I've been considering the HostSearch Showcase for a while now. The cost is 350 bucks for a month. Basically I was wondering whether it is realistic to assume that I can get about 30 clients in a month through it.

I would love to hear from other hosts who are using it at the moment, or who have used it in the past.

I am also interested in opinions of this type of advertising!

The Idea of advertising is to get your name out.....

Don't expect 30 clients but expect people just to know about you......

i don't think 30 clients is a realistic target. I mean, yes...you might get 2000 + people who see your ads and come to your site. But, remember that there are other companies advertising on the site too. What makes your company different from the rest?

Your advertising should focus on setting your company apart from the rest. I think you might get about less than 10 clients from such an ad, but we haven't used hostsearch yet so i could be wrong.

If we got almost 10 clients from such an ad, it should pay for itself within 6 months. Again, I'd really love to hear from hosting companies who are advertising there or who have advertised there in the past how it's working for them.

I think you will either get 100's of signups or none at all. This is because when ppl come and see the showcase sites they dont just click one link they click them all and compare them all. And when it comes down to it price matters alot.

I would suggest you checkout the competion and see how your services compare to theirs. If yours look better or close to their best i would think its very worth it.

Looking at the prices on the Unix Showcase page, it appears like we offer better prices and features compared to other featured hosts.

How did you come to the conclusion that people will sign up with the hosts which offer the best prices and features?

I have no experience in the host showcase sites and do not garuatee anything but it was just my point of view...

Looking at the prices on the Unix Showcase page, it appears like we offer better prices and features compared to other featured hosts.

HS has two catagories it sounds like you may want. Low Cost and Unix. If you offer quality services over let say $10.00, then you will have a hard time in Low Cost. If you offer cheap services and are not well known, then you will have a hard time in Unix. Here is my reasoning.

Low Cost - Newbies and people looking for cheap plans come here. The majority will pick the lowest price. If they get burned, they will then come back and pick the second lowest. If you are upper-end in price, you may not get looked at.

UNIX - These people tend to know a little more. (Hey, they know they need UNIX over NT. Not bad.) These people also specifically picked UNIX, not Low Cost. So they are looking for service and name, over price. You will notice in all the Directories, the big boys are usually here.

Just my 2. Good luck. Post back with results. :)

Thanks for the tips. I'll certainly report back regarding results when and if I decide to go for it.

Just noticed that you offer web hosting as well (thru v-sector.com). What type of advertising and promotion tends to work best for you?

Haven't posted in WHT for a while, but for $350 a month, you could afford some pretty reasonable search engine optimization. Just another route you might like to consider.

Over the last few months I have been advertising with pay per click campaines but it is failing badly...

I spent $300 on one pay per click and got no sigups, at all.

It not all bad though i guess, because out of that $300 there were 2000 ppl refered to my site and now know I am out there... They may decide in a month or a year to come back for hosting.

If your interested in talking further please icq me sometime on uin:8499326.

V Sector -

Did you get my message(via ICQ). If not my ICQ number is 119978613.

Mark

Originally posted by markymark
Haven't posted in WHT for a while, but for $350 a month, you could afford some pretty reasonable search engine optimization. Just another route you might like to consider.

I hope you're not talking about your own services here and the message you sent wasn't commercial (which would be fine, though it is not fine to post on the board).

Hello
I have spent lots of money on advertising whenI worked in marketing for other businesses.

I don't recommend awareness araising ads unless you can run them consistently and in a widespread way.

We do a lot with PPC search engines now.
The strategy is to keep a low average CPC and advertise on lots of search terms.
To test if it was working, I stopped the ads for 2 weeks.
Sales dropped off by more than 40%, yet the cost of those ads was about 10%, so it does seem to be effective as long as you don't go mad and bid on "web hosting" at $5 per click.

Gordon

I have spent around 100 USD on Overture, never bidding more than 2 dollars per click (usually much less). However, I didn't really get any signups from that (maybe one).

