales.c) It |
| company. People buy web space or bandwidth | | | | provides a safe business proposition for new |
| directly from the principle.b) By being the marketer: | | | | entrepreneurs in the hosting arena. |
| The name of the hosting company is used to run the | | | | The Drawbacks:a) The reseller might have to |
| business, but the client buys from him. All the future | | | | compete with his own hosting company. Obviously, |
| communications are with the web hosting company.c) | | | | this puts him/her at a disadvantage due to resource |
| Pretends as a host: You buy the web space and | | | | constraintsb) The host company is trusted more by |
| bandwidth from the reseller who, in turn, hosts it at a | | | | clients because the reseller is just a middleman with |
| negotiated price with the actual host. Or, the invoice | | | | little or no control over the infrastructure.c) The rates |
| is drawn by the hosting company in the name of the | | | | of the shared, managed, and dedicated hosting |
| reseller and it gets the cut. In both cases, you would | | | | service providers have declined substantially making |
| depend on the hosting reseller for further services.d) | | | | the reseller plans look costly.d) The new VPS |
| As the actual buyer: Acting in this capacity, the | | | | technologies make reselling outdated. |
| hosting reseller purchases some part of the server | | | | New Avenues: Cloud Hosting |
| from the host. Then he can divide these into small | | | | When many opined that reselling is dying out slowly, |
| parts to sell to each of its clients at a profit. The | | | | the new innovation of 'cloud hosting' has saved the |
| reseller provides all the support services. | | | | day for the hosting reseller. In simple terms, under |
| One important point to note is that the issues | | | | cloud hosting, the website is not hosted on a single |
| pertaining to software, hardware, and connectivity | | | | server, but on a number of servers. This means that |
| are dealt by the main hosting company even though | | | | the site is less prone to server crashes and is hosted |
| customers are in direct touch with the reseller. | | | | on a highly scalable infrastructure. So, the customer |
| Who is likely to be a hosting reseller? | | | | can now put faith in the reseller. |
| Website designers, web developers, and systems | | | | |