Hello.

How did everyone here advertise their webhosts?

Did you submit it to search engines, search directories, host directories?

Did you hire someone else to do it for you, or did you do it yourself? How much did you pay, if you hired someone?

Did you spread your host by posting on forums like these, or through other "word of mouth" techniques?

Thanks.

Winnie

web hosting directories, yahoo.com, banners on web hosting related services. :stickout

Ad-ver-tise, is that a word? :stickout

Originally posted by netsolutions
Ad-ver-tise, is that a word? :stickout


Yes :stickout

Wow, can we get a definition? :stickout

ad·ver·tise (dvr-tz)
v. ad·ver·tised, ad·ver·tis·ing, ad·ver·tis·es
v. tr.
To make public announcement of, especially to proclaim the qualities or advantages of (a product or business) so as to increase sales. See Synonyms at announce.
To make known; call attention to: advertised my intention to resign.
To warn or notify: “This event advertises me that there is such a fact as death” (Henry David Thoreau).

v. intr.
To call the attention of the public to a product or business.
To inquire or seek in a public notice, as in a newspaper: advertise for an apartment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English advertisen, to notify, from Old French advertir, advertiss-, to notice. See advert1.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
adver·tiser n.

:confused: :stickout

InfoDoma,

You have a project in me? :stickout

How can I help? :D

Get back to your question.

You might want to advertise in web hosting directories, yahoo.com, banners on web hosting related services.

Good Luck!

Hello.

:) Yes, I have a project in you. Strange you didn't notice me working all over you all this time. :D

Ok.

Winnie

AAAHostList
AceHosts.com
AddaHost.com
All-hosts.com
AllAboutHosts
BudgetWeb.com
BigHosts.com
BuscaHost.com
CompareWebHosts
Colosource.com
Colocations.org
Ecommercefirms
Findahost.com
Findwebspace.com
Freewebspace
Gethosted.com
HostCrawler.com
Hostfacts.com
HostFinder.com
HostFinder.net
Hostfinders.com
Hostglobal.com
Hosthelp.com
Hostindex.com
HostInvestigator
Hostlist.com
Hostreview.com
HostingReviews
Hosting Repository
Hostsearch.com
HostShowcase.com
Hostspot.com
Hottesthosts.com
iHostCafe.com
Ispcheck.com
Macwebserver.com
RateAHost.com
Ratehost.com
Recellar.com
Reviewhost.com
Startplace.com
Supremewebhosts
SuperiorHosts
Thedirectory.org
Theblade.org
Tophosts.com
Ukwebhosts.co.uk
Verihost.com
Webhostarea.com
Webhostdir.com
Webhostdirectory
Webhosters.com
Webhostguide.com
Webhostlist.com
Webhostsrated.com
WebHosts- The List
Webhostseek.com
Web Host Guild
WebHostingFirms.com
Webserverlist.com
WebServerIndex
Wothost.co.uk


Thank you for bringing in the money.
Asia will be fat soon.

Hi winnie,
Word of mouth is the best. Keep happy customers.If you are startup then get yourself listed all over the place be known..... :)

Have a great day :)

regards
amar

Asia: Thanks for that great list!

Brian

Here is a longer list :)

http://www.webhostmagazine.com/wf/whfinders.asp

Hello.

Asia, thanks. :D

Yes, I can see you getting fat.

Winnie

Hello.

Thanks Lonny. :)

Winnie

All I can say if you goto all those hsoting sites and post your site you will get plenty of biz

Hello
I don't agree.
We have been listed in all the main ones for over a year and get very few visitors let alone sales from them.

Most of our customers come from word of mouth or straight paid advertising on PPC directories that feed data to recognised search engines.

Gordon

Originally posted by GordonH
Hello
I don't agree.
We have been listed in all the main ones for over a year and get very few visitors let alone sales from them.

Most of our customers come from word of mouth or straight paid advertising on PPC directories that feed data to recognised search engines.

Gordon
I concure

How about conversion rates or any useful metrics? anyone?

I work on a 1:50 conversion rate.

The cost of acquiring customers by advertising is very high.
It may cost $50 to recruit a customer who is worth $70 - $100.
They should be viewed as "the icing on the cake".

We do a lot of repeat business which costs nothing to acquire, but then we are not at the bottom end of the market and many of our customers are businesses or web designers who are likley to bring more of their business over.
I had one take 50 x 500MB plans this week.

Gordon

PPC directories ?
Is that Pay Per Click....

And what directories have worked best for you ?

Yes
Pay per click.
We have over 250 listings on various ones.
We hardly use Overture because the bid preice is just too high, even on obscure terms.

We use Google adwords (which are pay per impression)

And the PPC's we use:


Findwhat.com
Sprinks.com
Kanoodle.com
Espotting.com (UK)

And various others which feed data to search engines we wish to appear in.
This is the secret.
Decide where you want your site to appear and work back the way.
For example, the top 2 listings in ALtavista.co.uk come from Overture UK so by advertising witht hem we get guaranteed top placement on Altavista.
(mainly on obscure terms because the common ones are too expensive)
Kanoodle provides #1 listings for Lycos on selected keywords in our industry.

