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Websites hosting for clients and customers

Blue Wren

Top Contributor
Hi DNT

A quick question, if I may.

How does one host websites for others?
Meaning, What types of accounts are there for settings up website and email hosting for the clients one builds a website for?

I'm getting asked nearly every day about websites, so it's time to find this information out.
I have hosted my own sites using one 'master domain' with many 'add-on' domains; but this will not work in the above scenario.

If you can answer this and suggest some providers of these types of services; please comment and let me know.

Thank you.
 

Chumby

Top Contributor
Hi Ian,

Whereever you go... becareful of the "cheapest out there". You need to factor in support, because clients will complain if something goes wrong ;) I have tried cheaper, didn't work... then was part of the DistributeIT hack.. that hurt.

Now I am with Micron21.. clients pay $30/month 1gig. Support is great... always happy to help and you even get diverted through to techs mobile numbers out of hours if need-be.

They have a reseller accounts you can use...

Cheers
Chumby
 

Blue Wren

Top Contributor
Hi Ian,

Whereever you go... becareful of the "cheapest out there". You need to factor in support, because clients will complain if something goes wrong ;) I have tried cheaper, didn't work... then was part of the DistributeIT hack.. that hurt.

Now I am with Micron21.. clients pay $30/month 1gig. Support is great... always happy to help and you even get diverted through to techs mobile numbers out of hours if need-be.

They have a reseller accounts you can use...

Cheers
Chumby

Thanks for that info and advice Chumby. I'll look into this.
 

chris

Top Contributor
Everyone does this differently, so I think this is a great question and I'm interested to see the replies.

As Chumby said, a reseller account sounds like the way to go. Typically with a reseller account you'll have an account management system such as WHM where you'll manage your clients contact info, permissions, quotas etc., you then give your clients their own cPanel so it's segmented and they can manage their own sites/domains if they want. Even if you manage it for them, it's a good way of keeping things separate.

DNTrade sponsor VentraIP offer services in this space and are well worth checking out, I recommend them and use them myself.

https://ventraip.com.au/multi-account-web-hosting/
http://www.ventraipwholesale.com.au/resell-web-hosting/

Cheers,
Chris
 

Blue Wren

Top Contributor
Everyone does this differently, so I think this is a great question and I'm interested to see the replies.

As Chumby said, a reseller account sounds like the way to go. Typically with a reseller account you'll have an account management system such as WHM where you'll manage your clients contact info, permissions, quotas etc., you then give your clients their own cPanel so it's segmented and they can manage their own sites/domains if they want. Even if you manage it for them, it's a good way of keeping things separate.

DNTrade sponsor VentraIP offer services in this space and are well worth checking out, I recommend them and use them myself.

https://ventraip.com.au/multi-account-web-hosting/
http://www.ventraipwholesale.com.au/resell-web-hosting/

Cheers,
Chris

Thanks a lot Chris. I had Ventra in mind and will check it out.

I also look forward to other members commenting their knowledge into this thread.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
my answer is " are your clients small business or large and need the BEST there is" ?

as most of mine are small local businesses i'll tell you what i do ( i can hear the NO WAYS now )

I use hostgator, have done for yearssssssss , i use their reseller "aluminium" account and just keep buying more as i have split my business up into sectors, so i presently have 3 which hosts 100's of sites across them.

i have a web host manager account "WHM" and every website has its own control panel "Cpanel"

its DEAD EASY to run, you can individually control how much disk space each client uses and how much bandwidth they can use thus if i have a little wedding cake maker that uses just 50mb for his site i can then give a bigger client and extra 500mb and i can tailor this when ever i want.

if a client calls me an says they are doing a promo then i allocate extra bandwidth for them and steal of others if need be.

you can create your own packages and sell them on what they need, thus creating different pricing.

yearly breakeven point is just 3 clients YEP THREE ! and i have 80 on one of my accounts.

their help line is EXCEPTIONAL, 24/7/365 live chat and i've only ever had to wait 10mins but mostly it is 1-2mins.

they will stay with you till an issue is resolved, they will create support tickets for you if need be, they keep you informed......... are you getting the impression i love them?

yes, they make my life easyyyyyyyy

everything is backed up every week and if you stuff up big time they can restore the website to the last backup at no cost.

