Copyright 1999 Lonn Dugan, Webmaster, http://orderhost.com

If you read our first article in this series at www.resellerconnection.com, you noticed the subtitle - Making Real Money In a Virtual World. If you missed it, please be sure to follow the link and then come back to this article. Each article is designed to be readable on its own merit for those who are somewhat familiar with computers and the World Wide Web. Beginning netizens will do better if they follow the articles in order. This is article #2 in the series, ResellerConnection.com is the first web portal that caters exclusively and especially to the needs of providers and resellers.

Review
Resellers are persons who are interested in computers and the Internet. Some are one man or woman operations. Some are traditional brick and mortar companies with rent and payroll expenses. All resellers specialize in selling web services. They tend not to be hardware or programming specialists. They may have extensive business experience or sales experience, or they may be young, stay at home moms. Services that can be resold commonly include:

• Web Hosting
• Email hosting
• ListServ servers
• Online applications such as Shopping Cart programs for Internet storefront creation
• Online services such as credit card processing, merchant accounts, credit repair programs, etc.
• Many more

Real Money
The Reselling Industry for web hosting and web services is likely to grow to astronomical proportions in just a few short years. Estimates on the order of "over $10 billion by the year 2002" are posted at www.webhosting.com. This is an "opportunity for resale partnerships that can provide a substantial residual income to any business".

Webstream, Inc., is another provider of services for resellers. Their home page quotes an International Data Corp. statement that, "…web hosting generated over $200 million dollars in 1998 and by the year 2000 they predict over $$$3 billion dollars… ".

Virtualis, Inc., says, "In the past year the World Wide Web has elevated its status from a small graphical portion of the Internet to a global communication highway…" They go on to characterize their reseller program as, "…the center of distribution for the increasing amount of wealth made on the Internet."

Working It
How much money you make as a reseller is up to you. This is not a MLM scheme or a "get rich quick" pipe dream," according to the Global Group, Inc., another source of reseller programs. "You will have to actually put some effort in to the program. Many of our Reselling Agents put in as little as an hour or two a week while others have far surpassed their full time income and devote full time efforts to their Internet business. Obviously, the amount of income derived is in direct relationship to the amount of effort expended on promoting these services." Please mention ResellerConnection.com if you talk to this program provider.

Reselling options
You can sign up with one or more providers. Some providers offer a full line of services, some offer only one or two. It is not usually wise to sign up with competing providers for the same services unless terms vary. Perhaps one has the best entry-level package for small businesses, while another may offer a better high-end package. Resellers can be sales agents - meaning you sell their products under their name - or they can be virtual companies who private label the services they sell under their own company and domain name. With this private label reselling, you put your name on the service and sell it like it was your own. The customer does not have to know you are reselling. But savvy clients may find out, depending on how well the provider protects you from circumvention.

Financial Variations
Some reselling is done on a simple commission basis, with or without residuals. Residuals are smaller incomes received every month your client continues to be a customer of the provider. Some reselling is done under a complete private label arrangement. Some private label programs are so 'turnkey' that they provide support and billing for you. Others provide only the basic service and leave you to handle billing, support, and all other customer issues.

What You Need To Start
A computer, a telephone, an Internet Access account, and will to make it are all you may need to begin building relationships with hardware, software, and service providers. It is best to offer package deals for several related services. That way your offering is unique and better than what any one provider offers. Resellers often create synergies that can be hard to find elsewhere. It's a lot like building a bridge from those who have Internet resources such as hardware or bandwidth to those who don't.

Costs and Prices
The reseller gets a lower than market price due to their ability to bring more than one account to the provider at a low customer acquisition cost. This discount may range from 10% to 30% or more. The reseller adds their markup and bills the customer. Or in some cases, the provider does the billing and provides an email report or a password protected web page that lists your commissions earned until payday. Providers may pay weekly, monthly, or on some other arrangement. Markups may range from 10% to 100% or more depending on terms.

Getting Credit for the Sale
The best way to get credit for the sale is to control the name of the service and all activities. The reseller handles sales, support, and billing while the provider just provides the service with your name on it in a way that cannot be traced. Some providers will sell to anybody who calls them, and will actually try to circumvent your ID code so that your clients can go around you. Make sure there are good anti-circumvention measures in place. This last tip is from Sarah Kanary, a reselling pioneer at Kanary's Web. Sarah was kind enough to provide lots of information about reselling from reseller 's point of view and you will see that information in these articles here at www.resellerconnection.com as the series continues.

How To Find Customers
Are you ready to become a reseller? Visit again ! Additional articles about the web reselling industry will soon be found right here at www.resellerconnection.com. Please visit again as we cover other issues including how to set up the sales part of your reseller organization.

Copyright 1999 Lonn Dugan, all rights reserved. Published with permission by www.resellerconnection.com. Dugan is a freelance journalist, web and print author, webmaster, portal publisher (www.suntanning.com), web services provider, Virtual ISP, and reseller. If your reseller organizations would like to be featured in a future article, please contact Lonn Dugan at BIG Design, 734-854-4558 for consideration. Dugan is available for consultation, web development, public speaking engagements and consultation. Email lonnd@orderhost.com