sitebuilder is in trial mode when used as demo. does that mean that it's entirely free and functional once you purchased at hostgator?

i will have to try this.

@ TheRookie

Are you sure? Why I can use Hostgator without any hassle? Can someone confirm this?

Why don't you just rent a server and give hosting service to the customers. Give newspaper ads as "Free website to whom rents a host". By this way if they cancel the host, they can't get the files

Originally Posted by karum

Why don't you just rent a server and give hosting service to the customers. Give newspaper ads as "Free website to whom rents a host". By this way if they cancel the host, they can't get the files

ok, rent a server. Any recommendations on this? Something that won't be that expensive and you'd be able to maintain it

Originally Posted by Lombi

Dreamhost has a good affiliate program as well - you can give discounts but you earn 100$ per customer.

I second dreamhost, I have used them for years and no problems whatsoever. I have a hostgator account and it is great for hosting some of my sites, but I am not sure about the affiliate program.

If you get ripped off just sue them guys. Lawsuits tend to iron out things pretty quickly.

I doubt this method sounds like it will work and 400-500 customers a month is complete BS.

no, this is very possible! Who doesn't want to get their own website for free? All they need is a little fee and a little effort to join at any web hosting that will give you the money.

Originally Posted by dunk3r23

ok, rent a server. Any recommendations on this? Something that won't be that expensive and you'd be able to maintain it

hostgator's reseller account is good... have had it for a long time now.. $25/m.. so its cheap too!

This sounds like a great money maker...even if you only did 10 or 15 a month...

I have a question though...if you do it via the reseller account option...do you then have to host on your system? or is it on the HG site?

Sorry if that's a newb question...but just trying to get my head straight on that issue...

Thanks OP!

Originally Posted by mistressscarlett

This sounds like a great money maker...even if you only did 10 or 15 a month...

I have a question though...if you do it via the reseller account option...do you then have to host on your system? or is it on the HG site?

Sorry if that's a newb question...but just trying to get my head straight on that issue...

Thanks OP!

its on the HG servers... thats what servers are for!

u'll rent out the servers from HG.. n it will be on them

Anyone have experiences with bluehost, Yahoo Small Business or other hosting affiliates besides HostGator. I am thinking of doing this on a wide scale and in reading, it seems HostGator gets very suspicious if you send too many affiliate referrals in a short amount of time.

Originally Posted by berrycorp

hostgator's reseller account is good... have had it for a long time now.. $25/m.. so its cheap too!

well I have seen that, but it's 99$ for 100Gb of space and 700GB for bandwidth. This means I need at least 40 customers to start making money. Sounds shitty so far, unless there is a better webhost reseller or someone has better idea.

I've used BlueHost's affiliate program in the past and haven't had any problems with them paying me.

Code:

https://www.bluehost.com/cgi-bin/partner/

If you wanted to go the reseller route, what method do you use to ensure monthly payments? I think if they have paypal you can set up recurring payments but if not, what's the best way to make sure they pay after the 1st month? (short of holding the site hostage)?

^You just put them on a paypal subscription plan. Even better if you have a paypal terminal account, that way they can pay you and they dont have have a paypal account.

Question about resellers....if I get a reseller account on hostgator, host gator will still handle all of the support, right?

ResellerZoom.com offer end user support on advanced plans!

Originally Posted by dunk3r23

well I have seen that, but it's 99$ for 100Gb of space and 700GB for bandwidth. This means I need at least 40 customers to start making money. Sounds shitty so far, unless there is a better webhost reseller or someone has better idea.

huh?? 40???

well its business websites.. they wont get more than 30-40 visitors a month... u can run a 1000 off this thing... n hey i thought u guys planned charging $10/m

so its only 3 i think!

Originally Posted by jsurya

As, this is exactly what people doing like this, check this site..

Code:

affiliatejunktion.com

got registered in this site and the autoresponder email says,


I checked the hosting link in the email, its an affiliate link and the hosting site pays $75 per referral... so, just giving away $2 per referral and they earns $75 from the hosting... if anyone wants to try out this, check this site and get more idea..

