My last day in college before I graduate will be the 16th of May, so I'm finally ready to start my own hosting company. I won't go into much detail here, and will keep it as brief as possible (don't want to boor you!).

I would register my company as a "Ltd" (Limited Liability Company) in Ireland. While I have large chunks of my business plan worked out already, the name has got me somewhat stuck. Right now, I'm considering naming it "Avara.NET Ltd".

I would be much obliged if you could give me your opinions on this. What exactly does this name mean to you, how do you relate to it, etc?

Thank you in advance.

Sounds like a Siebel .com to me ;)

So do you think it would be a suitable name for a web hosting company?

Maybe I should change my question to "do you think 'Avara.NET' is a suitable name for a web hosting company?". :)

Hello
We are just across the water (Scotland).
The most difficult thing is finding an available domain name (if you want it in .com)

Here is a useful tool.
It doesn't look very good but its linked into the oingo domain sense engine which uses lateral thinking to help you comeup with domain names:

http://www.cdomain.com/cgi-bin/ds/CdomainPlusDS/cdplus.pl?show_wizard=1

Give it a try.

We got our domain from the recently expired list at Whois.net and chose it because it was available in .co.uk as well.

Gordon

i know this is off topic, but where about in scotland are you gordonH

Livingston.

Actually there is another host from Scotland who frequents these boards.

Gordon

Gordon, thanks for your tips. Nice to have a friend in the web hosting business so close by. I was going to ask you what part of Scotland you are from, but it appears you've answered that question already. :)

Currently, I own the domain name AVARA.NET, and AVARA.IE would still be free (.IE is the national irish domain name).

In case you were wondering, Avara is a Finnish adjective for "wide open", "broad", etc. IMHO, this would suit a web hosting company very well -- we're in the business of providing wide open spaces for our clients' Internet presence, right? :)

Another thing I like about Avara is that it's early in the alphabet, and since it's Finnish, it has an exotic and mysterious feel in most countries.

avara,

I am not Finnish but the name sounds good to me. Basically you can use whatever name you want. Just come up with a decent logo and catch phrase and you are all set. If this does have meaning as you stated in Finnish thats a plus if you are targeting those areas.

Good Luck in your new venture..

Actually, it sounded a bit Irish to me.
Is their not an Irish TV program with a similar name?

Gordon

Gordon, you're right -- it does sound quite Irish. And I think it has an Irish connection as well, because there is a park in Galway called "Avara Park". Never heard of the TV program though. :)

The reason I plan to add .NET (Avara.NET Ltd) is to incorporate the company's web address into the name. So when someone hears the company name, all they will have to do is type it into a web browser with no separate URL to remember.

My target markets will initially mainly include the local area where I live. However, I also plan to create hosting plans for an international, and probably mostly American, audience. What are your experiences marketing to international clients, any good ways of promoting without spending a fortune?

Hello
Promotion ideas:

Word of mouth
- I made this work better by offering a month free if you refered a friend. We get one sign up per day through this.

Banner ads
I know some people disapprove but at one stage we were showing 500,000 per month wothout spending a penny (banner exchanges) and it definitely brought in trade.

Search Engines
I have not spent enough time optimising my pages, but you should do this because it does work.
I have no patience.

Hosting Directories.
Don't get many referals through them now for some reason.
Iam looking into this.
Its free to get listed in them.

Pay for placement search engines.
Yahoo - utter waste of time.
They placed me in network services, west lothian, scotland.
They don't put any new entries under the top level of "web hosting".
Looksmart - ditto, unless you can find a way of getting into the top tier.

Pay per click search engines
Nobody uses these as search engines but because they supply data to Dogpile, Ask Jeeves and Metacrawler they are worth doing.
*NOTE* don't bother bidding on "web hosting" at $4 per click.
Go for unusual things and even misspellings.
Its amazing how many clicks I get from "web hsoting" on Goto.


PPC rundown
I tested them all scientifically about 6 weeks ago.

Goto (US) Clickers convert well
Goto (UK) Don't get many clicks but its a new search engine
E-spotting Get lots of clicks and they convert well to sales (results featured in Askjeeves UK)
Findwhat High click rate, low conversion rate 0 don't know why (currently not using this one)
kanoodle - lots of clicks no conversions.
7Search - ditto
Sprinks - ditto (vey weird, drains cash in seconds)
Bay9 - ditto
Epilot - ditto (but may improve now they put results into Mamma.com)
Goclick - ditto
Searchhound - multiple fraudulent clicks from same IP's



Basically I restrict it to Goto, Espotting and occasional others as cash permits.

I also have ads in Google whichcost very little and convert very very well.

Gordon

Thank you for your comprehensive answers to my questions. :) Were you using the Linkexchange banner exchange?

No
I use linkbuddies because:

Better exchange rate.
They allow you to runbanner ads with no extra bits (like links back to them onyour site.

This allows you to set up a site use their banners in the design and then change over to using paid banners later on when you get enough visitors.

Here is an example (site not working yet):
http://www.nomenic.com/

Once it gets popular I will have paid banner sin plac eof the Linkbuddies ones.

Gordon

Hi,

We're an Ltd in England (Hertfordshire) and whilst setting up the business discovered that businesses registered in Ireland get some kind of tax relief and startup grants. You may want to visit your local Citezens Bureux and check it out.
We may go over to Ireland if there is a big grant available!

Regards,
Robert Kerry

2ninety, I am certainly looking into possible grants that are available to new businesses starting up. I also started attending a 25-hour business course last Monday, which seems quite good (it's spread over 5 weeks, with 2 sessions each week).

Hey
Here is a name related story.

Wehen I was setting up the domain registration service I wanted Nameroute.com to match Hostroute.com
Unfortunately it belonged to a specualtor who wanted $10,000 so I just went with name-route.com instead.
People keep typing the wrong address in.

Anyway, the name expired and I got Nameroute.com today for $10.
I bought Name-route.co.uk last week so I will stop losing the mistyping visitors.

Gordon

I Presume you were talking about me gordon...

(Just saying Hi)

Regards,

Tony Lucas

Yes
(I think)

I still have not made it out to Whitburn, but with new support staff starting today my time will be my own a little more than it has been.

Gordon

I know just how you mean, I was in that situation a few months ago, I actually manage to get the occasional weekend to myself now..... (touch wood)

Regards,

T.

Originally posted by Toons
I know just how you mean, I was in that situation a few months ago, I actually manage to get the occasional weekend to myself now..... (touch wood)

Regards,

T.

At least you know you're earning good money. :)

FYI, I did a look-up, and it looks like AVARANET.COM is still available.

...Thought you may want to know :)

BTW, I too like the name.

Kind Regards,

Penny Ortega