Hello,
Can anyone suggest a good way of advertising? At the moment, i have a good working website and excellent value packages. I just need customers...:stickout:
Many thanks
Chris Harris

Try local advertising.

Originally posted by gghosting
Try local advertising.

Works well for local businesses, this is an online host, he should be charging very different rates if he's going local!

harrishcris, I am making assumptions here so I apologize if I am off. You state that you have a good working website and excellent value packages. It sounds like you have thrown up a template site and you are using a cpanel reseller or something and you are trying to make a quick buck. I hope that I am wrong in these assumptions and you just phrased your statement incorrectly. There is alot more to a web hosting business than cheap prices and a nice "good working" website.

As for the advertising, considering that you have a reputable company with experience and a serious attitude to the web hosting industty, I would consider SEO, banner ads on sites, adwords, and Pr if possible. As for the local advertising, you don't sound like you are ready for that market for sure.

Try word of mouth at first. That always works well. Or try targeting a niche group of webmasters/sites, like Anime for example. If you are good, word will spread around messageboards and what not.

Like gghosting said, local advertising is a good place to start. You might want to try making some fliers and posting them wherever you can, like school campuses. Also door to door brochures may help. Check out Microsoft Publisher, they have some good flier and brochure layouts.

I would consider SEO, banner ads on sites, adwords, and Pr if possible. As for the local advertising, you don't sound like you are ready for that market for sure.SEO services and Adwords can cost a lot of money. Maybe some in house SEO can work.

I must stress though that the site doesn't instill a lot of confidence and IMO the sales process would be very inefficient.

As for unlimited space and bandwidth, I will only say, do a search for unlimited: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=

Try Search Engine Marketing. Its possible to have 10,000 visitors a day to your site if you are good at it, and persistent.

10,000 visitors a day to your site if you are good at it?

In our competitive market (hosting) it would take lot of hard work to get to a position in the search engine where you could receive 10,000 visitors a day. Reciprocal links would be needed (some may disagree), good page content, trial and error in a lot of description and title testing not to mention good website copyrighting.

Some people experience upto 8 months Lead time while using googles add url listing. Not to discourage you, you can get a lot of customers from SEO but we find that is a long term aim, that comes as you improve your sites status, more people link to you and you add more content to your website. Search engine marketing is not as easy as everybody makes out, in my experience it takes a lot of hard work and even if you are good at it it will take time to get a good listing in a competitive field.

For one, your site loads SLOW. Two, Unlimited discredits any credibility you may have (at least in my eyes).

Why does it "discredits any credibility you may have". How can i be going wrong with offering ppl unlimited for a pretty cheap price. And the site loads slow becuase i have a live chat button and it has to detect weather i'm on the internet and ready to chat or not....

How can i be going wrong with offering ppl unlimited for a pretty cheap price.As I said, do a search and read the different opinions on the subject:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=3589144&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

Ok, i will take down the unlimited on my site. :)

Greetings!

Advertising in the local is one of best lucrative moves for a hosting business. Why? Because locally you can sell web hosting package for $10 - $20 to non-internet savy customers, and as long as you provide sales/techinical support over the phone, you will have a very high percent of earning clients. We have been ONLY advertising localy, and we pick up a good numbers of clients locally.

Couple things I suggest:
1. Design/Print a post card ad, and then buy a mailing list up to 5 miles radious from your business (if you live in a decent size city) and send them out from the local post office. Usually they give discounts for bulk orders.

2. Design/Print a post card ad, and drop them off at small business suites. This is the best and cheapest way.

Also, on each post card place a number to verify what area the client has came from, so for future reference you will target more.

Hope this helps :)

-Robert

Not to discourage you, you can get a lot of customers from SEO but we find that is a long term aim

A long term aim is a better approach than short term approach I would think.

SEO can work! You have to really figure out how though!

It's not about getting someone very experienced, keep that in mind. There is a difference between working hard and working smart!

If you have a small budget, I suggest you surf the offers section of forums like WHT and have a look at banner and text advertising oppurtunities. You can get quite a few good deals without spending too much money and getting the word out about your business to different communities and visitors.

Originally posted by ITSconcepts
Greetings!

Advertising in the local is one of best lucrative moves for a hosting business. Why? Because locally you can sell web hosting package for $10 - $20 to non-internet savy customers, and as long as you provide sales/techinical support over the phone, you will have a very high percent of earning clients. We have been ONLY advertising localy, and we pick up a good numbers of clients locally.

Couple things I suggest:
1. Design/Print a post card ad, and then buy a mailing list up to 5 miles radious from your business (if you live in a decent size city) and send them out from the local post office. Usually they give discounts for bulk orders.

2. Design/Print a post card ad, and drop them off at small business suites. This is the best and cheapest way.

Also, on each post card place a number to verify what area the client has came from, so for future reference you will target more.

Hope this helps :)

-Robert

I agree with Robert ... this is a more effective way to go if you don't plan on advertising online to the more tech savvy crowd.