how to sell hosting service - domains, website ... to sell hosting service to your web design...

TO YOUR WEB DESIGN CLIENTS

HOW TO SELL HOSTING SERVICE

Table of Contents

Why Consider Offering Web Hosting

Commission vs Reseller Hosting vs VPS/Dedicated Hosting

The Financial Benefits of Reseller Hosting

Getting started as a Hosting Reseller

Welcome Email Template for New Clients

Reseller / VPS Responsibilities

Tools to Support Your Reseller / VPS Clients

Other Value Added Services

How to automate your Hosting

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Reseller Hosting Plan

Quick Checklist of Questions For Reseller & VPS Hosting

When to Upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated Server

Wrap Up

03

04

12

14

16

20

22

23

25

27

36

37

39

If you’re a web designer or web developer then you’re probably aware

that web hosting can offer you an attractive ongoing recurring revenue

with little effort on your part.

But are you making the most of this opportunity and are you fully aware of

all of the options available to you?

Whatever your situation, if you want to earn attractive ongoing revenue

from web hosting or you want to add it as a value added part of your

business then read on.

WE’RE GOING TO EXPLAIN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW TO SET UP YOUR NEW HOSTING BUSINESS.And if you were thinking massive up front costs, loads of complex systems

and long term commitments to expensive contracts then relax. Setting up

a web hosting stream for your business doesn’t need to be a difficult or

expensive process.

In fact it can be quite straightforward and that’s why we’ve created this

comprehensive guide for you. In it you’ll discover:

Why you should consider selling Hosting services

Which hosting option is right for you: Commission based, Reseller

Hosting or a Virtual Private Server (VPS)


Getting started as a Reseller

A welcome email template for new clients

Responsibilities of a Reseller

HOW TO SELL HOSTING SERVICE TO YOUR WEB DESIGN CLIENTS 01


(Free) tools to support your hosting clients

Value added services you can offer

How to automate your Hosting

Factors to consider when choosing a Reseller Hosting plan

Quick checklist of questions to ask when choosing a Reseller or VPS

plan

When to upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated Server


One service that all of your clients will need is web hosting and you are in

the perfect position to offer this to them. The timing is also perfect too as

you are building their website or application.

The beauty of web hosting is that it is a recurring revenue service that

requires very little upfront or ongoing investment on your part.

At this stage you might be thinking that this means getting hardware and

configuring it and storing it safely and getting a high speed internet

connection to your office, but there are a range of options including:

commission based hosting, white label reseller hosting or offering hosting

via a Virtual Private Server (VPS).

Low cost to entry

Low ongoing costs

Recurring monthly/annual

revenues

Gentle learning curve

HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS WHEN IT COMES

TO HOSTING SERVICES:

IF YOU’RE A WEB DESIGNER OR DEVELOPER, YOUR CLIENTS TRUST YOU AND OFTEN THEY WILL ASK YOU FOR RECOMMENDED SERVICES.

Why Consider Offering Web Hosting

Proven business model

High margin services

High retention rates

Proven, reliable and secure

technical solution


White Label – become a

hosting company

Overselling allowed

Possibility to sell

complimentary value added

services, e.g. domains, SSL,

Security

Client self-service/self

management e.g. setting up

emails, etc..

Easy to migrate new

clientsHigh degree of

automation possible

Clear upgrade and migration

plan (VPS, Dedicated server)

If you need any help

transferring websites from

the old hosting provider to

Pickaweb, we offer free

website migration services

Before we do anything let’s first consider the three main options open to you:

Commission vs Reseller Hosting vs VPS/Dedicated Hosting

Commision Based

Hosting

Virtual Private

Server (VPS)

White Label

Reseller Hosting

%A


COMMISSION BASED HOSTINGHighlights: Fast setup, familiar interface, low hassle hosting option

This type of hosting involves the use of a special

type of URL link that you use to order web

hosting services and a percentage commission

is applied for each order placed.

The percentage of the commission and whether

it is recurring depends on the volume of orders

placed and is negotiable.

THE BEAUTY OF COMMISSION BASED HOSTING IS THAT IT IS QUICK AND EASY FOR YOU TO SET UP AND PICKAWEB HANDLES EVERYTHING.

%

We provision the hosting services and we provide full 24 x 7 support for

your clients. Any issues they have we will work with your clients to resolve

them to their satisfaction via Live Chat, phone or email.

You have no ongoing responsibility for technical support. The only thing

you need to do is to invoice Pickaweb for your commission each month

based on the sales shown in your commission area.

