My friend has a question for the forum. He is planning to open his web hosting company soon and hes wondering whats some good techniques to get coverage about his host? Should he offer a special sale?

Sit back and don't expect anything to happen anytime soon.

Post an ad on WHT and a few other select web hosting forums. Just make sure to read the rules and follow them.

Tell your friends and family and call up some local businesses. Start spreading word of mouth. Try social networking like Twitter and Facebook.

Offer 2nd month free if you want or just do a nice little intro sale. You want the customer to have little reason to be worried when trying your service. The less they have to lose, the better the chance they will order.

Be polite, professional, and courteous.

People will eventually order service but you may not get your sale for 6 months or more.

Some people get it on the 1st day some people a year later.

This is very true. A grand opening of an online business is just lost in the wind at times to be honest.

You can post it and post it but it takes time for people to find you especially when you are not on google as yet.

Post some ads on facebook and other social media sites. Try to do some charity work as well. Host a few charitable organizations (never take money from them though not even in the future)and try to get the word out.

You may have better luck with local clients so they should be your main target. When they get familiar with you and your service they will begin to recommend you to ppl they know.

My last point is...NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL NUMBER. Trust me on this. lol

Dean gave some good pointers. Definitely shouldn't keep his hopes up too high, not everyone can become a millionaire overnight and when it doesn't happen, your friend should not just give in.

A grand opening sale would help, and focusing on a certain group of people may also help. For example, you may want to look for people wanting to open a site for their music group or gaming clan, etc.

He says thanks and he also asks what are some good plans&prices that are attractive to people and not oversold

I can only speak for myself but you can't create a business based solely on other people's research.

Your friend needs to visit several different web hosting companies and see what they offer and at what price.

Then he needs to look at how he wants to do business. Will he colocate with his own hardware, get a dedicated server, or become a reseller? How much will his business cost to operate month-to-month?

Then he needs to figure out what he can afford to offer with the hardware he has access to and how much he can afford to sell it for to the public.

Finally, he should try to add some value added service that screams that his company is the best deal. You have to stand out!

issue a press release and use a service like prweb to spread the word - it will take some time to ramp up like any business

dean mentioned a lot of good and true points.

As for our company's experience, we actually do not have clients for almost 3 months. But what we did was to positively promote our website to forums, web host directories, and more. And now, we got decent number of clients, and we are very happy that we have met the fruit of our labor. :)

Good luck to your friend's opening day!