1-on-1 Web Design Coaching Session | Episode #10 Aravind Kaliamoorthy

Table of Contents

1-on-1 with Patrick is a series of web design coaching sessions for wannabe web designers.

In this episode we have Aravind Kaliamoorthy from Pudacherry, India! We discuss:

  • Where Aravind is at in his web design journey
  • How Aravind exchanged web design services for food, housing and travel
  • The struggle of finding web design clients that are worth your time
  • Being crystal clear about what you have to offer as a web designer
  • Using subdomains effectively
  • Why Aravind’s website is confusing
  • Using social media to get web design clients
  • How important is it to choose the “right” website builder
  • How to compete with other web designers who charge less than you
  • Reselling hosting and choosing the right hosting company to partner with

 

Give it a listen! ????

Want a FREE 1-ON-1 web design coaching session? ???? Book a session

Subscribe to the Launchers podcast! ???? Choose your podcast platform

 

Tools & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

 

Episode Transcript

Where Aravind is At in His Web Design Journey

Patrick: Hello?

Aravind: Hello.

Patrick: Or should I say good evening? Yeah, it’s quite dark there. Is it Aravind?

Aravind: Aravind.

Patrick: Aravind. Okay, nice to meet you.

Aravind: Thank you.

Patrick: How are you doing?

Aravind: Good, it’s a good day.

Patrick: So how are things? You’re in Thailand, right?

Aravind: Yes. I’m in Thailand right now.

Patrick: Maybe you can start by just telling me a little bit about your web design journey so far and where you’re at.

Aravind: I became a web designer four years ago, I used to work with a French company in my hometown. I created UAE in Photoshop then I passed it to development team and [Inaudible 00:45]. So I used to be like more into design and later I started to create little bit, very simple [Inaudible 00:54] then I got into WordPress to learn about how to set up the theme and trying to purchase the theme from the theme for us and the setting up the website. I did a quite good website with some friends and after I started to travel, I left India two years ago, then I started to travel. During the travel I was doing graphic design and website management for people’s restaurants and hotels. I was doing kind of exchange. Then finally I came to Thailand and I was working here in a different field like meditation and yoga. Also on the side I was doing graphic design and website for people who were in need of a website. At the moment I decided to be more to digital. So I’m trying to focus more into the design business because the world is more going into internet and digitalized.

These days I’m building websites using the Divi team and if the client wants some customized website then I can use the interface in Photoshop, then I hired some external frontend content people to develop the site and post, but mainly I’m working with WordPress these days. So there are a lot of interesting platforms like Workflow that I am discovering, but I don’t know, there are a lot of options, like Elementor, Weebly and there are many platforms like Divi, but I started with the Divi builder I’m using Divi filter right now.

How Aravind Exchanged Web Design Services for Food, Housing and Travel

Patrick: Alright. So Wordpress and Divi. You said something about how you did exchanges with hotels and restaurants, were you building websites for them?

Aravind: Not the website, just the graphics part and the photography. Sometimes if they need some changes to the site, because they are not used to technical things. So at the time I just helped them to correct a website, some FTP it’s manual website, a website [Inaudible 03:12] programming is a very little bit.

Patrick: So what was the exchange like? Was it something like they would let you stay in the hotel for free and then you can do work for them or how did that work?

Aravind: Yes, they would allow me to stay and they provided me with some food because when I started to travel, I did not have money. I was just hitchhiking and traveling in the truck, traveling by cheap train, that’s how I started to travel. Left India, it’s been two years now I’m living in Thailand. I came here for two weeks and I find some exchange here then I started to work for these people. Now I live in Thailand.

Patrick: That’s cool. Good for you. Yeah, especially the fact that you’re willing to start doing that when you didn’t have a lot of money but you were willing to take the chance and go on an adventure and that’s pretty smart to kind of do an exchange of services to get with restaurants and hotels to get a place to stay and get some food and then you do a little work for them. That’s a good idea. That’s the first time I’ve heard someone doing that. So what are your biggest struggle right now, then? How can I help you?

