I've been creating websites for a while now and I want to enter the market of web design. I don't have the resources to host my sites locally. Can I just buy web hosting solutions from say, Gate.com, and use that for my web hosting, or do people work out contracts with companies?


~bigD

Two words for you: reseller account. The most magical two words you'll ever hear.

You can buy a reseller account from a host and sell pieces of it off for whatever you want. The host doesn't get involved with the customer and you're the go-between since you're the only one who will likely know the issues anyway.

I agree with adam, look for a reseller account where you can host 20 - 40 sites (depending on how much space you use up) on one account for 25 bucks or so. You provide the support to your customers.. If you go with a resellers account, get one that has WHM / Cpanel.

Can I just buy web hosting solutions from say, Gate.com, and use that for my web hosting, or do people work out contracts with companies?

You could do that in theory, but some hosts forbid reselling off of shared hosting accounts (hosting other people's sites or even files). Make sure that the host you go with allows the type of usage you're after.