Hello there


I want to ask the users which hosting directory they prefer and why - what features are the most important?

and I'd like to ask the host company owners which host control center is the most advanced our there..

Thank you very much

Looking forward hearing from you.

Hi Lonny,

I feel hosting directories are pretty much useless at this point. All have relatively the same backend. Categorizing by price, space, ect ect. It gets rerundant.

As for my choice, FindMyHosting.com

Though a backend similar to most hosting directories. Their approach is ingenious. In which they do not rely on advertising dollars. That bias found on so many directories is completely eliminated with their service.

Is it right for you? Well it's effectiveness and profitability is beyond me. However I do know if I owned a hosting company they would be my choice. In other words if you're looking to spice up FindSP, and your confident in the traffic you provide-- then remove the majority (if not all) ads from your site and integrate a CPA solution based directory.

Just my thoughts, best of luck.

Only place that seems good is hostsearch.com We run adds ever other month and seem to get a good turn around.

I think NovaW posted a nice listing of directories and their Alexa rankings in an earlier message .. let me try find it ...

FindSP .. you want to enhance your directory ?
well .. im my openion, first thing attract me to ad with a host directory is where this directory got his traffic.


when i started this business since a 18 months i depnded on hostsearch only to got customer, and so far .. i got my first 1000 signups in less than 3 months.

hostsearch on that time was appear in google first ranking, good ranking in both overture and about.com, further more they were sponsored aspin.com and some other webmasters sites.!!

look at them now, low-cost showcase for $500/mo will drive 20 customer/mo for the best result!!
why ? because they now depend on nothing to get quality traffic, i think most of traffic done by other companies come to site to update their plans and watch the market.

want my openion now in best directory? its TOPHOSTS.COM, i'm always see tophosts banners in hotsctipts, cgi-resources, aspin and more .. so i trust getting quality traffic from tophosts

and this is my only concern, and i think you have to forward your question to the end user, in the main forum.

i do not care if I like this direcory or that .. i care which directory visited by end users disregarding my own openion on that directory.


side question: from where you get your traffic ?

Google mostly and a significant amount of visitors from
our cobranding solution

Thanks for these tips keep em coming...

HostSearch.com sent us the most quality traffic. 90% of the signups came from hostsearch.com. Their name is branded and well known to the industry. They sent us 'actual' customers interested in web hosting, not just visitors.

The rest of directories where I advertised was a waist of money:

Hostspot.com - spent $200, got maybe one or two signups.
HostingRepository.com - spent $50, got maybe one signup
CompareWebHosts.com - spent $300, got no signups.
iHostCafe.com - spent $150, got no sign ups.

If I had thousands to spend on an advertising campaign, hostsearch.com would be my number one choice.

I was selling a feature packed package with huge amount of diskspace and bandwidth for less than $6 and that's the results I received.

I forgot to mention HostFinders.com - spent $200 and got about 15 visitors in 2 months, and 0 signups. That's some BS directory.

Overture.com was also a waist of money for me, even though it's not a directory, just FYI.

..I think I went off topic with this.. SORRY Lonny!

Lonny:
Google mostly and a significant amount of visitors from


google ? where FindSP appear .. with which page with wich keywords ?

It's a stretch of the imagination to think that FindSP is getting any amount of traffic from Google, maybe a few hits here and there - but FindSP does have some nice co-branding with some webmaster resource sites that I am sure drive some fairly targeted traffic.

The point raised that a directory (from an advertising spend point of view) is only as good as it's source of traffic is a very valid one.

New directories spring up each day - not with the intent to be a real resource but only to cash in on the potential of selling advertising.

Search engines are without a doubt the best source of traffic - i.e people that have their credit card out on the table ready to buy. Traffic from ads would come in 2nd. You might see a directory running ads & think great they are getting good traffic - but what would stop you running the same ad yourself for a lot cheaper than $500 a month.

I just think all directory listing is a waste of my time and money... I am about to throw the towel in on all online advertising for the hosing business.

Originally posted by 2Mhost

Lonny:
Google mostly and a significant amount of visitors from


google ? where FindSP appear .. with which page with wich keywords ?




try 'hosting portal' for example.. or 'jsp hosting'

try 'hosting portal' for example.. or 'jsp hosting'

i doubt anybody would search using hosting portal - well maybe 1 a week. jsp hosting = #37 (you have #19 on jsp web hosting though) but these searches are very low to start with. It's a bit much to give those as examples as your major google traffic source.

