A free sample plan

[clivejo]

I would like to offer customers a free sample plan to test out the services on offer via RSP. (to showcase the amazing Control Panel, one-click installer, customer support) Something like what’s available on Freehostia, but maybe smaller space for example 50 or 100Mb. But I need it accessible from my resellers account, so that I can sort out problems for them.

Currently, the only way I can do this is to set them up using an Enterprise Plan. But this leads to a LOT of hassle transferring an established website to a new account and just isn’t worth it in my opinion. ie. My time and effort in moving the site to a new account, the problems encountered during the process.

As LN own freehostia is no way to resell this 'free' account? I know that in my experience most customers will choose to upgrade, especially if you 'limit' the features and if I recommend it to them. i.e. Just have one free email, 50Mb space, restrict access to traffic stats. All of which makes upgrading a more attractive.

Now I understand that 'free' hosting gives rise to a lot more undesirables and system abuse, such as hosting dodgy content etc. But maybe it could be offered to established resellers as a marketing technique, to bring in more customers to try before they buy? To combat abuse, maybe have it only available to resellers via the Reseller Control Panel, so that we can create an account and 'showcase' the services, then upgrade to paid hosting when the customer decides they want to?

I see it as a win-win situation! Maybe Im not seeing the full picture?

[doneritehosting]

hello clivejo

Yes the free hosting topic has been brought up several times in the past years and I agree with the marketing power of the word free. However I also agree with resellerspanel's reasoning for not implementing this feature from personal experiance.

I have been turning this idea over though. Why not give the customer the choice of a 30 day MBG or a 30 day free trial. All user info could be taken in a free trial reducing fraudulent sites and like abuse and if the user does not cancel their account in the 30 day trial period automatically be billed for the hosting service.

In my opinion this would be the most feasable way to implement any sort of free hosting to this program. What are your thoughts on this clive?

[clivejo]

I totally understand about the fraud and abuse, which is why I suggest only allowing experienced resellers to offer the plan and only via a manual order. This means the reseller will be responsible for 'vetting' the free plans. I also think that a reseller should have a year experience before having the option to offer the plan.

I’m not sure 30 days is enough to be honest. I think other restrictions such as one email address, limited space and access to traffic statistic would convince a customer that the service is worth the money.

PS : I like the names you have given your plans, very well integrated!

[parsonshost]

Yes very nice with renaming your hosting plans. What hosting account are you using for the wordpress hosting templates? I had a cPanel hosting account and the order form would not work correctly. I was using Wordpress 3.3.2. Just curious how you are doing it?

[clivejo]

I know there are problems with the templates and plug-in working with WP 3.5 as per this news post by RSP - http://blog.resellerspanel.com/lates...grade-yet.html

When you say you are having problems with the order form, what is happening?

[doneritehosting]

Yes very nice with renaming your hosting plans. What hosting account are you using for the wordpress hosting templates? I had a cPanel hosting account and the order form would not work correctly. I was using Wordpress 3.3.2. Just curious how you are doing it?

I'm actually using the starter plan aka donerite start.. thanks for the compliments on my plan names trying to dream up names for the vps plans whew there alot of them.

[doneritehosting]

I know there are problems with the templates and plug-in working with WP 3.5 as per this news post by RSP - http://blog.resellerspanel.com/lates...grade-yet.html

When you say you are having problems with the order form, what is happening?

clivejo
thanks for the compliments!
there is alot going wrong under the hood besides the order form that i have verified back to wp platform 3.2 Trying All 3 Templates bugged to rsp. goto my website and click on archived news. there is 18 or 19 posts for the month of dec and only the latest post is shown. i use wass up stats plugin. search engines are spidering my tag links but when i click on them i am redirected to empty content. 404 errors are redirecting me to a page that has the complete text of every post I have made. when you set your post page and you say set your posts per page to ten that is all thats shown with no pagination. you are shown the latest ten and you cannot access older entries. I also upgraded to 3.5 and would like more information before i revert back to 3.42.
Now just for kicks access my site from a mobile device I'm using jetpack whick gives a mobile friendly version of your wp blog and my archives work. go figure.

[parsonshost]

I was trying to use the Wordpress templates on my cPanel reseller hosting account. None of the links for products did anything on the order form and none of the credit card images showed up so it was impossible to choose more than the first or second credit card type and you couldn't change to Paypal or any other payment type because again the links did not work to change. I was told by RSP support that they provide the Wordpress templates AS IS and there is no support provided for them. They also told me that because I was not hosted on their network they couldn't help me. They suggested that if I had a problem with their Wordpress templates that I hire a developer. It seems very strange that I wouldn't be hosted on their network since I purchase their cPanel Reseller 1 plan. I asked them if I wasn't on their network who were they reselling cPanel accounts from. They said "we didn't know you were using our cPanel hosting account". How they don't know that is beyond me. I ended up cancelling my account with them and received a refund for the monies I paid for the cPanel reseller account.

