What Is Reseller Web Hosting?

Introduction

Shared and Reseller web hosting have many similarities, many web hosts offer both shared and reseller hosting. The main difference between the two are in the names ‘shared’, you are sharing resources, which is the same for ‘reseller’ in a way but yo can resell the server resources. You can create your own web hosting accounts and share your allocated server resources with your clients.

The host still remains in control of their server and are responsible for updating server software and maintaining the server. The host will usually also provide support to the reseller, so if there are any issue or faults the reseller will be able to contact the host.

Do I need a Reseller Hosting Account?

Most personal and small business users will have no use for a reseller account, a reseller account is useful to those users who have a number of web sites and want to save money, as a reseller account can be cheaper than purchasing multiple shared hosting account.

With a reseller account you can also sell hosting, so this can be a relatively cheap step into the hosting business. You have the flexibility of controlling your own clients, creating, suspending and terminating accounts. You also have the knowledge that the server is being maintained for you, so you only have to worry about your clients and web site.

The Benefits

If you own a number of web sites, using a reseller account can save you money, and you can create accounts when you need them and share the resources between your web sites easily. You can find reseller hosting accounts with plenty of bandwidth and disk space for around $25 - $50 a month, which can be a big saving if you have a number of web sites needing hosting.

You also don’t have to worry about the maintenance of the server, since the web host should have this covered. You should also receive technical support included with your account.

If you have plans to start to own web hosting business, a reseller account can be an easy first step in the hosting industry. It is a relatively low cost solution, meaning you can concentrate primarily on building your business slowly and generate a steady monthly income. One of the biggest mistakes new hosts make is try to accomplish too much in a short period of time. This can lead to unhappy customers and evidently losing clients.

The disadvantages

Potential clients may not be totally confident purchasing a hosting account from a reseller, because you in affect are the middle man. If a problem arises with the server or a customers account, they need to contact you and if you are unable to deal with the problem yourself, you would in turn have to contact your host. This can be a long process from initially receiving the first support request to getting the problem resolved. However if you have proper customer support in place this shouldn’t be a major problem.

As a reseller like I said above you have limited access to admin functions, and if you have experience with the control panel and server software you may find this annoying. The only thing I can suggest is asking the host if it would be possible for them to enable your account more with admin privileges. The worse thing the host can say is ‘no’, so it’s worth a try.

Final thoughts

In my opinion reseller hosting is worth the money you can pay out, it is a good step in selling web hosting and if done properly enables a small business to generate a profit from reselling shared hosting accounts.

If you have high bandwidth or disk space requirements reseller hosting may not be the best solution, possibly a dedicated server would be better suited if you have the technical knowledge.

Web Hosting On A Budget

If your business needs a web presence you will find yourself faced with a choice of whether to choose a shared hosting option or a dedicated hosting one.

Other terms for shared hosting are virtual or mass hosting, however, the term "shared hosting" is by far the most common. It refers to a hosting service which is shared with other websites.

The hosting company is able to provide efficient and inexpensive services, including technical services to maintain the server, because the cost is shared among users.

Additionally, if you use a shared hosting service you will also be able to customize your website and add extra features if and when you desire.

Small businesses in particular can benefit from the many low cost opportunities provided by shared hosting companies. Many of these shared hosting services offer complete services including technical support and even online website creation tools.

Some of these shared hosting companies even offer free hosting however you need to be very careful to fully understand the terms of agreement if you are going to be building a web-based business on the back of a free service.

If you want to get your feet wet without cost, choose a service that allows you to upgrade at a reasonable cost. You also need to be fully aware of potential additional charges as well as whether you are giving the hosting company the right to place advertising on your site or even for their advertisers to place cookies on your computer.

You also need ensure that a shared hosting service, whether free or otherwise, can offer you enough capacity for your website to grow as well as having the ability to handle short term traffic spikes as a result of marketing campaigns and increased traffic over time.

Shared hosting is by far the least expensive form of hosting for websites. However, its effectiveness depends upon the number, size and popularity of the websites sharing the server.

For example, if you choose the shared hosting option and find that you are sharing the server with some high traffic websites using a lot of server space, you may find the performance of your own website suffering setbacks such as slow page loads.

Therefore, despite the financial benefits of using shared hosting, it has its limitations. Should you choose the shared hosting option, you will also be unable to use certain scripting languages and applications.

If you require broader services from your host, you may need to consider dedicated hosting. However, unlike shared hosting providers, dedicated server hosts are only responsible for hosting services although some provide additional support services at a cost.

If you choose to rent a dedicated server, you will be able to use all the server's resources as well as renting server space to other websites should you wish to do so.

Renting a dedicated server may be worth considering if you expect your website to grow quickly as a result of extensive marketing programs.

