Anyone that can recommend any good hosting directories to be in? There are hundreds out there!

Whats your experience?

I'd say that being listed in any directory is good for promotion. Small directories may be bringing sign ups constantly but you'll get some now and then, so it's worth it.

I'd say get listed in as many as you can!

http://webhostmagazine.com/wf/hostfinders.asp its a good place to start the torture :)

http://www.tophosts.com
http://www.webhostdir.com
http://www.thewhir.com
http://www.hostsearch.com
http://www.hostindex.com
http://www.hostreview.com
http://www.webhosters.com
http://www.comparewebhosts.com
http://www.webhostseek.com
http://www.webhostingratings.com

Haven't looked at a lot of these in a while so some may be dead:

http://www.webhostdir.com
http://www.webhosters.com
http://www.hostfacts.com
http://www.hostinvestigator.com
http://www.4webhosting.com
http://www.webhostseek.com
http://www.hostindex.com
http://www.webhostlist.com
http://www.tophosts.com
http://www.ispcheck.com
http://www.hostingreviews.com
http://www.host-tribune.com
http://www.cyberwiser.com
http://www.hostfind.com
http://www.hostreview.com
http://www.findwebspace.com
http://www.hostspot.com
http://www.verihost.com
http://www.ihostcafe.com
http://www.hottesthost.com
http://www.webhostarea.com
http://www.hostcompare.com
http://www.reviewdepot.com

The easiest way to find a list of web hosting directories is to use the open directory listing - or the Google ordered version of it at

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosting/Directories/

I still think someone should develop a system that you pay for that links into all the web host dirs. Then from one location you can manage all your listings. I would pay for that. It is "torture" as Jedito pointed out to manage all them. We still find some listings we had from three years ago withthree year old plans.

Thanks for all the input!

Originally posted by Lonny
I'd say that being listed in any directory is good for promotion. Small directories may be bringing sign ups constantly but you'll get some now and then, so it's worth it.

I second this motion ;)

In my opinion the perfect system - wouldn't upgrade the listing since this is just impossible and won't be acceptable by most of the hosting directory owners......

What I was thinking of is making a system which will enable every host to know when was the plan added and to what directory.

Actually for that all you need is word document or maybe access database - just write the date, plan name and host directory name and URL - this way you'll know when and where you have to update your hosting plans..

What do you think?

By the way, there are services which provide search engine submission for hosting companies...

In my opinion the perfect system - wouldn't upgrade the listing since this is just impossible and won't be acceptable by most of the hosting directory owners......

I agree with that.

In reality though the likelyhood of getting sales from the standard search utilities on the directories is low - but of course it only makes sense to list yourself with every (free) resource you can - I mean why wouldn't you.

What the majority of hosting directories can offer you though is exposure, branding & possibly sales via advertising. We don't sell any advertising - so I'm not promoting our site here.

Advertising is a key activity if you want to drive your business - there are a multiude of sites that you can advertise on, some expensive & some less expensive. I do think there is a huge miss-conception though about valid CPM. Take a site like TopHosts - gets a lot of traffic and charges a high CPM. Contrast that to a site like FindSP (which is a very nice resource) - I don't know the numbers but the CPM is certainly lower. Why? - because they get less traffic, but is the propensity to buy hosting of a person visiting FindSP any different than a person visiting TopHosts? The quality of the visitor should be the only factor that influences CPM - not the volume of traffic. Take Yahoo as an example $70 CPM - Why? because people foolishly think that Yahoo is big & therefore more value. An internet user is an internet user - Yahoo makes out twice - more traffic & higher CPM, but Yahoo visitors don't have a "magic quality" that warrants $70 CPM - they can charge that due to competition for the slots. It's the same dynamic for web hosting directory sites that sell advertising.

The point of my rambling is spread your ad spend around many cheaper directories, you'll get better branding & you'll get a better deal. The only question is to evaulate the potential quality of the traffic - some small directories may claim 50, 100K visitors a month - but that might be from pop-up ads, which means it is 2nd hand worthless traffic that you are paying to be "visible" to. Ask the directories where they get their traffic from, not how much they get before you spend your marketing $

Then of course there is the other key point - targeted visitors are great - but if they don't actually buy then they are worth nothing.

Well said NovaW....!

Hello,

Everyone said their opinion regarding the best place to advertise among web hosting directories.

But all forgot the real one... Yes, HostPulse.com.

We've been working with them for almost 6 month and we had had a huge growth in our net profits, since we started with them.

All the visitors to HostPulse.com has got their valet open, ready to purchase a web hosting account from one of the top hosts listed in there.

We pay them around US$ 600-1000, and believe me just during the first 4-5 days we get it back !

That was my opinion, however WebHostDir.com is also good once, Their sales manager Victoria is very helpful and kind as well.

Have a great Day!