Could you please just provide the web hosting company name?

why not just set-up a reseller club account. That way you use their store front under your own domain, you can set your own pricing and all you got to do is top up your account from time to time. All payments go directly into you Paypal. That way not only will you get the hosting and be able to charge whatever you want, you will also get the domain registration.

So you dont need to tell the person you are doing the site for that you own the hosting site. You just push it as recommendation. Or you can set-up a few domains with reseller club and then give them all of them as a recommendation and it will look like you are being unbiase! more chance to convert. Or... you just make it part of the deal, that they much sign up to your hosting!

Anyone tried the advertsing yet?

>I've used BlueHost's affiliate program in the past and haven't had any problems with them paying me.

Cool, thanks. I target a bunch of small-and-midsized businesses - many of whom don't have websites. So I'm trying to pin down a few web host affiliates that work. I'll try BlueHost out.

G0daddy has a reseller program that pays well

So ok,

- The plan is to put up adds offering a free web site.
- For them to get this web site they have to use a hosting service you recommend.
- When they order your hosting - you make them a web page (using Joomla or wordpress or other quick idea to web product).
- you get money from the hosting company 85-150$.

Ideally you never touch a line of code -but froward this work onto outsourced labor for 15$ a site, in addition this requires your client (sucker) to buy hosting (4-10 a month).

Some things to conceder.
1. Be sure to tell them how many pages max (example 4 pages -home-about-contact-information) You can add more for 10$ a page.
2. Make sure to mention no e commerce ability's or you can add it for 50$
3. Be sure to tell them that the page is given to them "as is" and you are not responsible for updating or web administrating it.
4. if you do this yourself and not out source it, spend no more then 2 hours per site.
5. Make sure to say in your email that - 'They are responsible (spelling and grammar) for all content, you are just posting it. -in addition they must provide all the content when they email you.

In addition I recommend using Word press for this idea. You can just point them to the wordpress templates page and tell them you can use any of the templates on their. Also their are many free manuals for new bee's to get versed in WP you can give to your clients with the keys to the site.

Other Ideas,
- You can say that you will place one small add on their page to make back your money or addsense add.
- Add in an Iframe to the footer that links to a page you can cookie stuff if you need to.


I like this idea and will start up a operation later on this week.
Thanks for the idea~!

Solid approach. One question. When you design the site- where do you host it? I'm assuming the client has not paid for the hosting by now- he will want to see the site live first. And then if the client buys the hosting package, do you transfer the files and set it up there; or does the client do that themselves.

Again, love the idea!

Originally Posted by 1mill_soon

So ok,

- The plan is to put up adds offering a free web site.
- For them to get this web site they have to use a hosting service you recommend.
- When they order your hosting - you make them a web page (using Joomla or wordpress or other quick idea to web product).
- you get money from the hosting company 85-150$.

Ideally you never touch a line of code -but froward this work onto outsourced labor for 15$ a site, in addition this requires your client (sucker) to buy hosting (4-10 a month).

Some things to conceder.
1. Be sure to tell them how many pages max (example 4 pages -home-about-contact-information) You can add more for 10$ a page.
2. Make sure to mention no e commerce ability's or you can add it for 50$
3. Be sure to tell them that the page is given to them "as is" and you are not responsible for updating or web administrating it.
4. if you do this yourself and not out source it, spend no more then 2 hours per site.
5. Make sure to say in your email that - 'They are responsible (spelling and grammar) for all content, you are just posting it. -in addition they must provide all the content when they email you.

In addition I recommend using Word press for this idea. You can just point them to the wordpress templates page and tell them you can use any of the templates on their. Also their are many free manuals for new bee's to get versed in WP you can give to your clients with the keys to the site.

Other Ideas,
- You can say that you will place one small add on their page to make back your money or addsense add.
- Add in an Iframe to the footer that links to a page you can cookie stuff if you need to.