On the downside this approach will not be as profitable for you as a

Reseller Hosting or a Virtual/Dedicated Server as we shall shortly see.

Also, if you wish to maintain a tight relationship with your clients then this

may not be the best option for you as Pickaweb would have contact with

them for support and ongoing billing.

OK!


RESELLER HOSTINGHighlights: Fast setup, white label, self-managed hosting with limited

customization option. Higher profit margin, but comes with extra

support overhead for Reseller.

If you want to start earning higher margins and

developing a recurring revenue then a Reseller

Hosting account may be the better option.

The way a Reseller account works is that you get

a bulk amount of disk space and bandwidth

which you can then resell on to your clients.

You manage your clients through an easy to use

master reseller admin area called WHM. Your

clients get access to their own cPanel web

hosting control panel.

There are no upfront costs and there is no ongoing costs to manage the

service or any need to upgrade software or the server configuration - we

are responsible for that.

You can create your own plans (e.g. bronze, silver, gold) where you allocate

the resources accordingly.

A

However, there is much less support overhead for you as we will deal with

any ongoing support as well as being fully responsible for technical

upgrades (this would only apply to you if you were to choose a VPS or

Dedicated Server - more on that later).


If you have a client that has a basic website that doesn’t need a database

then you could create a basic plan without that feature and charge them

accordingly.

But for a client who needs an eCommerce website which requires a

database then you could put them on a plan with more features. Of course,

this offers you the opportunity to charge a premium for these extra

features.

That isn’t going to cost you anything extra but it offers you a clear upgrade

option for your client which results in extra revenue for you.

THE OTHER THING TO CONSIDER IS THAT A RESELLER PLAN CAN BE MADE COMPLETELY WHITE LABEL SO YOU APPEAR AS THE HOSTING COMPANY AND THERE IS NO MENTION OF PICKAWEB.

For the white label option you will require a

domain name to be used specifically for your

own custom name servers and at least 2 IP addresses. We can provide

these for you.

OK!

YOURBRAND

Diskspace

Bandwidth

Email accounts

HERE ARE THE TYPES OF THINGS YOU CAN RESTRICT

TO OFFER A RANGE OF UPGRADE OPTIONS:

FTP accounts

Addon Domains

Parked Domains

Email Lists

Databases


For example, you can brand your reseller holding pages so that new clients

will see your details showing when they got their URL before their website

is published.

On the downside you do need to provision the hosting and send your clients

their login credentials when you are a Reseller. You are also responsible for

first line support. Of course if there are any issues you need help with then we

are here to support you. But your clients can not contact our support team

directly - you are responsible for supporting your clients.

VIRTUAL SERVER/DEDICATED SERVERHighlights: More complex hosting but perfect for more demanding

websites and applications and extremely customizable, secure and

extremely scalable.

This option is usually required in instances where you have quite specific

requirements for your hosting clients.

The advantage of using a Virtual or Dedicated Server is that you have

much more power available to you and it is a much more flexible option.

For the purpose of this report we have included them as one option

although there are important differences between a Virtual Private

Server (VPS) and a Dedicated Server.

To help you better understand the differences between

Reseller Hosting, VPS and Dedicated Servers we have

prepared two reports for you which explain the following:

We have also provided a full VPS Buyer’s Guide for you which explains

exactly what a VPS is and how it works.


But in a nutshell a Reseller Plan is less complex than a VPS or a Dedicated

Server. It is less expensive too.

HOWEVER, A VPS/DEDICATED SERVER IS MORE POWERFUL AND FLEXIBLE THAN A RESELLER ACCOUNT.The way that a VPS works is that a physical server

(or servers) is set up to support multiple ‘Virtual’

servers for multiple clients. Each VPS has its own

independent Operating System (OS).

This differs from a traditional Dedicated Server

which is reserved for one client using one OS.

The real beauty of a VPS is that it offers an incredible degree of flexibility

and scalability when set up in a cloud environment. This means that

multiple physical servers are grouped together so that all of their key

resources (i.e. CPU, RAM, hard drives) are shared amongst the whole

‘virtualized’ system.

This way a client only pays for the resources they use and they can scale

up (or down) to match their requirements. This makes VPS far more costs

effective than Dedicated Servers where all resources are paid for

regardless of whether they are being fully utilized or not.

The difference between

Reseller Hosting and a

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

/ Dedicated Server

The difference between a

VPS and a Dedicated Server

A B

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/difference-virtual-server-reseller-hosting-plan/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/difference-vps-dedicated-server/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/guides/vps/vps-hosting-buyers-guide.pdf


With a VPS you can upgrade CPU, RAM or disk space at the click of a

button whereas with a Dedicated Server this takes longer as it requires

human intervention and involves downtime whilst the hardware

configuration is upgraded.