The Struggle of Finding Web Design Clients That Are Worth Your Time

Aravind: My biggest struggle is how to land a client, like a good client. Also a lot of restrictions, like there is an element of team builders and Divi and different, different options like Workflow and now I was thinking to stick with one platform like Divi Builder or I should try to use different, technically that one also like the main challenges to finding a client and working with the client.

Patrick: That’s usually the biggest challenge for most people is getting clients.

Aravind: Also the price.

Patrick: The price?

Aravind: Like the price I’m trying to set up and I have some markets like India and when I started to work with people from Iraq, in the beginning I was doing it at a very low price and I realized that after my friends, I asked my friends how much they charge there and I was really shocked. Then I’m learning from them how they charge per hour and that price, the good price.

Patrick: Right. Okay. So how much were you charging for these European clients?

Aravind: I charge at the moment around 700 or 600 euros. It’s just a beginning, but I want to charge minimum 900.

Patrick: Okay. And what would they get for 600 or 700 euros? Like how big of a site?

Aravind: Like at a WordPress website, the blog and a newsletter integration.

Patrick: Okay. So you didn’t actually, so it didn’t matter how many pages it was or; so for 700 euros was it just like a flat rate, a flat fee, regardless of how much work was involved?

Aravind: It was like five pages and if they need extra, it would be hourly. There is also the option of hourly or I can charge a hundred euros per page, something like that.

Patrick: Okay. Gotcha. All right. Well, let’s do one of these at a time. So you said you want to get tips on how to get clients. So there are a number of different ways to get clients. What’s most important though is being crystal clear about what you’re offering. So regardless of whether you’re getting leads through SEO or social media or going door to door to knock on people’s homes or businesses or hotels, restaurants, you have to be crystal clear about what you’re offering, the value. So I was doing a little digging through your current website, what’s immediately clear to me is that it’s not clear what you’re offering. So you have a number of different things there and I get what you were trying to do because you have a lot of different interests. So you had some web design, photography, I think I saw some little thing about videography as well and then you also have wellness and meditation and those types of services and it’s all kind of blended in under your one brand.

I could see how that would cause some confusion. It’s essential to, like I said, be crystal clear. We might feel like we’re being obvious about what we’re offering and what we’re selling, but it’s amazing how much we have to, I don’t want to say dumb down, but we really have to make it so simple for people so that they know exactly what they’re getting from us, the moment they landed on our page. So based on right now, what are the services you are currently trying to offer under your brand? Your brand was a Nomad Aravind, right?

Aravind: Yeah.

Being Crystal Clear About What You Have to Offer as a Web Designer

Patrick: Okay. So what is Nomad Aravind selling?



Aravind: I create website, I do graphic design and I’m trying to offer a package, I’m trying to work more independently. So if I work with a client, they get a complete package of service, like photography and the website and design. So it’s like from the branding to the particular company. So that is what I’m trying to offer.

Patrick: So you’re trying to do kind of like an all in one package, like a website, graphic design, photography and branding?

Aravind: Yes.

Patrick: Okay. So that’s good. That kind of all falls under the same umbrella, same category, where you kind of lose me is when you start offering, I see on your website, you have meditation coaching, you have online course creation and you have social media management. Do you feel like you have expertise in all of those areas, that you’re on an expert level for all of these?

Aravind: In the meditation field I had a facilitator course, I’ve been working with the school for two years. I teach meditation daily in the morning, but it’s like a kind of active meditation, movements meditation. So I was doing that meditation, it is not like working all day, it is just the morning practice and evening and the rest of the time I work with the computer and here I work in this niche of yoga and meditation wellness. By living in this Island, there are like hundreds of yoga schools and there are a lot of yoga teachers and wellness therapists. My aim was to focus more on this kind of people, so that is why I wanted to target like yoga and meditation kind of people.

Patrick: Sure. Okay. So that’s the meditation side of it, but what about everything else? Do you feel like you’re an expert at social media management, at course creation?

