What I and at least one other developer I know of has done is to grab a reseller account at Wild West Domains (GoDaddy) and setup a website (provided) there. These are great when we have a client who needs a domain and hosting and wants us to assist them or wishes to buy those services from us.

What I’ve also done was built a handful of multi-sites with their databases on a set of VPSs and their WordPress on a second tier shared host. These are great if you really need to do a bunch of client hand-holding, for hosting your own and joint venture websites, and occasionally helping a friend out for a short time.

I like playing around with servers myself but they tie you down if you have clients on them and you’re the only admin. Vacations and trips from home require a laptop and carrying a bunch of login info just in case the system crashes (and if it’s going to do so then that’s when it will).

If you have partners or employees it gets easier.

With the reseller account you get discounted domains, services and hosting which helps financially and you’ll also have a secondary business you can promote and earn from. You might even find that reseller system providing you a great income after a time if you wish to promote it.

I’m also a GoDaddy Pro which is a little bit of help when seeking info and assistance from GoDaddy support but the real kicker here for me is the Managed WP dashboard since most of my sites are WordPress based also.