Tips for Being a Successful Reseller Host
Being a successful reseller host takes a lot of skill. Here are some tips that should lead you to the path of success. The first thing to mention and is of utmost importance is SEO. Yes, I’m sure if you’ve read previous blog posts, you know how much I try and hit this point home, but that is because it really is the one thing that can make or break you. SEO (search engine optimization) is the pursuit of ensuring that your domain, and all of of your important sub domains rank high on search engines, namely Google. The higher your rank, the more likely it will be for someone to find your web page. This is so integral to your success. Think about it, you and every other reseller and web host are selling the exact same thing (baring hardware and quality), if you don’t make yourself known, you will just blend in with everyone else and ultimately lose money.
The first thing that you are going to want to do is make sure that your domain, and all of your sub domains link to each other. These are free links for you. It ensures that your website is easy to navigate, and improves your SEO. It would also be a great idea to have an index page. When people do a web search, they obviously aren’t going to type in your domain from the get go. They are going to type in a keyword. That keyword is what you’re going to want to use as anchor text when acquiring links. Let’s say that you offer cPanel. “Cpanel hosting” would be one of your keywords as this is what someone is likely to type in a search engine. Since it’s a higher priority keyword, it’s called a “short tail” key word. If it’s more obscure like, “cPanel Host” or “cPanel Web Hosting”, then it is called a long tail key word. Typically you want to shoot for short tail key words. But if you’re having a hard time ranking up, then you might want to consider some long tail keywords, since less people will be doing SEO for it.
Having one of your keywords in your domain name would be a huge boost for your SEO. So if possible make sure you do that. Don’t think you’re just limited to a .com either. There are plenty of other domain extensions like .pro, .org, .us, .biz, etc… Start up an affiliate program. There are plenty of business on the web that help each other out with their affiliate programs. You link to each other, and share link juice. Just try and make sure that whatever business you choose for an affiliate, has some relevance to your business. It’s okay if it doesn’t, but don’t get into the habit of it as this may hurt your page rank.
Don’t be afraid to start small. Think about it, all you need to do business is a computer, and an internet connection. You can work from almost anywhere. As a reseller host, you have an advantage of not over investing. You know exactly how much money you lose each month even if you start to slack off, so you wont have to make as many gambling decision as your father company does. Start off with shared hosting. It is the easiest form of web hosting that you can sell. Once you feel as though you’ve built up a decent clientele, then it might be a good idea to explore other avenues, like co-located hosting, dedicated servers, or domain registration.
Try your best to get your own server. This should be your ultimate goal, because it is this step that will take you from reseller host, to web host. You will even be able to start selling other people reseller hosting accounts. Even if you can’t afford to buy a server, you can always rent one. Both of these options can be rather expensive, so make sure that you’re successful enough already to make it worth it. Also make sure that you’re equipped with the technical knowledge that it takes to manage servers.
Make sure that you have great customer service. If you feel like you’re not adept in the field enough to answering peoples questions, or maybe you just need some extra help, then don’t hesitate to hire someone to do that for you. Pay them not by the hour, but rather by each question they address. If you can’t hire a professional, look around a college campus. There are plenty of young minds there just waiting to get into the field to gain experience and have something to put down on a resume.
I hope this blog post is helpful to everyone out there that is interested in starting a reseller hosting company. If you have any further questions, or would like me to elaborate more on something that you read, please don’t hesitate to comment. Good luck!
7 Tips For Online Businesses
- Have a Plan – Before you do anything like buying books, it is important to have a set plan as to what you want to do with your business. Things to consider would be what kind of business you want to start, what your goals are, how big you want to be, etc… It will only hurt you if you decide to just jump in head first without any kind of plan. This includes a contingency plan, it might be a good idea for you to remain employed while your starting up your online business. Unfortunately you’re not guaranteed to be successful. It’s important that you make sure you don’t overstep what you can afford for your business sapling. Make sure that whatever money you invest in your business is within your means, and even if you lost every penny you invested in it, that you would still be able to live comfortably. If you want to have a big company and you really feel like you need a large initial investment, then write up a business plan and make it look as professional as you can. Take it to a bank and speak with a representative there. Getting a loan might be just the thing that you need to do to hit the ground running.
- Web Hosting Services – Once you have a good business plan, and you’re ready to go it’s time to start looking for a web host, and a web developer to get you started. When looking for a good web hosting company, you need to make sure that the one you choose is going to suit your needs. Things to look for are going to be reliability (up-time), speed (which improves your SERP ranking), and if they offer Magento hosting. Magento is the best open source ecommerce platform to date, and it should be used by any online business. Elief offers this free of charge.
- Acquiring a Tax ID Number – Once you’re just about done with all the preliminary stuff, it’s important for you to get an IRS Tax ID Number. It’s a number for your business that protects you from having to give out your SSN all the time. Another important reason to get this, is because often times other companies wont even do business with you if you don’t have one. You can acquire an IRS Tax ID Number at IRS.gov
- SEO – Search engine optimization is one of the most important things for an online business to work on. No matter how good your website looks, or how great the products that you sell are. None of it matters if people can’t find you on the internet. Having good SEO means that you will rank higher on the SERP (search engine results page). Your goal should always be to get as close to the number 1 slot on page 1 of the SERP. You do this by acquiring links all over the web. The higher the page rank of the website that you get a link on, the more it will be worth to you. If possible try and get links on pages that are .gov or .edu, as this will yield more authority for your website. If you’re having a hard time figuring out where you should be acquiring links from, visit opensiteexplorer.org. With this website, you can type in the domain name of one of your competitors that ranks higher than you on the SERP and see where they’re getting their links from and try to get a link in the same place, or a similar website.
- Work Ethic – If you’re lucky, and you business starts to be successful early on, make sure you don’t start slacking. If anything, start working harder! Being somewhat successful opens up doors to you that weren’t available previously. Start looking for affiliates, hire someone to help you out with the more mundane tasks of your business like SEO, so that you can work on more business related tasks.
- Communication – Keep in contact with your customers. Make sure you give them optimal service, and give them a reason to come back. Stand out as much as you can from the crowd. Make sure that people, especially ones that have done business with you in the past, know about deals and promotions that you may currently be running. When someone does business with you, you should have an email list that people can optionally sign up for to keep contact. Make sure your brand is synonymous with quality, good services, and optimal customer service.
- Love What You Do – Finally make sure that you go into something you love. What ever it is that your selling, make sure that it isn’t something that you loathe doing, or something that goes against some value or moral that you hold. If you love what you do, then your morale will be high, and you will have the motivation to do well and flourish. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from other people. The internet is an excellent resource for you to use. I hope this post helped all of you out. I wish you all the best of luck in all your endeavors, business or other.