Interland Eases Web Site Building

Dubbed Business Solutions, the service gives solution providers the ability to offer customers a low-cost solution to develop a Web site,typically $500 or less. Until now, Interland did not offer Web site design tools. The new solution stems from Interland's acquisition last December of Web site design tool vendor Trellix.

The solution provides more than 200 design templates in an HTML-free environment, a business e-mail address with up to 50 mailboxes, a free domain name for one year and 24x7 technical assistance.

"In many cases, resellers pass on the opportunity to build Web sites for smaller companies, but with this solution, it will take only a couple days, or the solution provider can let the customer do the design work, or even get a referral fee for passing the lead on to us," said Tiffani Bova, vice president of channel sales and marketing at Atlanta-based Interland.

Kurt Allen Weiss, owner of Clifton, N.J.-based Web site design shop KW Productions, said he is considering reselling the solution to his customers. "I probably wouldn't use it to develop Web sites, but it seems like a great tool to offer our customers, and in turn, [we] receive a consulting fee for helping them as they design the site," Weiss said. "It will also lead to us selling additional Web hosting space."

Interland has made several enhancements as of late to its channel program. In March, the hosting company launched a referral program for its existing partners that pays up to $150 in credit each time a referral qualifies as a new customer.

The company also introduced the iPACT (Interland's Partner Advantage Centralized Tools) program, which gives solution providers access to personalized messages, upcoming promotions and links to marketing materials, an account and billing center, training materials, technical help, and realtime reporting on the revenue they earn selling Interland solutions.