I did bid on almost 20 different keywords, such as "php4 web hosting", which are very affordable. The term "web hosting" would really kill you. At the moment, you'd have to pay almost 6 bucks per click on that term (ouch!).

The problem I have is not that I don't have any money to spend on these methods, but rather that I hate wasting money on stuff that doesn't work. And as far as advertising which just gets your brand out there, I think I'll have to leave that to the big boys such as DellHost and *****.

Chicken,

Sorry, I thought my comments might come across that way. But that wasn't my intent.

Well today I went to overture.com and found that ***** is now bidding $7+ on keywords like webhosting, hosting, and web hosting. I dont know how can they do things like that. $7 might be a good price to pay for a customer but I know that not all people that click on your ad will go and buy your service. I don't even think that half of the people that click on it will buy so that is just a waist.

The reason they are doing this is that the top 3 results now appear in Yahoo.
This is driving the price up.

They justify it by looking at their cost per click across all the listings they have on overture.

We bid up to 60c on PPC's but our average CPC is 19c.
They probably have an average CPC of something like $3 becaus ethey will be bidding 5c on things like "houston web hosting with ginsu knives"

Gordon

GordonH, thanks for sharing. How many clicks per day do you typically average via Overture?

Not many.
Across all the PPC's we do (including things like Espotting and Findwhat) we spend $700 per month so its about 100 - 150 visitors a day.

Thats when the ads are all turned up.
Its quite good that way, if you are busy you can turn the ads down and within 24 hours things will become quieter.

We do recruit new customers through it, but I see them as the icing on the cake.
They are people who would not have found us by other means and they may well tell their friends about us.

Having tried a few weeks without the advertising and then having turned it back on I can say that our turnover is back up 40%.
Exactly how or why that is I don't know but it can't be coincidental.
I think a lot of people bookmark sites and then come back and as they don't come directly from the search engine we can't track it very easily.

For your information, here is a copy of my list of which search engines the different PPC's supply data to.
Its not complete but I use it to work out what ad postiions are worth bidding on (e.g. if I was 4 on find what I would pay 1c to get 3rd so i was in Mamma and Metacrawler).
Its a fine art and very easy to get carried away.
I blew $400 one day on goto and actually got it back in annual sales but if i hadn;t caught it it could have burned a very large hole in my pocket.



Dogpile.com
-----------
Goto.com (top 10)
Findwhat.com (top 10)
Sprinks (top 10)


Metacrawler.com
---------------
Goto.com (top3) - prominent
Findwhat.com (top 3)
Kanoodle (top 3)
Sprinks (top 3)


Mamma.com
---------
Findwhat.com (top 3)
Goto.com (top 3)
7search (top 3)
Imageinclude.com (top 1)


Altavista.co.uk
---------------
Goto.co.uk (top 2)


Excite.co.uk
------------
Goto.co.uk (top 2) - Unidisclosed at top of main listing.


Excite.com
----------
Findwhat.com (top 2) - Seperate at top of page.


Askjeeves.com
-------------
Askjeeves.com (top 5)
Direct hit (10+)


Askjeeves.co.uk
---------------
Espotting.com (top 10)
Goto.co.uk (top 10)
Mirago (top 10)



Cnet.com
--------
Findwhat.com (top 3)


Searchengine.com (UK)
----------------
Espotting.com (top 5)


Copernic
--------
Findwhat.com (top 10)
Goto.com (top 10)

There is one thing that doesn't seem logical to me. If these hosting directories are as good as they're said to be, why aren't the same people advertising in them all the time? Many people have said they've helped so much.... so, if a company can get 10 signups from them, why stop? It doesn't make sense to me. The only conclusion I can make is that they aren't delivering.

I think you are probably right.
They can deliver traffic but it doesn't convert well to sales because someone looking for hosting will compare many different companies before purchasing.

The advantage of the PPC thing is you can advertise very specific services.
For example, we advertise windows 2000 hosting which is still relatively difficult to find so someone going looking for that specigic product will find fewer advertisers and be more likely to buy from us than someone just searching for web hosting.

