Want to add a new revenue stream to your digital marketing agency's operations?
Look no further than reseller web hosting.
According to WebsiteSetup, it's used by over 13 percent of all websites.
Reseller web hosting, in fact, is more common than traditional virtual private server (VPS) web hosting, which is used by just 10 percent of all websites.
By offering reseller web hosting to your digital marketing agency's clients, you can provide them with an essential service while generating recurring revenue in the process.
What Is Reseller Web Hosting?
Reseller web hosting is a wholesale hosting service that you can resell to your digital marketing agency's clients.
You can buy a reseller web hosting plan from a hosting provider, after which you can create and sell your own hosting plans to clients.
With reseller web hosting, the hosting provider will typically give you access to a limited amount of server resources per month.
You can then sell these resources to your digital marketing agency's clients in the form of monthly hosting plans.
Clients who purchase one of these plans can use it to host their website on the provider's server.
While they both allow you to sell hosting plans to your digital marketing agency's clients, reseller web hosting isn't the same as affiliate web hosting.
Affiliate web hosting is a referral program.
After signing up to become an affiliate of a hosting provider, you can refer clients to the provider's hosting plans.
Reseller web hosting, on the other hand, allows you to create custom hosting plans while marketing them to clients under your digital marketing agency's brand name.
Partner With the Right Hosting Provider
To earn additional revenue with reseller web hosting, you'll need to partner with the right hosting provider.
You can't offer high-quality and valuable hosting plans to your digital marketing agency's clients unless you partner with a reputable hosting provider.
After all, reseller web hosting involves selling a provider's server resources.
If the provider has outdated servers with obsolete hardware or software, your digital marketing agency's clients will have a poor experience.
Here are some features to look for when choosing a provider for reseller web hosting:
• Unlimited domains and subdomains
• Unlimited email addresses
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access
• phpMyAdmin access
• Support for private name servers
• Easy-to-use web hosting control panel, such as cPanel or WHM
• Free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate
• Client information and billing management solution
• 99 percent or higher server uptime guarantee
• Spam protection
Emphasize Technical Support
Don't underestimate the importance of technical support for reseller web hosting.
Clients are bound to encounter problems when setting up and managing their websites on a server. Maybe a client is unable to create subdomains, or perhaps a client is struggling to migrate a database. When problems such as these arise, they may contact your digital marketing agency for assistance.
The burden of technical support will typically fall on your digital marketing agency's shoulders rather than those of its clients.
Some hosting providers offer third-party technical support for reseller web hosting, but most of them don't.
Instead, they'll only offer technical support to you and not your digital marketing agency's clients.
By quickly responding to clients' technical support questions with a useful answer, more of them will stay subscribed to your digital marketing agency's hosting plans.
Offer Multiple Hosting Plans
Another tip to succeed with reseller web hosting is to offer multiple hosting plans.
You aren't required to offer the same hosting plans as the provider with which you've partnered. With reseller web hosting, you'll have the freedom to create your own hosting plans.
Different clients have different hosting needs.
Clients who operate large, high-traffic websites often require more server resources than those who operate smaller websites with less traffic.
By offering multiple hosting plans, clients can choose the plan that's best suited for them. You can offer low-tier, mid-tier and high-tier hosting plans, for instance.
For small websites, clients can choose a low-tier plan. For larger websites, clients can choose a mid- or high-tier plan.
Package With Other Services
You can package hosting plans with your digital marketing agency's other services.
If your agency offers web design, for example, you may want to offer one year of free hosting with the purchase of a web design package.
Alternatively, you can include free hosting in website software installations, website redesigns and other website-related services.
The added bonus of free hosting is often enough to persuade clients to make a purchase.
They'll see that hosting is included in your digital marketing agency's services, so they may buy those services knowing that they won't have to purchase hosting elsewhere.
And assuming you only offer one year of free hosting, clients may pay to continue your digital marketing agency's hosting service after this period has ended.
Monitor and Optimize
Reseller web hosting requires monitoring and optimization.
All of the clients who purchase your digital marketing agency's hosting service will usually consume resources from the same server.
Those who purchase a high-tier plan may consume more resources than those who purchase a low-tier plan. Nonetheless, most instances of reseller web hosting involve shared resources from a single server.
The more clients you acquire for your digital marketing agency's hosting service, the more resources they'll consume from the server.
If they collectively consume more resources than that of the monthly limit for your reseller web hosting plan, the provider may temporarily disable their accounts.
To prevent interruption, you'll need to monitor clients' resource usage.
Server optimization can help improve the performance of clients' hosting as well.
You can optimize the server by removing unnecessary software from it while updating the server's other software products to the latest version.
Reseller web hosting is worth pursuing as an alternative revenue stream.
You can still focus your digital marketing agency's operations around online advertising and branding services.
With reseller web hosting, however, you can offer clients custom hosting plans so that they can build websites for their businesses.