Hello all,

I just started a hosting company, Power5.net. I'm looking for ways to market that will bring me some customers. So far, Craigslist and Facebook ads haven't interested anyone. Any ideas? What works for you?

And the biggest question of all is: Do you think my company is marketable? $5 hosting, with "5's" all around. 500MB Space, 5000MB Bandwidth, etc., etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

There's several threads just on the first few pages about it. Please search.

Congratulations on your new venture! Just a few things to help you on the right track, business isn't an overnight success especially in the web hosting industry. It takes time, lots of money and tons of patience... oh yea and more time :) but if you can handle this then you're on the right track.

I would add a little bit of information about you and/or the company so customers are convinced to invest in a start up firm which can be difficult. They usually say the first year is the hardest, if you can go through it fine without any issues you should be fine.

Finally start locally to attract clients which should be easier than investing online for advertising and the conversion rates aren't the best. When you start locally and get more business through word of mouth you will see the difference in the kind of clients you get as well as do not have to compete with a lot of the budget hosts who offer unlimited everything.

Good luck!

Just based on your site alone there a few things which could possibly be improved.

- More choice in web hosting packages.
If a potential client is not looking to spend $5.00 a month on hosting, they will leave your website. Perhaps make the "Power5" plan your mid-range plan. Create a larger more expensive package and create a smaller, less expensive package.

- Display features
Your feature list is rather small and uninteresting, make sure you show ALL the features and benefits of your web hosting packages. Surely you have Fantastico installed on your server? Tell us what scripts it can install. Make sure your features list displays EVERYTHING your company offers.

- Site Security
Secure your order form. As a general rule I will NEVER enter my personal contact details into a form that is not protected by an SSL Certificate. You can pick up an SSL Certificate for a little over $10.00 these days.

- Integrate your Client Area
Although it does not do much, integrating your client area gives your website that more professional look.

- Spelling Errors
Almost every website on the internet today has a spelling error in it. But make sure you proof read your website before uploading it. The very first line telling me about your company has a spelling error in it. This discredits your company.

- Search Engine Optimization
When I click on "Plan Details", your page title is just "Web Hosting - Subpage". This wont get you anywhere when it comes to ranking in search engines. Make sure each page is optimized as best you can for search engines. In fact, a quick search reveals you have not even submitted your website to Google, let alone any other search engines. This is a MUST.

These are just basic things you can do to your website to give it that extra appeal to your potential clients, as well as driving extra traffic to your website. I hope it helps!

Get a blog. This will create a nice source of targeted traffic for you to market to. The best thing about it is you dont have to be some big named company with hundreds of thousands of dollars to through around to get your name out there.

If you continuously create content on your blog, meanwhile building links to it all, you will see a good amount of targeted traffic.

You might also want to consider advertising on every forum related to website development as you can find. This is also a good source of new customers.

And the biggest question of all is: Do you think my company is marketable? $5 hosting, with "5's" all around. 500MB Space, 5000MB Bandwidth, etc., etc.

On your front page you have: "$5.00 per month, 500 GB disk space". Spelling error? ;)

If a potential client is not looking to spend $5.00 a month on hosting, they will leave your website. Then again, maybe there's little reason to have customers that are only willing to pay significantly less than $5 for hosting.

Then again, maybe there's little reason to have customers that are only willing to pay significantly less than $5 for hosting.

Exactly. You're unlikely to do the volumes someone like Godaddy does, so don't compete at sub $5... Position yourself so you can actually make a good profit without needing 100,000 accounts overnight.

it'll take time and alot of work, make sure you have a good website with good spelling and that your support is there for your clients no one wants to have a host that has 50 clients with one support staff ie U because the more clients the more time it takes to get to the tickets start off with so many accounts and slowly move fwd taking new clients it'll elt you keep a handle on things.

Your site is very slow, and it is giving timeouts. With only 28 domains (ide****ck[dot]net)and the server is bogged down (is this a VPS?).

Hello all,

I just started a hosting company, Power5.net. I'm looking for ways to market that will bring me some customers.

I think it may have been a good idea to do this research prior to starting up :agree:

Also, don't rule out Twitter. You should have a very visible "Follow us on Twitter" graphic on all your pages. It works for us. We have a little over 6,000 followers and a few sales/week come from Twitter.

