10 Crucial Reseller Mistakes You Must Avoid

Billions of websites exist worldwide, and plenty of people are starting new ones each day. Whether they plan to launch a business or a side project, these people need web hosting. So, if you’re thinking about starting a reseller hosting business, now is a better time than ever.

However, you shouldn’t launch your business without knowing what to expect. New hosting resellers often make the same mistakes, which often delays their progress by several years. In worst-case scenarios, you could ruin your chances of being successful altogether.

Since you’re reading this article, though, you’re clearly proactive and are in a much better position than your competition. Today, you’ll discover the key reseller hosting mistakes to avoid.

Not Understanding How Reseller Hosting Works

Many business “gurus” like to paint reseller hosting as an easy business opportunity. I’ve seen it featured in several “the best ways to make $10,000 per month” videos, and I feel like these people are selling their audience a dream. But if you don’t understand how reseller hosting works, you’re at a significant disadvantage.

You absolutely can build a very profitable and sustainable reseller hosting business. Anyone who says that you can’t is just projecting their limiting beliefs. However, you need to understand how reseller hosting works.

Learning about reseller hosting in and of itself is just one aspect. You must also know about server load balancing, security, and various other technical aspects. Build a deep knowledge of these before you launch a business; blogs, courses, YouTube videos, and podcasts are all excellent starting points.

Not Picking the Right Hosting Provider

Once you know enough about reseller and web hosting, you’re ready to start building your business. Do not, however, do as many resellers do and just pick the least expensive option. While you need to stick within your budget, you must also choose the highest-quality provider.

Critically assess every web hosting provider you’re thinking about joining. To make a better choice, you first must think about your needs and objectives. When you’ve done that, I suggest comparing hosting providers in the following areas at a minimum:

• Server location choices

• Speed (I’ve used some hosting providers in the past that have slowed down my websites, and it makes a huge difference)

• Customer support

• CDN integrations

Before committing to a service, you should also look at what others say. Look at both positive and negative reviews; once you’ve done that, you can make a more rational decision.

Choosing a Provider Without Rebrandable Hosting

While you need to partner with a web hosting provider to successfully offer your services, you also want to create your own brand. Keeping the hosting provider’s branding in your nameservers, etc., can be a turn-off for customers. Some might assume that you can’t afford a service provider that lets you customize, or that you aren’t willing to pay for it.

If you pick a hosting provider that doesn’t let you rebrand, you could also be leaving money on the table. Showing off your brand can be a powerful marketing tool; if others see your name and logo more frequently, they’re more likely to remember you. This is especially true if you give them excellent service.

Look for a hosting provider that lets you customize your nameservers without restrictions. You also want the option to add your own color schemes and logos. More importantly, you should make sure that these features are available for all plans; this isn’t always the case. Make sure that you keep brand consistency in your web design when doing this.

Hiring a Customer Support Team Without Web Hosting Experience

Considering that some new businesspeople don’t even think about hiring a customer support team, you’re already ahead of them by doing that. However, you could harm your reputation if you build a team without specific web hosting experience.

Your customer support team doesn’t have to be huge, but they do need to have comprehensive web hosting knowledge. Choosing a web hosting provider with good customer support is also imperative. Start by hiring one or two highly-skilled customer support team members. As your clientele grows, you can scale your team if needed.

Not Setting Up Your Business Systems Before Launching

Even if you have comprehensive reseller hosting experience, your business could still struggle if you don’t set yourself up for success right from the start. Before launching, you need to have the right systems in place; otherwise, you’ll feel like you’re constantly putting out fires.

Before doing anything, sit down and identify the most essential tasks that’ll move the needle forward. Delegate and outsource everything else.

Beyond picking the right web hosting provider, you should also invest in the software that’ll take your business to the next level. This might include subscriptions to CDNs like Cloudflare, but it also applies to project management software, accounting tools, and anything else that will help with the day-to-day running of your business.

Slacking on Security

Any online business should make security its top priority, but doing so is even more important as a hosting reseller. The implications of a security breach are huge, and they don’t just relate to the harm your customers will experience.

Security breaches can also significantly impact your industry reputation, and – subsequently – potential revenue. You could also land yourself in regulatory trouble, as the penalties for mishandling personal data are often sizable.

You must choose a web hosting provider that prioritizes security, but that’s not all. Put the right security systems in place, and within your business, use initiatives like zero-trust policies and zero-factor authentication. Ticking everything off this website security checklist will also help you finetune your business in this area.

