We just spent a few bucks at ISPCheck.com and our site traffic increased dramatically. However, our results were less than spectacular as far as new clients go. Any thoughts as to why so many people come to our site but few, if any, sign up?

Steve
www.bitshosting.com

Because the hosting industry is completely oversaturated...:(

as far as your site, it looks good. Nice setup, nice adcopy, nice prices, even a toll-free number. I think its just hard to compete with 10,000 others like you.

Target Locally

Summer's always a little slower anyway so signups are down right across the industry for the most part. It'll pick up again shortly.

I dont konw how many visits you have...

But in my case I get 2 or 3 signups with 100/120 visits...

You may want to increase the size of the text where it says: Check out our Shared Linux Plans!

Also, keep in mind that many small business people don't know linux from a chevy, so you may want to change it to:

Get started with Linux Hosting

Get started with Windows Hosting

And then add links that say:

Learn more about Linux hosting

Learn more about Windows hosting

Make it easy to buy and they will buy easily.

Getting people to sign up is hard. Especially if you aren't a large well known company. I started off small with local businesses. It seems the one on one contact helps a lot. It builds good customer relationships, and later on down the road some nice referrals. I would concentrate more on local advertising right now, then when you start to obtain a nice name in your area, maybe look into branching out.

Like tiago said above, I normally get about 5 signups out of every 100-150 unique hits.

Thanks for the insight everyone.

It is a dog-eat-dog world in the hosting business!

I agree with vovex, we struggled like hell to get sign ups, even dropping our prices twice to get customers.

We started targeting our customers locally and the results were magic, we had 14 new sign ups in three days. We have grown a lot since then, but I tell you, hitting the local market and building from there helps build business credibility and word of mouth gets around fast.

The key is one on one interaction to help build it, an awesome support structure and a great network that will help take your business to the next level!

Good luck, keep your chin up, your site looks great!

Cheers! :)

Nice looking site with good features. The only suggestion I would make is that it takes too long to get to a pricing list for your plans. Take a look at your logs and see where most people are leaving, then try and get the important information to them before they do.

It's my opinion that most people shop price and quotas first, then if you're prices are a bit higher they may stay to see why. That is the point you seperate yourself from everyone else.

I would also agree with the others that posted here in that your local market is the best market...

Good luck!

I wouldnt expect too many signups. Hosting is very saturated at the moment.
It really depends on if you are targetting a certain market or not.
I would try to get listed in as many directories, search engines as possible.
Concentrate on the local market, family, friends, etc. as word of mouth beats all other adverts as far as Im concerned.
A nice special offer or promotion may help as well.

It took me 10 minutes to find an order button, too many words. I think your site is the longest book I read this month. I would have just given up if I wasn't interested in just seeing where the order button was.

Copy is great, but let me make that choice. Next to any more information button - put an order now button. Don't make your customers work to place an order with you.

Chet

Have you got any sales yet?

I recommend doing alot of free stuff. I did that for about 2 weeks and got a sale a day from it. Like submit to hosting directories, peoples link pages, traffic exchanges (with big start up bonuses), etc.

That should help. I am moving to a local market now with a yellow pages ad...hoping its going to work.

Keep us updated on how things go on BitsHosting

Shoppers want the price. They do not want to have to drill down 5 pages to get it. After one or two clicks, they are gone to an easier to navigate site.

Its a hopeless case nowdays,people know they can come to WHT and get any hosting plan for half the price and probably more when they post a request.

The hosting and web industry seems to be fully saturated at this time. Afterall, you are competing with 10's of thousand of people just like you.

Good luck!

Remember the golden rule of web authoring, if it takes 3 clicks to get to it, people are going to click X.

I gave up finding your price list and order buttons after about 2 minutes of searching, when it comes to ecommerce, people want speed.

I do not want to bash your site but I defend my theory.

You are using a TM Template. As someone already said in this thread, the industry is oversaturated. if you are not original, pack your bags and move to National Market.

Armando

I'm not quite sure what using a TM template has to do with anything, but...

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I incorporated some of the suggestions into the site.

Best of luck to you all.

Thanks

I'd agree with the other posts, it took me 5 minutes to find out where to actually place an order from, infact even when i found the "order now" link in the drop down menu on the right, it took me to a pricing page and i had to make another 2/3 clicks to actually get to the order process.

If i was a customer, i would have given up and gone elsewhere along time ago.