WHEN COMPARED WITH RESELLER HOSTING, THE REAL ADVANTAGE OF A VPS OR DEDICATED SERVER IS THAT YOU CAN PRETTY MUCH DO WHAT YOU LIKE.

With Reseller Hosting you are confined by the software configuration that

the hosting company (i.e. Pickaweb) decides.

Therefore if you are running certain applications that require a more

exotic or non-standard software configuration then you may not be able to

run these with a Reseller Hosting.

VPS and Dedicated Servers are also much more powerful so if you have

more demanding websites or applications that require extra processing

power these are ideal. VPS in particular are extremely scalable meaning

that you can add extra disk space, CPU or RAM at a click.

As with a Reseller account this hosting option is more profitable but it

comes with an overhead both in terms of providing first line support for

your clients as well as in terms of managing the server itself (Server

Administration).

Typical server administration tasks include server security, updating

kernel/Operating System/Software Components as well as housekeeping

tasks such as clearing server logs.

But don’t worry if you are not a server administrator - we offer a full

server management service for a low monthly cost.


HOSTING SUMMARY MATRIXThe following matrix breaks down the various options available to you:

COMMISSIONBASED RESELLER VPS/DEDICATED

COST

PROFITABILITY

CUSTOMIZATION

PERFORMANCE

FIRST LINE

SUPPORT

TECHNICAL

DIFFICULTY

Zero

Low to Medium

Low

Standard

Pickaweb

Low

Low

Medium to High

Low

Standard

Reseller

Low to Medium

Medium to High

High

High

High

Reseller

Medium to High


We’ll make the following assumptions:

Commissions based

on 5 hosting sales per

month

Commission is based

on 25% recurring

Based on you selling 3

hosting orders per

month

You sell your Reseller

Hosting plans @

£5.99 per month

Pricing is based on

Pickaweb Reseller

Plus @ £299 p/a

Based on you selling 2

hosting orders per

month

You sell your VPS

Hosting plans at

£15.99 per month

Pricing is based on

Pickaweb Fast VPS 2

@ £398.98 p/a

Pricing includes

cPanel licence and

Fully Managed Server

COMMISSION OPTION

RESELLER OPTION VPS OPTION

In order to help you understand which is the right option for you, let’s

consider the three options (Commission, Reseller & VPS) side by side.



Please bear in mind that this is purely an estimate for illustration purposes. Were

you to sell more (or less) or to increase (or decrease) the price of the hosting

then this would affect these estimates.

The other important point to consider is that these figures do not include your

overhead for providing support to your clients which would be the case if you

chose the Reseller or VPS option.

!

£584.03 £1102.66 £2095.46

Monthly Income

(At Year End)

60 x £5.99 * 25%

= £89.85

36 x £5.99

= £215.64

24 x £15.99

=£383.76

Annual Profit

Here is the breakdown after 1 year for each option:

COMMISSIONBASED RESELLER VPS/DEDICATED

No. Hosting Accounts

At Year End12 x 5 = 60 12 x 3 = 36 12 x 2 = 24

Annual Cost For

You (Excl. Vat)Zero £299 £398.98


One of the great things about Reseller Hosting is that

it’s so easy to get started. The first thing you’ll need to

do is to choose the right Reseller Plan for you.

If you’re just starting out then just get the Reseller

Entry plan . You can upgrade whenever you need to –

it’s just a couple of clicks and it all happens instantly

and automatically.

Getting Started as a Hosting Reseller

UPGRADE

Once your account is activated you’ll be sent a welcome email with all

of the information you’ll need like username and password and a link

to your main Reseller Control Panel.

The Reseller Control Panel is called WHM and it is the top level

administrative control panel for cPanel.

Once you have these details you’ll need to login to WHM and start to

set the Features and then create the Packages that you want your

clients to have. We have prepared a WHM/cPanel Setup Tutorial to

take you through each step.

All you are doing here is creating the

packages (gold, silver, bronze) that your

clients will use. You’ll see as you get used

to WHM that this will actually save you a

ton of time when you set up accounts

because all of the permissions, features

and limits are all predefined and you

1

2

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/reseller-hosting/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/reseller-hosting/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-whm-web-host-manager/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/whm-web-hosting-reseller-basics/


Then you just need to assign the correct package and you’re up and running.

