For a new hosting company, what would be the best way to get new clients?
Any help on this would be much appreciated.

probably advertising? ;)

there is no *best* way, just the best way for your company.. and honestly with a question like this, you have to ask your self why you even got into the biz?

Thats the thing though I don't have the money to advertise until I get more clients as I am spending all the money I have (Low Ranking Military Pay) on the server that I am hosting it on.

Thats the thing though I don't have the money to advertise until I get more clients as I am spending all the money I have (Low Ranking Military Pay) on the server that I am hosting it on.

- Offer an affiliate program to promote word of mouth...
- Have SEO done on your site (learn it, and do it)..
- Post on forum advertising sections
- Talk to local businesses

All good cheap & effective ways..

Thats the thing though I don't have the money to advertise until I get more clients as I am spending all the money I have (Low Ranking Military Pay) on the server that I am hosting it on.

If that is the case, you may want to consider downgrading to a reseller account instead of paying for a dedicated server. Chances are that you are hardly using any resources on the dedicated server, so why spend the extra money? A good quality reseller account can be had for $35/month.

Thats the thing though I don't have the money to advertise until I get more clients as I am spending all the money I have (Low Ranking Military Pay) on the server that I am hosting it on.

Surely this was detailled at length in your extensive business plan you drew up before deciding you were fit to run a hosting business ?

Quite simply, you're not going to get any clients - why would they pick you over the million other unknown "hosts" out there ? How will they even know you exist ?

You will need to invest in order to make the business grow - be that through advertising, flyers to local business, ppc/adwords type things, or even purchase of a dying host - If you're not in a position to do that for the next 6 months, then quit now.

Firstly, if you have a server you're spending all your money on without clients, you are not making best use of your money already. Cancel the server a get a VPS or reseller account. Business is about keeping your costs as low as possible...

In my opinion, the best way is to be patient. Have a few promotions at the start to get a few base clients. Soon enough you will have signups left and right by word of mouth. As long as you provide good services and support, good news will spread of your company in no time. :-) Also, try offering something other companies dont/cant. Like Free client exec, double storage, ect.

It's talked about on the forums here all the time, but I say find a niche market, and provide them service they can't get anywhere else besides you. Offering general 'hosting' is good, and if you stick with it long enough, you'll get client's I'm sure, but not as rapidly as I'm sure you would like.

You said you're in the military. Maybe there is a market for military staff that would like a website to help stay in touch with their families consistantly?
Offer them a small site with a blog app pre-installed so they can blog about their life where their family can read it. Add-on a photo gallery where their family can upload new photos as they wish, your client can view them anytime he/she has access to a PC.
Bring value, the clients will come. ;)

Maybe there is a market for military staff that would like a website to help stay in touch with their families consistantly?
Offer them a small site with a blog app pre-installed so they can blog about their life where their family can read it. Add-on a photo gallery where their family can upload new photos as they wish, your client can view them anytime he/she has access to a PC.
;)
That's really great advice, and knowing your situation better, you may come up with other out-of- box solutions for your hosting business.

Those are some good ides :-)

assuming your site is hostingsoldiers.net

you have to change your design. even if you advertised on yahoo's home page, people would not sign up. your desing is reaaly bad.

Word of mouth is good. Get a couple solid clients and take really good care of them. They tell their friends, they tell their friends, etc. If you can get an organization that is part of a larger nationwide organization (that's what I do, but I won't tell you who), even better.

I sell no packages off my website (I didn't even have on until recently) - everyone I host was either recommended to me personally or I sought them out and sold them on it. That also has the added benefit of knowing who your customers are, so as to cut down on abuse.

Looking at your site, I notice your prices are really low. Don't try to compete against the huge budget sites, it won't work. If the only thing you can compete on is price, you've already lost. People will pay more for quality service.

With whatever type of marketing you choose, don't just say, I have a web hosting business, buy from me. You need to specify what makes you different from the other guys. Make sure your potential clients know how they can benefit from you. Solve a problem they have and make them feel safe about hosting with you.

1--> change your website layout...get someone professional to do it for you for $100
2--> invest $100 in advertising on forums like WHT
3--> get affiliates
4--> try getting local companies in your area hosted by you
if huge companies are hosted, you are sure to get some solid business!

1--> change your website layout...get someone professional to do it for you for $100
2--> invest $100 in advertising on forums like WHT
3--> get affiliates
4--> try getting local companies in your area hosted by you
if huge companies are hosted, you are sure to get some solid business!

No professional will even think about re-designing your page for that price. Its sad to see how people value web designers these days...

As for 2, trying to advertise anywhere with $100 would most likely be a waste of your money.

I agree with 4. Start local and target local businesses.