[doneritehosting]

I was trying to use the Wordpress templates on my cPanel reseller hosting account. None of the links for products did anything on the order form and none of the credit card images showed up so it was impossible to choose more than the first or second credit card type and you couldn't change to Paypal or any other payment type because again the links did not work to change. I was told by RSP support that they provide the Wordpress templates AS IS and there is no support provided for them. They also told me that because I was not hosted on their network they couldn't help me. They suggested that if I had a problem with their Wordpress templates that I hire a developer. It seems very strange that I wouldn't be hosted on their network since I purchase their cPanel Reseller 1 plan. I asked them if I wasn't on their network who were they reselling cPanel accounts from. They said "we didn't know you were using our cPanel hosting account". How they don't know that is beyond me. I ended up cancelling my account with them and received a refund for the monies I paid for the cPanel reseller account.

ok well if i state some misinformation everyone jump in and correct me..
For the wordpress templates and resellerspanel wp plugin to function you must have a FREE RESELLER account amd you will be reselling hespia accounts. To my knowledge you cannot resell cpanel hosting plans with these templates or the plugin. To use these templates simply signup for a free reseller account. Buy the starter plan from yourself wholesale $30 a year register a domain from yourself wholesale $6.00 a year, purchase private nameservers $20.00 a year. Thats $56 a year and way cheaper a year than practicaly any cpanel reseller account from a reputable company that is. If you want to go to the next level purchase a dedicated IP and SSL however you will still come out cheaper than a cpanel reseller account.

Hope this helps and the info is at least 99.9% accurate someone jump in and help if its not.

[parsonshost]

I did have a FREE RESELLER account. I know you can't resell cPanel hosting with the RSP templates. I had the cPanel account to sell cPanel hosting if a client wished to have that instead of Hepsia. The templates should work as long as you have a FREE RESELLER account with RSP no matter where the wordpress installation is hosted shouldn't they? Then when they told me that I wasn't hosted on their network, that was just silliness. I bought their cPanel reseller package. I asked them what network they put me on when I bought the cPanel plan and they told me they didn't know I had a cPanel reseller plan. If the people you bought the plan from don't know you have the plan, who would???

[doneritehosting]

I did have a FREE RESELLER account. I know you can't resell cPanel hosting with the RSP templates. I had the cPanel account to sell cPanel hosting if a client wished to have that instead of Hepsia. The templates should work as long as you have a FREE RESELLER account with RSP no matter where the wordpress installation is hosted shouldn't they? Then when they told me that I wasn't hosted on their network, that was just silliness. I bought their cPanel reseller package. I asked them what network they put me on when I bought the cPanel plan and they told me they didn't know I had a cPanel reseller plan. If the people you bought the plan from don't know you have the plan, who would???

Hmm thats weird. A question, did you file your support ticket from the free reseller control panel? I filed several bugs from there and they were checked and forwarded to development immediately. As far as hosting the wp reseller plugin and templates on a rsp cpanel reseller account or with another companies hosting service, i cant answer that one i suggest fileing a support ticket from your free reseller control panel and see what is up. I do know it used to be possible using remote forms using Iframes. The wp plugin and templates uses api and i do not know if that will work. Sorry that I cannot be of more help. Perhaps RSP can jump in and explain more.

Good Luck To You

[clivejo]

The templates should work as long as you have a FREE RESELLER account with RSP no matter where the wordpress installation is hosted shouldn't they?

In your Resellers Control Panel did you enable the API and set the domain of your store? Also, did you check in CPanel for settings regarding outgoing connections? ie allowing https connections back to RSP?

[parsonshost]

As far as the API settings, yes I enabled API and set the domain of the store but it made no difference when I did that. As far as outgoing connections in cPanel, I looked for a place to set that, but I didn't find that option in cPanel.

[BlackLightHost]

Agree completely about the free plan! Customers really don't get a feel for the end product without being able get their hands dirty and use the tools offered within the Hepsia panel. I also understand that the free plans attract spammers and such but if the account has enough restrictions(limited use of tools, small disk size, strict email limits, and so on) that can be minimized. Right now alot of resellers are offing free plans from other providers as a way to attract customers and finding it hard to migrate them from one platform to the RSP when they decide to upgrade. A free limited plan would end these problems and generate more sales via upgrades and domain sales. How has it worked for freehostia?

[yav0r]

Hello,

Free Reseller program with free hosting plans... that has ABUSE written all over.
Even if we make all the limitations in the world you still have scammers uploading botnet scripts, phishing websites and so on.

I understand you are not bothered by such things since you are a free reseller you don't deal with network degradation and server abuse.

In order for us to make all resellers work like freehostia which is entirely on another network and has its own servers altogether we would have to invest so much that we would not see return in the next 10 years at least. (Even if all the free users go to paid hosting and the ration is 1 to 100 of the free users going towards paid hosting services).
Which is also not your concern but it is what it is... deal with it.
I also want to get a free car with free gas for life but the best I can get is a free tank if I buy a brand new car...