I like this idea and will start up a operation later on this week.
Thanks for the idea~!

Originally Posted by berrycorp

huh?? 40???

well its business websites.. they wont get more than 30-40 visitors a month... u can run a 1000 off this thing... n hey i thought u guys planned charging $10/m

so its only 3 i think!

maybe it's a good point. but I don't like hostgator reseller. Also we may ask for 3 month upfront payment. Getting a business model here

Originally Posted by jagrmeister721

Solid approach. One question. When you design the site- where do you host it? I'm assuming the client has not paid for the hosting by now- he will want to see the site live first. And then if the client buys the hosting package, do you transfer the files and set it up there; or does the client do that themselves.

Again, love the idea!

How could you create them a website with no hosting. As far as I got this, ask them to buy hosting and give you the password. As soon as you finish it, show them what you came up with. Hopefully makes sense

Hi,

Firstly, I think you need your own reseller hosting account. You can get one of these from ResellerZoom.com for around $6.00 per month. This will allow you to host around 200 accounts all with there own cPanel. I'm certain that these customers won't be using much webspace or bandwidth so the basic $6.00 per month account WILL be fine. You can obviously upgrade on ResellerZoom.com as you expand.

Now for for your advertisment. I'm going to suggest A4 sized adverts with black text saying something along the lines of this:

Get your own website!

We will create a website for you. Take advantage of the world wide web.

Call us on 07727 888 888
Or visit www.yoursite.com

More and more people are using the Internet everyday so get in touch soon.
Paul - your@email.com

You want to put these where your desired clientele will see them but you don't want any hassle from the local authorities. I suggest college campuses (the meeting areas, foyers etc..), sports centres, village notice boards etc..

Of course, after reading the $2,000 membership site plan on here, there is the business card idea - this is where you order a few thousand business cards, get some plastic holders and place them in certain shops, community centres and any other places that could have business cards on the side. The advantage of the business cards is that they will actually take them home and be able to remember the contact details.

As for the domain, something simple that an average member of the public would understand i.e. getawebsite.com, paulswebsites.ccom, superwebsites.com, yourwebsite.com etc.. could work best. Maybe even something 'designs' i.e. paulsdesigns.com, superdesigns.com or 'paulonline.com'.. have a think!

Now, after putting the adverts up you're pretty much guaranteed to get a few people either do the following

- call you up
- view your website
- email you

Ideally you want them to call you up. When they call you need to explain that its a special offer and that you will set up a website for them, and when they are happy they even get a free .com domain name (on the phone call say to them "so if you wanted a personal site with your own stuff on it you could have -inserttherename-.com or if this is for a business or business idea? you could have -yourbusinessname-.com.".

They'll like the idea of you doing the website and you paying for the domain name. But will obviously ask what the catch is... so you need to say something along the lines of "well you just pay for the hosting, which is just $11 per month". Obviously you need to try different price ranges.

If they sound unsure say "this is a special offer, and we won't be doing it this cheap again"

And also throw in "and as a January special offer we're throwing in free email installation, so you can have yourname@yourwebsite.com, this is really good as its hosted onine, you can check it anywhere, even on your phone"

Setting this professional e-mail on Google Apps is easy.

If they're ready to go ahead send them to a domain on your site www.url.com/start

On this page have the following form inputs:

- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- E-mail

- What would you like your domain name to be?
(Note: this must be a .com, these are the most used and most professional)

- Is your site personal or business?
- Do you agree to the following terms?

- Terms go here: you need info such as if they fail to pay the $9 then you can take there website down and you own there domain name. you also need to state that after 1 year they need to renew the domain name at there own cost.

Then have a submit form that takes them to a 10 day free trial followed by the $9 a month recurring billing.

The best thing to do is walk them through this 'start' process page over the phone so that you can explain the 10 days is for you to get the website up to there standards.

One of my friends now sends a contract to them by mail, gets them to sign it and send it back. I'm not sure if this is needed.

Once that is all processed you now need to work on the site.

