Hello all,

I have started up a new hosting company this month. I have been reading the forums here for about 2 months, and find them to be very helpful. This is by far the best hosting forum that I have seen.

My question is this - I have had over 1000 unique visitors to my site this past week. From this, I have only had one signup! I have had 2 other bogus signups too, mind you. I am advertising on Kanoodle, as well as some hosting directories and ppc engines. I found most of my action to be coming from Kanoodle. So, traffic has not been my problem. Is there anyone out there who would be willing to check out my site and tell me why you think I am not getting any signups? I would have hoped to have at least 10 or more signups from 1000 visitors. Do you think it is my site design? Pricing? Content? Anything else?

I am not expecting to be a millionare overnight, but there is definately something wrong and I can't figure out what it is!

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

My site is : www.worldwidehosting.net

Thanks!

Regards,
David Harris
Worldwidehosting.net
Professional Web Hosting

Please don't be offended...but seriously consider hiring a professional webdesigner. It will make all the difference in the world. Check this board, as there are many designers selling inexpensive templates.

--Tina

Thanks, Tina.

I am not offended. Would you mind telling me specifically what it is about this site that you dont like? I actually paid a wed designer about 2 years ago, who designed the template for me. I thought it looked professional, but perhaps I was wrong! The template is basically everything at the top, above the menu, as well as the background and the bottom bar. I added most of the content myself. Is the problem the template I used? Or the content I added? Both? ;o)

I very much do appreciate your input - it is valuble to me as I know you have been doing a great job with your hosting company.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

David

I know my site isn't perfect, and we've just hired a designer to give it a fresh coat of paint as well.

Your site looks very dated and done by someone with a copy of Paint Shop Pro and a bit of time on their hands. It doesn't have that crisp, professional look.

About 2 years ago, I had a site that I thought was pretty good. A friend of mine and myself worked on it for quite awhile and thought we did a pretty good job. I asked for some critiques and was totally shot down by people telling me it didn't look very professional. Sooooo...I bit the bullet and hired a REAL designer. The difference in sales was instant and very noticable.

The things that stand out in your site is the quality of the graphics (a bit fuzzy) and the bumpy/dated text graphics.

--Tina

Hi David

Adding in my 0.02 cents worth, your site is all of what, 10 pages or less? Need to get some "content" happening there. I would also suggest you increase the font size and make them the same on every page. Graphics are OK if done right -- some people go for that -- and your site does look dated. A total makeover would be good thing; why does you TOS open a new Window?

Thanks, Rob.

What kind of content do you suggest? I see many hosting companies out there and there isnt tons of stuff on em.

Any ideas?

David,

Think of this way.. Your website is what turns visitors into customers. You should never stop working/improving your website and the one you have up right now doesn't make me want to signup with you if you know what I'm saying.

//Saeed

You'll find that some sites go for the flashy look; animation, big images, etc. and when well done appeal to people. We get so taken in by what we "see" little realizing that's not what we need. Then you have sites with well done coding; fast, sharp, accurate (i.e. works in all Browsers), which can add some touches to a site.

The best sites of course, are the ones that provide both of the above and content for the Visitors. People will come to a site for all kinds of reasons, if they are provided them. Free is always good. Doesn't have to be "your" services, but maybe something you can create or provide through someone else. Check out something and give reasons why you think it's good -- stay away from saying bad things, unless doing a Review/Report of some kind.

Forums and Blogs are the big thing right now. If you can get a good Forum happening, people will come just for the exchange of information. Look at WHT. ;)

David,
Use a stylesheet to keep the font sizes, colors, etc. consistent on every page. Increase the font size. I can barely read it and I have great eyesite.

Add some content as has been suggested. Info about your company, your network op center, some support docs, etc. You have to convey a sense of trust to your visitors. I can find no where on your site where I can read about you or your company. If I don't have a sense of whom I'm dealing with, I'm moving on.

Also, I'm not sure if this makes any difference at all, but I would name my hosting packages something other than 'package 1', 'package 2', etc.

Also, I would give more specifics on the features included with each plan.

You'll eventually find the right combination of good design and good content. :-)

Joe

First thing I noticed is that you already need a domain name to sign up. You don't have a whois query or offer any help in registering a domain name.

Originally posted by bitserve
First thing I noticed is that you already need a domain name to sign up. You don't have a whois query or offer any help in registering a domain name.

Yeah, consider signing up with a domain registration service. If someone doesn't have a domain, it's easier and less confusing, especially if they're new to the hosting and domain thing, if they can just register a domain through your website during the order process.

Your plans give too much space and not enough bandwidth. 5 GB of bandwidth for $74.99 is insanity. Space should never exceed bandwidth. You should give at least 10 times more bandwidth than space. For example, for $74.99, you should give at least 20-30 GB of bandwidth, with about 1-3 GB of space.

Thanks for the replies,

Yeah, i agree my bandwidth is low. The thing is I am paying $4.50-$7 myself for bandwidth on my server. Maybe my server is co-located at the wrong place? Is this high? If I offer more bandwidth, is it safe to assume that most people will use it? Any averages out there on bandwidth per 100 sites?
I have my server co-located at globaltap (globaltap.com), and the service has been great. I do feel very limited on the bandwidth, though. I wasnt under the impression that people needed so much bandwidth...

