Please post your feedback, i like to know goods and bads before i signup.

P.S.
How does WHT Host qoute works, does it sends client information via advertiser email ?


please advise
thank you

Wrong forum, try the 'WHT Feedback and Questions' board. This is a fairly common concern.

i dont see how its a wht feedback question...

Goods:
- Self-service advertising
- Minimum spend isn't in the thousands
- Large audience
- Can serve many impressions very quickly

Bads:
- Self-service advertising but requires sometimes slow manual setup by iNET
- Minimum spend is usually in the hundreds
- CPMs are very high
- High pageview to unique ratio; such is the nature of forums, meaning your ad gets viewed by less unique people per CPM than other types of sites
- Much of the site's audience are hosts not looking for web hosting
- Much of the site's audience are cheap
- Can blow through hundreds of dollars a day depending on how often your ad is served

Yes, I've advertised here.

Look at how many people keep running ads here versus how many that don't, that should tell you something. Hell, even Site5 doesn't have ads here right now!

Hell, even Site5 doesn't have ads here right now!
I read this as a Site5 "superhosting" ad is displayed across the top of the page...

Seems like advertising here might work better for someone selling something TO hosts rather than selling hosting itself. Thanks for the feedback Dan.

Originally posted by Plexi_Hosting
I read this as a Site5 "superhosting" ad is displayed across the top of the page...
Ah, my apologies, I should have said I see it much less than before!

Basically my point is that I don't see many companies continuing advertising for a long time, possibly indicating it's not worth it.

I guess it really depends on your target market like BethSG noted.

Basically my point is that I don't see many companies continuing advertising for a long time, possibly indicating it's not worth it.Or maybe it is simply more effective to concentrate a lot of ads on a short period, then give it a rest, only to start again later. :)

First of all advertising on WHT is definitely not cheap. Second advertising here is good for branding and not necessarily for immediate results therefore investing a few hundred $ will most likely bring zero results.

I think In WHT mostly visit for sharing their experience, searching some new ideas, get solution of their query etc, rather than watching the ad and clicking on it.

There aren't many places on the net that will find people clicking on banner ads anymore. But branding is very important even though an ad can't be accurately measured for branding results.

Where you advertise lends credibility to your company. It can be as important as the image you present on your site and in your support and in your forum postings. But while we can measure click throughs, we have no good way of measuring impressions and sales that may come from those clickless eyeballs. But ad and board presence is a factor in sales even if it can't be statistically pinned down.

Maybe I'm in the minority then, as I know when browsing here I've clicked on SupportTrio, AdWatcher, and Site5 (mostly out of curiosity due to their interesting marketing and "superhosting" catchphrase) - probably others too.

:) That's nice to know. Out of the curiosity what made you click on our banner? (AdWatcher)

On a side-note, I'm very interested to see what kind of results our WHT campaign will bring. We have several million impressions left and I will definitely try to report the results we get from the campaign.

I agree with BethSG, It is very true theoretically but practically I observed that the viewers don't remember the entire ad and unable to make a comparison on the spot just after a glance by that eyeballs.

However I agree that the ad get a brand image.

You might want to have a try on WHT's Web Host Showcase:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showcases/0/0.html

That will be more "targeted traffic"

Originally posted by Staedtler
Ah, my apologies, I should have said I see it much less than before!

Basically my point is that I don't see many companies continuing advertising for a long time, possibly indicating it's not worth it.

I guess it really depends on your target market like BethSG noted.

We renewed our contract again not too long ago! ;)

I think that the banners on WHT are a great way to get people talking about the services you provide and once they do that that's when the actual sales start coming in.

Ive spent over $1k on ads at WHT. They are overpriced and bring little results. I would not reccomend it.

$1k on WHT is not enough if you expect to see results.

It depends upon the quality and uniqueness of the particular ad and repetition for getting the result, I think.

I do agree with some folk about the fact alot of the traffic on WHT is from webhosts, however i also agree with adwatcher for the fact it is more of a branding thing than a return thing, If you have alot of $ to spare for advertising give it a go, otherwise i wouldnt bother.
Regards

I observed that some critics are appearing for a particular company whose banners or ad are on the WHT itself , what you people think whether it will increase the traffic or it will revert back?

Originally posted by etechsupport2
I observed that some critics are appearing for a particular company whose banners or ad are on the WHT itself , what you people think whether it will increase the traffic or it will revert back?

I don't quite understand what you mean, but if you're talking about what I think you're talking...any kind of publicity is or can be turned into good publicity.

Back when I used to run HostVoice, any kind of mention of it, good or bad generated new sales :)

Out of curiosity, for those who have advertised with INET, what was the average click-through rate you obtained on your banners?