The "order now" button that i'm guessing you've placed since the start of this thread at the top there, is under just a general statement about your hosting, so it doesn't really relate to ordering anything.

You're site looks nice, you have some good plans, good options, everything looks well organised, but unless somebody's coming to your site with the sole intention of signing up to your company and not looking at any others (which is not going to happen if you're new) i think you'll struggle to get any business.

The people coming to your site at the moment are most likley in the middle of browsing through several hosting sites, they will most likley buy on impulse they don't want to read 10 pages of text.

best of luck :)

1000 uniques last month and zero sign ups and zero inquiries.

Everyone sys it is my pricing, yet I have 40 clients from web design who never complain.

I think people are just cheap and the ever increasing hosting companies and competition has driven the prices down to the point where........free's a winner!!

Originally posted by fin
1000 uniques last month and zero sign ups and zero inquiries.

Everyone says it is my pricing, yet I have 40 clients from web design who never complain.

I think people are just cheap and the ever increasing hosting companies and competition has driven the prices down to the point where........free's a winner!!

Whether you realised it or not, you hit a proverbial nail on the head in that statement.

But, probably not the section you think, the difference with web designers and your average Joe? A web designer know what all the jargon means, "Joe" think's it could quite possibly be the newest cadburys chocolate bar.

My advice? keep at it, unless you're in the industry to pay a power bill.

Kids come and go (especially during summer) , but the pro's stick at it through thick and thin, whilst at the moment you may be in a "thin period", ONE correctly targetted ad/submission ( our overture stats are 1 signup per 7 clicks nowadays), anyway, one good ad placement and you could be "off to the races".

Design a deal, limit it to a certain period of time ( DO limit it, and never repeat the offer if you say you are not going to, customers hate this, and feel like they have been scammed).

On a final note, you sound serious about this, although a little to eager, which is an advantage, probably 60% of web hosting companies aren't bothered about much else but the money, keep your customers when you finally get them, don't abandon them, when they ask something, bend over 3 ways from sunday to give it to them, because one day, you won't have to, because you may well have a team full of guys doing it for you.

Good luck.

Who ever designed this site did they take into consideration about Netscape users. Half of this site don't come up in Netscape. I would get rid of that huge flash banner and just have something small in flash. Your site load will be quicker this way.

Another thing what Market are you targeting?


What Market I see your trying to cater for is the FULLY inexperienced, someone who has absolutely no idea.

You need MB, GB and price with 30% details on your front webpage not 10,000 words of stuff that don't matter. You should have all this info in a FAQ or something.

You might have too many plans as well and did you realise that its not good design principles to have the content you need such as full info and price on the 4th link click. Yes it took me 4 clicks to get to the full data I wanted to see.

People switch off after the third click. This should not be more than 3 links as a maximum.

Another thing website design is not about a flashy flash banner and sexy graphics. It depends on colors, no more than 7 words per line, viewable in Netscape and IE.

Too many replies realte to too much negativity. Anyone reading this should take A Good Hard Look at this site then compare it with ******s website

Now let me ask you the question?

Whats more inticing and more to the point and wants to make you buy webhosting?


I hope this helps Good luck with it..

Joe

I just opened my hosting company, www.modernbyte.com, and I haven't been getting any signups either?
But I dont make any of the mistakes mentioned above, and the website is fully original and the control panel and order forms are all designed and programmed by me, something many hosts dont do...
Maybe I should do local advertising ? But how should I go about that? What form of local advertising ? and where ?

Regards,
Sam.

My site, nymphex.com hosting, gets about 1 sign up a day with only about 50 unique hits each day.

Originally posted by svj
I just opened my hosting company, www.modernbyte.com, and I haven't been getting any signups either?
But I dont make any of the mistakes mentioned above, and the website is fully original and the control panel and order forms are all designed and programmed by me, something many hosts dont do...
Maybe I should do local advertising ? But how should I go about that? What form of local advertising ? and where ?

Regards,
Sam.


What a lovely website you have created. :)

Originally posted by Corey
My site, nymphex.com hosting, gets about 1 sign up a day with only about 50 unique hits each day.
I can't open your site !!! your site is down ?

Without marketing of your site you can't get orders.
If customers don't signup that means you are lacking something.

I had to make 3 clicks before I could see a break down of details on your different plans.

Less clicks, more orders.

