Hi, myself and a friend have recently set up our own web hosting business and are now desperatly trying to promote it and get it heard. So far we have submitted ourselves to a few hosting directories, posted on 5-6 Disucussion Boards/Forums (relative to hosting ofc) and placed an ad on google....but feel this may not be enough.

Is there anything else we can do to help get the ball rolling? We are hard working people who are prepared to put in the work regardless. Any suggestions, ideas or tips would be great :)

Good interesting name and a nice clean looking site. That's a good start.

There are a million ways to advertise your site. A search here call really get the "ball rolling".

A few low cost ideas.
Try sponsoring some up and coming forums.
Put your signature in every post you make at every forum.
Go the local business route... works for some, not for others.

As an aside, it might be wise to consider taking down the

"LiquidSix Opens! (16 Apr)
LiquidSix opens for business, providing low cost Windows Hosting!"

People generally aren't interested in doing business with a hosting company if they know the site has been in business only a week. (no offence intended)

first off I would like to say hosting directories do not work well. You have to be on the front page or people will never find you and even if they do they won't know anything about your company since these people have never heard of your company. Start locally and branch your way out. People tend to go with businsses that are close so they know who to turn to when something goes wrong.

Thanx guys, will definatly look into those ideas especially going locally, but could you elaborate on that a little bit more please. Do you just mean extensive word of mouth or actually getting down, meeting businesses, sales chats and all that..? Again, any imput is much appreciated!!

Greetings:

Join your local chamber of commerce.

Contact business clubs in your area to see if they have any openings to speak or to be a guest.

Network socially at varous business events and mixers.

Thank you.

When you are first starting out, advertising locally is a great idea. Although some may be obvious, here are a few ideas that cost nothing or very little:

- email all your friends and family that you are now hosting
- go to local business meetings or join a networking group
- always carry business cards and give one out when appropriate
- go to local small business and give them a flyer or business card and introduce yourself
- write articles about how web hosting can help businesses and submit them to local newspapers and/or newsletters

good luck!

Site looks good. Get some banner ads and try for a good local client base.

Depending on how much free time you and your friends have, consider writing up some pages that have real content on them and get people to link to that. I'm sure you'll find the link building a lot easier and when people come to your site for whatever information you supply, you can place a nice advertisement about hosting.

Thanx again guys for the advise.....real nice community here :)
We've started looking at local businesses now and various ways to approach them with our product, hopefully it will work out! As for linking, funnily enough we got approached by a linux hosting company just the other day so thats something we are considering.

A another question i have now tho, is, should we be making promo's/special offers etc... at this stage? or is something we should look at a little later?

pixel_fenix said...
hosting directories do not work well
Hey now... that's not very nice. Maybe they just don't work well for you. I can name a bunch of companies that would beg to differ.

It's pixel_fenix's opinion that Hosting directories do not work "well". I would tend to agree with that opinion.

I have also never had any luck with hosting directories, there are just TOO many hosts in them for them to actually work efficiently

Startup is always very hard. Do offer a reasonable special/offer. No one knows how reliable or your support are until they try out.

How do you get them to try you? You got no word of mouth. You cant prove anything to them. Be prepared to have 1-2 months not able to break even and even no sales.

1 common way is to sell your package cheap but limit the qty. People generally looking for cheap hosting. If those customer uses your service and feels happy in both your support and price, they will spread. Esp if you are hosting a small business site, they will recommend their associates.

But by the time, they spread about your good service, your cheap plan no longer available. Only those pioneer customer will continue to enjoy the cheap plan.

Well, you have to assure your customer and treat them like they are your only customer. Provide any support you can and be patient.

Most hosting directories are too overcrowded to be effective in referring sales. A clean look with a few visible ads will perform much better, but most hosting directories don't really care about their advertisers. They care about selling as much ad space as possible.

Also trying giving some great support tutorials
Check out www.demodemo.com buy some demos and put them on your site! People will appreciate it and will also reduce your tickets by quite a few. Other thing look up some support company, outsource your support. www.thewhir.com is a good place to find anything web hosting related.

thanks,

Yaser

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
It's pixel_fenix's opinion that Hosting directories do not work "well". I would tend to agree with that opinion.

Me too!
<sarcasm>
Unelss you can find one to put you on the 'top rated' list for slipping them some benjamins
</sarcasm>

I'd agree with dynamicnet - join the chamber of commerce. Here ya even get a neat clock when you do. With the local people, it's usually about the 'whole package' including design, et al. Consider offering that even if it's not on your main site to the local crowd.

While host directories may be overcrowded(and have way to much adverts) you have little to lose by joining them, they are afterall free. And if you have some interesting packages I'm sure you can get a sale of two from them.