Hi

I am in the early stages of setting up in business as a web designer (and I expect to be posting a lot of questions to this forum in the process!).

I will be offering web design services to local small businesses who, in many cases, will not have an existing host nor even a registered domain.

I am considering opening a reseller account in order to offer hosting with design services. Is this a viable method or should I be wary of taking on the responsibility for technical support? I don't intend to start a full hosting business as such - just to be able to service my web clients. Would it be better just to open seperate hosting accounts on behalf of my customers rather than be a reseller?

My other question concerns domain registration. Should my customer always be the registrant of his/her own domain? Or if I register it for them and invoice them accordingly, should I be the registrant?

Thanks.

Hi Garry!
Good questions...

I am strictly a designer so I do not host my own clients. I am not capable and find that it's best for me to set up my clients with a web hosting company that I love. Their prices are excellent and they treat us great. If I had to learn how to solve hosting issues, I'd probably end up crazy. But that's me. If you are more technically savvy than I am, then you probably would benefit. I know the constant monthly income that web hosting can provide is very helpful.


I'm probably going to take heat from some of you on this but I have a strong feeling on this. I think it's unethical to be the registrant on my clients' domains. I believe it is their right to own a domain name (or rent it since that is all we really do) for their business name or a name they have thought up.

I have recently taken over 3 clients from one local web designer and in each situation he is the registrant. One of his innocent clients came to him in 1997 with zero web knowledge and asked for a GREAT domain name. I won't publish it here because I do not want to risk my career. However let me tell you, that domain is worth 6 digits today. He has refused to transfer or allow them to use it now that they have changed web designers. He now has in his clutches a very valuable domain name. A domain name they came up with... I seriously think that is WRONG. They have always paid their domain renewals on time and faithfully.

So my feeling is it is important for clients to be able to have the rights to a domain name especially if it is their business name and trademarked.

Linda, I completely agree with you regarding clients owning their own domain names! This client of yours who's domain name has been hijacked by the designer, quite likely has a strong legal case to forcibly take their domain name back, which if it's that valuable is definitely worth pursuing.

Great question Garry!

I'm going to separate your question into two different sections, as I feel that I can address them better that way.

Domains
I always assist my client with purchasing a domain name, if needed. However, the domain name is always registered to them, and it is "THEIR" responsibility to renew it. I never register the domain for them, but I can help them if needed. It depends on their level of computer literacy.

Hosting
Now days in the world of website hosting you don't have to be a genius to operate your own hosting company. This is probably why so many hosting companies fail in the first year. I wouldn't recommend doing a full scale hosting company, unless that's what you want to do. If that's the case you should do that full time, and be willing to dedicate the time and energy into your hosting company...and have a fair deal of knowledge in that area. Instead, what I would recommend is offering website hosting to your clients in addition to some other service like, web design.

Their are many advantages of getting a reseller hosting account....for example, instead of purchasing a new $4 or $5 hosting account for every new domain you get you can just add them onto your account. With most reseller accounts you normally get a bandwidth and disk space pool that all the accounts share. You can then setup quotas and limits on the accounts, and as Linda said, It's a steady stream of income, which you can count on. Also, I find that us "web designers/developers" tend to have several domains that we collect/host overtime. So even if you don't resell hosting, perhaps you should get a reseller plan for all your websites. I would recommend finding a reseller plan that has WHM/Cpanel, as that's the most user friendly control panel that I've found. Some of my favorite hosts which I would recommend for reselling are....

Site5
HostGator

One key reason to host your client's website may be so that you can ensure your clients website is shut down if they don't pay you for your work! Regardless, one of the most important things I can pass along to you is this....CONTRACTS!

If you do website design/development make sure you have a contract for the service which you are offering to your clients. If you do hosting, then have a contract for hosting. Have a contract for all the services you offer. (Web Design, Development, Hosting, Private Consultation...etc.)

That will save you loads of pain and stress in the future. I would also recommend reading this article I wrote called, "The Reality of Client Interaction". Good Luck, and I hope to see many more questions from you!

I host my client's websites on a shared server. Domains are registered in my name, but I will not, in any case refuse or play hard ball when my clients want to move to someone else, even if the domain is worth 4 figures.
I see it as a service. My clients don't have the hassle of finding out how to register a domain and setting it up. I do it for them.
The only reason why I host my client's sites, is because I have full control over them. If something messes up, I'm the one to call. I know my servers inside out and I'm sure our CMS works on these servers.
I tried it to do it Linda's way once, and that cost me and Velo a few hours to get our CMS working on the client's server.

I also have it written in my contracts that domain names are the client's property, although stated different.

I always register the domain on the client's behalf, but still in their name, and use my details as the Administrator or Technical contact. It just saves any misunderstandings, I think. I've had a client in the past come and see me, very irate, agitated and unsure what to do, when they discovered their current designer/developer had registered the domain name with his own details. As it turns out, it was simply that he didn't know any better, and he had no issue at all with handing over the domain. But it caused the client grief, made him look unprofessional, and at the end of the day, can you run a business that way?

It's certainly something to think about, and make sure you're doing the right thing, for yourself and your client.

Absolutely right. Moreover, as japh suggested, such a client would have strong grounds for suing the designer.

I also secure web hosting and domain names for all my clients if they need it. I prefer to do it for them, that way I am the administrative contact and I know it's been done correctly. But again the client should be the registrant.

Mark does your contract state that they (the client) own all rights to the domain?

Yes, but usually they don't even know what that means

My contract basically says that, although the domain is in my name, it is still theirs, no matter what.
Never had problems like that.

I just read an interesting blog post from a domainer that reminded me of this thread, so I thought I'd post it for you folks to check out too

Web Designers Holding Domain Names Hostage

This post has been edited by japh: Oct 23 2008, 02:25 AM

From that article it seems this is a pretty common situation. It's really sad that some web designers/developers would do this to businesses. I have to think this type of practice will eventually come back and bite them in the backside. This type of PR can only hurt!

I was a bit surprised at how common it seems to be! I've worked for a few web design/development businesses, including my own freelancing, and none have ever operated in this dodgy manner... however, I do know of a few companies around here that do

I think it's an education thing. If we make sure when we're quoting our customers for domain registration, that we tell them the domain is registered in their name and they will own it, then they'll hopefully look out for that on other contracts too. That way, eventually, other businesses may be forced to operate legitimately... maybe?

Like I said. Put it in a contract, and you're safe.

I also commented on that article not to scare clients like that..

And did you read the comment in reply to yours?


Quoted Enrico S

This post has been edited by japh: Oct 23 2008, 07:37 PM

This might be a good read for you - Should You Host Your Clients Websites? - by Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks

Oh, didn't read that one yet..

I should talk to my hosting provider. See if there's a way to register the domain in the clients name and host the site on my server, because that's the reason I do it: I want them on my server. Not just so I can make a diam off it, but also for the troubleshooting-part, and I want my cms on my server..

Yeah, that makes sense. I would imagine there must be a way. It's not difficult, and most seem to offer this service.

My hosting provider rocks

They've set up a bulk domain-account at eNom. There I can register domains and connect them to my hosting package. For each domain I can change the registrar details and leave myself as tech contact.

So, if you want full control over domain names/hosting, without the (copy)right hassle for domain names, this is the way to go I guess.

Yep, perfect! That's exactly the way you want to do it