One final suggestion: Establish your optin mailing list from the get-go. Make sure your company/site offers visitors the option to sign up for news or specials -- they may not buy the first time, but they may buy on subsequent email follow-ups.

By doing the Search engine optimization you can market your hosting site.
submitting blogs and getting the backlinks from them also by doing the local advertising.

It took me about a month of different ways of marketing before i got my first customer, you can expect to spend $50 to $100 for each new customer for a brand new site, especially if you are not finding good ways of marketing and if your site is not as good as it can be. I'm 3 months in and i am getting 4 to 5 customers a week now, but i am starting to hate my layout, i think it needs to be even better so that i can attract more customers and i am always looking for better and more reliable deals on what i offer.

Local marketing is usually the cheapest over time, for example i could put a bumper sticker on my car for only $10 or so and it would be permanent for the life of the car :) Other than that i would say email marketing has worked the best for me, but it is slow to build up good lists and keep them maintained and making sure you are not spamming anyone.

Your website has a few things i would work on, the main layout looks great, but the "learn more" and "order now" for the boxes would probably look better if it was all just "order now". Also have you considered integrating your layout or something similar for the client area since they are completely different, i went from black to white! :) And make sure there aren't things missing, like if i was a potential customer and i noticed that there were "errors" on your site, like why can't i order website designs? it might drive a few away, who knows!

It takes a lot of work and if you want to save money you can do all the marketing yourself, or pay someone to do it like me :) so that i can focus on taking care of my customers instead :D

I think it may have been a good idea to do this research prior to starting up :agree:

Haha, that made me laugh, quite true. Although on the flipside, it's difficult to procure such information without having a functioning business to test certain methods of marketing on, though.

Haha, that made me laugh, quite true. Although on the flipside, it's difficult to procure such information without having a functioning business to test certain methods of marketing on, though.I for one don't think it's that funny, soo many times we see new hosts here asking After they have started there 'bussines' the same silly questions.
Let me make my views clear:
The time to research/plan Any business is before you commence trading.
Failure to plan, will only have one result - failure.
And lets be honest, as an industry we see too many failures.

It took me about a month of different ways of marketing before i got my first customer, you can expect to spend $50 to $100 for each new customer for a brand new site, especially if you are not finding good ways of marketing and if your site is not as good as it can be. I'm 3 months in and i am getting 4 to 5 customers a week now, but i am starting to hate my layout, i think it needs to be even better so that i can attract more customers and i am always looking for better and more reliable deals on what i offer.
:D

I opened a new server in June [2009], and my costs were very low for advertising. $50 - $100 per customer is rather high. Your costs may be high due to inexperience in marketing. I spend about $20 for every 5 clients I get, but usually break even on them. Site looks are one of the keys to your business succeeding (look at a programmer to give your site a boost), but also customer service plays a big role in your business.

... And let me re-iterate. There is only so much you can plan for before starting a business. Whilst finding customers should be at the forefront of your list of things to plan, it is difficult to find out which methods are effective for your business plan. That said, every business is a risk, with or without a plan however having a plan can only increase your chances of success. There are only so many things you can prepare for before you commence trading and it does not surprise me that this question gets asked so often.

Yes of course, $50 to $100 was what i started out with per customer, now clients are coming in for about the same rate you mentioned i am earning :)

but anyways, i was just giving him my story and some tips on what worked :)

Okay, this is my 2 cents.

Follow what other had say about your website.
Follow them all, coz they are telling you for the free and online channel of marketing.
They are social marketing, online and offline marketing.
For social, try all the social network, get a blog, connect them to your social network. Create quizzes, giveaways, etc, this is part of online marketing too, at least the free one.
For offline, try putting flyers, business cards to schools, cyber cafes, lybrarys, etc.
I believe that should generate some profit for you.

does not surprise me that this question gets asked so often.But WHAT stops people asking BEFORE they start trading ?

But WHAT stops people asking BEFORE they start trading ?

Some people get a vision of making money , they do not think about the work that has to go into making a profit.

You could also offer local IT companies affiliate status to expand the services they offer to hosting... Contact them and follow it up with an email with user ID etc, give them £10/$10 to start with but ensure that they need £30/$30 to withdraw. At a 10% profit for them they would have to drive £200/$200 with of business your way!

Extra voices in shops, on the phone, etc all help!

contact friends, family, write an article for local newspaper, flyers to local schools colleges, etc, ie start local nd spread out. become the number one host in your street, then your neighbourhood, then, state etc

start with ur local market, that will give u the real picture

start with ur local market, that will give u the real picture

Notice how most people are saying promote to a local market?

