When you’ve got a studio full of hard-working people to pay, keeping those big creative projects coming in can be pretty nerve-wracking. But, amid the whirlwind of pitches, pressure, and unpredictability, becoming a hosting reseller can help you secure a low-effort income, month in, month out.
The trouble with exciting projects is they can be pretty sporadic. Yes, the right ones come with a tidy profit, but knowing when the next one’s coming can be a bit like looking in a crystal ball. They drop out of the blue, you all rush around, they’re done, you’re quiet, repeat. And when you’re in charge of paying the wages, that’s a constant worry.
For digital agencies, keeping a steady cash flow coming in isn’t easy. But by finding clever ways to secure regular, reliable monthly income, you can relieve the pressure without too much extra work. And one of the simplest places to start is getting smarter about reseller hosting.
Become a hosting reseller
If you’ve got a studio full of website design and build projects, you’re probably talking to hosting providers all the time. That might even include paying the provider on your client’s behalf and billing them for the cost of your creative work. If that’s how you roll, great – you’re already a hosting reseller! But are you missing out on an opportunity to make a profit?
Handling hosting for your clients isn’t a huge deal, but it’s not nothing either. You’ll regularly spend time talking to the hosting provider, ironing out problems, and managing your clients’ websites. Time you should be getting paid for, every single month.
Create a great-value client bundle including reseller hosting
Many of the agencies we work with at Nimbus, bundle hosting into a monthly management and maintenance package. Saving their client’s time and freeing them up to get on with what they do best – which generally isn’t sorting out hosting.
These agencies are able to choose their own markup structure, balancing good value for their clients with a regular monthly income. Helping cover their work and keeping their cash flow healthy. If that’s something you’d like to get set up, we’re really happy to help – contact our sales team today.
Even if your clients work directly with their hosting provider, you can still offer to take hosting off their hands. Let them know it’ll cost a little more, but you’ll look after everything, becoming the first point of contact for any issues. There’s every chance they’ll be happy to pay the extra, just to know you’ve got it covered.
Here are a few aspects that can help with the upsell:
- Keeping your clients’ domains under wraps, making sure they’re up to date and renewed
- Managing plugins, themes, and website versions
- Maintaining SSL Certificates and having security measures in place
- Daily offsite backups of their site and offering restore’s when needed
These are all aspects of hosting that you manage, without even batting an eye-lid. So why not bring that to the forefront of your offering?
Make the most of your agency’s retainers.
Use our insight report to help you reimagine your retainers and raise your profits.Offer more, every time you pitch
When you’re happy looking after hosting for your current clients, you can start talking about it to new clients too. Winning new website projects might well be even easier if you can say you’ll handle hosting as part of the package – and make prospective clients’ lives that bit easier.
We regularly help agencies put together proposals and support them in delivering a whole range of services, so if you need some help, just ask.
Reap more rewards with referrals
Whether you become a hosting reseller or not, you can still generate low-effort, ongoing cash by referring clients to a hosting provider you really rate. Putting them in touch with a great team means you’ll be getting in their good books, and potentially tapping into some valuable rewards.
How? Well, a lot of hosting providers offer financial rewards to agencies that bring them new clients. From one-off payments to a regular percentage of the money, they make from that client in the future. Every hosting provider does it a little differently, so it’s worth talking it through and finding an approach you’re happy with.
Unsure whether a reseller plan is right for your business? See how reseller hosting compares to affiliate programs.