Just create an account in WHM, then install Wordpress with Fantastico, find a theme, go to settings and put a page as front page, then perhaps use the blog as an 'updates' or 'news' feature. Ask for any info off your client, ask them to email text and images etc..

Now make a page on your site www.url.com/therename and have a welcome text intro, now give the link to there site and also below that a quick 3 minute Camtasia video that goes to there site, logs in, edits some texts on some pages, perhaps adds an image and updates the blog and then logs out and checks the changes.

Ask them if they are happy. If they are then say you will register the domain and set up there professional e-mail on the 10th day. This way you get the money for the domain name if they decide they don't want to go ahead (and unfortunately it does happen).

Once everything is set up they should be happy to continue paying your set fee every month. If they ask to cancel say they lose control of the domain name which is stated in the agreement and will not be able access to there email. If they ask to move say they can have access to there domain in 12 months.

They SHOULD be happy with your service so whenever they get in touch ask them to recommend a friend. You can even put your site url on the footer text.

Your website. This should be a quick sales page explaining the offer, I have actually just forwarded it to the /start bit but perhaps a quick sales page would work better?

As for the figures.. We charge $11 per month. My friend runs everything and I just set up the websites for him. The stats when we started were...

Day 10 - 3 customers
Day 20 - 10 customers
Day 30 - 35 customers
Day 40 - 67 customers
Day 50 - 93 customers
Day 60 - 145 customers
Day 70 - 177 customers
Day 80 - 211 customers
Day 90 - 268 customers

3 months in at a rate of 3 new sign ups per day the small hosting business is earning $2948 a month.

In another 90 days at the same rate.
Day 180 - 536 customers = $5896 a month

And these figures are obtainable! Any opinions would be greatly recieved!

The great thing about this MODEL and THREAD is that we are NOT in competition with each other. We can help each other GETTING THE SALES and KEEPING THE CUSTOMER HAPPY and MAKING MAXIMUM REVENUE by SHARING cost cutting info!

yah, that sounds more then inspiring. I'm starting putting up everything today. In my country not that many people have their own websites, so I expect over 1000 sites, but gonna suck to create them

Originally Posted by jaymartins

Hi,

Firstly, I think you need your own reseller hosting account. You can get one of these from ResellerZoom.com for around $6.00 per month. This will allow you to host around 200 accounts all with there own cPanel. I'm certain that these customers won't be using much webspace or bandwidth so the basic $6.00 per month account WILL be fine. You can obviously upgrade on ResellerZoom.com as you expand.

Now for for your advertisment. I'm going to suggest A4 sized adverts with black text saying something along the lines of this:



You want to put these where your desired clientele will see them but you don't want any hassle from the local authorities. I suggest college campuses (the meeting areas, foyers etc..), sports centres, village notice boards etc..

Of course, after reading the $2,000 membership site plan on here, there is the business card idea - this is where you order a few thousand business cards, get some plastic holders and place them in certain shops, community centres and any other places that could have business cards on the side. The advantage of the business cards is that they will actually take them home and be able to remember the contact details.

As for the domain, something simple that an average member of the public would understand i.e. getawebsite.com, paulswebsites.ccom, superwebsites.com, yourwebsite.com etc.. could work best. Maybe even something 'designs' i.e. paulsdesigns.com, superdesigns.com or 'paulonline.com'.. have a think!

Now, after putting the adverts up you're pretty much guaranteed to get a few people either do the following

- call you up
- view your website
- email you

Ideally you want them to call you up. When they call you need to explain that its a special offer and that you will set up a website for them, and when they are happy they even get a free .com domain name (on the phone call say to them "so if you wanted a personal site with your own stuff on it you could have -inserttherename-.com or if this is for a business or business idea? you could have -yourbusinessname-.com.".

They'll like the idea of you doing the website and you paying for the domain name. But will obviously ask what the catch is... so you need to say something along the lines of "well you just pay for the hosting, which is just $11 per month". Obviously you need to try different price ranges.

