affiliate vs. reseller

[julieA]

Most of the accounts I put up on FQ are Visionary packages. Wouldn't I be better off having the clients order them through my affiliate banner ad and receiving $20 credit rather than if I ordered them using my Reseller number? I would receive $20 off, they could pay annually and get the annual rate and they'd get full support from FQ if they decide to switch to another web developer.

Would there be advantages I'm not seeing to ordering my customer's websites through my reseller's account instead since visionary packages don't receive a discounted monthly rate?

Also, my clients usually get wordpress installs so they have to have MySQL access which I believe would not be available if they were IRMs, correct?

[Matt]

Seems like sound logic to me, so long as you make sure they specify you as a secondary contact. You'd also avoid the $50 annual reseller fee and reduce your risk.

Now that Visionary offers similar capabilities to the old Pioneer package (i.e. works for 95% of clients), but gives little in the way of discounts, resellers have little to no pricing advantage over clients buying direct (the same thing happens on the upper end as well with the High Capacity accounts). With the additional introduction of annual reseller fees, discontinuation of annual reseller discounts, and general neglect, it's hard to see who would actually benefit from the FQ reseller program as it stands today. Even if you fall into the narrowly defined target market, the advantage evaporates once you throw competing reseller programs into the equation.

-Matt

[sheila]

...resellers have little to no pricing advantage over clients buying direct (the same thing happens on the upper end as well with the High Capacity accounts)

Resellers do now receive discounts on the High Capacity and MQS packages. This change happened in June 2008.
http://www.futurequest.net/forums/sh...511#post168511

[jonni]

i've been uing the affiliate program for a few years and find it good in that it saves me money on my mums websitewhich I pay for) as i always use the banner ad there to set up new accounts. However I really would like to make some money out of reselling on futurequest, i just find it difficult to get my head around the points system and can't work out if I would make any money or not, especially given the inital $50 outlay...

[Bob]

Hello Jonni,

You would need to have a number of full packages, all listed under one main account number, to make the Reseller's program work for you.

You have to determine what your savings would be for existing packages under that single Account to see if it would offset the RID License.

For instance if you have 1 Pioneer package and 3 Visionary Packages (5 points) you would qualify for a 20% Discount for the Pioneer package = $3.59 and $1.00 off each Visionary package for a total savings of $6.59 per month which would equal $79.08 over 12 months and would offset the RID License and save you $30.08 over that period after taking the RID License into account.

-Bob

[jonni]

ok, so if its one dollar/month off each visionary package, thats $12/year which would imply a minimum of 5 visionary packages (total savings $60) to cover the cost of the rid ($50) with $10 profit

however there is an annual renewal reward of $12 on visionary packaeges already whcih would offset the saving made on the reseller program making the reseller program worthless to resellers who deal exclusively in visionary packages?

is that correct?

[Melissa]

I wouldn't say it's worthless; it depends on how many Visionary packages you have under your account. As with all of the discounts, the Visionary discount increases when you have more points. It also depends on what other services you need, such as IRs, SSL, etc, as those come at a discount for Resellers too. The Visionary package is the lower end of the packages and the Reseller License is $49/year. So, yes, you would need to make sure that you would benefit from the Reseller's Program. Generally, the Affiliate Program would be recommended for those just starting out and/or for those who find the Reseller Program isn't advantageous for their particular situation.

[hobbes]

FWIW, we resell FQ and are tapped out as far as points, but don't even bother offering the Visionary package. For the other basic shared packages, the split offered is pretty nice. If only the same was true of HC & MQS...