DOMAIN

The client’s domain name

USERNAME

Assign a unique username

EMAIL

Enter the client’s email address

PASSWORD

Create a unique password (and

make a note of it)

JOHN DOE

www.loremipsum.com

Email:

Password:

3

4

don’t have to waste your valuable time keying in the settings each time

you create an account. You can always come back and edit your

packages or create new ones at any time.

Once you’ve created your plans you’re ready to start adding new

clients. Again, this is super easy and is just a question of adding the

basic information, i.e.


Of course you now need to notify your clients that their account has been

set up and provide them with all of the links and login credentials that they

would need.

You can use the following template to guide you. Please note that

you would need to replace the content shown in the { } brackets

with the necessary variable

Links to their hosting control panel

Temporary links to their hosting control panel and website in case of

delays due to domain propagation with new domains or where

Nameserver changes have been made

Links to your Knowledgebase so that your clients can follow

instructions for basic administration i.e. setting up email accounts

FTP details are optional – if you are their designer then you may wish

to omit this to avoid overwhelming your clients

IDEALLY YOUR WELCOME EMAIL SHOULD CONTAIN:

Welcome Email Template for New Clients


PLEASE PRINT THIS MESSAGE FOR YOUR RECORDS – PLEASE READ

THIS EMAIL IN FULL.

Hi {CLIENT NAME},

Thank you for choosing {YOURCOMPANY} to host {CLIENT-DOMAIN-

NAME}. Your details are below.

WEB HOSTING DETAILS:To use your hosting service, please follow these steps to get your website

online and your emails setup.

STEP 1. HOSTING CONTROL PANELPlease login to your web hosting control panel using the following details:

http://{IP-ADDRESS-OF-SERVER}/cpanel

(after 24 hours you can use the following link to access the control panel

http://www.{CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME }/cpanel )

Username: {USERNAME}

Password: {PASSWORD}

STEP 2: SETUP EMAIL ADDRESSESFirst login to your hosting control panel using the link above in step 1.

Next, follow the instructions at {LINK-TO-YOUR-KNOWLEDGEBASE}.

When you configure your emails to download to your


PC/Laptop/Mac/Mobile device you will need to enter the following

settings when prompted.

Incoming Mail Server: mail.{CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}

SMTP (Outgoing Mail Server): mail.{CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}

STEP 3: FTP DETAILSBelow are the FTP details for publishing or making changes to your

website. FTP means File Transfer Protocol and this just means your access

details so that you can transfer files (eg: your website files) to your web

hosting space.

New Account Info:

Domain: {CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}

Username: {USERNAME}

Password: {PASSWORD}

Server Hostname: {IP-ADDRESS-OF-SERVER}

!

When prompted to enter a username by your email software (eg: outlook,

windows live mail etc.) you need to enter the FULL email address that you are

setting up ([email protected]). Do not enter just info as that will give you

an error – it needs to be the full email address & enter the password as specified in

your control panel when you created the email account (see above).

IMPORTANT!


!

Make sure you upload your files to the PUBLIC_HTML or www directory on the

server otherwise they will not be visible on the internet.

Also, please be sure that your homepage is saved as an “index” file e.g., index.htm,

index.html, etc. We suggest you download smart ftp from http://smartftp.com if

you do not already have an ftp client.

IMPORTANT!

Folder where you should upload your website: public_html

Because domain names may take a few hours to be fully recognised across

the internet you may need to use the following details:

Temporary FTP Hostname: {IP-ADDRESS-OF-SERVER}

Temporary Webpage URL: http://{IP-ADDRESS-OF-SERVER}/

~{USERNAME }/

Temporary Control Panel: http://{IP-ADDRESS-OF-SERVER}/cpanel

Once your domain has Propagated (fully recognised across the internet)

you can use your domain based access details as follows:

FTP Hostname: {CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}

Webpage URL: http://www.{CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}

Control Panel: http://www.{CLIENT-DOMAIN-NAME}/cpanel


Of course we are here in the background to support you if there are any

issues. Our technical team is here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to support

you, but you will need to offer the first line of support.

The reason for this is so that your clients do not see Pickaweb. They deal with

you directly and that adds value to your relationship with your client. In order

to make this as easy as possible we would recommend some basic tools.

STEP 4: TECHNICAL SUPPORTYou can find all of our web hosting support articles at

{KNOWLEDGEBASE-LINK}

Should you need any assistance please contact our support team via the

support page of our website at {SUPPORT-URL}.