Aravind: I can do the basics, if they need like more, for example, if they need more with social media in depth then I would hire my friend to do the social media management, but if they need just the basic setup, maintaining their social media page, because they are not consistent with the content and managing the account. So I would just take care of the account. I worked with a few yoga teachers, so I’m managing their Facebook, so if they get any messages I reply.

Patrick: Okay. Yeah. So you’d probably outsource some of that. You’d offer the service and you’d hire one of your friends or a team member. Yeah, that’s fine. But what I would recommend, especially when you’re first starting out is really consolidate, simplify what you’re offering. I really liked the web design and graphic design and even photography, they kind of fall under the same umbrella. People that need a website will naturally need some graphic design that’s part of web design and one of the biggest keys to great websites is the images that are used. So photography can often be something that’s naturally included in that as well, especially when it comes to eCommerce websites. So I would recommend just sticking with those three services right now. Get rid of the online course creation, get rid of the social media management and remove the meditation thing.

Aravind: Okay.

Patrick: If you want to offer the meditation services, I would recommend setting up a separate website for that just because it doesn’t fit in at all with the other services you’re offering and it can create confusion for people that are looking for a website and they’ll start thinking, well, if he’s a really great web designer, why is he also doing meditation or yoga teaching in classes, if it’s a whole separate industry, right? It’s a totally different niche. So for sure, if you still want to offer those services, I would do that, but do it on a separate website, like a separate brand and then you can focus everything around, all the content you make regarding meditation and yoga and that stuff centered around that. Then everything that’s centered around your website services, which seems to be your primary goal is to grow that all of your content on your main site will be focused towards selling web design services and graphic design and photography. So to do that, I noticed that you basically have two sites here. So you have your main domain nomadAravind.com and then the sub domain work.nomadAravind.com. Can you tell me why you decided to do that?

Aravind: Because when I started to travel, it was sharing the travel experience and also it was just about, my plan was to have nomadAravind.com as a blog and where I shared my travel experience and also technical experience. So if people are interested to support my travel journey, they can also work with me. I offered this service to travel and it tells me to travel. That is why I created work.nomadAravind so there’ll be like more followers and the followers can be converted into client and interplay.

Patrick: That’s a good idea. It’s a good idea. It just gets a little messy as now you have to start to figure out how do you want to organize this and the visual journey that your visitors take. Because I did something similar, I have my main website, rapidweblaunch.com. That’s where I have all my web design services, website management, SEO, blog design services, they’re all listed there. That’s my main site. My blog is actually, it’s literally on a separate WordPress site. It is basically a separate site within my same domain, just like you did it’s blog.rapidweblaunch.com and I did that because for a similar reason, a lot of this stuff I might be writing about or creating on my blog might not fit a hundred percent into web design, the services that I’m offering, but I had some other interests that I kind of wanted to write a little bit about, some like personal development or growth stuff and just general marketing in business.

So that’s why I kind of set them up as separate sites. It just comes down to what your priority is though, the structure of it. So like right now, if I go to your main site nomadAravind.com I land on your homepage and the first thing it says is just singing bowls. So to me what you’ve done basically is you’ve kind of reversed it. I feel like your main, your services, what you’re trying to sell should be on nomadAravind.com, your main site, and then your blog should be on something like blog.nomadAravind.com. That makes sense?

Aravind: Yeah, that makes sense.

Patrick: Just because if someone is finding you for the first time, they’ll often do that through your blog. That’s true. But if I want, like I said, when someone lands on a site and they’re looking for services, it has to be so clear within a few seconds of what it is you’re offering and for me, I don’t get that when I land on your site right now. Your main site is your blog and what should be your blog is kind of your main site with the services you’re offering.

Aravind: I never thought of it from that perspective, it’s a whole website but yeah, I can change it.

