[thelist] Hosting Reseller Agreements

[l a u r a *^* l y n c h]

> >I've been asked by a client to arrange everything to do with hosting for
> >them. They don't want to see a bill or have to figure out what transfer
> >rates are or anything remotely technical. So, my question is... does
> >anyone know of any reseller agreements that are available through a
> >swipe file. And/or does anyone have any advice for providing this type
> >of service?

Admitting my ignorance right up front, I have no idea what a 'swipe file' 
is. However, I think my host my fit your situation -- I use 
http://www.jumpline.com both for my sites and for clients that want to host 
through me. All of jumpline's accounts (at all levels) are automatically 
set up to be reseller accounts, so you can decide to add a domain to your 
account at any time. They charge per domain, with your initial account 
being full price and all domains thereafter at a discount (at the low end, 
I'm paying $14.95 initial and $12.50 each for my other two - there was a 
$20 set up fee for the initial account, but not for the resold account). 
Each domain is assigned its own IP. I've so far been happy both with the 
quality of the hosting and the customer service -- I had a couple of 
non-technical issues I needed assistance with, and they even took the 
initiative to call me when one of the domains I was switching from park to 
live had some mistyped info (by me, of course). If your client decides they 
want to handle their own tech stuff, you can even customize the control 
panel -- they'll never know you're reselling. No affiliation except that I 
buy hosting from them. Oh, yeah, and they're a registrar, too, at $15/yr. 
So that's nice.

At 06:05 PM 10/25/01, you wrote:
>I'm strongly of the view that the client should pay their hosting bill
>direct, it's not the responsibility of the designer/developer to pay it
>for them and the client to reimburse. Otherwise the client is using your
>money and not paying interest, and the risks are yours not the client's.

I agree, unless you position yourself as a reseller. My clients pay me 
*first* and then I activate their hosting. I'm responsible for their tech 
support (charged at hourly rates, of course, unless it's a problem on my 
end), and I do charge them more than I pay for the hosting, even with the 
bi-annual discount I offer. They're happy that they don't have to deal with 
all the geek stuff, and I'm happy they give me money. IMO, everybody wins. 
Obviously, you don't want to be in a position where you're paying for 
hosting and then waiting for the client to pay you. Basically, you need to 
find out what all of the costs are going to be, tell the client right up 
front, make sure they know that the hosting is an ongoing cost and that 
service will be suspended on non-payment and that sort of thing. Then 
obtain payment for at least the first month and whatever other costs 
(domain reg, setup fees, etc.) and *after* you've received payment, start 
their hosting. Then remember to bill them well before their next payment is 
due.

HTH,


l a u r a *^* l y n c h
design doyen @ cyberwhirled
http://www.cyberwhirled.com
ICQ: 1797450 AIM: cyberminkie