Thanks!

David

David, I think $5.00+ per GB of bandwidth is outragous for a co-located machine. They have a good connection, but I think if you ask in the request forum for co-location, you will find that you could get the same quality of service for a lot less. I am assuming you are paying the $75 for 10GB of bandwidth with 5 ip's. I would be willing to bet that you could get someone to give you 75GB+ with many more ip's for roughly what you are paying now. When we were looking, we got at least 10 offers that we really considered, and all of them blew away what you are getting.

You need either need to lower your price or raise your bandwidth alloment. Best thing to do is compare your plans against the other companies that compete in your marketplace. You need to know who you are competing against and you need to know what makes your service different from the rest? People will come to you if you offer something either different from the others, or have better prices, or the best way is through great support. Just read these forums, everyone wants good support.

Good Luck,

Alright I will be mean in the post below, just so you have fair WARNING, but it's only for your benifit. I am generally referred to as a "professional" designer and have been in the business for quite some time. If your going to do the design yourself I highly recommend you check out the book Design Workshop by Robin Williams.

The purple color is horrible. Purple? Here's a good start, go to www.coolhomepages.com check out the e-commerce section. Does you site look anything like any of these sites?

The logo at the top just looks ugly, it looks like it was ran through GIF compression to 200 + times. second the layout is too simple. Looks kinda like somebody took some frontpage and a table. It looks like a 1 & Zeros guy designed it and not a "designer"

I recommend getting every nickle you can scrounge up and putting it towards your site design. NEVER under estimate the power of design. PEOPLE will ALWAYS judge a book by a cover, sad but true, accept it and work with it.

Also as far as getting 1000 + hits a day, are they unique hits? not a scam right? Are they targeted? I mean if people just click the banner ad you have to get something free, it doesn't matter if you get 10,000 hits. If they aren't looking for web hosting they aren't going to buy any. 10 Targeted leads are worth 1000 random ones. Invest your money in the most expensive (and well researched targeted) adversing you can afford.

Good Luck.

PS, PM me when you think you've found the design company your going to go with and I can give you the thumbs up or thumbs down on 'em.

Inkhead,

Thanks for the honesty. I agree that I need a new site. When this site was designed a few years ago, sites didnt look so high tech, and I didnt realize how poor it looks now.

And as far as hits, I got 1000 in a week, not a day. They were targetd hits, mostly people looking for 'web hosting;.

Thanks for the advice! I will work on getting my site up to speed.

Regards,
David

my advices on ur pafe design:

the violet background of your site (i see it coz i use 800x600 res.) is really a pain. the background of any site must always be lighter than the main content. try making the bg lighter.

it looks like u have intended the site to be veiwed with 648x480 resolution (i forgot the number coz im using xp now). i beleive that most web users nowadays, especially those webdesigners or people who make their own sites use atleast a 800x600 r. since their your primary customer, i suggest u should make ur site intended for 800x600 and higher.

try adding more pictures and content. im looking at your web hosting plans right now i feel that its quite dull. for the plans, try looking at the way myacen.com has organized its plans using tables aswell.

content: add more content like, why u should consider hosting with us? detail on our network uptime, something like that in the hosting plan page.


as for ur plans:

10gb of space with 5gb transfer - so lets say u focus more on those people who require a lot of drive space with only little bandwidth, like stock family photos etc. (heck, ur the only one i've seen so far) then why not try to advertise and focus on people who would want their family photos stored on the web?

i do not wish to be offensive in my suggestions.

That purple played havoc with my eyes :)

But honestly, it's nice to see a site that has a raw base from which to work.

I'll help out if you want David - I have pm'd you with a basic design and will be willing to work with you to make it into a good final one.

Hi,

i run 2mhost.com, and another few hosting brand names, i give design %20 importance, %50 for content, %30 for prices

this after you drived the visitors!

* for example $2/mo looks much much better than $24/year
* where is the demo of your control panel ?
* if you run CPanel .. why not buy a cheap skin and put its snaps in your pages ?
* put your plan in BIG table ... check http://www.2mhost.com/details.html
* some dummy news
* live chat tool give good sales

this will attract the ustomer when they reach your site


but how to attract customers ... Marketing!

list yourself in hostsearch.com ... just list ? will drive 0 customers!!
bid in hostsearch will drive then good sales

pay $500 and take a position in "low-cost show case" and at leat will get 50 customers/month at least


try bid in tophosts.com, hostpulse.com, adovis.com
google, about


DONT WANT TO PAY THEN DONT EXPECT TO EARN ANYTHING



trust me ... i run 4 sites and know well what drive customers
in 2mhost.com i get at least 10 signups/day


tell me what happend

Jeez. those are some cheap plans. That probably accounts some for your large number of signups. But then, of course, it means you have to sign up more people to be successful.

Good advice too.

in spcial offers section in that forum you can hunt dedicated server can hold 500 domain for $200/mo or less

$200/mo or $2000/year

while 400 account (not 500!) X $24 = $9600 !!

if have good marketing plan you can sell that 400 account in a month or less


if you have good provider usually will not have serious tech. problems