Best regards

{YOUR-COMPANY-SIGNATURE}

Reseller / VPS Responsibilites

If you choose the Reseller or VPS option your

main responsibilities are to offer 1st line

support for your clients. This means that you

need to resolve any day to day issues or answer

any ‘how to’ type questions.


SERVER ADMINISTRATION (VPS ONLY)In addition to providing first line support to your clients you are also

responsible for securing and administering your server.

When a VPS is provisioned Pickaweb will install the Operating System

(OS) and optional Hosting Control Panel (i.e. cPanel) for you.

Over and above this you would need to secure your server and setup a

firewall and other security measures too.

On an ongoing basis you would also need to administer your server on a

day to day basis.

Examples of daily tasks include:

Password management

Remove unwanted packages

Update Operating System

packages to the latest version

Install and configure firewall

Close unwanted ports

Secure SSH Login

Our team is very experienced though and they can handle

pretty much anything you can throw at them. If you get

stuck, just click on the Live Chat button on our website and

they are there to help you.

Of course, we understand that you may not wish to perform these

tasks so we have a fully managed VPS service for you at a low

monthly cost.


KNOWLEDGEBASE (KB)In order to minimise the number of support emails/tickets/calls that you

get we would recommend using a Knowledgebase (KB) tool. We would

recommend the KnowHow Theme for WordPress .

Using a KB offers a number of benefits

whether in terms of improved productivity,

consistency of replies as well as from an SEO

perspective by allowing you to generate high

quality, relevant content on a consistent basis.

HELPDESKOf course, a KB can’t always answer every question and your clients will

inevitably require direct one to one support and for that we would

recommend a professional helpdesk.

There are some great Freemium helpdesk

solutions out there. Freemium just means that you

get access to a restricted set of features and

maybe some branding appears in the emails, but

other than that you’re up and running in no time.

Tools to Support Your Reseller / VPS Clients

https://themeforest.net/item/knowhow-a-knowledge-base-wordpress-theme/2813111

https://sirportly.com/pricing


LIVECHATAs your hosting services start to take off then one service we would

really recommend that you consider is Live Chat. It’s brilliant for both

sales and support (whether technical or eg: accounts/billing).

The beauty of live chat is that you can push

pages to people such as pages from your

KB as well as picking up people’s contact

details for sales enquiries so you can follow

up after.

Again, there are freemium live chat offers.

Other Value Added Services

Whilst web hosting is a profitable service there are many other

complimentary services that you can upsell. Here are some ideas for you:

DOMAIN NAMESDomain names are an obvious add on. Pickaweb offers a full range of low

cost domains and we can offer our resellers significant discounts

depending on volumes. With some Top Level Domains (TLDs) you can also

sell a whois privacy service to protect your client’s details.

Whilst domain names do not have a high ticket price they do need

renewing every year and can be renewed for multiple years at a time so

they can become another great source of recurring revenue.

https://www.getapp.com/customer-service-support-software/live-chat/p/freemium/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/domain-names/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/domain-names/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/domain-names/whois-privacy/


And don’t forget that there are now more and more domain extensions

(gTLDs) being created all the time so there is plenty of opportunity.

SSL CERTIFICATESSSL Certificates allow your client’s to have a secure area of their website.

This is especially useful if they need to accept sensitive whether card

payment details or sensitive login information.

However, recently Google announced that it would include SSL

as a ranking factor (albeit a minor one) in its search algorithm.

Therefore the direction of travel as far as Google is concerned

is for higher levels of security and webmasters should take

note. Therefore upselling SSL products to your clients should

not be too difficult.

The process for installing an SSL is quite straightforward once you are used

to it, but our technical support team is on hand to assist you if required.

Another great thing about domains is that you can use them

creatively in the way that you market your hosting plans. For

example you could offer the first year for free or you could offer a

super low price for the first year.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/ssl-certificates/

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/generate-install-ssl-certificate-whm/


At the beginning you may feel that you do not

have any need for automation. However, the more

clients you get onboard the more important it is to

keep accurate records as well as automating various

tasks like setting up new accounts.

Automation is not something you need to consider immediately but as

you grow you may find that you are spending more and more time on

administration and less time on building relationships with new and

existing clients.