Kids come and go (especially during summer)

Exactly. Just wait until september when school starts back up and all of the kiddies offering $0.99 per month will fold. Then business should kick back up.

Originally posted by /bin/false
I agree with vovex, we struggled like hell to get sign ups, even dropping our prices twice to get customers.

We started targeting our customers locally and the results were magic, we had 14 new sign ups in three days.

What exactly did you do to accomplish that?

TF

Yeah, local advertising sounds like a great idea.... but what exactly would you do ?

Originally posted by wfn
I can't open your site !!! your site is down ?
Remove the , on the end of the url: http://www.modernbyte.com

Originally posted by svj
Yeah, local advertising sounds like a great idea.... but what exactly would you do ?
Have you thought about looking up web designers in the yellow pages, and make a time to see the manager and talk about their web hosting requirements? Make a great deal for them before you go, like you'll host their next design client for free to trial the service or something like that. Tell them your wanting to make long term business relationship’s with design firms, and that your willing to install any custom components to your system to accommodate them.

Designers are the people that will bring in the business; they know the tech talk so you won’t have to explain everything. If you have it in a referral type system, that’s the best model IMHO because normally the design client goes to there designer first then the designer comes to us, so basically its like a reseller support model but you get the rewards of having a direct paying customer, while the designer is still getting monthly maintenance fee’s or whatever.
If you don’t normally offer phone support, offer them phone support as something different make it out that they are going to get it and other customers are not. Say you’ll have a flexible billing policy, say 30-day invoices (because not all design firms get enough up front these days because of the changing times). This should surely make your services different to other peoples.

Originally posted by SpiritAu
Tell them your wanting to make long term business relationship’s with design firms, and that your willing to install any custom components to your system to accommodate them.


Very good point. This is really the reason we (a design/programming company) grew our hosting business. We needed to register items in the GAC along with other components (such as Crystal Reports). No one could provide what we wanted so we had to buy servers.

I have tried to make many of the changes mentioned above. I appreciate everyone's comments (good and bad). We plan to start some local advertising soon.

Thanks
Best regards,

I like the order page. Nicely integreated.

David K.

Thanks!
:-)

What system are you using on your order page? Is it Modernbill?

Yes, it is Modernbill

I know the feeling. I had signups and renewals, most of them asked if they could pay with credit cards, I then re-did my website and got a merchant account and now no signups, from past experience though summer is slower, i have the least amount of renewals this time of year so hopefully once the summer is over things will pick up again.

The comments about over saturation are right on the money. I've lost clients to the kids who, because they have no overhead (living at home and letting mom pay the phone bill, etc) can charge $1 a month. I get an average of 5 postcard type hosting offers myself every week. (Great way to see the competition)

For the guy starting out, you face a huge uphill battle.

1- You have no name.
2- You are competing against entrenched opposition with deep pockets.
3- You have minimal to no cash flow or reserves.

So, how do you win?

1- Get "web pages that suck" and follow its advice. If I can't find what I'm looking for on a hosting site within 3 clicks, I move on.

2- Give excellent service. (You'd think its a no brainer, but its not)

3- Pick a niche and hammer it from all sides.

4- Pick who you will and wont compete against. There are folks who charge nothing, and folks who charge fortunes. Decide what point you will compete on, and drive it home. Note: You will not get rich on the cheep hosting. A rough week or 2 and you can be wiped out by your support costs. I compete on service. Our reseller packages range from $60-$500 a month. Yes, you can get more space and bandwidth for a lot less. However, will your cheepy host hop on a plane and fly in when the S! hits the fan to help you out? (When a client needed to restore 100 accounts in a hurry, our CEO went there personally to roll up his sleeves and work side by side with him. Result, one very happy reseller.) You get what you pay for. We don't compete against the highschool fly-by-nights, and we don't compete against the impersonal powerhouses either. We aint fortune 500, but, we're doing alright. :)


The battlefield is extremely over crowded. 10,000 is a small number I think. (theres 200+ in my local market alone). Use your head, and pick your fights. You'll do ok then.

:)

Originally posted by bainesy21
I have tried to make many of the changes mentioned above. I appreciate everyone's comments (good and bad). We plan to start some local advertising soon.


Good luck, I just wanted to add what others had said. If you visit nymphex.com he shows his plans on the first page. ModernByte has their plans one click away.

In terms of getting off the first page, you really have to search to find where the hot spots are to click. I would recommend making the entire box clickable.