If they sound unsure say "this is a special offer, and we won't be doing it this cheap again"

And also throw in "and as a January special offer we're throwing in free email installation, so you can have yourname@yourwebsite.com, this is really good as its hosted onine, you can check it anywhere, even on your phone"

Setting this professional e-mail on Google Apps is easy.

If they're ready to go ahead send them to a domain on your site www.url.com/start

On this page have the following form inputs:

- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- E-mail

- What would you like your domain name to be?
(Note: this must be a .com, these are the most used and most professional)

- Is your site personal or business?
- Do you agree to the following terms?

- Terms go here: you need info such as if they fail to pay the $9 then you can take there website down and you own there domain name. you also need to state that after 1 year they need to renew the domain name at there own cost.

Then have a submit form that takes them to a 10 day free trial followed by the $9 a month recurring billing.

The best thing to do is walk them through this 'start' process page over the phone so that you can explain the 10 days is for you to get the website up to there standards.

One of my friends now sends a contract to them by mail, gets them to sign it and send it back. I'm not sure if this is needed.

Once that is all processed you now need to work on the site.

Just create an account in WHM, then install Wordpress with Fantastico, find a theme, go to settings and put a page as front page, then perhaps use the blog as an 'updates' or 'news' feature. Ask for any info off your client, ask them to email text and images etc..

Now make a page on your site www.url.com/therename and have a welcome text intro, now give the link to there site and also below that a quick 3 minute Camtasia video that goes to there site, logs in, edits some texts on some pages, perhaps adds an image and updates the blog and then logs out and checks the changes.

Ask them if they are happy. If they are then say you will register the domain and set up there professional e-mail on the 10th day. This way you get the money for the domain name if they decide they don't want to go ahead (and unfortunately it does happen).

Once everything is set up they should be happy to continue paying your set fee every month. If they ask to cancel say they lose control of the domain name which is stated in the agreement and will not be able access to there email. If they ask to move say they can have access to there domain in 12 months.

They SHOULD be happy with your service so whenever they get in touch ask them to recommend a friend. You can even put your site url on the footer text.

Your website. This should be a quick sales page explaining the offer, I have actually just forwarded it to the /start bit but perhaps a quick sales page would work better?

As for the figures.. We charge $11 per month. My friend runs everything and I just set up the websites for him. The stats when we started were...

Day 10 - 3 customers
Day 20 - 10 customers
Day 30 - 35 customers
Day 40 - 67 customers
Day 50 - 93 customers
Day 60 - 145 customers
Day 70 - 177 customers
Day 80 - 211 customers
Day 90 - 268 customers

3 months in at a rate of 3 new sign ups per day the small hosting business is earning $2948 a month.

In another 90 days at the same rate.
Day 180 - 536 customers = $5896 a month

And these figures are obtainable! Any opinions would be greatly recieved!

The great thing about this MODEL and THREAD is that we are NOT in competition with each other. We can help each other GETTING THE SALES and KEEPING THE CUSTOMER HAPPY and MAKING MAXIMUM REVENUE by SHARING cost cutting info!

Dreamhost gives you $97 for new sign ups - that pretty good too!

Originally Posted by plokij

Dreamhost gives you $97 for new sign ups - that pretty good too!

check out justho$t @ CJ

i dont quite understand about the domain?

we buy domain for customer in same hosting company?

cheers,

Originally Posted by backpackets

i dont quite understand about the domain?

we buy domain for customer in same hosting company?

cheers,

usually when customer buys hosting he is required to buy the domain

As an alternative to putting all your eggs with HG or your own hosting, you could spread the hosting referrals across a few hosting companies so you'll never lose too much.

My sense is there are two ways to do this on the hosting side:
1. Buy a reseller account like Jaymartins explains above and sell them hosting where you collect from them directly.
2. Host it at some temporary site you own- and hand-off the website on condition they get a hosting account at HostGator, BlueHost, or whomever and pocket the affiliate cash.

What about HostGator Reseller hosting plan instead of resellerzoom.com?