BUT WAIT there's more, i think if you go to the site and click on support then sales and you can get a reseller account for just 1 CENT !!! first month, so you can go in and try it out.

need to know more just pm me

tim
 

Blue Wren

Top Contributor
my answer is " are your clients small business or large and need the BEST there is" ?

as most of mine are small local businesses i'll tell you what i do ( i can hear the NO WAYS now )

I use hostgator, have done for yearssssssss , i use their reseller "aluminium" account and just keep buying more as i have split my business up into sectors, so i presently have 3 which hosts 100's of sites across them.

i have a web host manager account "WHM" and every website has its own control panel "Cpanel"

its DEAD EASY to run, you can individually control how much disk space each client uses and how much bandwidth they can use thus if i have a little wedding cake maker that uses just 50mb for his site i can then give a bigger client and extra 500mb and i can tailor this when ever i want.

if a client calls me an says they are doing a promo then i allocate extra bandwidth for them and steal of others if need be.

you can create your own packages and sell them on what they need, thus creating different pricing.

yearly breakeven point is just 3 clients YEP THREE ! and i have 80 on one of my accounts.

their help line is EXCEPTIONAL, 24/7/365 live chat and i've only ever had to wait 10mins but mostly it is 1-2mins.

they will stay with you till an issue is resolved, they will create support tickets for you if need be, they keep you informed......... are you getting the impression i love them?

yes, they make my life easyyyyyyyy

everything is backed up every week and if you stuff up big time they can restore the website to the last backup at no cost.

BUT WAIT there's more, i think if you go to the site and click on support then sales and you can get a reseller account for just 1 CENT !!! first month, so you can go in and try it out.

need to know more just pm me

tim

That's great thank you Tim.

Do hostgater host from AU or the US?
 

findtim

Top Contributor
usa

thats why i asked if your businesses wanted THE BEST.

i can tell you though i can see no load speed difference nor ranking issues in the .com.au domains.

I will conceed that if i had a program that mapped load times to milli seconds then there would be a difference. ( i have been told )

tim
 

Blue Wren

Top Contributor
usa

thats why i asked if your businesses wanted THE BEST.

i can tell you though i can see no load speed difference nor ranking issues in the .com.au domains.

I will conceed that if i had a program that mapped load times to milli seconds then there would be a difference. ( i have been told )

tim

Yes I can concur with this. I have read in the past that Google could penalise, but I have all my sites hosted in the US too and this doesn't seem to affect me.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
my thoughts are if its a .com.au this helps google HEAPS, if you have a .com for an aussie business and its hosted in usa or other then you could struggle to get rankings.

tim
 

djuqa

Top Contributor
I have 3 hostgator reseller accounts also
But for a couple major aussie clients (& couple of my own sites) I have organised a few VentraIP accounts.
It all comes down what the client NEEDS, not what the client thinks they want.
Local Hosting is best for sites with Large traffic that is Aussie only.
There is a 3rd hybrid option:- Multi-Location hosting, but that is really only for mega-traffic sites.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
we had a talk on Multi-Location hosting at wordcamp and i agree its only for HUGE websites, also once you get to that size site you really want to be looking at being in total control with your own bank of servers or at least having someone like ventra etc locally on hand.

tim
 

payattention

Archived Member
I continue to use Linode despite the recent security issues (interesting tidbit there about MelbIT and I believe it too). If you have the time and inclination, why not learn how to manage your own server instead of relying upon cpanel for everything. You get more for your money and you can ramp up/down your server requirements when needed and quickly.

A basic Linode VPS is $20 a month but if that's too much to spend while learning, buy a raspi for under $50 and run it from home.
 

petermeadit

Top Contributor
I have used a few different ones over the years, so for what it's worth.

My preference is for cPanel, with WHM because it is pretty standard and centralised, not like Godaddy hosting where everything seems to be a dozen clicks away and they want to sell you a dozen more services before you get the ones you are wanting. Hostgator is pretty reliable for a cheap webhost. They do offer great support via online chat, and their system is pretty easy to get a handle on. Plus they don't keep trying to sell you more services every time you click the mouse button. Other than that there is Quadra which is good, I have tried them. Also TPPWholesale, and Netregistry, Melbourne IT, tried them too, they offer telephone support which is a bonus. There is also Namecheap, Siteground, Webcity, and so on. There are heaps of them.

I gotta say, if you are looking for low priced hosting with a point of presence in Australia, then yeah go for Ventra IP. They have been around for a while now and they have build up a pretty bullet proof platform. They sponsor DNTrade too so that's a good reason.