Using Subdomains Effectively and Why Aravind’s Website is Confusing

Patrick: Yeah, I totally get what you’re trying to do. I understand the flow you were going for. The other problem is the sub domain work.nomadAravind, oftentimes the sub domain call work is usually meant to be just a temporary site. It’s like a staging site. So when I first landed there, I actually thought that this was like your old site that you just forgot to remove when you launched your main site, I didn’t realize, it took me a while. Only once I started digging through that I realized, oh, this is actually like his blog. It’s his brand kind of stuff. Just the name work, I would definitely not use that. It implies that it’s like a staging site, temporary site before you actually launch it. So a subdomain like blog is pretty good. It makes it quite obvious because people know what a blog is, but they don’t know necessarily what work means.

Aravind: Maybe I can also get a domain, a full name, like nomadAravindbusiness, nomadAravinddigitalservice.com or is just my name is enough?

Patrick: Right. So, well, I like your brand. I liked Nomad Aravind. It’s catchy. It’s a nice logo. It’s unique. It’s your name. I really like it. Yeah, I think you just kind of have to get a little more clear and distill what it is you’re offering because even when I go to; I’m on your work.nomadAravind.com right now, the site that you’re using to sell services, you have a page called payment?

Aravind: Payment? Yes. That I recently created to do the payment online. So people can book for the service from the website. I’m still learning about integrating the payment things with the PayPal. So I just created a week ago. So people can book the service, like package, they can pay online.

Patrick: So you’re trying to basically productize your service. So you’re not going for the; like when you build websites or you’re going for the flat fee instead of doing quotes based on each project?

Aravind: I am also planning to do quotes if the site is very customized, if the requirements are a little bit different from normal site. Even today I made a plan to make a site for package of $600 USD and it’s a website with a contact form, social media integration, email integration, and a small, basic SEO. So I can make, maybe I add this into the payment store.

Patrick: Not a bad idea to productize your service because people do get tired of the back and forth of quotes and the custom this and that. A lot of web designers, a lot of web design agencies are moving towards that model where they’re like for 500 bucks, this gets you this, a thousand you get this, 2000 you get this, et cetera. So that’s a good idea if you can do it. It’s just a matter of really again, simplifying it. So I wouldn’t recommend you have a dedicated, separate payment page, what you should have instead is; so right now you have, let’s say, we’re talking about those three services you are offering again, web design, graphic design, photography, you should have a dedicated landing page for each one of those services. Because right now you have a page that says digital services and it mentions a paragraph for each one. That’s not enough content, especially when it comes to SEO. You want to have a dedicated landing page for each service that you offer and then think of that page as like a funnel that you’re trying to get your visitor to get to the call to action at the bottom, which is to buy or request a quote, whatever you’re trying to go for. Yeah, so it’s kind of like a funnel down to getting them to do that one call to action, which is essentially to buy.

So I would split up your services page into those dedicated page for each service and then that call to action. Your payment will be there. So instead of having a separate payment page for all your services, you’ll take your payment for web design and put it on your web design page. You’ll take your payment for a photography and put it on your photography page, et cetera and it all funnels down to that. Rather than having a separate page again for portfolio, I would, I mean, you could do that, but personally, again, you want to imagine that your visitors are only going to go to one page on your site. They shouldn’t have to click around to anything else to find what they need. So if I’m a potential client and I’m like searching for a graphic designer in Bangkok, or I don’t know what part of Thailand you’re in, but graphic designer in Thailand and you pop up, your graphic design page shows up. I click on it and it takes me down this landing page for graphic design, everything I need to see should be there. So all your testimonials for clients you’ve done graphic design for should be on that page, your portfolio for all of your graphic design clients, you’ve done should be on that page. Then, like I said, the payment for that should be on that page. Everything should be on that one page.

This applies to every service. So let’s say I’m searching for web design in Thailand, your website, your web design page should have everything I need, your testimonials they’re specific to websites, clients you made websites for same thing, portfolio of websites you’ve made and et cetera. Does that make sense?

Aravind: Yes. Makes sense.

