IPTV services have become more popular today than ever. This relatively new form of entertainment is being embraced by millions of people all over the world. There are so many IPTV providers and set-top boxes available today that one must assume from the outside that it must be quite a booming market, right? Perhaps you have recently begun thinking to yourself that you want to get a piece of the action but you don’t know where to start?
If you have been curious about what it takes to become an IPTV reseller or even if you’ve just stumbled upon the idea just now, we will aid you in your journey. Becoming an IPTV reseller is an exciting way to start your own side business by providing a product that is definitely in demand right now.
However, like starting any business, there is a lot to learn and may end up being more work than you initially expected. If you’re still interested in figuring out what you need to do to achieve success, or even if you’re just curious about the nature of this business and simply want to find out more, read on.
In Short:
- IPTV reselling is a low-investment business, you can start with a few hundred dollars
- It will take both time and dedication to become really profitable
- By buying credits as a reseller, you leave the technical details of hosting and running an IPTV service to the pros and simply focus on marketing and customer service
- Create a brand for your IPTV reselling business
Let’s discuss how you can learn to become an IPTV Reseller.
An Important Note on IPTV Reselling
Consider this a disclaimer that we need to get out of the way immediately. The business of IPTV reselling should not be interpreted as a simple opportunity to earn a quick buck. Like any business, this journey will require research, patience and hard work on your part.
Some people might initially get the sense that becoming an IPTV reseller is very easy and that a minimal amount of effort is all that is necessary to earn some easy cash. This is simply not the case.
A good amount of your time and energy will be needed to pull this off. You will have to learn some in-depth knowledge about the specific characteristics of your IPTV service and your market audience (something we will discuss in more detail later on).
You will also have to realize that while you can make some decent money, it will take both time and dedication to become really profitable. How much you can earn ultimately depends upon your work ethic and skills. And like any business, you will, of course, be dealing with competitors. This is by no means a “get rich quick” scheme.
We don’t say this to alarm or dissuade anyone but it is important to approach this with a level head and have all the facts before you get started. If done correctly, then IPTV reselling can become a very decent source of money for you.
Finally, this is in no way an endorsement of IPTV services or streaming. It is your responsibility to ensure you are operating within the laws of your country.
The Benefits of Becoming an IPTV Reseller
Now that we’ve gotten the serious talk out of the way, let’s discuss some of the reasons why you should become an IPTV reseller. While we have stated that it will take effort on your part to have a thriving business, that doesn’t change the fact that it is still considered to be easier than say, opening up a restaurant.
For one thing – and we bet that this is part of what really attracts people to this practice in the first place – IPTV reselling is a low-investment business. It takes a relatively small amount of money to get started. If you’ve got a few hundred or a few thousand dollars lying around in your savings then you can get started faster than you may think. This is by no means the type of business venture that requires a huge loan from the bank.
Another nice thing about becoming an IPTV reseller is that you do not have to be a tech wizard. Don’t get me completely wrong though. You will have to know a good deal about IPTV services in general, especially the one you plan on reselling yourself. But it doesn’t require you to have a degree in computer science. Anyone can learn how to become an IPTV reseller regardless of their academic or career background.
One last thing we’ll say about the business of IPTV reselling is that it is highly scalable. This means that you can easily make adjustments to your business depending on how many customers you have at any given time. If you receive a surge of new customers, for example, all you have to do is stock up on more subscriptions or monthly credits from the IPTV service of your choice. You won’t have to deal with hiring new staff, buying new kitchenware or renting out a larger building, as compared to running a restaurant for example, which is one of the most popular businesses in the world for novices who want to start their own business.
How to Get Started With Your IPTV Reselling Business
Now that you’ve decided that you want to dedicate yourself to this entrepreneurial opportunity, you’re going to have to learn the basics about this business. Let’s start by discussing how you can get your foot in the door.
Before you contact any IPTV services, you will need to educate yourself with some info. The first thing you should do is browse which IPTV companies are allowing resellers. You can do this simply by looking this up on the internet or check out my recommended IPTV services. There are many resources like Reddit or the IPTVInsider Forum that will explain which companies are providing reseller accounts or you can check the official websites themselves. You can even try asking other resellers online themselves for more tips and advice (though most are quite secretive about their line of work..).
Next, you will need to familiarize yourself with the IPTV service you are interested in reselling for. Look up and figure out all you can about that one service such as what kind of content they specialize in, where their biggest markets are, who their main demographic is and things like that. How well does the EPG work, does it cover the most popular channels? Does the service provide video on demand? How often is the VoD content updated? How stable are the streams? All these things may be important to your future customers.