If you want managed hosting that will look after all your security and backups at a very high quality service then you will pay at least $30/mo for something like WP Engine or the like.

In theory you can resell any webhosting, all your doing by definition, is providing a hosting service for your customer. Who cares if you are providing it wholesale or passthrough or whatever. The big thing is being able to keep the promises you have made to your clients.

One of the most important issues to keep in mind with hosting is security. So much hacking going on now, if your client's site gets hacked, what will you do? Will it be your responsibility? Will you recover their sites? Or is that just their own bad luck, even if it is on the hosting you sold them?

Lot's to think about here. Not as plain and easy as it used to be before the internet became a world of hack and land of spam.
:confused:
 

findtim

Top Contributor
peter makes some good points, be very clear on your level of responsibility and support, hostgator may offer free chat help but it is still your time.

I get phone calls like " my gmail isn't working on my iphone" !!! well WTF has that got to do with me? only to find out they have rerouted their info@domainname via gmail. thus my reply is "ask google"

tim
 

petermeadit

Top Contributor
... I get phone calls like " my gmail isn't working on my iphone" !!! well WTF has that got to do with me? only to find out they have rerouted their info@domainname via gmail. thus my reply is "ask google"

Yeah Tim, I have had customers who have Google Apps for email or whatever. This requires MX records to be edited to use Google as a mail server. Just one example. Email is a big issue for clients I get people all the time trying to setup mail on Outlook and they don't know how. This can take ages if they don't know how to navigate options dialogs or read onscreen prompts.

This brings a new meaning to 'cheap hosting'

This also highlights the value of skilled people, and what they are worth. People with many years experience in the industry that knows how to fix things or do things, should never be taken for granted.

So Blue Wren you see there is a bit more to it than just hosting a website for a customer. My biggest takeaway for you is figure out how to restore a website after it has been hacked. With the increase in site getting hacked, you will surely have to to this for your customers at some stage.

Have a great day! ;)
 

findtim

Top Contributor
that's why hostgator is good as they backup and will restore (7 days), also, using backupbuddy helps, + I think infinatewp would be good as well.

also why your clients should be using a domain based email address and not a gmail etc, this way if their email goes down you know their could be a problem with the site.

once you get a lot of hosted sites you can spend a lot of time tending to them.

tim
 

Alex

Top Contributor
my answer is " are your clients small business or large and need the BEST there is" ?

as most of mine are small local businesses i'll tell you what i do ( i can hear the NO WAYS now )

I use hostgator, have done for yearssssssss , i use their reseller "aluminium" account and just keep buying more as i have split my business up into sectors, so i presently have 3 which hosts 100's of sites across them.

i have a web host manager account "WHM" and every website has its own control panel "Cpanel"

its DEAD EASY to run, you can individually control how much disk space each client uses and how much bandwidth they can use thus if i have a little wedding cake maker that uses just 50mb for his site i can then give a bigger client and extra 500mb and i can tailor this when ever i want.

if a client calls me an says they are doing a promo then i allocate extra bandwidth for them and steal of others if need be.

you can create your own packages and sell them on what they need, thus creating different pricing.

yearly breakeven point is just 3 clients YEP THREE ! and i have 80 on one of my accounts.

their help line is EXCEPTIONAL, 24/7/365 live chat and i've only ever had to wait 10mins but mostly it is 1-2mins.

they will stay with you till an issue is resolved, they will create support tickets for you if need be, they keep you informed......... are you getting the impression i love them?

yes, they make my life easyyyyyyyy

everything is backed up every week and if you stuff up big time they can restore the website to the last backup at no cost.

BUT WAIT there's more, i think if you go to the site and click on support then sales and you can get a reseller account for just 1 CENT !!! first month, so you can go in and try it out.

need to know more just pm me

tim

This sounds awesome!
 

Alex

Top Contributor
that's why hostgator is good as they backup and will restore (7 days), also, using backupbuddy helps, + i think infinatewp would be good as well.

Also why your clients should be using a domain based email address and not a gmail etc, this way if their email goes down you know their could be a problem with the site.

Once you get a lot of hosted sites you can spend a lot of time tending to them.

Tim

sold
 

Ashman

Top Contributor
WHM and cPanel are both backend solutions for setting up and allocating web hosting space.

What front end system are people using to sell their web hosting? Seems the next logical step after finding a decent provider. The only billing system I know of is WHMCS.
 

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