Patrick: Yeah. You’re just really trying to get in the head space of how people, what their journey is online, how they find you and especially when it comes to SEO, if that’s going to be your main way to try to get clients, you have to think about, okay, what is the person thinking about when they Google this? Just kind of put yourself in their shoes. If you’re looking for a web designer, what do you do? You Google it, you’re looking for this, this and this. You want pricing, you want someone who has experience, someone that has testimonials, reviews, that has credibility and it needs to look good. Their own website should obviously look good if they’re web designer. So those are kind of the main things you want to see if you’re going to hire a designer, if you needed to take a break to take notes or something, it’s okay. Don’t feel like you need to rush or anything. Makes sense?

Aravind: Yes, it makes it very clear.

Patrick: I’m glad. Yeah. I mean, that’s just comes down to practice years of practice and refining and tweaking. I still do that. I actually just redesigned my website a week ago. I changed the structure. I added a navigation menu for the first time. For years I never bothered having a navigation menu because I always thought about the dedicated page funnels. But now that I’ve grown to a certain level, it made sense to show navigation at the top because I offer additional services now outside of just traditional website design, like website management, maintenance SEO, stuff like that. So it made sense to have that at the top. But point being, you never stop refining, tweaking, learning. Sometimes you try a new thing and it doesn’t work and you’re like, oh, that didn’t work and you go back and you say, okay, why didn’t that work? And you just research it. You never stop growing. You never stop learning and getting better. It just comes down to practice. So any other questions?

Using Social Media to Get Web Design Clients

Aravind: Also one more question, how I can promote myself to land a new client? Through social media, for example, I have a Facebook page and what type of content I can share, how I can reach many people?

Patrick: So social media is tricky these days. I’ll be honest, I don’t use social media a lot. I really don’t like social media. I get why a lot of people like it and I get why a lot of people recognize it; they might not even like it very much, but they realize it’s necessary. I understand that too. But unless you’re willing to pay for ads, it takes time to build up a following. We all know that, right? So it really comes down to patience. As far as type of content, again, I would try to keep your audience in mind if you’re looking to get clients, they’re not really going to care as much about your pictures on the beach in Thailand with a laptop. They’re going to want to see evidence of your work and even evidence of what you’re doing to improve your work. If you’re taking a course on something or if you’re tweaking something on your website that day, post a picture about it. It might seem a little too transparent, you might be nervous about doing that, but I think that’s the only way people connect these days. You have to be more transparent and honest about what you’re doing and people connect to on that. Because no one’s perfect and we’re all at different stages of skill levels in our journeys and just being open about what you’re doing and the work you’re doing can really go a long ways.

If your audience is here for your blog and you’re looking to get other digital nomads to follow you, then pictures like you on a beach in Thailand with your laptop, they’ll appreciate that more rather than your potential client. So you always have to be thinking, why am I posting this? Who is my ideal audience? Who do I want to see this? What’s my objective? I don’t have a lot of experience in social media like I said, my focus has always been with SEO. That’s where I’ve put most of my eggs in that basket there because I think it’s a long-term goal that’s why it’s more valuable because once you get it to a certain level it becomes like an automated lead generation machine. I don’t have to do; that’s where I get all my leads is through people finding me through Google through various channels.



Aravind: Also it’s very catchy, rapid web launch and everybody wants a quick launch.

Patrick: Thank you. Yeah. It’s nice to hear that because sometimes I cringe and I’m like oh, should I have done a different name like this? It’s like, sometimes I don’t feel like it. Sometimes I feel like it’s catchy than other times I’m like, I wish I’d done something different, but the one thing I do regret is doing the rocket because there’s too many rockets. That’s my biggest recommendation to you, don’t do rockets, there are too many. Every web designer, every digital service, every software company is rockets and I didn’t really realize it at the time but I made it such a central part of my brand that frankly, I don’t really feel like changing right now. I’ve built up a brand around it. So it is what it is but at least, like you said, rapid web launch is a unique name, a unique brand name. So I’m okay with it for now. We’ll see what the future holds. So we have time for maybe one more question if you have one or if you need to take notes, then go ahead.

How Important is Choosing the “Right” Website Builder?

Aravind: It was about the platform, which platform; like I’m using Divi, I recently bought the lifetime access. So I am designing website using the filter. So I found Elementor and very different tools and I don’t know should I stick to one tool or should I also work with a different tool? What do you recommend?

