(The Hosting News) – Everyone is aware of the current condition of the web hosting market, which has lead to a drastic reduction in revenue for hosting companies. In addition to revenue reduction, greater competition has placed advertising spots at a premium. Have no fear, I have found five products that you can up-sell to your clients to bring revenue back up, allowing you to afford rising advertising cost.
1. Video Conferencing
It is no secret that businesses and individuals are cutting back on travel expenses. There is no better product than video conferencing for keeping businesses in touch. With video conferencing usage growing by 15% year after year, there is no better time to incorporate this product into your web hosting offerings.
While there are hundreds if not even thousands of video conferencing companies to choose from, my preferred provider is Voxwire. They offer private labeling to resellers, allowing them to share in the monthly revenue stream from their clients. If Voxwire and its reseller program doesn’t do it for you, there are other providers like WebEx and GoToMeeting that provide reseller/affiliate programs as well.
2. Merchant Accounts
If you are not helping your clients find a merchant account you are losing out on thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each month. Like video conferencing, many merchant account providers offer a referral revenue stream. Companies like www.cdgcommerce.com provide you with up to 30% in referral fees. You never know when you might have a $100k account buying $7.95/month hosting that needs a merchant account for its brick and mortar business or online store. Merchant accounts are effortless to sell and you could make more in commissions each month then what the hosting account is bringing in.
3. Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Marketing
Everyone wants to increase traffic to their website. If you do not have traffic, you aren’t making money. Let’s face it, the years of “if you build it, they will come” are long gone. You could start off by offering a basic SEO / SEM solution like the I Need Hits reseller program; you could find a freelancer who will work on a flat fee per month; or you can go into a partnership agreement with a marketing agency like eBridge Marketing Solutions. You could even offer all three! When most basic SEO packages start out at $19.95 and the premium agencies charge tens of thousands of dollars, this could lead to a large chunk of change in your pocket each month.
4. Software as a Service (SaaS) Ecommerce Solutions
I know you probably think that every customer wants to do it themselves when it comes to their website. The truth is, the majority DO NOT. The majority of businesses and individuals starting out in ecommerce want a simple and easy solution. They want to be up and selling in 5 minutes. Why do you think eBay has done so well? If you leave your clients to try and figure out ecommerce themselves, there is a good chance they will get frustrated and give up. This is lost revenue for you. If you were partnered with a company like Volusion, TurnKey Commerce or Shopify you could successfully refer them to your ecommerce solutions partner and take up to a whopping 25% of revenue share to the bank. With the average SaaS shopping cart solution starting around $30, you make your $7.50 for life without even having to provide technical support. When you are handing off the customer to the SaaS provider make sure to offer them the great deals you have on merchant accounts so you can add another 30% in profit to your bottom line each month. If you do not, the big boys will be happy to do it for you.
5. Web Design
Just like Search Engine Optimization services, web design can be sold in many forms. You have the turnkey template solution provided by a 3rd party; these charge you a setup fee plus a monthly fee. This can work out well in the budget hosting market. Then you have the option of bringing in a freelancer to do your client’s projects. The freelancer charges you a one-time fee and you charge the client. Then there is the private partner design studio product option. Here you outsource the design to a design studio like www.studio1337.com for premium design services. Web design runs from just under $100/month for budget design services to anywhere from $1,000.00 to $5,000.00 for premium design services. With the average commission worth 20%, you could add an extra $25.00/month to your bottom line or a nice $250.00 to $1,000.00 one-time commission.
The most important piece of information that every web hosting provider should understand is: YOU HOLD THE POWER. Web hosting companies tend to have massive amounts of clients due to the low price of the service and the size of the market. Use your client base to generate extra revenue for yourself by providing them with the products and services they already need. With these five simple up-sells you can take a $7.95/month account and turn it into a $150.00/month account with very little effort. Just remember, for every product or service you do not offer to your client you’re sending revenue into someone else’s wallet.