I think you have a winner though with the co-brands, if I was a host I would have some good confidence in that.

Besides looking at the site's Alexa stats, ask them for a printscreen of their stats ...

I tell advertisers I got over 200,000 visits monthly at HostAZ ... so why should they believe me? Cos I send them a printscreen of my stats ... this is definitely a useful thing to do if you aren't sure about the directory ;)

TopHosts has the right idea for the hosts control panel but currently it's a bit tricky to use and not that straight forward for a few of the features. With a few tweaks it could be very good.

As for the best directory I think the more quality features the better and offcourse a thriving community forum is always a good thing as it will allow hosting buyers and hosting sellers to come together.

I think NovaW posted a nice listing of directories and their Alexa rankings in an earlier message

Here is a list with Alexa rankings.

The number next to the domain name is the site's Alexa ranking (lower ranking means higher traffic).

http://thelist.internet.com/
http://www.cnet.com/internet/0-3761.html
http://www.tophosts.com/ 12,835
http://thewhir.com/find/web-hosts/ 21,670
http://www.hostindex.com/ 24,025
http://www.smesource.com/Hosting/ 25,957
http://www.webhostdir.com/ 29,754
http://www.webhostingratings.com/ 30,603
http://www.hostsearch.com/ 33,846
http://www.thedirectory.org/ 34,525
http://www.findmyhost.com/ 55,001
http://www.webhostmagazine.com/ 56,428
http://www.comparewebhosts.com/ 59,476
http://www.findmyhosting.com/ 64,573
http://www.hostpulse.com/app/ 66,080
http://www.webhosters.com/ 76,789
http://www.*********.com/ 122,106
http://hostreview.com/ 128,362 http://www.webhostingsearch.com
http://www.findsp.com/Hosting/ 161,566
http://budgetweb.com 185,657
http://www.abctracker.com/ 226,753
http://www.webhostsearch.info/ 241,937
http://www.hostingcatalog.com/ 250,355
http://www.webhostingpicks.com/ 288,213
http://www.hostapproval.com/ 296,592
http://www.alanward.net/hostfinder/ 296,773
http://www.hostrecord.com/ 311,384
http://www.acehosts.com/ 348,112
http://www.100topwebhosts.com 352,192
http://www.zoneindex.com/ 358,799
http://*************/ 438,761
http://www.hostingrepository.com/ 530,410
http://www.ihostcafe.com/ 539,754
http://www.hostfinders.com/ 545,362
http://1stnova.com/ 572,861
http://www.ahostingservice.com 585,747
http://www.hostfinder.com/ 601,450
http://aaahostlist.com 767,267
http://www.isp-guide.com/ 790,398
http://www.webserverindex.com/ 811,821
http://www.supremewebhosts.com/ 815,589
http://www.hostseek.com/ 817,316
http://www.hostedition.com/ 821,425
http://www.ratemyhost.com/ 923,120
http://www.hostingseek.com/ 963,529
http://www.hostingportal.com/ 1,058,678
http://www.aawebhostingdirectory.com/ 1,130,762
http://www.webhostseek.com/ 1,186,893
http://www.cheap-web-site-hosting-directory.com/ 1,207,258
http://www.webhostpad.com/ 1,220,213
http://www.hostproindex.com 1,222,559
http://www.hostsgalore.com/ 1,274,288
http://2hosta.com 1,309,141
http://www.aaron-register.com/ 1,332,551
http://www.webserverlist.com/ 1,343,451
http://www.myhostfinder.com/ 1,550,260
http://www.hostraiders.com/ 1,592,983
http://www.webhostingsources.com/ 1,747,569
http://www.click4host.com/ 1,768,947
http://www.hostinghelper.com/ 1,778,252
http://www.thewebhostdirectory.com 1,796,192
http://www.fivestarhosts.com/?source=overture 1,914,605
http://www.hostlynk.com/ 1,923,837
http://www.get-cheap-web-hosting.com/ 1,940,045
http://www.hostshowcase.com/ 2,059,380
http://www.web-hosting-ratings.com/ 2,099,614
http://www.hostfind.com 2,270,534
http://www.webhostingfirms.com/ 2,330,325
http://www.gethosted.com/ 2,532,820
http://www.webhosting-directory.com/ 2,759,460
http://www.webhostingvillage.com/ 3,049,283
http://www.web-hosting-resources.net/ 3,150,052
http://www.webhost-index.com 3,299,545
http://www.reviewhost.com/ 3,326,600
http://www.online-web-site-hosting-services.com/
http://www.superiorhosts.com/
http://www.webhosting-central.com/
http://ahostfinder.com/
http://ahostlocator.com/
http://www.hosting360.com/
http://www.50topwebhosts.com/