Patrick: The tool you use to build websites is not nearly as important as learning the core fundamentals of web design. The tool is much less important because you can build websites like you said with a lot of different tools and they all have, some of them will have their own unique features and some might be easier to use than others and there obvious obviously are differences between them, but it’s more important to invest in learning how websites are built. What makes a great website, user experience, performance, trying to make a website that loads really fast. Those things matter more than what tool you’re using. The other thing is you have to pick a tool, then stick with it because a lot of people they kind of get frozen in trying to choose. I don’t know if I pick the right tool or they pick one and then they see a YouTube video about why Squarespace is best and I’m like, maybe I should have went with Squarespace and then they kind of get this; they’re analyzing and thinking too much.

It sounds to me like you’ve already invested in Divi. Divi is a popular WordPress builder, then I would just stick with that and get really good with Divi. Then once you feel, you’re really, you’re an expert at Divi then you can start to dabble with other tools to expand your skillset because sometimes you might have a client that comes to you and says I want a Shopify site. I was just saying, sometimes you might have a client that comes to you and says, I want a Shopify site, my eCommerce store. So then you might want to invest in getting good at Shopify, but don’t differentiate and don’t split yourself up too much to the point where you’re only kind of good with everything. You want to be really good at one thing first, then move on to the next. So if you’re already invested in Divi with a lifetime membership, like you said, then I would just get really good at Divi first.

Aravind: Thank you. It was very, very clear, like after one session so we can understand. I did not see in this way. Yes, this makes really good sense to me how you explained with the domain and with the structure. Also how to start, I’m offering too many services, I offer like six to seven.

Patrick: Yeah. Yeah. You know what, it’s common. It’s common. I did that at first. I started thinking about all the different things I could offer and your mindset is thinking, well, if I offer more services, I can draw more clients, a wider range of clients, but it doesn’t work like that. People want to hire experts. So they’d rather hire someone that does one thing really well than does six or seven things just, okay and to the point where they’ll actually get suspicious, if they see someone does six or seven different services and then some of them don’t even fall into the same category, they’ll be like, they just know, okay, well this guy’s just kind of just trying to get anything he can get. Sometimes it can even look desperate, you’re just trying to get any work you find. But I get the temptation, that’s one of the most common mistakes early on for people is offering too much, too many different types of services. So I would stick with the core web design and graphic design and then some photography, if it fits in naturally

How to Compete With Other Web Designers Who Charge Less Than You

Aravind: One more, the last question, this was always very challenging for me because I’m from India. So when I live in India, I see like so many people are looking for a very, very cheap price and also I have this fear like it’s just happening when I’m about to charge the client and this fear comes up if I charge this price, the client may go to another developer, because there are so much people and how do I set my price comfortably that’s always challenging.

Patrick: Yeah. That’s a big challenge for people and it is nerve wracking when you’re always sending a quote to people. The first thing you have to think is never chase to the bottom. There’s always going to be someone that’s cheaper than you, always. Second thing is cheaper doesn’t mean better. If your client is just focused on cheap, getting the best price, price, price, price then they’re not your ideal client, that’s not the kind of client you want to go after. There’s nothing wrong with having a budget and someone who’s looking for something affordable because that’s what I focus on. Those are my clients, but there’s a difference between affordable and cheap and some people are just cheap and they want to go for the lowest price number, the lowest number and they don’t think about what they’re actually getting for that.

So don’t try to compete with everyone like you said, there are a ton in India that do it for very cheap, there is probably a bunch of Thailand that do it for really cheap too and it’ll often happen in countries where expenses are lower because you have an advantage there. You can get a client from the United States or Europe where the average rate is way higher people spend thousands of dollars on websites and that money will go much further in a place like Thailand or India. So you have an advantage in that. So you can offer a lower rate, but it really does come down to try to focus on what value you currently have to offer. It’s all about value. You feel like your skills are not expert level, they’re medium level or moderate then you adjust your price accordingly so that people’s expectations are appropriate. So I think your price range, you were looking, the six or 700 euros that’s a good start. I don’t think there’s any wrong with that because the other thing you have to remember is you’re just starting out. You need to build a portfolio. That’s just a tough reality.

