Reseller Questions

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Posted by Bluetin, 12-29-2001, 11:39 AM
I am planning to be a Reseller from 2002(New year resolution) Though I am in Software, I am totally new to this Reseller options and requirements. Please spare me for the silly questions. My questions are Do I need a company (Small Business) to become a Reseller? Which credit card company to use? Do I need a 1 800 number? How do you market your sites? I have used so many search engine promotion sites without any luck for my existing site(www.quesync.com - Not a web hosting site) Any help is appreciated.
Posted by Everyday, 12-29-2001, 11:58 AM
Bluetin, some of our resellers have actual business's or are incorporated. A lot of it depends on the state you are located in. There area ton of merchant account providers out there. you will need a merchant account and some sort of gateway (authoize.net) to process payments via credit card. You do not need an 800 number. I wouldn't recommend getting one until you are large enough to support it. Some say never get one or your phone bills will sky rocket. We've been pretty lucky and have been able to keep ours in check. We've optimized quite a few of our customers sites with web position gold. It works pretty well and gets sites farther up into the standings. Some say sites like overture.com where you pay for position is the way to go. Others say banners or impressions are good also. We get lots of calls from our local yellow page adds. It all depends on what and who you want to market.
Posted by Bluetin, 12-29-2001, 01:20 PM
Everyday, Thanks a lot for your information. I am located in VA. I don't want to spend $300 only to maintain a company (Auditor, Filing fee etc.) . Is it possible to show this as my personal income(if I am fortunate enough to make money). I think I would stay away from the 800 number. I will check web position gold and overture.com.
Posted by Everyday, 12-29-2001, 01:34 PM
Well like I said depending on your state laws you might be able to simply do i that way. If you have an accountant just ask him, he should know. If you have any other questions feel free to email me matt@everydayinternetsolutions.com
Posted by Bluetin, 12-29-2001, 02:16 PM
Thanks again. I will check with my accountant.
Posted by MotleyFool, 12-30-2001, 08:24 AM
For payment options you can take a look at 2checkout.com and charge.com. I am using 2checkout.com and have so far had no problems. Its a one time set up fee of 50$ and then there is no monthly cost except the cc charges. Highly recommended by many [incl this fool] I dont knwo anything about US small biz laws to know about company incorporation.. but I think if you register a home office you will get a lot of facilities [small biz ] For Marketing your sites, it is best to list your site in all the major host directories, and also post ad offers once a week in WHT , freewebspace.net... you should actively participate in webmaster forums like sitepointforums.com and siteownersforums.com [although I haven't done it yet] Also submit your site to google.com - you can also consider google adwords program with an upper limit of 10$ or so! For support use only email initially [until you are fully familiar with al kinds of support issues] You should know your control panel very well and also know [or learn] something about .htaccess, SSI, basic CGI -especially FormMail... as these are the areas that your support requests will be most frequent[ not to mention email - pop3,smtp settings, forwarders, autoresponders etc] Above all take care of your customers and they will automatically take care of your business! Good luck with your endeavour.. Cheers and happy new year Balaji Chee
Posted by Bluetin, 12-30-2001, 01:03 PM
Thanks for your response. I checked the 2checkout.com and they look good. I was leaning towards Paypal for some time. After reading stories in the threads, I would be better off to stay away from them (atleast) in the initial stages. Please let me know good sites or books to learn about CGI and FormMail. I will try to master these before I go in to reseller business.
Posted by TomD, 12-30-2001, 05:54 PM
Thanks. We are good Or at least we try to be. TomD tom@2checkout.com
Posted by MotleyFool, 01-01-2002, 10:12 AM
Bluetin Just go to google and type 'SSI tutorials' and you will get a lot more info than you will ever need - Similarly for CGI or FormMail Apache's official site itself has alot of info [apache.org] .. you can pick up these things as you go along - no rocket science... If you need help WHT is always there - the old reliable ! I am not any master to advise, but there is 1 major factor that determines your success - get a good upstream provider. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this... All the very best and happy new year Cheers Balaji
Posted by Bluetin, 01-01-2002, 12:16 PM
Thanks MotleyFool. I will check the tutorials. I am also planning to use google adwords program. I appreciate all the information.
Posted by bobcares, 01-01-2002, 12:21 PM
Hi! Here's some advice. 1) You need not start a company for reselling webspace. In most countries you can account it as personal money. 2) Take a cc processor that does not cost to much on initial or montly fees. Higher per transaction is fine. You aim here is to grow and then make it profitable. 3) You do not need an 800 number but a free ticketing system such as ticketsmith would help you organise your support work better. Also try to be as fast as you can... The aim is to be big fast. Do not look at heavy profits but do not make unwanted expenses which lead to loses... let the frills be added as you grow.. Have a great day regards amar
Posted by Bluetin, 01-01-2002, 04:05 PM
Thanks for the advice bobcares. I wish I had found this forum two months ago. I am learning new things everyday and I need to work on particular things before I start my Reseller business. Hope to start very soon.

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