Gordon

Last year I spent almost $2000 in adertising on those hosting directories and only got 2 sign-ups.

$2K for 2 sign ups ? Jeez, that's rough. Both the major host review type sites and PPC search engines do favour those with the deepest pockets, but even so...

From my own perspective, Overture are a waste of money for the web hosting industry - the top bids are far too excessive and the return is always likely to be low or non-existent. A good, keyword rich listing in, say, Looksmart (for $299) allied with an optimised home page will outperform it every time. Similarly, Yahoo; regardless of the tie up with Overture. Can't say I've seen any Overture results on www.yahoo.co.uk yet; so a ten quid investment in a .co.uk domain and a separate, but similar site, plus the cost of a UK business address is another option worth considering. Obviously, you will have to pay the Yahoo review fee again for your new web site, but the traffic from the UK is well worth it, particularly if you have a merchant account that can bill in Sterling not dollars.

Remember that UK surfers are still more naive than their US counterparts and the default search at yahoo.co.uk is still worldwide and the advantages become clearer.

Also, Gordon's list of PPC partners for major traffic sources is a little incomplete. Epilot and Ah-ha also feature in Dogpile and Mamma and Ah-ha has a tie-up with AV, though I cannot say for certain whether this includes searches for hosting related terms.

We're currently running an ad in hostsearch's low cost hosting spotlight.

Here are our stats so far:
Ad Name - Location - Date Start - Date End - Impressions - Clicks - Clickthru%
eMegaWeb_LC-1 Lowcost 12/3/2001 1/2/2002 *1350 140 10.37%
eMegaWeb_LCUK-1LowcostUK 12/4/2001 1/3/2002 *109 21 19.27%

We can attribute two orders to hostsearch so far. Hopefully it picks up some. I originally expected a lot more impressions.

We get roughly 112.5 impressions per day and 11.67 clicks per day for $500 (one month).

Here are our stats so far:
Ad Name - Location - Date Start - Date End - Impressions - Clicks - Clickthru%
eMegaWeb_LC-1 Lowcost 12/3/2001 1/2/2002 1350 140 10.37%
eMegaWeb_LCUK-1LowcostUK 12/4/2001 1/3/2002 109 21 19.27%

We can attribute two orders to hostsearch so

I think webhostdir and someothers do a better job of targeting the places where a person looking for a host would be. I think HostSearch is a good directory, but it seems to be more of a host hang out. A place that every host knows about, so they go around clicking each others sites, checking out the compition. If you ask web host about a good directory, they all say Host Search. If you ask your customers about a good directory (where they search for host), they always say something else.

Originally posted by UmBillyCord


I think webhostdir and someothers do a better job of targeting the places where a person looking for a host would be. I think HostSearch is a good directory, but it seems to be more of a host hang out. A place that every host knows about, so they go around clicking each others sites, checking out the compition. If you ask web host about a good directory, they all say Host Search. If you ask your customers about a good directory (where they search for host), they always say something else.

I think you basically hit the nail dead on. That's the main reason we chose not to jump on board with hostsearch right away. I also think some of the pay-per-click search engines have this same problem.

But hey...what can you do about it...i guess nothing so far. Oh wait, you could just use other avenues :cool:

There are lots of great webmaster related sites out there....with a highly targeted audience. ;)

I think to be fair it's possible to get results from most directories. On tophosts, webhostdir and hostindex, I've seen a core group of advertisers that have continually renewed their orders for over a year. If they are not getting signups then I'm pretty sure they would have pulled the campaigns by now. These companies also tend to provide customized landing pages for banners and showcase ads so there are tracking clicks going through and singups. It's not just the large companies, some of the small have stayed too.

To give you an insight into performance of ads on a directory, results can vary widely and this is always determined by the ad the hosting company provides. In the same position, one company can acheive an expensive $4.50 per click and another company can acheive a campaign equal to a bargain $1.10 per click. What you want is a directory that will work with you to acheive the cost per click you are aiming for, that way both the directory and the hosting company win.

