as it states in the title how many clients do you host?

How long did it take you to get that many clients?

getting customers is proberly not the issue, its all those host out there that are offering really cheap prices for like 100gb! that gets me going. think thats what makes it hard for all of us to get clients that stay long.

i dont want to brag to much about our hosting company but if it wasnt for all them cheap hosts out there people like me and a few others would have more clients.

what alot of people do that bothers me is they see a cheap cheap deal like really cheap and they jump straight to it leaving there other hosts, think ive seen one at $2 once for summit like 100MB webspace and 10gb bandwidth, mean how can a company make money out of doing summit like that? Yes i know have proberly got big servers or summit but its a bit silly dont you think?

and i dont pertically agree with people saying u get what u pay for, our plans are affordable and i think we provide more then what the customer gives back ;)

yha I dont like them cheap hosts me personally my packages are about what everyone else are.

so how many clients do you host? Its strange I think some people start right out with get a whole bunch but others wont get many at all.

I don't mean to be rude, but how old are you guys? You use grammar like a 12 year old, or maybe you're just not very good at English. I'm sorry, but you just sound very unprofessional and should maybe consider staying in High School and not venturing into the web hosting industry.

Just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by papaj
I don't mean to be rude, but how old are you guys? You use grammar like a 12 year old, or maybe you're just not very good at English. I'm sorry, but you just sound very unprofessional and should maybe consider staying in High School and not venturing into the web hosting industry.

Just my 2 cents.


Hello papaj I just dont feel like typing good grammar for the last couple of weeks. I am sorry you feel that way though. Thank you for your comment.

Most hosts wont give this sort of information out. But you can take an educated guess at size by snooping around the information available on their website.

I didnt realise this was a flaming forum? if a moderator saw you write that he would have proberly had to say somthing on the matter.

I use alot of slang when i type and talk which i suppose could hinder my english and what are you american? you must be of some type of nature because you call school (high school) which us "english" people do not.

I'm 18 so im not quite 12 and im disslectic and i think i spell pritty dam good for one of them people.

Sorry mate but you started this "flamming" match, if you do this again ill contact a moderator myself.

To answer you question dude, i host 12 people at the moment, with a few more everyday. but like i said everyday there is a cheap host realeased people come and go :(

(that wasnt aimed at you UH) sorry slow posting back :P

Thank you UH-Matt for your response. I was just merely just wondering what the adverage web hosting company out there has. Thank you for your comment, and have a great day!

Also a little about my self. I am 19 years old, I graduated High School last year. I guess talking on the computer with so many people of all diffrent ages with change how your write at times. Thank you for your time.

Jon FB, you dont need to justify yourself - welcome to the forums :)

I have reported papaj to the moderators because (as I have found out myself in the past) rudeness is not accepted at WHT.

no its not UH, as i said when i posted, i didnt realise it was a flamming forum.

also my grammer might not be 100% up to scratch like everyones else beacsue i some times type without looking at keyboard which dont help lol.

made me chukle when he said dont mean to be rude, when he was lol ;)

If I can get 2 more I will have 3.

18 Here with valid business license and feeling need to apologize because I sometimes stereotype people a certain way such as Jon because he used his girlfriend's credit card to pay for something. Had I been more alert and seen you planned to have her as your future wife I would not have called you what I did. Sorry, it is poor actions like that which make the older generations frown upon the younger upstarts.

I for one am in no rush to get big fast, that being said.
We have just under 100 clients, over 400 Sites and have been around a little over 1 year. ;)

Others numbers may vary, but we are taking the slow and steady approach ;)

Just tell all your clients to post reviews of you after being with you for 24 hours and you will have "10 new signups a day" in no time. :/

Originally posted by pixel_fenix
18 Here with valid business license and feeling need to apologize because I sometimes stereotype people a certain way such as Jon because he used his girlfriend's credit card to pay for something. Had I been more alert and seen you planned to have her as your future wife I would not have called you what I did. Sorry, it is poor actions like that which make the older generations frown upon the younger upstarts.

its okay pixel_fenix no harm done :).

Thanks I feel better now.

Originally posted by NexDog
Just tell all your clients to post reviews of you after being with you for 24 hours and you will have "10 new signups a day" in no time. :/

I bet it works all you have to do is I guess go to a client and say go to WHT and say how well blah blah host is, and if you do this I will give you 50 mb of disk space and 300 bandiwth extra for free. Or what ever... I could see people doing that.

Might be suspicious if you got too much exposure though.

Some people DO do it. Maybe they don't offer free hosting or incentives but they actively encourage people to post reviews here. Whatever floats their boat, I guess.

yes....i know hosts that offer more for just saying nice stuff about them.....it's a win-win situation and no1 is complaining.

I for one think the policy of "paying" for reviews, even if that payment is in the form of better support, more space, whatever, is highly unethical.

