Hello,

While I am not new to the Security side of the hosting business. I am new to running my own sites.. I was wondering how do you guys drive traffic to your sites? (not via email advertising)...
I am still working on mine but just looking into getting the name out there when its complete

Advertising on targeted websites, Google Adwords (although haven't used them yet but plan to), and SEO all help promote your company.

Originally posted by CrazyTech
Advertising on targeted websites, Google Adwords (although haven't used them yet but plan to), and SEO all help promote your company.

SEO?

Search Engine Optimization

You may also consider using viral marketing. This has been popularized on the internet with things like dancing hampsters :)

Other methods of getting your site out there is to submit articles to sites that are used by people who would find your site useful. Try to submit links and articles to sites similar to yours. Encourage your current fan base to spread the word by affiliate programs(doesn't need to be cash rewards, could be simply free access to specfic parts of the site, silly titles, images next to thier name). Just some ideas for you, best of luck.

Getting people can be very hard. I tend to use link exchanges

I am having difficulty with google adwords, I created one campaign and it worked like a charm. However I wanted to cancel that compaign and create another (because at first I couldnt find the edit option, so I thought I had to create another) Then I kept getting emails that google kept charging me $5 dollars because my search words were too broad or something, so after 4 attempts I just gave up on it.

You have to "play" with google to get it right... it took me a while to get my words down... the key is not to try and get "hosting" keyword. The key is to get something else that people searching for hosting might keyword... if you can find 2 or 3 keywords that are not $100 per click, then you will do fine.

on topic:

Doing marketing depends on how much money you have, where you are located, what type of hosting you do (low, med, high cost, etc.), how much work you want to put into marketing, etc, etc. From what I see on WHT most don't have a clue. There was one guy in the Reseller part of this forum who had a nice site on Marketing and some really good ideas... his site was about marketing... maybe you can search that forum and find the post.

There are tons of ways to get your name out: direct marketing (e-mailing directly, mailing letters directly, calling directly), Search engines, working with businesses in similar but different areas (ie business that only register domains), etc.

You could also go to Elance.com and ask for someone to do a marketing plan for your business, along with letters, etc. This worked for me.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/


Anyway, good luck.