[note to Chicken: I trust this post is legit with you, I wanted to add value to the thread and provide another perspective. If anything needs editing pls email me.]

<edit>
whoops
</edit> ;)

I've seen a few people on this forum quoting CTR's as apposed to the actual cost per click. Surely if the ad is costing you $0.20 per click and only has a click through rate of 1% its better than one that has a CTR of 5% and costs you $5.00 per click?

In my opinion the only real way to calculate how effective an ad campaign, is to focus on the CPC everytime. It makes working out the cost of each sale so much easier.

Showcases can be a good way to get targeted clicks, however like all advertising it is a gamble. You could end up making a lot of additional sales, or making just 1, or worse 0.

If you choose to go for it, make sure you have a well done creative which will demand a high CTR from people interested in your services.

You may also want to offer a "special offer"

My $0.21942 Cents.

Dan

Originally posted by Refsoft

If you choose to go for it, make sure you have a well done creative which will demand a high CTR from people interested in your services.


Here we go with the CTR's again! What is with this fascination on CTR???? Its not how many people clicked on you ad as a percentage of those that viewed it, that's important. It's how much you paying to get them to you site that really matters.

CTR's are usualy used to gage the performance of a campaign. The more people who click, the more who are likely to buy (if they are honest clicks, none of those "you have one message waiting for you" banners.)

I know what CTR's are and theyre nothing to do with the volume of people that click on you ad. They are merely an indicator to how many people as a percentage of those that saw your ad actually clicked on it.

E.g. 1 .

You by a showcase ad for $350.

Your ad is seen by 1,000 people in a month and 100 people clicked on it. You would have a 10% CTR. You CPC would be $3.50.

E.g. 2 .

You by a showcase ad for $150.

Your ad is seen by 1,000 people in a month and 50 people clicked on it. You would have a 5% CTR. You CPC would be $3.00.


Which ad would you prefer?


My point was and still is, that focusing on CTR's leads to a lot of confusion for those new to advertising. But hey maybe that's what peoples intentions are.....who knows ;)

I was talking about more realistic advertising.

CTR's for most types of advertising never get past 2-3% at best. Their for if the campaign is for, say, a million impressions and the CTR is 1% the campaign is progressing well, and a certain percentage of those who click will buy, and generate a return. If for that same campaign the CTR is 0.5%, and the same percentage who click buy, then the return is less.

It can be used to measure the performance of a campaign. Just not all campaigns.

This is where the main problem of using CTR's shows itself. Your 2-3% is referring to banner advertising i assume. The subject of this thread is showcases. In my experience showcase, or directory listings to be more precise, always provide CTR's of well over 5%. The reason being that people are actually visiting the showcase in search or a provider. This is in real contrast to a banner, where its unlikely that someone would actually visit a site actually for the sole purpose of clicking on a banner.

At the end of the day the aim of the ad within a showcase is to drive traffic and make sales at the lowest cost per sale. the only way you can really calculate this fairly across various ad campaigns, is if you compare cost per clicks.

Brian,

Good point.

Dan

Rewdog is doing a Host Search showcase. You might want to ask him how it is going.

I wonder what will happen to their traffic now that they've removed the reviews section.

Originally posted by Lonny
I wonder what will happen to their traffic now that they've removed the reviews section.

I noticed they had dropped their reviews too. I think its all been down to advertiser preasure.

I would expect their traffic to go down, however they do have a well branded name, so who knows.

The advertisement with Hostsearch.com is now over. In the end we got about 3-4 clients from the showcase. Three definite orders due to their site-- I was unable to track one of our clients to the site of origination (I think I’ll just email and ask).

