Tips on reselling hosting

[bobby]

Hey All,

As I mentioned in one of the recent mass e-mails, I'm going to start offering tips and suggestions that may be beneficial to all of our resellers. The way I look at it, if you guys don't succeed, then I don't succeed. I want you guys to grow, and keep growing, and if you grow, then InveHosting will also grow. So, every now and then, I'll release tips and suggestions. I've been in and around the hosting arena for a long time, and I've learned a lot myself. Every host has it's beginning somewhere, and every host starts at square one. So, I've been in your shoes.

First Tip: Local Markets

Some of you are focusing outside of your local markets, which isn't a bad thing, but you have a potential gold mine in your own local towns. Do you see a lot of businesses in your local towns that don't have websites? Ask them if they would like a website. Now that we have RVsitebuilder which doesn't require a lot of knowledge to operate, just about anyone can design a site with little to no assistance. My wife for example used RVsitebuilder to design a website for her employer. My wife has no "website" knowledge, and she didn't ask me for any help, and yet she was able to design everything on her own. Another thing you could do if people were afraid to do it, is design it for them. You can design a site for your local businesses for them, because RVsitebuilder is so easy. I would charge a little extra if you do it for them, since it takes time.

Second Tip: Non-local Markets

Some of you are not focusing outside of your local markets, and I would encourage you to do that. It's really easy and you don't even have to pay to do this. What I used to do, and will start back doing really soon is posting in forums. Whatever your interests are, find forums that fit those. In those forums, you should have a signature, and in that signature, list your business and what you do. You do two things with that, you help the community by giving back to it, and you get free advertising. It's a win-win situation. The community wins because they get your post (content), and you win from sales. My original base of clients came strictly from posting, and I posted in forums that I truly enjoy. There are many different forums, even forums for hosting! If you would like some links of where I personally hang out, just PM me.

Stay tuned for more tips!

Thanks!

[bobby]

Hi!

On tip 2, keep in mind the rules of the forum you are posting in. You don't want to break any rules while you are posting.

Thanks!

[bobby]

Hi!

In this post, I'm going to mention another tip. Automate as many of your operations as you can.

Whether you are a one man/woman show, a lot of your time probably gets sucked into maintaining the business. Free up that time, because it could be better used elsewhere. It's really cheap and easy to do this as well.

How do you take your orders? Do your customers pay you, and then you have to go through and set them up, and then mail them a welcome e-mail? You could automate all of that with a small purchase of a billing system. I strongly recommend WHMCS, it's very powerful, and it's relatively cheap. At WHMCS.com you can pick it up for 15.95 per month, or you can purchase through me, for a pretty good discount. I'm selling them at 12.95 per month. I know for some of you, 12.95 per month is a lot to pay, but you'd be saving a lot of time in return for that money. WHMCS can handle new orders, emailing invoices, taking payments, provisioning new accounts, and then emailing the welcome e-mails. It can handle all ends of the spectrum.

Not only does it handle new orders but it also handles support issues as well. WHMCS provides a full featured ticketing system. This can help you keep support issues all in one place.

Are you interested in what all WHMCS can do? Here's the list:

Features
WHMCS is a powerful integrated client management, billing & support system. It provides everything you need to manage your clients. Packed with features while remaining easy to use, we've tried to highlight what we feel are the most important features below. Don't just assume because you don't see something it's not supported - contact us!

Products and Services

Supports products of any type - not just hosting!
Free, One Time & Recurring Billing Cycles
Prorata Billing Support (One Day Billing)
Configurable Options for products which increase/decrease the price
Custom Field support allowing you to collect specific data from a customer
Addons which allow you to cross-sell additional products & services to clients
Downloadable Product Support - eg. Software Downloads
Support for custom Welcome Emails for each product you create
Stock Management/Auto suspension of orders once unavailable

Powerful & Flexible Billing

Automatic invoice generation x days before items are due, reminders and overdue notices all automated
Ability to create one-off invoices - ideal for web design/consultancy firms
Automated Recurring Credit Card Billing
3D Secure (Verified by Visa & Mastercard SecureCode) for gateways that support it (ProtX & Quantum Gateway)
PDF Invoicing Support
Automated credits on overpayments and application to invoices
Account Prefunding Option for Clients
Clients can order upgrades/downgrades to their products & services from the client area
Promotions support both one time & recurring, fixed value or percentage incentives
Offer Free Domains when bought in conjunction with certain packages/billing cycles
Tax Support with ability for Multiple Tax Zones & Tax Exemptions

Domain Integration/Management

Integration with over 10 of the leading domain registrars
Automated Domain Registrations & Transfers
Automated Expiry Notices
Clients can renew anytime from the client area
Ability to make Nameserver Changes
Make changes to the WHOIS Contact Information
Enable/Disable Domain Locking
Auto Renewal Settings per domain
Request EPP Code (Selected modules only)
ID Protection Addons (Selected modules only)
Register/Manage Private Nameservers (Selected modules only)
DNS Management & Email Forwarding Addons (Enom only)
Allows multiple registrars to be used concurrently

Support Tools

Announcements for keeping clients up to date with news & events
Downloads so that you can offer your clients useful applications with their purchases
A Knowledgebase so that clients can find the help they need themselves reducing ticket workload
A fully featured Support Ticket System to hanlde all client and non-client communication
Multiple Departments support which can be open to clients only or public
Email Piping to allow ticket opening and replies via email
Mass Mail feature to enable you to give clients latest news, promos and notices

Server Automation

Over 14 leading control panels supported
Account Creation & Termination
Automated Suspension for Overdue and Unsuspension on Payment
Auto suspension overide option on a per account basis
Change Account Password from WHMCS (Selected modules only)
Auto Upgrade/Downgrade Package (Selected modules only)
Server rotation based on account numbers
Client Profiles & FrontendAdmin Client Summary page giving an overview of an entire clients account
Entire product/domain history with statuses including active, cancelled, fraud, terminated, pending-transfer so you and your clients are always kept up to date
Full Invoice & Payment records
Complete email history viewable by both admin and client
Timestamped Notes for detailed record keeping
Unique Client Portal system giving a central location for all your clients needs
Multi-language support in both client side display and email templates
Domain Availability Checker with support for mass lookups
Server Status summary page showing service status and uptime/load

Statistical Reports & Summaries

Over 10 statistical reports to keep you up to date on how your business is doing
Graphs to provide a quick and clear overview of the data
Easily extendable with a simple modular addon reports system
Customisable & Developer FriendlyFully templated client side which can be edited in a regular HTML editor (no complex PHP code)
Action hooks allowing you to add your own code to run when events occur in WHMCS - eg. after new orders, payments, etc...
Modular system for server, gateway and domain registrars making it easily extendable to support other panels/providers
Development Kits available for all supported module types
Remote API System allowing calls and integration from your own existing applications

Security

Support for moving writeable directories outside of the publically accessible folder tree
Allows admin folder custom renaming to hide it from visitors
Notifications of failed admin login attempts
Auto IP banning after 3 failed login attempts
All passwords encrypted in the database
Credit card data is encrypted using the AES Encryption protocol

WHMCS is definitely a powerful piece of software. If your a one man/woman show, this type of automation is priceless. If you're interested in picking up a license, please contact us.

Thanks!

[bobby]

Hi!

If WHMCS is too expensive, we're pleased to announce ClientExec as an alternative for only $5 per month!

Thanks!