This will come in handy for you later when you will have to do some marketing. Knowing is half the battle as they say, and being able to attract potential customers necessarily involves knowing what your IPTV is good at and who it can draw in. For example, if you resell for an IPTV that specializes in streaming sporting events then you will have to adjust your marketing accordingly. Visiting sports forums and online groups would be a good way to get into contact with people looking for content.
Try the Service Out and Get Familiar with it Yourself
We highly recommend actually testing out the service for yourself. Maybe you’re already a customer of a particular IPTV and want to resell for them. You should then use the service as a regular customer so that you can become accustomed to all its details. Know all of its functions and features, know what channels it has, etc.
Be sure to also use it on as many devices as possible: smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs, Android TV boxes, MAG or Dreamlink/Formuler, with Kodi, with an m3u player and more. This is very important because your customers will also be using your IPTV service on a variety of platforms, so you need to know how it works on each one. If a customer comes to you with a question about how to use the service on a phone rather than a TV then you’ll need to know how that works so you can deliver solid customer service.
When selecting an IPTV to resell for, there are a few more things to keep in mind. Ideally, you want to be reselling for a company that delivers a quality product as not all IPTV services are the same. Look up reviews of various services and see if the one you want to resell for is considered a reliable service by people who have used it extensively.
Things like consistently strong streaming capabilities, a useful schedule guide and compatibility with as many devices as possible are considered very good aspects in any IPTV streaming service. If you can sell for one that is popular in several countries then that’s even better as it expands your potential audience size and will allow you to scale up your business much easier in the long run.
Lastly, once you select the IPTV provider you want to resell for, they will offer you a package of reseller credits and technical components that are necessary for being an IPTV reseller. These components typically include minimally a reseller panel to add new customers, in some cases, you will also get access to apps and web-based streaming sites to provide to your customers. All of these things are what will allow you to provide content for customers without any additional hardware or software.
The reseller credits are usually bought in bulk and allow you to convert them to subscription lines for your customers. As an example, your IPTV service may sell you 50 credits for $200. Each credit is worth one month’s subscription. You then sell to your customers monthly subscriptions, charging them $10 each and using one of your credits for each subscription sold. Once you run out of credits, you simply buy another package of 50 or 100 credits.
These packages will vary in cost depending on which IPTV service provider you resell for. This is also the first step in investing money into your business which brings us to our next section.
Taking Stock of Your Finances
Because IPTV reselling is such a flexible business, people of varying financial situations will be able to get in on this opportunity. We’ve mentioned earlier that IPTV reselling is a low-cost investment, which is true, but you don’t want to aimlessly spend cash even if it is just a couple of hundred dollars.
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First, be certain about how much money you want to put in initially. Let’s say you have $1,000 for example. That means you should not go over this amount when buying credits for your reseller account. We highly advise that when purchasing subscriptions from your IPTV service to not spend all of your money at once.
For example, if you have $1000 and a single subscription for a customer costs $10, that doesn’t mean you have to spend all of your money at the beginning all at once by acquiring 100 credits. It’s best to only spend a fraction of it at the beginning by buying, say, 25 credits.
The main reason we suggest this is because acquiring customers can be a slow and difficult process (something we’ll discuss soon in our marketing section). If you buy 100 credits and can only sell 25 of them in the first month then you’re going to be losing money that otherwise could have been spent in other domains of your business, like branding or building up a social media presence. Don’t overdo it and think small at first.
Another reason we make this suggestion is actually due to the nature of some IPTV services themselves. Depending on which service you become a reseller for, you may only be able to receive discounted credits over a certain amount, say 100 subscriptions (or 100 months’ worth of service) at a time. It may even be higher for other companies. It may be tempting to go for the discount but like we said, acquiring customers is a gradual process. What may seem like a profit in the short term might end up hurting you in the long term. Focus on these discounts only after you have hundreds of clients.
Understanding where your break-even point is is a crucial part of managing your finances. Once you’ve made enough profits to offset your investments, then you can really begin to start expanding your business by purchasing more subscription credits, online advertisements and so on.
You may also want to have some cash set aside for advertisements but that’s something we’ll return to later.
Managing Your IPTV Infrastructure
Once you become a reseller, you will have to juggle a few things. Let’s take a look first at IPTV panels.
An IPTV reseller panel is a management program provided by your IPTV service provider that is essentially the digital headquarters of your reselling business. With an IPTV panel you will have the tools needed to organize your IPTV portals and your customers. IPTV panels give you a wide variety of options such as activating or deactivating users, extending lines for clients, creating trial accounts, submitting credit into your account so that you can purchase more subscriptions and more.
To get started, all you need to do is visit IPTV reseller panel sites and register a reseller account. Once that is done you can download the IPTV panel program and start to get accustomed with its functions.
