how much to charge

**Cloud** · 24 August 2010, 06:50 PM

Thanks Chris

Some great advice there and you've brought out some issues I had not even thought about. This got me thinking, Is it even worth arranging the hosting for my customers at all given some of the hassles. Alot of my clients are new to websites and most don't even know that they need web hosting or how it works, so they pretty much all ask me what the best host is. so far I have pointed them to 123-reg and usually sit down with the client in my office and go through the purchase of the hosting and domain and sort out the emails etc. given this would I be better just going with someone like ipage, who are giving $115 dollars per click though from my website (obviously the customer must make a purchase). So I thought I would just sit down with the customer and go to my site and click through the banner to ipage and get the customer to purchase their domain and hosting. I have been told by ipage that they are happy with this as long as each purchase is done using the customer's credit/debit card.

What do you think to this, is it worth going down this route?

Thanks again

Kash

**ChrisBro** · 24 August 2010, 07:49 PM

Hi Kash

You could do that, you would be kind of an affiliate for them so you would earn the 1 time comission and $115 is not a bad rate at all, it could be one option for sure.

All depends how confident you feel in running your own servers, chances are you wil still have the same responsibility and be the first port of call from the client point of view as and when things go wrong, then you have to try and communicate with Ipage on behalf of your client so could get a bit messy, all depeds on the type of service you are offering, if it basically web design then it is the clients responsibility to arrange hosting, probably from a reccomendation from you it really is swing and roundabouts.

I host all my own client sites purely because it is enough of a moneyspinner to cover the cost of my servers completely and a little profit to boot, I rarely have problems with any of my servers on the very rare ocassion I do I was very careful when initially setting them up to make sure I had excellent 24/7 support, so usually if it not something I can sort out with a re-boot then a simple call or support ticket sorts the problem out generally within the hour, once setup it really is quite automated and runs itself and I end up with a few pounds in my pocket but more imprtantly superior dedicated hosting for my own sites for free

Always nice..................................

You are right though, there is quite a steep learning curve to begin with and it can get a bit hairy if you end up with a not so reliable host, the not so reliable ones generally have crappy support as well, but as said pre-screen send support tickets in as a prospective client asking question and then judge how quick the reply comes back, give them a telephone call asking them to explain things your unsure off again pre-sale you will sonn get a warm feeling or uhhhhhh avoid like the plague.

You could try the Ipage to begin with and as and when you start to expand your portfolio maybe re-think then

Either way best of luck

Chris

**Cloud** · 25 August 2010, 08:08 AM

Thanks Chris!

Will go with ipage for now and see what happens from there.

Kash

**ChrisBro** · 25 August 2010, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by skech

Thanks Chris!

Will go with ipage for now and see what happens from there.

Kash

Hi Kash

That sounds like a plan

It would be worth just to be thorough trying to get Ipage to provide an email confirmation that they are OK with new orders coming from your IP address, I know they have said it is OK as long as the credit card and billing is different but having something in writing from them will make it all the better.

Most affiliate programmes operate on a trust basis, as in you trust the partner to pay you, they generally have a huge page of terms and conditions attached to them and one of the main things they look for from a security point of view is that orders are originating from different IP addresses, especially with such high comissions, I speak from experience with a domain registrar exactly the same situation but once it cam round to being paid the my IP address on every order was a problem, these were a huge company as well and the staff member that told me it was OK........ well nothing in writing so it was un-provable

It was one of the many reasons I decided to configure my own setup.

If all goes well you should do well thats a hell of a comission for hosting

Best of luck

Chris