How to Automate Your Reseller Hosting

Efficiency – no more time spent

on repetitive tasks

Instant Deployment – New

hosting accounts activated in

seconds

Profitable – Sell domains, SSL

certificates, Backup Services,

Security, Anti-Spam and much

more

Scalability – handle thousands of

customers with ease

HERE ARE THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF

RESELLER HOSTING AUTOMATION:

Client Self Service – ordering,

accessing invoices, upgrades,

downgrades, renewals,

nameserver updates

Automated Billing – auto

generate invoices, apply

payments, recurring billing

Automated events – auto

suspend non-paying accounts,

termination, cancellation

Security – anti fraud automation


The best tool to automate your hosting business

is WHMCS. This is a purpose built hosting

automation and billing platform. It is aimed

squarely at resellers and small to medium sized

hosts so there is plenty of headroom to grow. You can start off

small with a reseller account and as you grow you can start to add

in your VPS or even Dedicated Servers as required.

Consistency and Accuracy –

Welcome emails, predictable and

consistent business processes

100% White Label – Impress

your clients with your

professional, automated billing

and hosting provision system

Reporting – important business

statistics and reports

Customer Service – quickly

identify client accounts and view

entire billing history

Compatibility – Integrates

seamlessly with many different

suppliers

It is also low cost and is offered for free if you order a Pickaweb

Reseller Plus service we even include a free WHMCS licence.

https://www.whmcs.com/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/reseller-hosting/#packages

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/reseller-hosting/#packages


Factors to Consider when Choosing a Reseller Hosting Plan

If you’ve been doing your homework and looking around at different

reseller options then you’ve probably noticed that you are spoilt for

choice. So how do you decide which option to go for?

Here are some key questions that you should be asking your hosts:

HARD DRIVESThe hard drive, along with the CPU and RAM is one of the key

components of the server that you will be hosted on.

The type of hard drive will play a significant role in the overall performance

of your reseller hosting.

The reason for this is that the hard drive is responsible for physically

reading and writing data when it is requested, i.e. when someone is

browsing your website.

Nowadays there are 2 main categories of hard drive:

Let’s have a look at each so that you understand the difference:

Traditional ‘spinning’

hard drivesSolid State Drives

(SSD)

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-cpu/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-server-ram/


Spinning disks are mechanical devices. The disks themselves are called

platters and this is where the data is stored. The data is written to and

retrieved from the platter by a data arm that moves quickly across the

disk.

Without getting into the technical details, SATA hard drives spin slower

than SAS hard drives .

The most common type of SATA hard drive these days is a 7.2K format.

The ‘K’ refers to the number of thousand times per minute that the disk

platter spins at.

The advantage of the 7.2K SATA drive is that it is a proven workhorse. The

hard drives can have huge capacity. Typically 2 or 3 Terabytes (TB) and

even up to 8 or 10TB are possible in a 3.5 inch format.

With SAS hard drives they spin faster so they perform better. There are 2

main types of SAS drives: 10K and 15K.

The advantage of the SAS drives is speed and reliability. They are much

faster than 7.2K SATA hard drives but tend to have a smaller capacity –

usually between 300GB to 600GB is typical.

TRADITIONAL HARD DRIVESSpinning hard drives come in two main categories:

Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)

Serial Attached SCSI or (SAS)

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-a-sata-hard-drive/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-a-sas-hard-drive/


SOLID STATE DRIVES (SSD)The alternative to traditional drives is Solid State Drives . They are

referred to as SSD for short.

With SSD there are no moving parts – no platters,

no disk arms, no springs. Everything is electronic and

stored in solid memory.

These types of storage are lightning fast and an

order of dozens or even hundreds of times faster

than traditional hard drives.

The disadvantage is cost and capacity. Typically SSDs are in the 100GB to

500GB range so they can not match SATA drives in particular for capacity but

over time that gap will narrow.

Currently Pickaweb offers SSD Reseller Hosting and SSD VPS .

The reason for bringing this to your attention is because fast load speed is

increasingly important for websites both from an SEO/traffic perspective

(Google favours faster websites) and a conversion perspective (faster websites

sell more).

Currently Pickaweb offers all our Reseller Hosting on 10K SAS hard

drives or Intel Datacenter SSDs. This offers you excellent speed on

Enterprise grade hard drives rather than on slower 7.2K SATA

drives which many hosts will offer their resellers.

At Pickaweb we offer our Reseller and VPS entry level plans on

Enterprise 10K SAS drives. We do not use 7.2K SATA Drives for

front line hosting.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/blog/what-is-ssd-hosting/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/ssd-reseller-hosting/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/ssd-vps/

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html


RAIDRAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks . It is a way of setting

up hard drives in such a way that data is stored on more than one disk.

THIS HAS THE ADVANTAGE THAT THE POSSIBILITY OF DATA LOSS DUE TO HARDWARE FAILURE (HARD DRIVES ARE HIGHER FAILING COMPONENTS) IS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED.RAID has many different formats. For

example RAID 1 uses a minimum of 2 disks

and data is mirrored from disk 1 to disk 2.

