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The article below offers a
great idea for any business wanting to run multiple
websites. Don’t' forget to arrange web site monitoring
for each one, though, or you might find customers
missing... |
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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.
About The Author
You can freely reprint this article. Just include the
following resource box at the end:
Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net
), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing
articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly
articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.
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