Here is a list (albeit, slightly out of date)

Gordon




PPC PARTNERSHIPS

Dogpile.com
-----------
Overture.com (top 10)
Sprinks (top 10)
Findwhat.com (top 10)
Epilot.com (top 10)
Ah-ha.com (top10)
Kanoodle.com (top10)


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


Mamma.com
---------
Findwhat.com (top 3)
Overture.com (top 3)
7search (top 3)
Imageinclude.com (top 1)
Epilot.com (top 3)
7search.com (top 1)
Engine54 ???????


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


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


Excite.com
----------
Overture.com (top 5)
Findwhat.com (top 2) - Seperate at top of page. (is this still happening?? - no apparently)


Webcrawler.com
--------------
Overture.com (top 5)


Askjeeves.com
-------------
Overture.com (top 5)
Askjeeves.com (top 5)
Direct hit (top 10)
Sprinks.com (top 10)


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


Lycos.com
---------
*Kanoodle.com (Top 1 listing on selected keywords)


Alltheweb.com
-------------
Kanoodle.com (Top 1 listing on selected keywords)


Lycos.co.uk
-----------
Espotting.com (Top 3)


Hotbot.com
----------
Has 3 sponsored listings


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


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


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


Search.aol.com
--------------
Overture.com (top 3)



Cnet.com
--------
On first page:
Overture.com (top 5)
Findwhat.com (top 3)

On later pages:
Overture.com (top 10)
Sprinks.com (top 10)
Findwhat.com (top 10)
Kanoodle.com (top 10)



Kanoodle/Lycos
--------
*domain hosting
domain name
*domain names
*domain registration
web host
web hosting
*web hosts
*webhosting

Originally posted by GordonH
I work on a 1:50 conversion rate.

The cost of acquiring customers by advertising is very high.
It may cost $50 to recruit a customer who is worth $70 - $100.
They should be viewed as "the icing on the cake".

We do a lot of repeat business which costs nothing to acquire, but then we are not at the bottom end of the market and many of our customers are businesses or web designers who are likley to bring more of their business over.
I had one take 50 x 500MB plans this week.

Gordon

I think it really really depends on your target audience. I'm aiming my guns squarely at the little guys especially with my one plan, one price web site. I pay $1-2 per customer in advertising expenses. It's called Ebay.

Each auction costs me $.90 to post, most of my auctions ends with 1-2 bidders. I've spent roughly $160 on all my auctions total, and then I have spent another roughly $20 on banners and crap (that didn't work). My customer base is over 150 after 2 months and 1 week and growing by 1-8 customers a day.

This works for me, however, my target audience is the key, and that audience is people looking for web hosting on Ebay (AKA low priced aka CHEAP). This wouldn't work if I were selling $14.95 plans. There is no one solution. I've got my solution and it works and pays off in spades. But I built my whole business plan around low overhead, low expenses, inexpensive web hosting while actually offering what I consider a nice feature set. My goals aren't the same as many web hosting companies, nor are some of my potential resources (for employees, for office space, etc) I can hire relatively competent tech support when I need it and get it for minimum wage (work at home, answering emails and taking phone calls AND you get a free broadband connection? I already have 3 people lined up waiting to get on the payroll). If I decide to go "big time" and get an office and hang out a shingle, then I can get a nice 2 10x10 private offices, 1 6x8 data room, mens/womens private toilet and a front lobby that's 8x23 for $380 a month including utilities and this is in a new brick building less than 200 yards off of the main strip thru town on a rather main road in the sam building as a florist and real estate agent.

It's all a matter of looking at your business plan, what your objectives are and then spending the absolute minimum achieving those objectives.

Beating your objectives kicks butt though, I was hoping to have 35 customers by Christmas, good lord was I shooting low.

However, I suspect my techniques would fail horribly for you, and buying yahoo clicks and google ads and such, probably (I don't know I haven't tried it) wouldn't work for me.


Let's see conversion rates:

Unique Visitors:

Dec: 4315 + 845
Nov: 2079 + 418
Oct: 1205 + 12
Total of 8874 unique visitors since inception (no clue how many are "me" this is webalizer stats here).

8874 / 150 = 59.16/1 so call it 60 clicks to 1 purchase which is actually pessimistic since I account for at least a portion of those unique visitors.

Man I haven't looked at my stats lately, getting quite popular on the one site! :D

You know, your parents weren't kidding when they said "the customer is always right" at the grocery store. This usually applies to every customer service oriented business there is. Especially with the kind of competition that we face today.

The truth is, hosting is not a get rich quick scheme. But if you are patient and good to your end users, they will reward you with their patronage and refer other EU's to you.

Word of mouth is the absolute number one form of advertising in this over saturated market. (At least from my experience any way.)

Don't forget banners and affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs may be a good way for a host to acquire customers. You can pay by the lead, or even sale for less than it would cost if you paid by the click.

Example: Big site signs up for your affiliate program which pays 5 dollars per sign up. Your service costs 15 a month, a 10 dollar profit per sign up. Site puts your ads up and just waits, you are getting a. free branding and b. free traffic which you only pay for once it converts.

Some company can offer you a CPA/CPC hybrid campaign too, which can be lots of fun :)

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