After that, you can step up your game and optionally look into hosting your own IPTV website and billing system. Much like with IPTV panels, there are already several resources readily available online that you can find and use with ease. Our recommendation would be to check out https://www.whmcssmarters.com. They have an impressive catalog of resources and tools that will help you get started with setting up custom multimedia apps, IPTV based websites and billing panels for IPTV resellers to help manage your finances as conveniently as possible. Again, this is optional, you can run your own IPTV reselling business without additional resources simply using a reseller panel that your IPTV service providers will provide access to.
Marketing and Branding: Become an Effective Salesman
After the initial phases of research and setting up your panel and server you will have to start focusing on what is arguably the hardest and most important part of being an IPTV reseller: getting clients and customers.
Before you begin talking to people and try selling your IPTV service to them, now would be a great time to take stock of what it is that you are selling exactly. Try writing down a list of all the things that the IPTV brand you are selling for is good at. Go over as many details as you can with a fine-tooth comb. You should pay attention to things like the type of content that it is best known for, what regions it is most popular in, the most convenient or intuitive features it has, and so on.
For example, if you are reselling for a sports-based IPTV whose main demographic is in western countries like the United States then your advertising and pitch to people should correspond to that. Another example would be that if your IPTV is most popular in eastern countries and specializes in foreign language films then you will have to use the internet to reach those audiences and tailor your online presence accordingly.
Salesmanship is Essential
Being a good salesman is a very important part of the job, if not the most important. You have to be able to educate potential customers about your IPTV service as much as possible. We also stress that honesty is an integral part of this process. If your IPTV service doesn’t host much content related to comedy series for example then be honest about it. Don’t mislead buyers with false advertising as it is not only unfair to them but will only lead to further headaches for you in the form of complaints and a worsened reputation of your business.
One thing a lot of IPTV resellers do is hand out free trials to potential clients. With your IPTV panel, you can set someone up with a free trial easily and set the expiry date on the account. You can give them a one day trial or even a one month trial if you so choose. Handing out trials is a good strategy to get people excited about your service and makes them more likely to purchase subscriptions.
Advertising your IPTV business can be accomplished in a variety of ways which actually leaves you a lot of wiggle room. You also get to be completely in charge of your own pricing. This is where you will really begin to feel like your own boss.
Don’t Underestimate Other Ways to Get the Word Out
You can advertise your IPTV business in person, for example. Many people think that the internet is the only way to go but this actually isn’t the case. You can easily do something as simple as telling family, friends, co-workers and neighbors about your service and give them the rundown of the service and pricing. Even if they aren’t interested they may very well tell their friends or colleagues about it. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth advertising.
While not so many people do this, you can definitely consider print advertising as an option if you think you have a market in your local community. Buying out ads in newspapers could be an effective strategy to reach several thousands of people but the effectiveness of this ultimately depends on the size of your city.
While in-person advertising is a viable option and should not be overlooked, it is extremely likely that the vast majority of your marketing will be done online as that’s where you can attract as many people as possible. Taking advantage of as many online forums and social media pages will be a big part of running this business.
An account with both Facebook and Twitter is highly recommended. Here you can post comments about the IPTV service you are reselling as well as provide links to the IPTV websites. These websites provide a great opportunity to describe the nature of this streaming service as well as interact with people interested. You’ll be able to answer any questions they might have.
Know How to Deal with Customers Who Are Already Familiar
Potential customers will be extremely varied when it comes to their knowledge of IPTV products in general. Prepare yourself to be able to respond to people who have used IPTV services before but are thinking of switching providers. Here you can pitch to them why your selected streaming service is a superior option.
Slow Streams or Buffering?
Are your streams loading too slow? Getting constant buffering? Not able to stream at full resolution? Check out these tips to improve your streaming experience:
- Use a modern Router that has advanced features like QoS to prioritize video content. Check out our recommended Routers for Streaming.
- If you are using a Wifi connection, be sure to check out our 9 easy steps to improve your Wifi for Streaming.
- Some Internet Service Providers throttle video streaming traffic without telling their customers. A VPN encrypts all your traffic and circumvents throttling, blocking and geographical restrictions.
There will also be folks who have never used IPTV services before and will, therefore, pose more basic questions. Be ready to provide them with answers that are not too complicated as you don’t want to scare them off. Try to achieve a balance between simplicity and being informative. Consider creating a FAQ page that will help new customers get started. This will reduce the amount of interaction required from your side.
While contacting people directly is part of being a salesman, you should also consider coming up with a “brand” or an image for your business. You can hire a freelance graphic designer to design a logo for your business so that you look more distinguished from other resellers. Remember, you will have competition so setting yourself apart from other businesses is very important for getting as many clients as possible.
Online branding also needs to take your demographics into consideration. If your IPTV mainly focuses on audiences from a certain country then so should your marketing. If your service has the majority of its audience in Germany for example then you should learn about the kind of content that’s popular and if there’s a demand for anything new.
