If you are looking to add web hosting to your service options as a web-based service provider you might be stuck deciding between reseller web hosting or affiliate web hosting. Each have their distinct pros and cons but each have their place depending on what your goal is with the service. First lets look at what exact they each are and when you should consider them.

Affiliate web hosting

Affiliate hosting is when you sign up as an affiliate – or someone who refers customers for a commission – with a web host and simply send traffic or leads to their website. When one of these leads signs up as a customer, you earn a commission. The more you refer, typically, the higher your commissions will be per sale.

This type of hosting is great for people that:

  • Are looking to offer hosting as a service but do not want to deal with the customers themselves
  • Gain the trust of their readers or visitors easily and are comfortable referring them to a specific service
  • Are looking to add a little low-maintenance income to their online earnings portfolio

This type of business is very low-maintenance and is perfect for web master that have websites that are authorities in their industry. If you have the trust of your readers and can recommend a specific service you are able to make decent month this way. Instead of saying “sign up for web hosting” you simply recommend that they “sign up for web hosting at [my affiliate web host].”

Reseller Web Hosting

This type of web hosting is much more popular among web designers and developers that are looking to expand their service offerings. By offering an ongoing web hosting service not only will you potentially increase your revenue, but you also stay in touch with your customer and build an ongoing relationship.

The downside to reseller web hosting, is that for the most part you will be the primary contact with the client in the event that something is wrong with their web hosting – even when sometimes you won’t have all the solutions.

This type of hosting typically starts around $15 per month with the ability to manage and add/remove your own clients within a hosting environment. The great thing about this service is that when need be, you can scale your business and hosting needs with VPS hosting or a dedicated server when you outgrow your shared reseller package at very little extra cost.

This type of hosting is great for those that:

  • Want to stay connected with their clients on a monthly basis
  • Are more technically-inclined and are not afraid of doing a little troubleshooting
  • Already offer web-based services to clients surrounding design or development

Regardless of whether you are looking to setup an affiliate account or sign up for reseller web hosting, we can help you out. Click on the website hosting link at the top of this page for more information on our affiliate and reseller plans.