Really Dumb Question on space & Transfer

[robinInTexas]

If I read it right,
the reseller Aluminum gets 24gb disk space, and 250gb transfer for $24.95/mo
..............the baby gets 600gb and ...............6000gb transfer for $7.95/mo

and g****y gives 150 gb space and 1,500 transfer for $6.99 a month.

I am considering becoming a serious reseller after dabbling for 7 years, and my opinion is that the planet is near the best if not THE best place to locate a server. But the way to go with hg (if I want to resell) is to sell the account put two or three in a baby and watch their traffic and shuffle stuff around if one consumes too much bandwidth or disk space.

Could somebody tell me why my thinking is wrong here?

a typo?

[striddy]

Originally Posted by robinInTexas

I am considering becoming a serious reseller after dabbling for 7 years, and my opinion is that the planet is near the best if not THE best place to locate a server. But the way to go with hg (if I want to resell) is to sell the account put two or three in a baby and watch their traffic and shuffle stuff around if one consumes too much bandwidth or disk space.

To be a reseller you have to have a reseller or dedicated account. It is against the TOS for you to resell the shared accounts.

http://www.hostgator.com/tos.shtml

[robinInTexas]

I guess they just don't want resellers. Gonna have to go out of state.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by robinInTexas

I guess they just don't want resellers.

Why would you say that? They have thousands of resellers, me being one.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by robinInTexas

I guess they just don't want resellers. Gonna have to go out of state.

What they don't want is a shared account that uses so many server resources that it affects others on the box.

The reseller accounts include WHM, which allows resellers to set up individual cPanel accounts for their clients, which is a much more professional way to resell server space than cramming the clients into one cPanel account and making their domains "addons"--the only way to accommodate multiple domains with a (non-reseller) shared account.

[robinInTexas]

I guess I just don't get it, they are charging the reseller over three times the price as they charge the retail guy, and allowing the retail guy to consume over 20 times what they allow the reseller. Again my initial question what am I missing? I don't want to start a flame war. I just don't understand what the deal is.

And while I am replying to you, my email gives me a message from Gwyneth. I understand the benefits of WHM. I am currently (for a few more days using it on another reseller at the planet who cannot keep their act together. That's why I'm looking around.

I know hostgator is good, that's why I'm looking here. I just can't see what I'm missing... Usually you expect a "reseller" to buy at a discount from retail, but here it seems like the reseller pays like 25x more based on bandwidth or diskspace.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by robinInTexas

I guess I just don't get it ... Again my initial question what am I missing? .... I don't want to start a flame war. I just don't understand what the deal is.

Nobody is flaming anybody. We are just trying to explain as best as we can.

A few things I can think of, hopefully someone else will chime in and add other items to the list.
- WHM. Don't know what it costs, but cost it does.
- WHMCS & WHMAUTOPILOT. $15 - $20 per month to lease if your hosting company doesn't provide you with them.
- The reseller servers aren't as heavily populated
- Ability to give each customer their own cpanel login (because you have access to WHM)

[gwyneth]

This isn't the official HG answer--we're all peers (customers) here unless our username has 'Gator' in front of it. It also is more about hosting in general than the specific packages HG offers.

The concept of 'resellers' is sort of trapped between dedicated servers and shared hosting for an individual user. Just six or seven years ago, it was very difficult for a user to find hosting that could let you host more than one domain on an account. The "reseller" concept dates from back then, when servers were far more expensive.

Since then, the combination of single-user accounts with multi-domain functionality and the plummeting cost of server space has resulted in ever lower prices for shared accounts, with ever-increasing limits. Cost/price drops for dedicated servers have been even more dramatic.

Reseller accounts are much more expensive for hosting firms to support than shared accounts. In addition to the WHM license, and x no. of cPanel licenses per reseller account, rather than 1 cPanel license for a shared account, each reseller account has x number of users creating potential problems rather than 1 user creating potential problems. True, all support requests are funneled through the reseller, but without root access most of those requests would go to HG. And by "potential problems" I mean that each human installing web apps and operating sites has the potential to incur support.

Now consider the falling cost/price of dedicated servers. As more users opt for dedis or VPSes (elsewhere), the demand for reseller accounts falls and more easy-to-support resellers upgrade themselves out of their shared reseller accounts. (The least expensive dedi at HG already costs less than the most expensive reseller account, and comes with WHM, though to be fair, the traditional upgrade dedi still costs a lot more.)

Reseller customers who are the most expensive to support are those attempting to attract customers with price, space, and bandwidth. Reseller customers who are the least expensive to support are those who are selling their expertise and other services.

By limiting the amount of space and bandwidth in reseller packages, hosting firms achieve a de facto restriction on the number of customers resellers can have. This also becomes a form of quality control over resellers, with some upgrading themselves to dedis and some going elsewhere.

[helenth01]

The people are loosing their moral while becoming modern. The society needs to be attentive that moral value. Well, it shocking and needed and immediate attention to short out at the earlier.
======================
PLR Private Label Rights