Promising Too Much

While you want to set high standards, you also need to make sure that you meet them. Overpromising and underdelivering is a pretty certain way to ensure that your reseller hosting business doesn’t last very long.

Be honest with important aspects like uptime and server speed. If customers feel like you’re misleading them, they will choose a competitor.

You can, of course, change your promises as your business grows. However, you also need to give yourself the space to breathe and your company the space to build slowly over time. People will still sign up for your services if they think you can meet their needs.

Ignoring Backups

Backups are important for almost every website owner. Besides helping add another security safeguard, backups are also essential for other things that might go wrong. For example, I once had issues with one of my site migrations. If I wasn’t able to restore everything, I would have undone over a year of hard work and had to start again.

Choosing a web hosting provider with backups should be non-negotiable. You should also look to see if they offer this service for free. Understanding how to back up a WordPress website is also a good idea for your own business and other projects.

Not Pricing Your Services Appropriately

Pricing is one of the most difficult things to work out as a business owner, but at the same time, it’s also very important. Simply put, your business needs to make a profit; without money coming in, you can’t keep the lights on. If your profits are small, you also can’t provide the best possible service.

You can determine your pricing in several ways. Looking at what competitors charge is one way to do this, but you also need to consider your own situation. Ask yourself these questions:

• What are your expenses?

• Which markets do you serve, and do you want to change your pricing by region?

• How much do you need to live your ideal lifestyle, and how much does your business need to make the type of impact you want? .

It’s also important to be honest with how your services shape up against your competitors. However, never lowball yourself. Besides being annoyed that you could’ve charged more (and not being able to provide the best possible service), you’ll also attract more difficult clients.

Not Picking the Right Server Locations

Server locations are one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of being a successful hosting reseller. The further away a server is from your customers, the more likely it is that they’ll ensure slower speeds.

You’ll probably gain customers from multiple locations, especially as word spreads about your services. To facilitate this, you must choose a web hosting provider that facilitates this. You don’t need servers in every country, but you should cover a big enough radius. To get a better understanding, you might be interested in learning about where cloud servers are located.

Neglecting the Importance of Bandwidth

Several factors can impact your servers’ speeds and uptime, and bandwidth is one of the most important ones. As you grow your reseller hosting business and get more clients, you’ll naturally consume more resources. If you don’t have enough bandwidth, your service quality will deteriorate. Having enough bandwidth relies on choosing a provider that can facilitate this. Your customers will likely have peak usage times, too, so it’s vital that you’ve got scalable resources.

Summary

Like starting any other business, becoming a hosting reseller requires understanding your industry and the potential problems that may arise. Not choosing the right hosting provider will impact your success, as will not taking security into account. Perform comprehensive research prior to launching, and partner with the hosting provider, to improve customer satisfaction and build a sustainable long-term business.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start a reseller hosting business?

After learning about how reseller hosting works, you should search for a hosting provider based on your needs. Build your systems, hire the right team members, and start marketing your business to potential clients.

How long does it take to grow a reseller hosting business?

Expect growing any business to take at least a few years, regardless of how much you know. Setting longer timescales will make it easier to stay consistent and allow you to build sustainably.

How do I make money with a reseller hosting business?

Identify your target audience and understand how you can meet their needs; this might require some experimentation. Once you’ve identified your unique selling points (USPs), market your services with high-quality content and by engaging with your community.

What is reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting is essentially a way for you to purchase hosting resources from us in bulk and then to re-sell those resources directly to your clients. You can set limitations on disk space, bandwidth, email usage, and other features on a per-package or per-site basis. We provide a completely managed service from a technical perspective - the server space, hosting resources and support come from us and you are responsible for supporting your end-user clients. You can even brand your clients' cPanels with your own logo for a super professional image.

But reseller hosting isn’t just for web designers, agencies and start-up hosting companies - it’s also a great option if you run a lot of websites personally. Because you have access to WHM, you can create each site with its own separate cPanel. This means each site or client gets their own login to manage their own hosting settings, isolating them completely from other users on the same server or under your account. This improves site performance and resiliency from malware attacks.

We have a lot more information on what is reseller hosting on our blog.

What is white-label reseller hosting?

White-label reseller hosting allows you to purchase hosting resources from a provider, rebrand them as your own, and resell them to your clients. This means you can offer hosting services under your brand without managing the underlying infrastructure.

What restrictions are there to reselling?

There are no restrictions to reselling, except for contents that are illegal or against our terms of service