I see a big difference in price and we all know they have really good support.

Can someone give an example of their pitch page where they are giving away a free website.

that's real original... i might just do that, thanks a lot. it's stuff like this that keeps me comin back here.

Originally Posted by jag1650

Can someone give an example of their pitch page where they are giving away a free website.

This is what you do: Set up an ebay auction with a fixed price and run it for 7 days (.50 cent auction fees). Already have the site set up. Then require the buyer to sign up for hosting if they win when they do, ftp the site to them.

There are lots of free scripts out there, so you do not have to use a "stolen" one on bhw so to keep yourself safe.

berrycorp,

Thanks for the GREAT share. Definitely worth a try. And thanks to all the follow-up contributors there is plenty of info to use and put in place. And I really like the idea of this being a shared and joint effort of helping each other instead of being a competition of who can do it first and best.

Regards,
ironlifter76

This method is excellent because it is highly profitable and benefits both parties. This is exactly what I really wanted to find. Now...to make it more blackhat...require the clients to signup on your design page to multiple CPA offers..."just one more offer...oh no just one more..."

Originally Posted by jagrmeister721

Solid approach. One question. When you design the site- where do you host it? I'm assuming the client has not paid for the hosting by now- he will want to see the site live first. And then if the client buys the hosting package, do you transfer the files and set it up there; or does the client do that themselves.

Again, love the idea!

Shouldn't really be a problem. Simply make it a subdomain of one of your websites. You can then show him a "live" site of what it will look like.

Depending upon what kind of site you're selling -- it should be a simple matter to upload the site to his host once he sets it up.

Be sure to stress FIVE CRITICAL BENEFITS to them:
1) Free PROFESSIONAL website (value $???)
2) Free PROFESSIONAL installation (value $45)
3) Free CUSTOM email ($15)
4) Free DISCOUNT coupon for a domain (10% savings)
5. ???

If you have more benefits then pile them on. This way when you ask him to sign up for hosting service it doesn't sound like to ask for him to get a hosting service. After all you're giving so much and asking for so little.

They're going to ask you WHY are you giving away the websites? If they're so valuable why give them away?

Here's a good answer...

"We don't usually do this I just hired a new web designer and I want to give them some good on the job experience. But don't worry, I'm going to be personally reviewing each site and make sure it's perfect before we hand it over to you. Fair enough?"

Now, I'm curious because I don't think it's been mentioned here -- how are you collecting your money? Are you waiting for them to send you a check? (Not a good idea because this is an impulse buy) Accepting credit cards? I think the noobs would be curious about getting paid.

If you find this useful please give THANKS ====>

I just thought of one issue, the legal rights to use the templates...how do you get around this?

Um well...this is an old idea and plenty of local small website designer already do this since like more than a decade ago...but through their own servers (which in the long run will be wayy more profitable these n00b customers will stay with you for years to come).

However, fast forward to 2009, I'm not sure if the majority of people are in this "n00b" range anymore...I mean, talk about the boom of Social Networking sites and their own page. Instead of creating their own site, now they can blog at blogger for example. Which in the past 1 site = 1 blog = bring in 1 x unit-revenue, now it's all free.

Well let's just hope there's still some n00b people out there to take advantage of...

Originally Posted by lelouch vi britannia

Um well...this is an old idea and plenty of local small website designer already do this since like more than a decade ago...but through their own servers (which in the long run will be wayy more profitable these n00b customers will stay with you for years to come).

However, fast forward to 2009, I'm not sure if the majority of people are in this "n00b" range anymore...I mean, talk about the boom of Social Networking sites and their own page. Instead of creating their own site, now they can blog at blogger for example. Which in the past 1 site = 1 blog = bring in 1 x unit-revenue, now it's all free.

Well let's just hope there's still some n00b people out there to take advantage of...

that also depends on a country. Not everyone is from US here....

Also ask your customers to signup with their 1st month Free coupon code freetrial. They will only have to pay $0.01 for the first month and then $9.99 everymonth.

Cheers