I built my first few sites basically for free, just so I could have something to show clients because they won’t want to work with someone that doesn’t have evidence of work they’ve done in the past, a portfolio. So you will have to work for cheaper in the beginning. That is just a reality. Everyone has to do it. I did it. But it will grow and try to resist the temptation to chase for the bottom to kind of just, if you give a quote and the client says that’s too much, don’t just say, okay, I’ll do it for this then, it screams of desperation and they’ll actually respect you less. They’ll actually be less interested even though that you lowered the price. They’ll just be like, well, I don’t know if I really trust this guy. He seems like he’s really desperate for work. Whereas if you stick to your number, because you know this is the number you’re worth and you clearly articulate and explain why the price is at that rate and what they’re getting for it and you just stand your ground, as nerve wracking as that can be. But yeah, in the beginning, you’ll have to be a little flexible so that you can build up your portfolio. Then as time goes on, you should really look at ways to build your monthly income residual, passive income, by offering like website hosting and maintenance services, that’s going to make the constant chase for new clients, way easier. One day, you won’t have to do it. You’ll be able to just live off of your monthly passive income.

Aravind: Like the reseller hosting, something like that.

Patrick: Yep. Reseller hosting is a popular way to do it. Yeah because you’re thinking about services that your clients will need. Everyone that has a website made will need to Patrick it. That’s just a guarantee. So why send the hosting off to some other giant company like Bluehost when you could offer that service, offer that service, but with a premium spin on it, like a proper maintenance service. So don’t just offer hosting, tell them you’re going to do regular backups. You’re going to do premium security, security plugins to keep their sites safe from attacks, regular updates to WordPress and plugins, VIP support. Anytime your customer has a problem they know they can reach out to you one on one instead of getting a call center and having to wait on hold or send an email and wait two days to get one back, which is what a lot of hosting companies they’re so big, they don’t care. So little things like that, try to think about giving value, something that your client is going to need and how you can provide it.

Reselling Web Hosting and How to Choose the Best Host to Partner With

Aravind: I think we must have the experience of a reseller hosting because when I search there are so many options, different providers, which one would you recommend? Which one would be your recommendation to start with the reseller hosting? I was also thinking about that recently, but I don’t know, there are so many options, Amazon and Droplets and many, many things.

Patrick: Yeah. There’s a ton. There’s a ton. Yeah, it’s not like I can say I have experienced with all of them. I can just talk about what I used. Early on I used a company called Big Scoot, they are a great company. They offer great support because it really comes down to how fast will these guys respond if you have problems and they’re really good to offer reseller hosting. Another company, I discovered recently that I’ve started using for myself for certain services, by now I have my own server. I have a dedicated server that I’ve hired someone to maintain for me because I don’t like doing IT stuff. But WPMU Dev is a company that kind of offers a all-in-one WordPress management platform. So it basically offers you the ability to kind of maintain all of your clients’ websites on a centralized database and keep an eye on everything and keep up with backups and updates and analytics and SEO performance, everything all centralized in one dashboard and I’ve just started using it for some things and it looks awesome so far. So I would recommend checking them out as well. So WPMU Dev. So yeah, that’s all the time I have right now, I have to hop on another call Aravind.

Aravind: Yeah, I really appreciate your time. Thank you for this value. It was really helpful for me. I’m going to work on this this week.

Patrick: Sweet, keep me posted. I want to see how your website evolves now.

Aravind: Thank you. Thank you.

Patrick: All right. Take care. Stay safe.

Aravind: You too.

Patrick: All right. I’ll see you later.

Picture of Patrick Antinozzi

Patrick Antinozzi

This post was written by an organic being with the help of AI. Pretty wild that I have to disclaim that, eh? I'm just trying to provide value. It's not always the prettiest or the most succinct.

Liked this? I've got more where that came from: 🤓