Where is the best place to advertise a Web Hosting company?? AND Why??

Personally I find Google to be to expensive, $10 a click or something like that.

Buy a bunch of bumper stickers and start throwing them on random cars. Be sure to get the real nice expensive cars since the owners will hesitate to remove them.

But seriously, Google is a good place to advertise as that is the first place anyone looking for hosting will turn to. Web Hosting Talk would be another good choice but it won't be much cheaper than Google.

Do you have a budget in mind? This can help figure your choice more efficiently but remember, you will not reach as good of an audience as Google or Web Hosting Talk. Unfortunately sometimes you just need to pay up. Trying to do it on the cheap will cost more in the end and produce less desired results.

What's your budget? WHT is obviously one of the best places for you to advertise and promote using the appropriate methods. You can also be posting your ad once a week in the hosting offers section which is free.

The simple free solution would be to simply post on forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc. You could put up fliers on bulletin boards or hand out fliers on a street corner. There is an unlimited amount of possibilities, you just need to be creative.

You are the one to answer this question. What's your targeted audience. What kind of site owners are you looking to attract as customers? You should have answers to these questions and to many others as well. Otherwise you will target a general audience only.

These forums are certainly a good place to start. Try and advertise locally, you should see some good results.

O.K. I appreciate the above answers, but I was also looking for other members experiences and where they advertised.

Not specific to myself...

I currently have not done much advertising for my web hosting company as I work full time and find limited time to do much outside 65 hrs a week.

My hosting company is just a hobby for myself.

Currently I advertise in HostSearch.com, but will soon expand to advertise on WHT (here) and WebHostDir.com

O.K. I appreciate the above answers, but I was also looking for other members experiences and where they advertised.

Not specific to myself...

I currently have not done much advertising for my web hosting company as I work full time and find limited time to do much outside 65 hrs a week.

My hosting company is just a hobby for myself.

Currently I advertise in HostSearch.com, but will soon expand to advertise on WHT (here) and WebHostDir.com

Those are definitely good places to start, especially for a web host. What services do you plan on advertising specifically? Do you have a set budget? If you can give us this information,we can better guide you to a better answer.

All ideas that have been listed are great. Posting on forums is a great start as there are so many to choose from. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook pages, or Digg can be very helpful also. PPC advertising such as Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter, or the many others can be helpful with the right keywords selected. Keyword selection can be helped with the use of Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from.

I think the best advertising that hasn’t been listed yet is keeping your current clients happy! Word of mouth is the absolutely best advertising you can get!

Word of mouth definitely is the best form of advertising. Most of our new clients have joined us from word of mouth. Remember, if you have one satisfied customer, they will tell 10 people. A dissatisfied customer will tell 100. Always do your best to help a customer and make them happy, even if they are in the wrong

Remember, if you have one satisfied customer, they will tell 10 people. A dissatisfied customer will tell 100.

The ratio seems somewhat generally acknowledged in marketing theory. Otherwise I'd say the numbers are just guesswork if you haven't a proven source for them.

I learn 1 thing: don't buy traffic! It's the worst thing that you can do! 100% it's not human! it will only stress your server, nothing more. Social networking now are in expansion, but you have to work a lot on them to have enough contact!The best is find some freelancer that is expert in these things...

Start a thread in the WHT hosting offers section and offer an amazing coupon/special deal to get new users quickly

WHT advertising forum is free and a very good start. I would suggest google though if you budget allows for this.

It all depends on your budget. The best place in the world could be something like a wrap around on the Empire State Building but does your budget really accommodate this? You may be thinking what a complete Tw*t but you get the moral, your advertising is as good as your budget! :)

Good luck!

Optimising your website with well written content. The dividends will keep paying week after week with a one time investment of work.

I'd say to start, take the money you were going to spend on advertising and instead offer some sort of super-cheap limited-time wacky promotion.

Get the word out via WHT or Twitter or something, and get the beginnings of a userbase. Use them to improve your service, and work really hard to make them happy, then offer a referral reward to them and let them know about it.

Come up with some new super amazing promotion and your now existing users will tell people about it. Repeat!

Once that stops working so well, start testing various regular advertising venues..

Optimising your website with well written content. The dividends will keep paying week after week with a one time investment of work.

I disagree, SEO is not something that is to be done once. To be effective it should be an ongoing thing.

Who is your target market?

Where does your target market frequent?

Are you looking for online only or are you interested in offline methods as well?

Thanks some of the replies helped.

what if a guy is limeted in budjet but is willing to work hard, where would i start?

what if a guy is limeted in budjet but is willing to work hard, where would i start?

Forums, seo, local advertising, friends, family etc. No need to spend money until you have a nice advertising budget to experiment with :)

well that was very nice of you to get back to me so quick, could your surggest some forums, blogs any where that you advitised on to start ioff with?

thanks so much

well that was very nice of you to get back to me so quick, could your surggest some forums, blogs any where that you advitised on to start ioff with?

thanks so much

You’re already on the biggest blog for web-hosts. I cannot suggest forums because it would be breaking rules. Remember to always look for "do follow" forums like this one because it will help with your sites SEO.

yeah, but this site is filled with big boy hosts im just a small time starter

yeah, but this site is filled with big boy hosts im just a small time starter

Look at it this way. By being a small host you can offer more personal support to your customers. Just try and be unique while adding value. Try and look for medium sized web-master forums without any other web hosts advertising (there is many).

thats a great idea!

thanks for the help... LOL still alittle stuck for advitiseing tho :S

you can try adbrite

or use google adsense vouchers