Reseller web hosting can be a great way to earn some extra money on the side for your business or even a full time job once you get into it. Though this can be a great way to do business, it can come with some UN-foreseen downsides, headaches and a whole lot more. Not to say that you can’t be successful at it, but you must first take the steps to assure that down the road it doesn’t ruin your business.

An important part when dealing with reseller hosting is that some of the control has been taking out of your hands. This is important because you have to trust in the company you are doing business with and this limits to some things you can do.

How much uptime and downtime you have is really not for you to decide, as you are not the one looking over the server. The company you are going through may not be as professional as you and they figure what is a few hours of waiting to get your site up, Right? Wrong! The worse thing I have seen is sites going down and when you go to that company’s website that you do business with, all you think is ‘oh my, their site is down too and I can’t get in touch with them’. This can cause allot of headaches for your and your clients; it can even cost your business.

The best thing to do before going with a hosting company is to get a list of reference sites if you can, to see if they go down. Also watch the company’s site you are planning to go with and see if it ever goes down. If so, how quick does it come back up? Another great thing to do is ask around, if the company has good or bad service, then there will be people out there to comment on this, trust me. Also don’t be afraid to email those people who had a problem with that hosting company and ask them what exactly happened.

Also when dealing with a company, make sure they offer a good list of services and features that you can offer to your clients. Check with them to see how flexible they are with different scenarios as well as adding on new features. Remember a good company with go the extra mile to show you that they can be trusted.