[Hannah Rolston]

I have been doing a bit of searching on the internet and through the forum to see if there were any discussions on how people go about hosting for clients.

Is it recommended or best to point them to a host themselves?

I have a hostgator account baby package that gives me room to host on, as i'm starting off in the freelance as well as looking for web developer job also to get the experience, I'm just wondering if i was to host for my clients i'm unsure as to what to charge them for hosting and whether it should be a price for the year or permanently until they choose to host elsewhere.

I only pay under £10 a month for my hosting account so i'm trying to figure out a fair price to offer for hosting that doesn't see me being in a pickle and undercharging.
also i've read on a blog post about avoiding email hosting for clients due to it being to much of a hoo har so i'd like to see what you guys do in this case.

I couldn't find a thread about this BUT please if there is one direct me to it along with my post

Thanks
Hannah x

[Renaissance-Design]

Typically, unless you're offering to manage every aspect of the client's hosting for them (and if you are, don't forget to charge extra) you'll need to be on a reseller package so you can provide a control panel for them to manage their account themselves.

[Hannah Rolston]

Renaissance-Design, on 06 November 2011 - 08:33 PM, said:

Typically, unless you're offering to manage every aspect of the client's hosting for them (and if you are, don't forget to charge extra) you'll need to be on a reseller package so you can provide a control panel for them to manage their account themselves.

thanks Renaissance, I'll look into that!

[oakleaves]

Is there any money in selling hosting packages? Or is it more hassle than it's worth?

[pilgrim_fgau]

oakleaves, on 06 November 2011 - 09:11 PM, said:

Is there any money in selling hosting packages? Or is it more hassle than it's worth?

maybe it was just me, but I signed up to a reseller hosting package a while back to see if it was worth while and in my opinion its not. It was so much hassle getting set up and when it was set up (and even then, not fully set up) to make an income worthwhile, you would need to be bringing in some amount of clients. I feel that what hosting companies that sell reseller hosting charge you so that you will only make a slight profit.

Some others have obviously though it was worth while, but I only tried because I was thinking I could put any of my clients onto my hosting packages, but it wasn't worth the hassle, for all the profit that was made.

[rallport]

pilgrim_fgau, on 07 November 2011 - 11:08 AM, said:

maybe it was just me, but I signed up to a reseller hosting package a while back to see if it was worth while and in my opinion its not. It was so much hassle getting set up and when it was set up (and even then, not fully set up) to make an income worthwhile, you would need to be bringing in some amount of clients. I feel that what hosting companies that sell reseller hosting charge you so that you will only make a slight profit.

Some others have obviously though it was worth while, but I only tried because I was thinking I could put any of my clients onto my hosting packages, but it wasn't worth the hassle, for all the profit that was made.

I don't see how it isn't worth while tbh. Add a new account, add client emails accounts, send over settings with a setup guide - done.

[Hannah Rolston]

What do you do instead pilgrim?

[oakleaves]

rallport, on 07 November 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

I don't see how it isn't worth while tbh. Add a new account, add client emails accounts, send over settings with a setup guide - done.

I dabbled with it a while back although to be fair I didn't do a very good job of it.

The impression I got was that people expect you to be an absolute genius with all aspects of hosting and other things besides. Also you have to answer a million questions in order to persuade people to take your services.

The other thing was I felt deep down most people knew full well you were just peddling them a heart internet service (or similar) so they may as well go direct - why use a middleman?

The site itself requires a lot of setting up and sorting in order to get it to a level whereby people would have the confidence to buy and also to get every stage automated so that it doesn't eat up your time messing with trivial mundane matters.

I was also keen to set up a hosting reseller site but I'm skeptical as to whether the returns warrant the time invested. Currently I just put my web design clients onto one of my hosting packages but that's about it.

That's just my personal experience but if somebody could tell me where I'm going wrong and point me in the right direction I'd also be interested to hear it.

[pilgrim_fgau]

Hannah Rolston, on 07 November 2011 - 02:47 PM, said:

What do you do instead pilgrim?

Im only really starting out myself, but to date, with the work I have done, I have just helped them set up their own hosting accounts.

But I am interested to hear what everyone else is doing as it something I have been thing about

[pilgrim_fgau]

rallport, on 07 November 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

I don't see how it isn't worth while tbh. Add a new account, add client emails accounts, send over settings with a setup guide - done.

do you offer hosting / reseller hosting?

[Ste Hughes]

I offered to host my first client

he asked me about 25 questions a week.

not worth the time - now i tell them to get their own hosting

[smoothonline]

Hosting for clients is a nightmare.

I wish I'd never offered it cause I recently lost two clients over it (to be fair they were be a complete pain in the butt over it all)

Unless you are selling those templates> buy/host systems I wouldn't bother.
char

[Hannah Rolston]

smoothonline, on 07 November 2011 - 05:52 PM, said:

Hosting for clients is a nightmare.

I wish I'd never offered it cause I recently lost two clients over it (to be fair they were be a complete pain in the butt over it all)

Unless you are selling those templates> buy/host systems I wouldn't bother.
char

Okay so it's best to just advise them on getting their own hosting, there cheap enough especially if they're only hosting their own site. do you create the account for them or just tell them to find a host and sign up and pay?

hannah x

[oakleaves]

one guy who has made a success of it is roothost, maybe he can shed some light on it!

[BlueDreamer]

Hannah Rolston, on 07 November 2011 - 06:15 PM, said:

Okay so it's best to just advise them on getting their own hosting, there cheap enough especially if they're only hosting their own site. do you create the account for them or just tell them to find a host and sign up and pay?

hannah x

If you want to avoid the hassle yes advise your client to but their own hosting. You can of course offer to help them set things up, eg email but always charge for that time as part of the project bill!

[rallport]

pilgrim_fgau, on 07 November 2011 - 03:33 PM, said:

do you offer hosting / reseller hosting?

I have several a big hosting accounts that only I have access to - I don't offer hosting per se, just throw it in as part of the deal when I develop a website. All I do is setup client emails for them - the client never has access to anything, meaning nothing can be buggered up.

Offering users their own control panels will always end up in disaster from my experience and it equals a lot of wasted time fixing something a user did in their cpanel account. At the end of the day, the majority of people don;t need access to create databases, setup cron jobs etc.

It speeds things up for me as I know how everything works, what things are and aren't allowed etc.

The price for hosting is built into the cost of the website - I simply bill them each year.