Probably why a year later there's hardly more than a spattering of posts about Nevidia on WHT, but I'd rather that than have to buy reviews from customers.

If you do a good job, people will talk. Maybe not on WHT, maybe not even online, but people will most certainly talk. I think you will find that most of the successful hosts receive a VERY high % of their new customers from word-of-mouth, and not advertising.

The risk inherent in getting others to post reviews on your behalf is that they will use the same forums to bash the hell out of you when things go wrong as invariably they do for the unethical ones.

Well I can proudly say I have the total of 3 paying clients (Well by the morning I will :-)) And I host about 4-5 free hosts, And I have been going since December 28th 2002 :-) Sounds bad eh? Well seeing as the last month I only just got my other 2 clients I think I'm starting to pick up :-)

Regards,
Solomon Wheeler

Well, your site is so simple and if you want to get noticed quickly, you need to stand out in some way. We started out with an advertising budget of $700/mo and put out ads in 3 host indexes. We picked up 200 clients in the first 4 months.....

6500 paying customers around 12,000 web sites, 2 year anniversary is next month.

Not too shabby, Gary. :)

Originally posted by Dixiesys
6500 paying customers around 12,000 web sites, 2 year anniversary is next month.

impressive ! way to go

Originally posted by Dixiesys
6500 paying customers around 12,000 web sites, 2 year anniversary is next month.


w... wow 6500 jeez that is ALOT of people

Originally posted by jablunka
The risk inherent in getting others to post reviews on your behalf is that they will use the same forums to bash the hell out of you when things go wrong as invariably they do for the unethical ones.

Joke right?

Do you advertise? Free or Pay?

Do you even try?

Originally posted by NexDog
Well, your site is so simple and if you want to get noticed quickly, you need to stand out in some way. We started out with an advertising budget of $700/mo and put out ads in 3 host indexes. We picked up 200 clients in the first 4 months.....

Can I be your protege?

This is awesome.

My one year goal is 1000 clients.

Two year goal is 3000 clients.

If you don't mind telling, how did you start out? Lots of advertising? Great deals? Superb Customer Service?

And what support system do you use?

If you do mind, I totaly understand. I wish guys like you would write a book.

Good Job, and good luck in the future.

I am proud to put HN in the same class as Dixie, Myacen, httpme and alot of other firms that started 2 years ago and are successfull with at least 1000 clients. Not sure how those guys got their first customers but it's a snowball effect. Your best advertising is happy clients and once you have a 100 clients, they should be able to generate alot of referrals.

We advertised for the first 6 months at:

webhostdir.com
findsp.com
hostpulse.com

We set up a forum from day one and pimped it to death to our clients. Setting up incentive schemes for posting and making it look busy. A busy forum is a strong selling point for a host and you will notice alot of successful host run busy forums. We had a budget to start HostNexus - 10k. That got us the site (not the current one, lol), bought the software, paid for 2 servers for 3 months, paid for the ads for 6 months, paid one tech guy a minimal wage for a bit.

We offered live chat support 24/7 from the outset too. Our tech, Mike (still with us) doing the US hours and me doing the rest.

We now have 2 sysadmins, my partner runs accounts, Mike still heads up US support and toll-free phone (from day one too) and we have a guy in marketing too.

It's alot of work but it's great to see something bloom and we (well I) made lots of mistakes and we went through a bad patch a year ago but the company is completely different now. I love it. :)

Hm... currently er... I got none. The site's not opened yet...

Originally posted by Dixiesys
6500 paying customers around 12,000 web sites, 2 year anniversary is next month.

6500 wow thats alot of people lol, try saying that number fast and it will make your head spin. nice work :D

Originally posted by NexDog


It's alot of work but it's great to see something bloom and we (well I) made lots of mistakes and we went through a bad patch a year ago but the company is completely different now. I love it. :)

Nice job, first off. Second, what were the major mistakes that you made and why the bad patch?

Offering too low prices at the beginning that were all yearly plans. Then we raised the prices thinking signups wouldn't slow down and they did. Suddenly we had 4-5 servers full and our recurring billing was hovering around 3k. It was scary, very scary.

Damn, what a difference a year makes. :)

Call me a tad old fashioned, but I love having 30 day revenues verses 30 day expenditures. :)

10K?

I am starting with about 1k, and 1 server. Just me and my partner.

I am really standing on a hope and a prayer I guess. I really have another source of income so for the first 4-6 months I plan on pumping all the money back into advertising and equipment.

I thought I had a gameplan, but 10k? I don't know now.

Any success stories out there, that started like me? Please do tell if so.

Originally posted by Maxplayer14
10K?

I am starting with about 1k, and 1 server. Just me and my partner.

I am really standing on a hope and a prayer I guess. I really have another source of income so for the first 4-6 months I plan on pumping all the money back into advertising and equipment.