At Pickaweb we use RAID10 so that your data is written

across 4 hard drives. If one entire drive fails then there is no

data loss and the failing disk can be removed and replaced

by a new disk.

The advantage of RAID10 is that it offers high levels of redundancy. This

means there is much better uptime and much lower risk of data loss.

The disadvantage of RAID10 is that it is more expensive as a minimum of

4 hard drives are required in the array. Think of it as being belt and

braces hosting.

You should check with your prospective host what type of RAID they use.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-raid/

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/raid-levels-tutorial


SERVER REDUNDANCYBut uptime does not stop there. In order to ensure maximum uptime

Pickaweb has dual components in all of our servers. In particular we

have dual power supplies (PSU) and network cards. The PSU is typically

a higher failing unit and a single point of failure.

We also use dual Intel Processors (CPU) in each

server. CPUs are not high failing items but they

are vital for ensuring that the server runs

extremely fast.

Check with your prospective host whether they

use dual CPU, dual network cards and dual PSUs

in their servers.

HOT SWAP DRIVESWe have seen how load speed is important and why Pickaweb uses

Enterprise grade 10K hard drives to balance speed and reliability. We

have also explained that we use RAID10 for improved data availability

and reduced chances of data loss.

Now we switch attention to hot swap drives . Our

servers are all set up with hot swap hard drives so

that in the event of a complete disk failure we can

remove the affected drive and replace with a fully

functional replacement without the need to

power down the server.

This means much higher uptime for your website.

Check with your prospective hosts if they use hot swap drives on their

reseller hosting servers.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/what-is-a-hot-swap-hard-drive/


REGULAR BACKUPSBacking up data is not only important in case there is a complete server

failure (unlikely given the levels of redundancy built in to Pickaweb’s

servers) but also in case you or a client has an issue and they have

deleted some data or maybe they have been hacked and they need to

revert to a previous version.

Pickaweb uses idera/r1soft – the leading server

backup solution. This takes frequent snapshots

of the data from various points in time (i.e. daily,

weekly & monthly) on separate servers.

Again, check with your prospective reseller host

that your data is backed up off server with

several data points.

HIGH AVAILABILITY (VPS)For our VPS these are set up in a cloud

configuration where your data is copied across

several physical servers in our cloud.

This means that even in the extremely unlikely

event that one server completely fails, your data

is completely safe because it is stored on

multiple servers. This means that you can be

confident that your data is safe.

https://www.r1soft.com/


UPTIMEUptime is a key statistic of how reliable your hosting company is.

Pickaweb is monitored constantly by a leading independent uptime

website Netcraft and Pickaweb consistently appears amongst the

best uptime metrics from hosting providers.

Many hosting companies promise high uptime but

you should ask your prospective reseller host to

prove to you that they can back up this claim with

independent verification.

IP REPUTATIONPickaweb has a very good IP reputation. IP

addresses are basically the address of the server

you are hosted on. If the server hosts websites that

have a poor reputation for hosting malware or they

have been used for sending out Spam or Phishing

emails then the server will get blacklisted.

Pickaweb uses very high levels of security and in

particular we use Spam Experts to filter all outgoing email. It is extremely

effective at picking up malicious email traffic and will prevent it from being

sent and notify our technical team.

We are also constantly monitoring our IP reputation with leading ISPs. If

there are any issues we can address these as a priority to ensure that our IP

reputation is high.

This means that your clients’ emails will always get through and they will not

be hosted on a server which has a bad reputation.

http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/graph?collector=all&range=86400&sample=2&site=www.pickaweb.co.uk

https://www.spamexperts.com/


OVERSELLING (RESELLER ONLY)If you are a reseller you are allocated a finite amount of disk space to

resell on to your clients.

Your clients will want plenty of disk space for their files as they probably

look at other hosting options. Therefore you need to be able to offer

these large plans (i.e. 5GB space).

IN REALITY THOUGH, YOUR CLIENTS WILL PROBABLY USE ONLY A FRACTION OF THIS.So, Overselling gives you the option to create large plans for your clients

without worrying that you are constrained by the overall size of your

hosting plan. Let’s take an example.

With Pickaweb Reseller Entry plan you have 50GB disk space. If you

created 5GB plans for your clients and Overselling was not allowed then

you would be constrained to 10 accounts maximum, i.e.: 10 clients x 5GB

each = 50GB

However, because most clients will only use a

fraction of the space allocated to them we allow

you to ‘Oversell’ your space. That way you can

create 50 or a hundred accounts and not have

an issue.