These ones cost money to get listed:
$ http://www.ispcheck.com 37,192
$ http://www.**************.com/ 102,883
$ http://www.hostglobal.com/ 118,814
$ ***********.com
$ http://www.hostcompare.com/ 128,562
$ http://www.ppcforhosts.com/public/index.cfm?from=f4h 168,239
$ http://www.webhostselect.com/ 616,321
$ http://free-cheap-domain-host-page....ting-guide.net/ 736,924
http://www.website-webpage-webhosting-site.com/
http://www.web-hosting-directory.net 262,317
http://www.1-cheap-web-site-hosting...ng-services.com
http://www.0cost-business-web-hosting.com
http://www.10-best-web-site-and-dom...ng-services.com
http://www.100best-web-hosts-cheap-free-space.st20.com/
http://100best-web-site-and-domain-...g-services.com/
http://www.4-free-cheap-web-site-hosting-services.com
http://www.aawebhostingdirectory.com/ 1,130,762
http://www.accesswebhost.com/
http://www.affordable-low-cost-web-site-hosting.com/
http://www.cheap-web-hosting-finder.com/
http://www.cheap-web-site-hosting-plan.com/
http://www.cheapest-website-hosting.com
http://www.e-hosting-cheap-web-site...g-services.com/
http://www.low-cost-web-hosting-guide.com
http://www.10topwebhosting.com/
http://www.reliahost.com/
http://host-tribune.com/
http://www.web-hosting-review.com/ 85,361
http://www.e-wizdom.com/wh/ 161,754
http://www.web-hosting-directory.net/ 262,317
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/ 279,400
http://www.cheap-web-hosting-space-...n-page-site.com 537,046

John

nogi,

Could you run that by me again? LOL
How is it setup?

The links that have the lowest #'s next to the URL, are the better places? So the ones that have NO #'s are the best?

And when you say lower ranking = more traffic, you mean the lower the link is the better they are?

LOL, sorry if that's a stupid question.

Thanks Nogi ... that's an awesome list!! :D

The links that have the lowest #'s next to the URL, are the better places? So the ones that have NO #'s are the best?

And when you say lower ranking = more traffic, you mean the lower the link is the better they are?

Yes, the ones with lower numbers get higher traffic

http://www.tophosts.com/ 12,835 gets more visitors than
http://thewhir.com/find/web-hosts/ 21,670 etc.

As for the ones that have no #, I don't know :)

John

Thanks Nogi ... that's an awesome list!! :D

You're welcome. I were just passing it by. It has probably circulated around for a while :)

John

Are we good or what :-]

General Hosting (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=General+Hosting&btnG=Google+Search)
Win 2000/NT Hosts (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Win+2000%2FNT+Hosts)
Linux Hosts (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Linux+Hosts)

not bad at all :)

i think no one on earth will try to search for new host using

General Hosting
Win 2000/NT Hosts
Linux Hosts

when i was just a site owner .. i used
webhosting, web hosting, hosting ..

but who will search for Linux Host(s) ? may be another hosting company :)

I am even hesitant to advertise heavily that I run Linux servers. As silly as it sounds, I get at least one email per week where people tell me they run Windows XP/98/ME - and think they can't use a Linux server because they don't run linux...

don't laugh I get one every week...

Originally posted by nogi
[B]
http://www.tophosts.com/ 12,835 gets more visitors than
http://thewhir.com/find/web-hosts/ 21,670 etc.

As for the ones that have no #, I don't know :)

John

Be aware that the Alexa numbers does not represent the full traffic stats though. For example, Alexa don't count visitors that come through frames ... eg. when you click on a URL in Hotmail .. it opens up in Hotmail's frame (using Hotmail's URL) ... Alexa would count that towards Hotmail and not the destination site.