Generally speaking, the larger the business, the higher the bandwidth requirement and the greater the potential need for more server space and higher level technical support.

Whether you choose shared hosting or dedicated hosting, be sure the company you choose provides 24/7 technical support and possesses a good reputation for security and minimal server downtime.

If you do your due diligence and make sure you are fully informed before committing to a website hosting service, you will give yourself and your business the best chance of online success.

Pros and cons of shared hosting

There are a lot of various types of web site hosting. They can be classified by ifferent indexes.

There is Paid and Free web hosting; Linux/Unix-based and Windows-based (and other but they are no that popular); shared, dedicated and VPS. Every hosting type has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The key aim of this article is to acquaint you with main merits and drawbacks of shared hosting.

First of all we must give a definition of the term "shared hosting". So, what is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is such kind of providing space for web sites on the hoster's server when you share this server with other customers' web sites. All web sites use the same software and operating system. But unlike free web hosting which has the same conditions, with shared web hosting you have much more benefits.

Shared web hosting can be divided into two subtypes:

Free Shared Hosting is the best choice for trying some new ideas and not paying for hosting. This type of web site hosting provides you with everything necessary for floating your site. Of course you should not expect the best conditions for your site. Bandwidth and Disk Space is limited. This type of shared hosting may not ensure you with MySQL, PHP support. Web statistics is also poorly provided.

Paid Shared Hosting provides such necessary features, as multiply e-mail, MySQl, PHP are supported. You may use it if you want to host small business web site, intermediate or large professional site but don't need the whole server's space.Using shared hosting you get a good possibility to host your site on a powerful, well administrated server at a low monthly cost.

Shared hosting is in first-time webmasters' great demand, 'cause it can provide reliable web presence without having special technical skills.

So now we can pick out pros and cons of shared hosting:
Pros
• Low cost
• Good server administration
• Multiply e-mail, MySQL, PHP support
• You don't need some unique knowledge in web site and server administration
Cons
• Low security level
• Resource limitation -everybody uses the same memory, CPU and HardDrive.
• You can use only the software which is provided with your hosting company, and correspondingly you can't install your own.
• Some available ports and connections can be limited because of security policy).

The main feature of shared hosting is that you don't need to worry about about possible server problems. Your hosting company's support service is to fix all troubles. So, when choosing shared hosting you must carefully look at company support's quality, the better quality of support - the better conditions for your site.

With shared hosting you can also place several sites in the neighbour parts of the server.

Now when you are acquainted with all special features of shared hosting you can decide whether this type of hosting is appropriate to your needs and requirements.

More hosting articles you can also find here Web Site Hosting Reviews- http://www.web-site-hosting-reviews.com , Web Hosting Review- http://www.web-hosting-review.net and Cheap Web Hosting Directory - http://www.cheap-web-hosting-directory.com .

1and1 Hosting - Raising the bar

First, I have to admit. I'm a terrible customer. I'm a demanding perfectionist who rarely feels that he is getting his money's worth. This is especially true of hosting providers. In the past four years, I've had to change providers at least six times because I felt that I was not getting what I paid for. This brief commentary is somewhat of a treat for me as I finally get to say something good about a hosting provider!

A little over two years ago I was reading up on the latest technologies in one of my favorite publications, eWeek, when I ran across a nice, full-page ad from 1and1 offering an introductory offer of free hosting for three years. Wait! What! No way! This has got to be too good to be true! Off to the trusty computer I go...

Sure enough, it was the real deal. 1and1 was indeed offering free web hosting for three years to introduce its new public sector hosting service. Well, like any good cash-strapped college student, I stepped right up and got me a piece of the pie. I've got to say, the pie was good too!

After roughly two years of hosting with 1and1, with minimal problems I should say, I started to notice that I was getting dangerously close to the bandwidth allowance my free package had to offer. No big surprise there; these things happen when you're trying to establish an online presence and you offer free downloads. It was time to upgrade my hosting.

At the time, there were no great specials going on at 1and1 so I decided to shop around. That was a tremendous mistake! What I got was a course in how *not* to run a hosting service. I will be polite, this time, and not name and companies, but let's just say stay away from cheap reseller hosting accounts! The uptime is nowhere near what they promise and every time you turn around some idiot is running a script that bogs the server down to a crawl.

After a couple months, a chunk of wasted cash, and several moves back and forth between providers, I finally conceded that 1and1 was indeed the best host I had come across thus far. As luck would have it, I had received an email from 1and1 announcing a great promotion for their free preview package holders (obvious marketing trick, but good timing in my situation). They were offering their top shared Linux package for half the price. Ok, that sounds like a good deal, and it was, but what about next year? Well, this is where it gets even better. Not only did I get the package at half price, but they guaranteed that price for three years with free upgrades!