You must spend some money in order to make some moeny. The main goal is to direct some traffic to your website. Advertising on the net is not cheap, it can range from $2-5 per click. You can also try local advertisng such as news papers, yellow pages or what ever you can afford.

assuming your site is hostingsoldiers.net
you have to change your design. even if you advertised on yahoo's home page, people would not sign up. your desing is reaaly bad.

I also agree with that.

You also can try to buy clients from other hosting companies.

well, one thing's for sure - advertising is at least 60 % sometimes up to 70 % from a product. The other 30/40% are in the product itself. No matter what you offer you have to make sure that you plan a strategic marketing campaign that will bring new stuff, ideas or solutions to the potential users or buyers. The ways of doing that. Well, there are copious amounts of ways to do that. Press releasing, blogging, writing articles in newspapers, e-zines, forums and other kinds of media and informational sites.

first thing you need to do is invest on your site design :)

Having a good website is great for people looking to inquire about your company and to know a little more however I find it to be a passive form of advertising. At some point you are going to have to start prospecting in order to find and get clients and as a result of speaking to them you can also direct them to your website. Canadianbusinessdirectories.ca be be a great asset in helping you to do this as they provide detailed info on prospects. Canadianbusinessdirectories.ca provides you with names of executives helping you to get in touch with decision makers, address which is ideal for setting up face to face meetings as well as adding a direct mail campaign to your marketing strategy. IF you are looking to find and get new clients canadianbusinessdirectories.ca can be a great asset to your marketing needs in helping you grow your business!!

Hows the site design now, its better than the one I through together when the site went up....

For a new hosting company, what would be the best way to get new clients?
Any help on this would be much appreciated.

-Positive Customer Service Experiences
-Positive Customer Service Experiences

and one more time
-Positive Customer Service Experiences

Friends trust friends more than an advert anywhere. If you get people telling their friends about you, you've already gained their trust. The deal breaker is delivering positive customer service experiences consistently. Aim for over the top and bend over backwards service and it wont go unnoticed.

Edit: I was just looking at your packages and besides a few more MB data transfer between your packages, what reason would there be for anyone to buy the middle package which has exactly 2x more space, but is more than twice the price? Why wouldnt client X just buy two Plan1s?

For a new hosting company, what would be the best way to get new clients?
Any help on this would be much appreciated.

In my opinion and experience (which now spans 2.5 years), there are three distinct ways to approach this:

1. SEO - enough said. A good SEO strategy can go a long way.
2. Referrals through word-of-mouth - If you already have 100+ clients, chances are you can motivate them (think money, perhaps a free month of hosting for every new user referred) to refer their friends and associates to your service.
3. Advertising for new clients - If you're a new business, you don't have much time before you run out of cash. Investing in advertising (and preferably targeting a niche market) is the surest way to go.

Hope that gives you something that is, at least, somewhat useful.

Hows the site design now, its better than the one I through together when the site went up....

Your site design really is not going to work. It gives off an amateur aura and doesn't reflect professionalism in the slightest. I know this is harsh, however, this is a brutal market. Im also in the military, so I know what your pay is like. Right now, your plan isn't working. If I were you, I would cancel the server, take the losses and take the time to save up a few grand for advertising while drawing up a business plan.

After you have your business plan, have it reviewed by some folks on here or someone that's well versed in business. Once you're done with that, start hitting up some military oriented forums and websites with advertisements.

I highly recommend starting off with a reseller plan or a VPS. Don't drop the large chunk of money down for a dedicated server until you have enough clients to make more than you're spending.

When your costs exceed your profit, it's time to re-evaluate your situation.

I hope this has been of some help. Obviously, this is only one of many routes you could go. There are other suggestions that others have made which could work as well. I know quite a few web hosts here that were in a similar situation as yourself when they first began, but managed to pull through the difficult times and are reeping a tidy profit now.

So, in the end it's up to you. But, you definitely have a long way to go right now no matter how you look at it. Best of luck to you.

For a new hosting company, what would be the best way to get new clients?
Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Unlike most of the people on these forums, I feel you dude. I've been there. When I first started my web hosting company my carrier was in drydock.

I'm assuming that your in the Army or the Corps by your name. I believe that the best thing for you to do is find some geeks in your command. There out there, there in every command, and since you kinda work with them, there your best best.

On a side note, what are you going to do with your clients when you get deployed? Sooner or later, it will happen. Just a thought.

Good luck.

P.S. 1stStrike's right, you shouldn't be on anything but a reseller plan right now. Anything more and your just wasting money. One more piece of unsolicited advice, this business is a hell of a lot harder than you would think. Too many fish in the pond.

Hows the site design now, its better than the one I through together when the site went up....

Why don't you spend abt $10-60 and getta good looking web hosting template, i mean that would be the cheapest way out unless of course you do the design on your own. But even for the that you should have some creative skills, so until you can afford to hire a pro designer, go for a pre designed template