German customers are probably going to have different tastes than American ones as the cultures are quite different in some ways. Take the geographical location into consideration at all times and be mindful of what content is available over there.
Providing Support to Your Customers
Once you’ve acquired some subscribers for your business, you will then have to focus on maintaining a rapport with your customers. Communication and availability are key to having satisfied customers that will continue to use your service and keep on returning to renew their IPTV subscriptions.
All good tech-related businesses need to have a good customer service department that can handle any troubleshooting. It is inevitable that you will eventually have customers emailing or messaging you with questions about the IPTV service. They may be experiencing a dead stream, long loading times or any other technical difficulty. Your job here is to be able to respond back to them as quickly and as effectively as possible.
If you want to go the extra mile then you can try following up with your customers even if they haven’t messaged you with any questions. Simply ask them if they are satisfied with their IPTV service and if there’s anything else you can do to help them out further. They will likely appreciate your dedication and be impressed by your customer support skills. Everyone appreciates a cordial attitude, so always be friendly and willing to lend a helping hand.
Receiving Payment
One question that a lot of people often ask when getting into this business is “how do I get paid?” One would probably expect a relatively unconventional business would have equally unconventional payment solutions, and this is partially correct.
Various IPTVs accept a variety of payment solutions, so you should try to do the same to be able to attract as many people as possible. If your business only accepts one payment method then that will seriously cut down on the number of buyers you can have. You should allow acceptable payments to be made by credit card, Paypal and even cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. It’s ultimately all up to you to use your IPTV billing panel to set up the appropriate payment methods that you want to use.
Getting payments is as easy as selling subscriptions to customers. Once you start getting clients for your service you will be able to manage your received payments manually or via your billing panel and redirect them to your bank account, Paypal account, etc.
It is usually best to start out with Paypal payments and an added option of using Bitcoin, although very few customers will actually use cryptocurrencies. You can also use Stripe as your payment processor. Due to the nature of IPTV streaming, it can be difficult to find a long-term payment gateway. You may also look into using a site like fiverr to request your customers to make payments.
Keep in mind that as an IPTV reseller, you are in charge of your own pricing so profit margins are mostly in your own hands. You don’t want to be charging anything that is too expensive, especially at the beginning of your venture. Take a look at other IPTV resellers and see what they are charging for monthly subscriptions and then set your own prices in a similar range. You are totally free to raise your prices later on once you’ve acquired more customers and developed a good reputation. You may want to allow current customers to maintain the same deal they started with though so you don’t scare them off.
Your total earnings will vary based on how many customers you can acquire and what you set your prices at. IPTV resellers can earn as little as a couple of dozen dollars a month to a couple thousand dollars per month. How much you will earn will ultimately depends on you and how you manage your business.
Possible Challenges
No business on the face of this Earth is without its hurdles, and reselling IPTVs is no exception. Educating yourself on the inevitable problems that will come your way is a necessary aspect of being a successful IPTV salesman.
The first thing you should be mindful of in this business is that you will have competition, something we’ve touched on earlier. Competition is especially challenging if you are reselling for an IPTV that hosts niche content. Therefore you should study the competition for research purposes just as you would learn the ins and outs of the very IPTV service you are reselling for.
Look up other IPTV resellers online and see what they are doing either correctly or incorrectly. There’s no harm in borrowing a marketing strategy from someone else that you feel will also benefit your business. It will also allow you to see where other resellers are messing up so that you can learn from their mistakes.
Arguably the biggest challenge an IPTV reseller will face is when a stream goes down. This is when you will receive dozens if not hundreds of messages from clients asking what is going on. This can be the most stressful part of the job and it will probably happen to you eventually at some point. Luckily, there are preparations you can make in advance to mitigate these technical issues.
You can use a backup IPTV service that you can redirect all your customers to in case the primary one goes down. This will cost you extra money to be reselling for multiple providers but it is a great idea for someone who has been reselling for a while and has made enough money to be able to afford it.
Getting into contact with the service provider during an inactive stream should be one of your first steps. Ask them if the issue is coming from their end and see if they have any updates or tips for you that you can relay back to your customers.
If the stream went down on your end due to any number of issues then your only method left if you have no backups is to reboot the stream.
Now that you’ve made it to the end of the article you should have all the information you need to get started on your very own IPTV reselling business. While it may be a low-investment startup, it still will evolve a good amount of work on your part. IPTV reselling can be a little tough at first but with some good customer service and online advertising, you can really build up your customer base over a couple of months and really start to see some profits. How much you make a month is ultimately up to you.
We hope you enjoyed reading how to become an IPTV reseller and that your new business venture brings you all the success you are looking for.
