Not really geared toward web hosting, but I suppose it could be. Anyway...

I'm in the web development business as I'm sure a lot of you are. I was wondering, what problems do you have locally with other companies in your city or area? Do you consider yourself to be the monopoly in your city/area?

I've got cskern.com (http://www.cskern.com) (the web division (http://www.1-web.net/)) as probably the #1 company in my area. The owner is probably the most popular guy in our city (Muncie, IN). He runs the biggest printing company here, and decided to get into web stuff.

I'd have to say that http://www.spinweb.net is the #2 in the area. It's owned by some Ball State students, and appears to be doing well.

I would *hope* that I could place myself in 3rd, but its hard to tell.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I want out of this post...lol. Maybe its that I get really frustrated with the bigger companies taking advantage of people because they don't know of any other options. On CSKern's site, they charge $115 per month for a 50MB site with a database, and people around here PAY IT! They had an article about something in the paper that mentioned that they make over $200,000 per year off of 6 clients. Yes....6. And thats just for hosting.

Anyone else have problems with bigger companies competing with them? What have you tried to do to become better known? What kind of advertising have you found to work? I've thought of doing the Chamber of Commerce (I'd be the only 'Web Design & Hosting' company listed, as CSKern is a printing company) for $200 a year, but some have warned me that it doesn't work too well.

I'll shut up and let you talk now...lol :D

Very interesting read, and even the part about people paying large fees for nothing. Anyone else care to add anything?

Originally posted by WebmastTroy

Anyway, I'm not sure what I want out of this post...lol. Maybe its that I get really frustrated with the bigger companies taking advantage of people because they don't know of any other options. On CSKern's site, they charge $115 per month for a 50MB site with a database, and people around here PAY IT! They had an article about something in the paper that mentioned that they make over $200,000 per year off of 6 clients. Yes....6. And thats just for hosting.


I wouldn't knock that, there is a pretty big market for customized enterprise solutions in hosting, and its a good market, if you can get into it.

More and more companies want to outsource their entire hosting solution to a single provider, and just upload the content. You figure for this type of solution, a company may need 5 or 6 servers, a data base server, a networking infrastructure, a couple of firewalls, load balancing, and possibly and IDS and a VPN. Not to mention stats and monitoring. A solution like that could easily cost $50k a month.

Even with smaller companies, if you provide a fully managed dedicated server, with all the extras, it can run $2000-$3000 a month (for an example, look at RackShack's new managed services). Of course the trick is being able to get those type of customers :).

One of the big locals:
Basic Service Small Site $25.00 10 Megabytes 75,000 hits
Full Service Small Site $40.00 10 Megabytes 75,000 hits
Large Site $100.00 25 Megabytes 400,000 hits

Another:
WEB PAGE & DOMAIN HOSTING
Includes - 10MB of space on our host server to house your pages. Registration with several search engines.
Price - $20.00 setup and $40.00 per month. (Use of space over 10MB will be billed per MB.) .

Hmmm... Maybe I should market to the locals...

$10 a month for 2 pages :eek: :eek:

Wow.... you should do direct mailings to some of the companies he hosts with your plans....

and then you will bash him for spamming other hosts clients.....

The local market is our bread and butter. I don't see why more smaller hosts out there dont utilize the local web development scene as their main source of income. There are businesses out there that need help with site development and hosting, and I find it a lot easier talking to someone face to face about their needs, than over emails.

Regards,

Jeff

Originally posted by WebmastTroy
I've thought of doing the Chamber of Commerce (I'd be the only 'Web Design & Hosting' company listed, as CSKern is a printing company) for $200 a year, but some have warned me that it doesn't work too well.The real value of a membership in the Chamber of Commerce won't come just from being listed in their directory. To get benefit from the membership you have to be an active member... go to meetings, meet other business owners, and impress them with your knowledge and professionalism. Then they'll come to you with their website needs. Join the Chamber of Commerce for its networking value.

It's kind of like joining WebHostingTalk. Those who find this to be the most valuable marketing venue are those who contribute to teh community.

Originally posted by JayC

It's kind of like joining WebHostingTalk. Those who find this to be the most valuable marketing venue are those who contribute to teh community.

So, are you saying if I were to stop being so crochety to newbies more people would buy advertising on DCW :D?

Originally posted by uuallan

Of course the trick is being able to get those type of customers :).

Well, they don't seem to have any problems around here. The guy is probably the most recognized name here in our city. If someone needs a web site done, they figure that they are going to have to go with them, and its going to cost them a lot of money.

We could talk all day about types of online advertising, but I would hope that the local market around here would still be good. Billboards around here are about $1,000 a month (I think) and I don't make near that much to be able to pay for that.

I'd love to hear about other situations that the rest of you are in with local competition and trying to "over advertise" the others.

Look forward to your responses!

This may seem really simple, and kind of trite, but it's not meant to be. Hit the street. Walk into the door and let people know you're out there. Distribute your information face to face. Also, try landing a high profile pro-bono account. Offer your services to a local non-profit--I guarantee they will promote you and publicize like crazy. Just a thought...tim

Hi there,

I can give you some advise to capture the local market.
I have posted this in other thread but here it is again.

Partnership: try joining forces with local companies that might help you boost your sale t the local community. Maybe make an affiliation scheme to encourage them to help you clinch sales.
We have tried this method with localwebdesign and printing companies and achieved a certain amount of success.

networking: go around giving talks, try sponsor hosting for a church website and have them put 'hosted by ****' at the bottom. If possible have the pastor to announce it. ;-)
have a stack of namecard ready and hand them to as many people that you meet as possible.

you can try advertising in a local magazine or newspaper.

From what I can say local market is great!!! they give less trouble and they are willing to pay a lot.

Problem is though that people start up and think that hanging around here for a couple months will bring them fortune and success, which is an illusion.....

Offline success can be a catalyst for online success, considering the online environment may be utilised for socialising by a customer in which it becomes an online word of mouth benefit.