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Interview with Christopher Faulkner CEO, C I Host HostIndex.com recently interviewed Christopher Faulkner to gain his commentary regarding reseller hosting. Here's the dialogue: Most companies offer reseller programs as a part of their regular hosting sales efforts, your company has decided to go about creating a new brand for serving resellers. What was your reason behind these efforts and what comments have your users expressed to your company because of these efforts? Because our reseller client base has grown exponentially within the last two years, we felt the need to give our resellers "their own space." The site gives them the special individual care they require. Each of their businesses are selling hosting services, but they all do have very unique needs. We developed a site addressing needs specific to running your own hosting company. The newly-redesigned reselleraccounts.com site is easy to use and will soon be expanded to be an entire resource library for each component of the hosting business. There will be recommendations for everything ranging from what type of billing software to use to how to market the services. We have the business of putting others into the hosting business down to an art. We coined the phrase "Reseller Accounts" and ours are, by far, the best all-around package out there. The work we've put in to make it the best program is time they save. No one complains about that. Most companies who want to profit by reselling web hosting accounts are developers and web designers who have numerous clients. How does reselleraccounts.com help this group in dealing with their client base? Our reseller program is designed to put people into business for themselves. We walk them through step-by-step, holding their hand each step of the way. Their success is important to us. The program is perfect for developers and web designers. Their clients have the benefit of working with one company for design and hosting. From their viewpoint, C I Host and their developer work together seamlessly. The only part they don't know about is our true identity. We act as their developer's support staff in email and by toll-free telephone. This is how we make it so easy for people to start their own hosting company. They spend their time doing what they do best and we take care of supporting their hosting clients. We provide to them the same quality service and support we offer our own customers. In doing so, we become part of their company, acting as representatives and making them look more reputable. They have the power of our entire company's resources - our redundant bandwidth, our huge 24x7 support staff, and each feature we offer our own clients, without the enormous cost it would require to provide it themselves. Hosting resellers are seeing a number of "brand building" programs emerging, such as your Premier Identity program, which allows resellers to look like they "own an entire hosting company." Is this the way of the future for large resellers? Anonymous reseller programs are highly sought-after by people who want to appear that they are independent. For most resellers their "independence" is their credibility. Large resellers have the fear of being exposed since the public has given the word "reseller" a bad connotation. Most resellers have to go to their provider for support and then relay the answer back to their client, causing a huge delay in turn-around time for support requests. Their client suffers. This is not the case for our resellers. We take care of all support requests for them. We are completely anonymous to their clients, making them look larger and keeping their clients happy. By setting up such a program for themselves, they actually save money. Most can't afford all of the startup costs involved. They are able to maintain all credibility with their own name servers, their own toll-free telephone number, and solid technical support. A number of people have expressed concern over the growth of reseller programs which "hide" the fact that a developer is still a reseller. What policies can website hosting companies take to prevent the growth of this? <%getBannerByGroup("bottom_main")%> The problem comes in when a reseller acts like a reseller and not like a true hosting company. If they do not adhere to the standards of their fellow hosting companies, then they are simply peddling IP addresses. To raise standards among resellers, we simply educate them to better their services and make their product unique. As with our resellers, their companies tend to strive to give quality customer service and timely assistance. There will always be people who criticize reselling but most of ours find reselling for C I Host something to be proud of. We are providing the support, while they give them face-to-face individual care. It's the perfect combination for many, which explains the success of our resellers. What about web designers, are there efforts they can make while not risk losing business to customers who wish to purchase only from end-providers? Web designers have no problem marketing their design and hosting packages. Most people prefer to receive individual care and get all of their services from one firm. With our ability to resell dial-up access and hosting, our resellers are able to offer an unbelievable product - the entire package. To their clients, they are using an end provider. The resellers are almost a representative of our company in the sense that we are providing support while they concentrate on selling and caring for their customers. Frequently, there are two groups of customers who are mentioned as users of reseller programs. First, those companies who wish to become hosting firms in their ownself and provide services to others. Second, those customers who design websites for clients and require hosting without investing in their own servers. How do these two groups have different needs and how are companies such as reselleraccounts.com dealing with this issue? Each reseller has his own unique needs, depending on how in-depth they want to take their services. Some have little desire to hide the fact that they are a reseller and for others, it is vital that they do so. For this reason, we have developed two types of reseller packages at reselleraccounts.com. Our exclusive Premiere Identity Reseller (PIR) package includes personalized name servers, unique toll-free support phone numbers staffed around the clock by expert CI engineers, guaranteed four hour turn-around time for account setups and email, and the ability to combine hosting with private label dial-up services in 350 cities nationwide. The PIR is most likely a person going into business for himself, using the account as a stepping-stone to learning the hosting business before investing in the cost of a staff, servers, routers, and bandwidth. We also offer a less intensive program, the Standard Reseller, which includes anonymous name servers and anonymous toll free technical support numbers. All of our accounts come with generous packages, features, and prices, so our resellers have no problem selling them. They become a responsible hosting company. There are a number of issues to look at when selecting a web hosting company whose services you intend to resell. What advice can you offer to web developers with respect to what to look for and what to avoid when finding a web hosting provider? It is always wise to avoid any host that requires their resellers to prepay pre-pay on anything more than a monthly term. Make sure that you look up and verify, if possible, their physical location (avoid any host that only lists a post office box), their phone number, hours of operation, toll free support, support hours of operation, email response time guarantee, uptime guarantee, at least two diverse backbones, diesel generators in case of power loss, and daily back-ups. Always make sure you read their policies thoroughly and ask questions if you need clarification. It's best to know everything up front. You certainly don't want any surprises. Things to consider about a host are their reputation, the size of their client base, their support capabilities, their features and packages (and whether they suit your needs), a money back guarantee, a toll-free support phone number, and large back-end connections. See how flexible they are; can they make you a custom package? One of the most important is whether they have TRUE 24x7 toll free support. Many say they do, but I would advise everyone to check it - call all hours of night and day, ask questions to make sure the staff is knowledgable and friendly. The little details are what will make your life as a reseller so much easier.