Originally posted by JHosts
Ive spent over $1k on ads at WHT. They are overpriced and bring little results. I would not reccomend it.
And yet if you spent that $1k every month, you would probably see great results, over time, as your brand awareness increases.

I am just about to lock into 12mths of branding for my new venture, with some unusual promotion. I see it as a long term investment, and that will probably stretch beyond 12mths, depending on client size ect.

I agree with all those that look at WHT advertising as a long term investment and brand related.

It must be one of the best places to advertise for branding purposes.

Originally posted by AdWatcher-Eugene
I don't quite understand what you mean, but if you're talking about what I think you're talking...any kind of publicity is or can be turned into good publicity.

Back when I used to run HostVoice, any kind of mention of it, good or bad generated new sales :)


I mean that what will be the impact of those critics which seems unfavorable to particular company who chooses the same vehicle as a platform for promoting their products or a service?

Whether it will turn up to a bad publicity instead of expecting favorable?

Actually I don't quite understand what you mean good or bad generated new sales?

Originally posted by etechsupport2
I mean that what will be the impact of those critics which seems unfavorable to particular company who chooses the same vehicle as a platform for promoting their products or a service?

Whether it will turn up to a bad publicity instead of expecting favorable?

Actually I don't quite understand what you mean good or bad generated new sales?

What I mean is that any type of publicity, good and bad usually gets sales. Of course it doesn't happen every time and it does take some effort to turn an unfavorable review into sales

Originally posted by cdgcommerce
Out of curiosity, for those who have advertised with INET, what was the average click-through rate you obtained on your banners?

On WHT I would say it's around 0.3-0.4%

Other websites in the network are even lower in my experience, but then again the CPM is much lower there as well.

We're seeing 0.50 - 0.85% CTR on our latest campaign.

Hmm, we that of course depends on how interested people are in your product your banners, etc.

I would not recommend banner ads on WHT if you are a web host. Dedicated servers may get more interest than shared hosting, but overall, I don't think the ads are a good value for money.

As a datapoint, in 2004 we spent less than $4000 (TOTAL for the entire year) on marketing, but gained over $100,000/year in new revenue. People are the new advertising medium... make sure your customers are happy and encourage them to refer others, and you'll make thousands more than you will with banner ads.

look at the signature lines of the people posting in this thread.

that is advertising on WHT.

what sort of click-rates on signature links are people getting?

what sort of click-rates on signature links are people getting?I didn't check this in a long while, but I used to post some 10 posts per day and get some 1000 visitors per month from WHT.

Is this the kind of info you were after? :)

Originally posted by Simpli-Erica
. . . As a datapoint, in 2004 we spent less than $4000 (TOTAL for the entire year) on marketing, but gained over $100,000/year in new revenue. People are the new advertising medium... make sure your customers are happy and encourage them to refer others, and you'll make thousands more than you will with banner ads.
Great stuff!

Although, if you could use a form of customer acquisition, and then have your referral program ontop of that. So in essence, you'd be catching fish that catch fish. :D

Originally posted by ldcdc
I didn't check this in a long while, but I used to post some 10 posts per day and get some 1000 visitors per month from WHT.

Is this the kind of info you were after? :)


yes, thanks. :)

Originally posted by uneedawebsit
We're seeing 0.50 - 0.85% CTR on our latest campaign.



Actually most of the ad are missing the general appeal, I observe.

1. The image oriented appeal.

2. The subconcious oriented appeal.

3. The features oriented appeal.

4. The competitor product comparison appeal.


It needs some sort of creativity by way of generating new ideas or using old in a new way from some unsuspecting angles.

The only type of advertising that i had on WHT was a sticky thread in the Other related offers section for my forum and it was well worth it in my opinion.

Originally posted by ldcdc
Or maybe it is simply more effective to concentrate a lot of ads on a short period, then give it a rest, only to start again later. :)

This isn't a good marketing strategy.

Satisfied customers spreading the word are worth their weight in gold. And forum postings IMO are an excellent way to let your target community "get to know you". In the world of web based advertising there are few places for a potential customer to get a feel for who they are buying from other than community forums.

It can be hard to quantify what results we get from brand recognition, board postings and word of mouth, but getting 1000 visitors a month from a specific site is certainly a good indicator that board presence is worth the time!

What about affiliate programs? I've been involved on both sides of those in other web based industries and found the 80/20 rule applied - 20 percent of the affils made 80 percent of the sales. Do affil programs work in the server industry? Are the results about the same as other industries? Are they worth the effort?