I thought I had a gameplan, but 10k? I don't know now.

Any success stories out there, that started like me? Please do tell if so.


Success is what you make it..and how you measure it.

If you've got 100 un happy clients..that's not success...

If you have 10 extremly happy clients that is success in the making....

:)

I had a shoe string budget to begin with and I still do...(my wife and I are trying to save any cash so we can buy a house in the spring...so no money to spend on advertising) slow and steady is the name of the game and when you have little start-up cash word of mouth advertising is the best way to get new clients... hook-up some friends for a cheaper rate and get them to recommend you to others (at normal prices of course).

Have any family members that run a business or need a website...you can give them good deals to..

Also for sites you are discounting make sure you get your logo on there saying something like.. "proudly hosted by...." with a link back to your site...

Find local online directories for your area and get listed on there.. these are usually still free or only a small fee for a good listing... any local forums from your community online.. join in and put your site in your footer..and be helpful..don't just spam the forum with your url...really participate.

In the end most of the customers you get from these methods will probably stay longer with you then some fast sign-ups from a huge marketing blitz...

just my 2cents.. good luck with your biz...

Thanks for the insight, I will keep some of that in mind.

[QUOTE]Joke right?

Do you advertise? Free or Pay?

Do you even try?QUOTE]


And no its no joke, its an opinion,

Maxplayer14 what is your point?

Originally posted by fstudios
Success is what you make it..and how you measure it.

If you've got 100 un happy clients..that's not success...

If you have 10 extremly happy clients that is success in the making....

:)

I had a shoe string budget to begin with and I still do...(my wife and I are trying to save any cash so we can buy a house in the spring...so no money to spend on advertising) slow and steady is the name of the game and when you have little start-up cash word of mouth advertising is the best way to get new clients... hook-up some friends for a cheaper rate and get them to recommend you to others (at normal prices of course).

Have any family members that run a business or need a website...you can give them good deals to..

Also for sites you are discounting make sure you get your logo on there saying something like.. "proudly hosted by...." with a link back to your site...

Find local online directories for your area and get listed on there.. these are usually still free or only a small fee for a good listing... any local forums from your community online.. join in and put your site in your footer..and be helpful..don't just spam the forum with your url...really participate.

In the end most of the customers you get from these methods will probably stay longer with you then some fast sign-ups from a huge marketing blitz...

just my 2cents.. good luck with your biz...

some very good advice there :) ive got a few clients and growing slowly, like he said ill ravour have only 10 really happy ones then have 1000 unhappy ones.

Originally posted by jablunka
[QUOTE]Joke right?

Do you advertise? Free or Pay?

Do you even try?QUOTE]


And no its no joke, its an opinion,

Maxplayer14 what is your point?

Sorry I totally quoted the wrong person, I apologize.

No problem Maxplayer14, no offense taken, :)

I am totaly diffrent on how do do web hosting I guess. I started with little money, and when I say little I mean little. I am going to take the slow road, and analize everything to make sure I am doing everything right. I will put my add in the free advertising, but that is about it until more money comes in.

Why I am starting slow and easy is, because if you start out complicated (well for me at lease) then it is more of a hassle and more time consuming if something goes wrong. If you get a few clients here and there you can work with them. Then you get a few more then you can work with them.

If you get say about 30 to 40 a day (I bet some people do) that would be very hard to handel if you work by your self :). I personally want to look over all the customers (Domains, and so on to make sure its not a fraud) and it would personally be very hard to handel alot at one time in the begining :).

Originally posted by Maxplayer14
10K?

I am starting with about 1k, and 1 server. Just me and my partner.

I am really standing on a hope and a prayer I guess. I really have another source of income so for the first 4-6 months I plan on pumping all the money back into advertising and equipment.

I thought I had a gameplan, but 10k? I don't know now.

Any success stories out there, that started like me? Please do tell if so.


Certainly I would say that a well capitalized company has a much higher chance of success, particularily in an overcrowded industry. That said, solid capitalization can also sometimes lead to excessive expenditures and you can often end up spending all of your money before you see anything coming back in, whether
its $1K or $100K.

I'm a bit embarassed to admit how small a budget we started up on, but it most certainly can be done. We're just coming up on our 1-year anniversary now and have very large number of clients, and a very solid/strong advertising budget.

If you provide your customers with a solid service at a good price, and are truly dedicated to your customers and your business, you will be successful. Just play it smart. You don't need $10K to spend on advertising to grow your business. It certainly helps, but its not absolutely necessary.

My advice would be to start small, and grow your business one customer at a time. If you do a good job, that 1 customer will soon become 10, and those 10 soon will become 100, and so on and so forth. We generate over 50% of our sales from word-of-mouth, referrals, and existing customers ... despite our advertising budget. Money isn't everything :)

- my 2 cents