Sh*t Can Happen With Reseller Web Hosting. Take Note! 
Posted by Udegbunam Chukwudi on August - 2 - 2010
Just the other day, I and Iroko of Cheap Laptops were having a conversation, via the comment form, with regards to Eight Small Steps To Being A Great Nigerian Web Host when Bryan of Do It Yourself Printed Circuit Boards, stepped in and left a comment that was just too good to be left as a comment.
I felt I had to share his story with you guys. For someone like me who had started toying with the idea of generating extra income online as a webhosting reseller, it made me sit back and ponder whether I was about to take on something that was way beyond my capacity.
Here’s Bryan’s comment.
Your comment about webhosts being nothing but resellers struck me.
One factor people should consider before purchasing hosting from a hosting reseller is the reseller’s ability to maintain their account. Last week I read a blog elsewhere depicting a situation where thousands of websites were shut down. The parent hosting company received several cease and desist letters because of piracy on some of the domains hosted in a specific reseller’s account. The parent company decided it was in their best interest to cancel the resellers account, and refund his money. A ton of people were left with their sites shut down and no recourse.
The parent hosting company has no responsibility to the independent site owners whose websites were deleted. They paid their dues by refunding the reseller’s money. The reseller however was treating the money coming in just like a get rich scheme. By failing to police the accounts and shut down websites containing illegal content on his server, he pushed things to the point where everyone lost their web hosting. You can imagine he probably didn’t have backups and I’m sure he didn’t refund the people who got cheated. They can’t even track him down to ask for a refund since his website and email was also on the server that got shut down.
The best web hosting companies have a financial responsibility to their clients. Stay away from resellers who aren’t really committed to the blog owners they lease space to. Stick with a real host.
After analyzing his words and my "make money online goals", I FINALLY made up m mind that being a webhost reseller is just not the business for me.
My true dreams/passion lies in Arts and Entertainment (Music, Film, Runway) and I very much doubt I’ll be able to continue managing a webhosting business when I eventually start living my dreams (that’s of course if they materialize 
).
To webhost resellers out there, take a few minutes to read this as well and ponder. You’re not only responsible for your business but for that of others under your umbrella as well.
Let Bryan’s comment be the 9th small step to being a great web host: IF YOU DON’T HAVE PLANS OF CONTINUING THE BUSINESS FOR LIFE, DON’T START AT ALL UNLESS YOU’RE PREPARED TO MOVE YOUR CLIENTS TO OTHER HOSTS BEFORE PACKING UP!
Once again, thank you Bryan of Circuit Board Prototypes for sharing with us .
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A very good post and so true. Always go with a source you can check out and one which has been up and running for number of years. Ask other people (with busy blogs) who they are hosted by and who they recommended. If you are not sure what you need at the moment go for a free blog (Blogger or WordPress’s free version) and experiment with your project until you are sure.
Bankruptcy, server breakdown or other issues can affect even the big hosts or firms in general, but its just less likely than Ife’s little hosting company in Asaba! Plus big companies in trouble may be rescued by a saviour company, no one is going to save Ife’s company and all your important work.
Always, always always keep a backup of your own material in any case.
And yes, (PH) why get involved in a potentially time consuming project if the potential bottom line is not singing to your ears and your real passion lies elsewhere.
Thanks a million Rosie! You just added more value to this post
. Hmmm! Someone seems to know a few things about Nigeria. Have you ever been to Nigeria before or do you have a Nigerian friend over there?
Nice post really and i think this is very timely for everyone who hopes to set up a website. You see individuals are allowed to own web hosting companies but as you said, they should be ready to go all the way. I started my web hosting business while still in medical school and i am fully aware of the implications to my clients if i choose to move on to something else.
However, there is an excellent model to copy. I have studied what is obtainable in Europe and America. Where a particular web host decides not to go on with the business, the way out is to sell the business to a reputable firm. And like every other acquisition, the reputation of the buyer must be ascertained (though can not be guaranteed).
But rather than just allow the server to expire an your client lose their websites, which i believe only unserious people will do, it makes more sense to sell and move on. I have actually tested this and was amazed at the response. So that is an assurance that, your clients businesses will not be jeopardized if you choose to divest.
The major question is how does one know a serious web hosting company? i wrote something on this some time ago and you may want to learn a few tricks in finding out how to know a serious web hosting company.
Thanks for your contribution. I’d be very happy if you could share the link to that post of yours on finding out how to know a serious web hosting company
In any business, you just have to be able to take some amount of risk, and concerning web hosting reseller business, it is ahuge business that is suppose to be treated like one, it is definitely not a business you can start and stop midway!
Thanks for the added info, I am ready to take the challenge.
Best of luck withe challenge man. May it be fruitful for you all the way
Thanks, am looking forward to acquiring more client and hope to deliver a world-class service!
Here is the link to the post on my page on facebook. Web Hosting in Nigeria
Nice piece but you should know that 2checkout accepts Nigerians oh!
Yes i know. But i’d rather deal with people who will never have cause to decline my transaction.
Like I always say, you can’t blame anybody but our useless jobless brothas and their 419 ways
this is very revealing….bottom line ..it pays to host from the main host providers ..lesson noted…
i have a few blogs hosted on resellers hosting services …but i always BACKUP my blogs automatically ..using a wordpress plugin.
Reseller web hosting might be a good business but you might hurt many people and your reputation if this sort of thing happens
This wordpress plugin you are talking about, does it backup the files apart from the database? If it does, what’s the name please?
This may be good for wordpress only but how about other websites that are not wordpress based?
It’s simple, web hosts should back up their system frequently. But to be on the safe side, website owners should backup their websites if possible download and keep safely offline on a monthly basis.
This again brings up the question of how many website owners know what backup means? We still have a long way to go in this part of the world as corporations hardly have time for that. They think once a web designer finishes and hosts a website, that is all. I know of none who actually contract their designers to manage the websites on a long term basis.
They don’t contract their designers to manage the websites because they’d rather no release the millions they’ve been looting from our coffers.
This is an eye opener,considering the thousand mushroom webhosts springing up here and there in the country,promising cheaper services only to shot down their clients site in the name of bandwidths exhaustion.
@Lynx,
Bandwidth exhaustion is a viable excuse as you should only use what you paid for. However, when this happens the website is not just shot down but you notice that usually it displays that you have exhausted your bandwidth. This will reset to zero at the end of the month and the website comes back on until it is exhausted again.
In cases where the website may be totally shot down, it could be that the users traffic keeps increasing every month and uses up bandwidth in the parent server that it begins to affect other users who are also on the same server (Shared server/colocation). Where the website owner fails to pay up for extra bandwidth, you can not blame the web hosting company for the shot down to protect others.
That is why i said in my article, that people should delete the idea of unlimited bandwidth. It is what the very big web hosting companies use to deceive. There is nothing like that. For example about 90% of websites in Nigeria will not even exhaust 1 GB of bandwidth. So a web hosting company can allocate 100gb to your account and tell you it is unlimited because he knows you will never get new using it up. Until you website becomes very popular, you will never know it wasn’t unlimited.