Your hosting packages page shouldn't exist, its in your menu on that page. Just put that menu on the front page.

I had more comments but its probably easier in picture form. I think it could use more work, but it makes more sense to me at least. I basically moved your various elements around and added the menu from your hosting page.

nice site, template monster?
layout looks fine, text is no prob... its just all about marketing. how many different hosting companies are linked from the same source youre advertising on? might not be the best place for sales.

I keep meaning on putting some ad's in the local paper but I get busy with stuff and then forget. I look in the yellow pages here, maybe two designers... tops. Although signups are slow during the summer, it'll pick up after the kids are back in school :D (no offense to the teenscene)

We're just about to spend money on putting some presentation on CDs and distribute it to our local businesses. Advertising on the net right now is almost a waste of money to get sales. It's not bad to get your name out there but don't expect to go to the bank with all your money.

When all the kids go to school, things will pickup, summer is always slow due to all the kids buying $99 servers and running a so called BUSINESS.

http://www.xtremeplay.net any suggestions?

Lose the guestbook on the right, cursing on your front page doesn't look professional. Apart from that, nice design.

Yeah well when you start with a bunch of kid cliens and then have idiots fight on your site it happens. Thats why I added the censor.

Thanks for the compliment. Anyone else have anything to say?
I need advice on the pricing as well.

Nice site, just give it some time.

Lose the shoutbox. Anyone who is going to be a legitimate paying customer will leave as soon as they see that.

Yes, ditch the ShoutBox. Too unprofessional to have a bunch of kids trading l33t speak in derogatory, poorly spelled messages about nothing whatsoever. I don't think an adult is likely to put a ShoutBox on their business's website for kids to grafitti, so to me it also shouts, "underage host!"

Eventually your competition will start coming by to plop in advertisements for themselves on your front page.

You can use that space to summarize your plans and pricing so people don't have to look for the link and click on it.

I think your plans are expensive.

100MB/3GB for $5 bucks. 60 bucks for 1GB, etc. Hosting is extremely competitive price wise and people are not going to sign up with you absent word of mouth when they get 2-3 times what you are offering for the same price or less.

Not to mention the fact that Ensim is not the most popular control panel to offer.


Good luck . . .

Originally posted by vovex
Getting people to sign up is hard. Especially if you aren't a large well known company. I started off small with local businesses. It seems the one on one contact helps a lot. It builds good customer relationships, and later on down the road some nice referrals. I would concentrate more on local advertising right now, then when you start to obtain a nice name in your area, maybe look into branching out.

Like tiago said above, I normally get about 5 signups out of every 100-150 unique hits.

Ok how about the prices now.

Originally posted by pixel_fenix
http://www.xtremeplay.net any suggestions?

Web hosting is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of XtremePlay... But, that could just be me. :-)

Take care,

Brian

Used to be game hosting but TTL screwed me over.

Originally posted by pixel_fenix
Used to be game hosting but TTL screwed me over.

I figured as much - but that wasn't what I meant. You're young ... probably to young to get what I mean. Don't worry, that is probably a good thing!

Thanks - Brian

Hey I am over 18 I know what you mean. If you add an e well lets just say I know what you mean.

I think what bteeter may mean is that when you first look at the site, it does not look obviously like you are a hosting site. I found the design pretty, but I see so many pages every day, that I find that I have no patience for anything that does not jump out at me very clearly. When I look for something, if the site I arrive at does not communicate clearly that what I seek is here, I leave. You know what I mean?

I wouldn't want to comment on anything but I just was at your order page and it is not secured or what payment methods you accept.

I have not gone through the whole motion but I would assume it is a 3rd party handling payment, in which case you might want to make that indication and also mention what payment type is accepted. I do not want to fill in the form then at the end realized that you do not accept my type of credit card or something. Also mention that upon payment it will be handled by a 3rd party using a secured order page.

If possible, shrink the sign up process down to not more than 2 pages, as a customer, I get bored filling in page after pages of forms. I know you have the percentage of completion bar and the steps it takes but there are items which can be merged and would be better to be so. Ideally, it is one single page for registration so I know instantly what information you require.

You might also want to increase your trial to 7 days money back.

Also decrease the bandwidth & price on each plan

350mb plan shouldn't have more than 10gb bandwidth attached to it, just have a smaller amount of fixed bandwidth, and then charge a small amount for overages.