|
If you operate several websites, each with its own domain
name, signing up of separate hosting accounts can be an expensive proposition.
Even if your hosting company offers the add-on domain feature (which will
allow you to add different domains to the same hosting account) you will
be charged a monthly fee for each domain you add, sometimes costing almost
the same as your full hosting fee.
The
solution is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were created
to allow web designers to offer hosting services to their customers, to
create a one-stop-shop for all their web design and hosting needs. However,
you don't need to be a reseller to buy a reseller hosting plan.
Reseller
accounts are usually slightly more expensive than regular hosting accounts,
but they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring
in the add-on domain fees, making more efficient use of your space and
bandwidth.
You want to choose a reseller account that offers:
- no limit
to the number of domains you can add.
-
the
possibility of hosting your main website free, without using any of
the space and bandwidth in your hosting plan. If you are a reseller,
your main website will be your business website, and the space and
bandwidth will be reserved for your customers. If you are not a reseller
and just want to manage different websites, you can designate one
of your domains as your main website (usually the largest and/or most
popular, since you won't accrue any space or bandwidth for it).
- the
possibility of upgrading to another plan without any penalties or fees.
To
find out how much space and bandwidth you will need, first determine how
many sites you are likely to host, how many pages each site may have,
and how many visits will those sites most likely have. If you plan to
host 10 sites with 20 pages each, at an average of 50KB per page and 100
page views per site per day, you will need 10MB of space (10 x 20 x 50KB)
and 1.5GB of bandwidth per month (10 x 100 x 50KB x 30).
As
far as pricing is concerned, there are reseller accounts costing as little
as $10 / month up to several hundreds (or even thousands). It all depends
on your requirements and the hosting company you choose, so shop around
to get the best possible deal in terms of cost and reliability.
| |