So be sure to check that you can oversell your

hosting space.

Remember to ask your prospective host what infrastructure they have in

place to monitor their IP reputation.

MONEY BACK GUARANTEEIt goes without saying that you will want to be absolutely sure before you

commit long term to your host. One way is to ensure that you have plenty of

opportunity to test them out first.

Pickaweb offers a 30 day, no questions asked full money back

guarantee. If you are not satisfied in any way just cancel the

service and ask for a full refund and we will provide that for you

with no questions asked.

Thankfully this rarely happens!

So please check that your prospective reseller host offers you the

protection of a 30 day money back guarantee.


INSTALL

1 CLICK INSTALL SOFTWAREYour clients will want the ability to add extra features to their website or

maybe they will want it built from the bottom up using a particular

application such as WordPress or maybe Magento for an eCommerce store.

Pickaweb’s Reseller Hosting offers your clients

hundreds of free applications which can be installed

in one click using a tool called Softaculous .If you

want your clients to be able to use hundreds of free

applications and install them in one click then make

sure you check that Softaculous is set up.

For VPS clients we can also offer Softaculous at a

small extra cost per month.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-softaculous/


What type of hard drives do you use, eg: 10K SAS

Do you use RAID? What type?

Do you use hot swap drives?

Do you have high levels of redundancy built into your servers,

especially PSU and Network Cards

Are your servers backed up with multiple data points, e.g. daily, weekly

monthly

What is your published uptime?

Is this independently verified (i.e. NetCraft)

Do you constantly monitor your IP reputation?

Do you actively verify that all outgoing email being sent from your

servers is Spam and Phishing free?

Do you allow overselling on Reseller Hosting?

Do you offer hundreds of 1 click applications?

Do you offer a 30 day money back Guarantee?

When choosing your new supplier, be sure to ask the following questions:

Quick Checklist of Questions For Reseller & VPS Hosting


Many people will start off on a Reseller Plan and as they get more

confident they may start to ask themselves the question

“SHOULD I CONSIDER UPGRADING TO A VPS OR A DEDICATED SERVER ?”To be honest there is never a right or wrong

answer, however, there are few points that should

help you to determine when the time is right.

Below are few situations to consider that should

help you understand when is the right time.

Firstly, if you are growing rapidly and your business case justifies it

then it makes sense to move over to a VPS as soon as possible. The

reason is that a VPS is much more scalable than a Reseller account.

You can add extra CPU or RAM if you need some extra power. Need

more disk space? That’s easy too. It’s all self provisioned and

upgrading is instant.

The reason we recommend upgrading as soon as possible is that

you will find it much easier to migrate a smaller number of clients

than dozens or even hundreds.

Also, if you need a particular software configuration or you want to

run some non standard software then a VPS or Dedicated server gives

you much more flexibility.

When to Upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated Server

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/vps-vs-shared-hosting-vs-reseller/

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/kb/vps-vs-shared-hosting-vs-reseller/


Reseller Hosting is more controlled so that we as a hosting company

have a much more predictable service offering. For example, you may

want to run a particular version of PHP or the latest version of

another tool and a VPS will give you that option.

Finally, if you are absolutely determined to offer high quality premium

services to your clients where only the fastest, most reliable hosting

will do then you should look at our SSD VPS .

Built with Enterprise level, datacenter ready Intel SSDs these SSD

VPS offer the absolute peak performance for demanding applications.

What’s more, all of our VPS are hosted on our High Availability cloud

where as well as storing your data on multiple disks it is stored on a

minimum of 3 servers to ensure that there is no single point of failure.

When it comes to Dedicated Servers, these offer extremely high levels of

performance with the added peace of mind that you are not sharing any

hardware with anyone else.

https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/ssd-vps/


As you can see there is a lot to consider when

choosing the right hosting option whether it’s

a Commission based approach or a Reseller or

VPS/Dedicated Server you need.

We have tried to give you as much

understanding as possible of all the things you

need to take into consideration. We

understand that you have a choice and that

there is a lot of competition out there.

THE IMPORTANT POINT TO CONSIDER IS THAT YOU CHOOSE A HOST WHO OFFERS YOU EXCELLENT INFRASTRUCTURE, EXCELLENT SUPPORT AND A GREAT PRICE.We sincerely hope that you will choose our Reseller hosting services. If

you have any questions, then our team is on hand 24 x 7 to answer any

questions and to support you and your clients.

Whatever your choice, we wish you every success!!

Wrap Up

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