[thelist] how do you manage lots of websites and where do you host?

[Mark Groen]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Theodore Serbinski" <>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 8:04 AM
Subject: [thelist] how do you manage lots of websites and where do you
host?


Well guys, as my list of small part time clients grows, I'm battling a
problem of hosting all of these sites in one place, with one login and
not having to worry if the client has bought the hosting and received
the login info or not. Right now I just tell them where to sign up so
they can worry about the billing and I don't have to. Then they
forward me the login in stuff and I setup everything for them. But
then obviously this becomes a pain to actually administer with so many
logins.

So what do you guys do?

One idea I've stumbled upon: http://www.site5.com/index.php

WIth their mult-hosting package, I could theoretically move all of my
clients to this account so I can administer it all from one login. My
clients *never* actually login to their hosting so I don't have to
worry about that since I manage everything for them. So I'm not
actually reselling the hosting so I don't think I need a reseller
account either. But still, I'm new to this area so thoughts are
welcome.

So any suggetions? Best practices?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting a reseller or multi-domain account is an easy way to step it up
a notch, congratulations! A good hosting comapny offering reseller plans
should also include some sort of account management tools for you as
well, like your sample. My preference is one that uses Cpanel or Plesk,
but that's going off-topic. Some will also include, or make available a
billing and invoicing system for you as well, (Modern Bill, AutoPilot,
PHPCoin are well known).

The number one thing you should be asking for when heading over to
someplace like www.webhostingtalk.com is to compare is quality of
feedback when things go wrong. There are lots of varying opinions on
such a forum as to who is the best etc., just as there would be here,
but after lurking around and asking a few questions it's pretty easy to
separate the wheat from the chafe.

Server features etc., you probably know what you need already. Beware of
being overselling on bandwidth, if you've got a couple dozen sites that
are relatively busy, 50GB a month for $25 isn't unreasonable, make sure
of the costs when you go over.

A teeny baby step, (go ahead and become a reseller tho', you prolly
won't regret it), but do-able in a half hour would be to grab something
like:
http://phpformgen.sourceforge.net/ and throw some forms up on your web
site so at least part of the process is automated.

hth!

cheers,

        Mark