It works for a reason...and you can make a crap load more money per customer with this route.

contact friends, family, write an article for local newspaper, flyers to local schools colleges, etc, ie start local nd spread out. become the number one host in your street, then your neighbourhood, then, state etc

agreed. we focused heavily on the Singapore market and made a name for our company there before we considered venturing into other areas

contact friends, family, write an article for local newspaper, flyers to local schools colleges, etc, ie start local nd spread out. become the number one host in your street, then your neighbourhood, then, state etc

I agree also, gradually build yourself up:cool:

set some money aside for advertising on other hosting sites maybe contact a few blogs who speak about webhosting too and run a competition?

Google AdWords, Microsoft, Miva and Facebook have partnership opportunities in place so that you can give out their coupons to your customers. This is a nice value-added service to offer to new customers. You do have to apply though, and as a new hosting company they might approve your application. But it's worth a shot for the value it adds.

Google AdWords, Microsoft, Miva and Facebook have partnership opportunities in place so that you can give out their coupons to your customers. This is a nice value-added service to offer to new customers. You do have to apply though, and as a new hosting company they might approve your application. But it's worth a shot for the value it adds.

And you have to spend thousands of dollars as well before they will approve you.

I don't think that would be wise, considering this is how to market a NEW company.

And you have to spend thousands of dollars as well before they will approve you.

I don't think that would be wise, considering this is how to market a NEW company.

Finding a value-added service partnership is a good marketing strategy and who knows, maybe Miva is desperate enough to partner with a new hosting company.

The beauty of the internet is that you can look big even though you're small. Spending time detailing your user experience and company presentation from first page impression to what you say on the phone will stretch your advertising dollars and increase the value companies see in hosting with you.

Affiliate programs are good, but the affiliates are greedy and will promote the companies that give them the highest opportunity to earn money. Getting the sales volume that affiliates can give you might mean doing it at a loss according to the averages. But if you have great customer service and look good, you'll be able to increase the average life value of a customer and possibly make it cost-effective to go with a price competitive affiliate program. You're user experience would have to be incredible though as the affiliate programs are really competitive.

Google has some great tools for optimizing the user experience, and for making sure that your website is indexed well. So, you might want to take a look at their free service offerings.

Another idea would be to host local area user group events and to sponsor the hosting of their websites. This will give you great exposure to a good target audience, and relevant backlinks.

Best of luck with your new business.

What about Google AdWords. any one tried?

Is it too expensive?

I'm think you will propose on people you know and word of mount first.
and whe you have some cutomer it make you more investment for services/products too . Business willbe run .

develop a 5 point plan
1) strategy - objective, define your market, analyze competitive landscape
2) Operations Plan - how will you convert your strategy into actionable items with milestones and timelines?
3) HR plan - will you do it alone, hire help, outsource support, again it relates back to your strategy
4) Financial plan - how much do you really need, how will you track results against budgets
5) COMMUNICATIONS PLAN - Endless communication to everyone - you have a strategy, a pitch, a niche - let everyone know it and keep it coming out
twitter, facebook, press releases, etc - its more then a marketing plan -

its the 5 Point Plan -

Depending on your marketing budget - I would suggest splitting a proportion between search and banners.

Search will give you very targetted traffic - can be quite expensive, but usually results in a sale.

Banners will give you both traffic and branding. :)

What about Google AdWords. any one tried?

Is it too expensive?

Yes because lots of the larger companies place high bids on the best keywords. The only way to have your ad show on those keywords is to beat their bid...

congratulation on your new venture,

I would say one thing: "dont expect to get rich quickly"

plan to lose some money the first 3 even 6 months..

research your competition.. and be prepare to work alot..

The main problem here is that you're just selling hosting. Its not cheap, and it doesn't offer anything else than the 5 billion other hosters in the field.

You need value added services or a niche for your clients like developer hosting, shoppingcart hosting, CMS hosting etc etc. Offer something that has demand. 'just' hosting ain't gonna cut it, unless you have a great way to promote it.

Thanks for everyone's advise. I recently found this forum and have been reading through it diligently. My hosting company is just over two years old and has been a struggle to get my only customer, me! Anyway got to get back to reading

Relax, do not strugle.
do it smarter.:)