Ad Name Location Date Start Date End Imp Purchased Impressions Clicks Clickthru%
eMegaWeb_LC-1 Lowcost 12/3/2001 1/2/2002 3042 340 11.18%
eMegaWeb_LCUK-1 LowcostUK 12/4/2001 1/3/2002 211 35 16.59%

Here is a copy of our text:
eMegaWeb.net Web Hosting Solutions. Plans start with 100MB Web space, 5GB Transfer, No setup Fee, Excellent uptime, Free English/French/German 24/7 Phone and email support, only $7.50/mo. We provide a wealth of features and plans to suit your low budget.

Attached is a copy of the image we used.

I will never do it again (a big waste). $500 is way too much for what Hostsearch.com delivered. I don’t think anything was wrong with our creative… perhaps our prices were a little higher than the rest. It’s tough to say, but I would not recommend advertising in Hostsearch to anyone.

Well, $500 for a showcase that generates 3-4 clients seems to be unreasonable, unless branding is what it was all about...

For those who are just starting and need client more than branding at the moment I would recommend doing a campaign on less expensive directories..


Good luck

Originally posted by Lonny
I would recommend doing a campaign on less expensive directories..

Like yours? :D

:) ;) :stickout

Definately.


mine and a long list of others :)

Is webhostdir.com any good?

Brian

They have been aroud for a long time now, almost 5 years, and I hea that they are ok. James is a member on WHT...

Not sure about the exact results of the campaigns on their site though

Don't know if you're allowed to answer this or not here, but Lonny, what is the CTR and average success of advertisers on your site?

Brian

Originally posted by Lonny
They have been aroud for a long time now, almost 5 years, and I hea that they are ok.

They must be doing something right I guess after all that time? Or they've got one hell of a sales team ;)

Well, I'm not sure... I know that James is doing an excellent job, but it's not that difficult to maintain a hosting site...

You don't pay much for hosting fees if you know what I mean :)

Quality is a different story though...

BTW Brian, I sent you a private message....

for more information just email to sales@findsp.com

Yup I got it, I'll talk with you through e-mail.

Brian

Originally posted by Lonny

You don't pay much for hosting fees if you know what I mean :)


Well, I know that I, for one, have turned down several 'free hosting for promotion' offers. We pay for our server ;)

What!? Why would you turn down those offers.

Heck, I'd host you on my rackspace server with only a few people if you wanted.

Brian

Because I like my server ;)

Because we want to maintain a certain amount of impartiality. For example:

If we were hosted for free and our free host's guaranteed top listing in our directory was to get poor reviews, they would probably ask for those reviews to be removed. If we removed them we'd be fine with them, but would be compromising the integrity of our directory. If we didn't we'd risk being kicked off.

Besides, we use it for a lot of other stuff, and have no real issue covering its cost.

And finally, we've grown very attached to our host's (Site5) exceptional near instant support and service.

Well, we don't have such a problem since our host is simply amazing!!!!

Excellent service, what you see is what you get style...

and it's free and in exchange for advertising, and it's ok for us to advertise him since they are providing excellent support and services..

Lonny,

I am sure that this is the "unix-addiction" part of my brain talking, but how can a Windows host be "amazing" :)

Hey, as long as it works :)

:confused: Are you implying that Windows works??!?! J/K

Originally posted by Refsoft
Well, I know that I, for one, have turned down several 'free hosting for promotion' offers. We pay for our server ;)

We also pay for our server. We moved from Verio (where we had free server space offered indefinately) to Rackspace. The reason was, Rackspace offered a superior service. You really do get what you pay for ;-)

yes, I dare to say just that....

Works fast as well :)

but hey isn't it a thread about HostSearch showcase? :)

Originally posted by James Cross


We also pay for our server. We moved from Verio (where we had free server space offered indefinately) to Rackspace. The reason was, Rackspace offered a superior service. You really do get what you pay for ;-)

So very true! This is one of the reasons that I love Site5 so much. They are a bit on the expensive side, but the service is very good.

I've heard nothing but good things about Rackspace also ;)

Originally posted by Lonny
yes, I dare to say just that....

Works fast as well :)

but hey isn't it a thread about HostSearch showcase? :)

Doh!!