I just became a reseller with makemoneysellingdomainnames to resell web hosting and domain names. I joined because I build a decent amount of websites for my own use. I was wondering why a lot of webmasters and IT people aren’t in the reseller business. I drive a taxi and talk with a lot of IT people and almost none of them take advantage of controlling the cost for web hosting. Isn’t this strange? Any comments welcome.
I think you’re wrong when you write, "I was wondering why a lot of webmasters and IT people aren’t in the reseller business."
In fact, an awful lot of people, including webmasters, IT professionals, and others, are in the hosting and domain reselling business. There are certainly at least "tens of thousands," and possibly many hundreds of thousands of "web-hosting" businesses out there, most run by people who also do web development work.
Some professionals do this "surreptitiously," creating an apparently-separate company which they use to register and host client sites. Many do it openly, telling their clients that they own the hosting or registration company.
Those professionals who do NOT resell web-hosting or domain-registration services frequently believe that their sole charge should be based on their time, not on reselling services at potentially inflated prices.
In addition, some professionals choose not to resell anything other than their own services, because they recognize that over time, the level of service at most hosting and registration companies can change.
Over the past 12 years, I’ve hosted my own and clients’ web sites on several dozen different servers (including dedicated servers, colocated servers, and many shared servers), and registered domains with many different registrars. Recently, I consolidated all my registrations to a single registrar, and I also consolidated all hosting to a single provider, but it’s likely that I’ll move some or all of this within 12 months.