I might not be the brightest light bulb in the box, but I know a good deal when I see one. So, as I'm sure you've already figured out, I signed up. What I got was a whole lot more than what I bargained for, and honestly, could have hoped for. Almost instantly after upgrading, I noticed that my sites were running faster. I'm assuming that paid customers are placed on less crowded servers.

Then, the first upgrade came. My space and bandwidth were doubled at no extra charge. I thought to myself, cool, I'll take it! A couple weeks later, I was browsing the 1and1 site comparing features for a potential client when I noticed that the package I have had been bumped to ridiculously high levels. Even though I was getting my money's worth at the time, I felt a little bitter that I wasn't getting the full package spec. After all, I was promised that I would get every package upgrade.

Just like any other nightmare client, I promptly dialed billing to give them a piece of my mind. Apparently, the billing agent was no stranger to difficult clients like me. Within a few minutes of talking to me, he got me defused and assured me that my package would be brought up to spec within four weeks. That was two weeks ago. He explained that it was taking more time than expected to upgrade all their current accounts to the new account specs. He really surprised me when he said that I'd actually be getting more than what was currently listed on the site. What?! Ok then! Thank you for your time! Needless to say, I was left feeling very positive about that support call.

Here's where we get into the numbers... When I logged into my account today, I was greeted by some very generous numbers for the package I have. I discovered that I now have 30,000MB of storage and 1,500 GB of transfer on a shared hosting account that normally runs $19.99/mo! Wait! That can't be right! Those are VPS specs! Yup, you read right. 30GB of storage and 1.5TB of transfer for under $20/mo. PLUS, with 1and1, I only pay $5.99 per domain, per year.

Now, let's be real here. Those numbers are great and all, but other providers offer similar specs. What sets 1and1 apart? For starters, uptime! With every other host I've used, uptime was a major issue. This is not so with 1and1. I can count on one hand how many times in the past two years my site was not available and nearly every time it was related to an ISP router, not 1and1! Also, one of the things I've really grown to appreciate is their one-of-a-kind control panel. It's a little slow, but it more than makes up for it in streamlined administration. This is especially true of the domain administration. Even complete n00bs have no problem navigating the 1and1 control panel and managing their package like a pro.

Again, I'm not the easiest person in the world to impress, especially when it comes to hosting providers. Nevertheless, 1and1 has really raised the bar of what a good hosting provider is in my mind. They are now the benchmark by which I will measure all hosting providers. If you are in the market for a good, reliable, affordable hosting provider, I cannot say enough positive about 1and1.

There is only one negative I've found with 1and1 and it's not even really a negative. They're a bit restrictive on script execution. If you think about it, in a shared hosting environment, this is a good thing, and this also explains why the only time I've noticed the server actually being down was during a scheduled hardware upgrade. Now, who's going to complain about a free upgrade in performance?

If you would like more information on 1and1 and the packages they offer, I encourage you to visit their site. Just as a point of reference, I'm running on the Developer Package. I think you'll find that it's a more than adequate package for moderate to heavy traffic sites.

Web Hosting: Bundle Up If You’re Going Online

We live in a great big bundled world. Where we once received bills from a phone, cell, cable, and Internet provider now we can receive one bill from one provider for all services. Typically these bundled items provide a discount to the end user as a gift for using one provider to the exclusion of all others.

The same premise is used for web hosting as well. In many cases you can bundle web hosting, web design, email, unique site features and more for one bundled price.

As these packages are bundled so are your options. In some scenarios you can save even more by using non-technical site tools that allow the site owner to develop the website on their own. When the site is complete it will still have the look and feel of the high quality site you need with features that will likely exceed your ecommerce needs. The best part is the price for this service may be substantially less than most other site design options.

The concept of bundling is really a throw back to the full service days of yesteryear. There was a time when you would fill up with gas and the attendant would check all your fluids, wash your windows and make sure your tires were filled to the right pressure.

In many ways this helps explain the bundling services that are available today. Sometimes all services originate with the provider while in other cases the provider works with strategic partners to provide seamless service for your ecommerce business.

Web hosting is an important function of your ecommerce business. One of the difficulties many businesses face when using a web designer is that once the site is developed it may be difficult to get changes made to the site in a timely manner.

Due to the growth in online business designers are spending enormous amounts of time developing new sites and have less and less time available for maintenance. This can put your site at risk and could result in missed business opportunity.

When you can make immediate changes to your site you can implement new ideas or sales opportunities on a moments notice. You no longer need to be at the mercy of an overworked site developer.

Bundled web hosting options provide an impressive number of customizable site templates and additional features that can be used to enhance your online presence or make connecting with your business much easier for clients and potential customers.