Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 53
  1. #1

    Best way to acquire new Webhosting customers

    Any ideas. We have tried paid search. Any other effective ways to acquire new hosting customers.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,031
    Overture, Google Adwords - only places that deliver real customers - but you need to have money to spend (not like $100) - let's say $10,000 for start

  3. #3
    Have you tried reaching out to the local businesses in your area yet? The market is much less competitive than the current online market and you'd have a chance to meet face to face with the people you were going to host.

    I have a successful friend who hosted one small business in his town and gave extra special attention to that customer. Within a year he had more than 10 other businesses hosted from that same area because of direct referrals.


    However, if you're trying to hide your face from people...
    A Collection of Web Hosts
    Small biographies on hosts, uptime reports and some reviews
    Feel free to add your review or add a host that isn't on the list.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Orlando FL
    Posts
    1,342
    The web hosting industry is hard like any other business. Is not just getting a dedicated server, web site start selling.

    1) Make sure you make a business plan, make projections, have goals and follow them.

    2) don't start trying to cover the whole world, try to cover your local area, better yet your neighbors, talk to friends that may need web sites, local businesses.

    3) Get in contact with small chamber of commerce, business networks etc, socialice with people that may eventually or inmediatly need your services.

    4) Be always professional, be small doesn't mean you are going to take your first clients like a joke, take care of them the best you can, they will soon bring you more businesses, that is the best way to advertise.

    5) Keep in touch with the hosting people WHT is a great place to be.

    6) google, overture and those may be good, but don't concentrate on that, there are huge companies that will pay whatever price to get a better position than you, you may end up wasting your money and not getting any customers.

    Conclussion: Target your local market, take care of your customers and the word of mouth will lift you up.

    Note: be sure to have enough money to survive for at least 1 year without profit.
    Jorge Campos | WBpro
    Web Building Professionals
    www.wbpro.com

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Thread moved to Running a Web Hosting Business.

  6. #6
    thanks for the feedback. We have a substantial budget..We are using google/yahoo but the ROI is not what we expected. Anyone interested in consulting with proven marketing plans?

  7. #7
    BTW thanks Jorge I appreciate your feedback...check your PM I had a specific question for you.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Buy up quality hosting customers from smaller hosts.

    Best ROI, IMO.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,031
    Not necessary - $10/month customer can cost you over $150 if you buying in bulk from small company's - on google we can get new customers for $30-$40 each

    Hardly anybody wants $4/month customers with Unlimited Disk space and 150GB of bandwidth from some kid-hosters...

    Originally posted by AH-Tina
    Buy up quality hosting customers from smaller hosts.

    Best ROI, IMO.

    --Tina

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Originally posted by steven-v
    Not necessary - $10/month customer can cost you over $150 if you buying in bulk from small company's - on google we can get new customers for $30-$40 each

    Hardly anybody wants $4/month customers with Unlimited Disk space and 150GB of bandwidth from some kid-hosters...

    Actually, I speak from experience...both buying and selling.

    I said, "quality" customers...not junk customers from a kiddie host. It worked very well for us - your milage may vary.

    --Tina
    Last edited by Tina J; 07-27-2005 at 07:44 AM.
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    424
    *for small business customers*

    Jack up the prices over 50 bucks and call them up on the phone, less customers, more money.
    Last edited by 3rdcoast; 07-27-2005 at 10:15 AM.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Dubai
    Posts
    150
    Originally posted by steven-v
    Overture, Google Adwords - only places that deliver real customers - but you need to have money to spend (not like $100) - let's say $10,000 for start
    You are right. We spended $100 in adwords in our local area ONLY. Guess what? 2 clients.
    •••AESERVER UAE Hosting & Domains [www.aeserver.com]•••
    United Arab Emirates' Premier Webhosting & Domain Name Registrar.
    •••ae Domain Administration (aeDA.ae) accredited registrar | Register your .ae today!•••

  13. #13
    These are all very good suggestions. What keywords do you suggest on google.....Do you suggest having over 1k keywords or having a small list of words. I am looking to acquire a bunch of users.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    1,053
    tell your family, friends, and co-workers...that is always a good starting point...

    word of mouth > then advertising

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    305
    Originally posted by AH-Tina
    Buy up quality hosting customers from smaller hosts.
    What's the going rate? I don't really expect anyone to say exactly what they are paying when they buy customers from other hosts, but any general discussion would be educational here.

    If I can get some insight in to the bottom line, I'd like to rent servers from somebody good, build up a clientele, and then sell the project to the host. Host wins all around. :-)

    Thanks for whatever you can share.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Lisbon - Portugal - Europ
    Posts
    268
    The know-how to run any business costs money and a lot of time. I will not share that know-how. I earned it. It's mine!
    Lookup your IP: snoopmyip.com
    Proxy Guide: proxyspot.com

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Originally posted by squirreldog
    What's the going rate? I don't really expect anyone to say exactly what they are paying when they buy customers from other hosts, but any general discussion would be educational here.

    If I can get some insight in to the bottom line, I'd like to rent servers from somebody good, build up a clientele, and then sell the project to the host. Host wins all around. :-)

    Thanks for whatever you can share.

    For quality clients (you must do your research on who you're buying from) - you can expect to pay around 9 months of revenue. That is, if a client pays $10 a month...then $90 to buy that client is reasonable. Your actual cost to host that customer until you see a return will probably end up being around $25 or less. Since the customer is already an established customer and probably has a decent payment history...it's much less of a risk to put your money there than buying AdWords, etc. and getting new customers that have no prior relationship with your/the host's services. Repeat orders, in my experience, come much faster from clients that we've purchased as opposed to brand new clients...because there's already that loyalty thats been established. As long as you don't do something to totally shatter that loyalty, it will carry over when you buy them.

    If things like domain names, servers, software, etc. are included in the sale, you can expect to pay a bit more. If you are actually buying the entire hosting company, and they have a stellar reputation, you are also purchasing "good will"...which can go a very long way in attracting new customers.

    The key to making this work is to make sure you've researched who you're buying from, make sure they have accurate record keeping, make sure you have an air tight contract and treat it like any other business deal...and not just a way to simply scoop up a new revenue base.

    We've been doing this for quite some time. I learned as I went along and got burned a couple of times. In the end, its paid off quite nicely.

    --Tina
    Last edited by Tina J; 07-29-2005 at 11:36 AM.
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    I've edited that last post several times, for clarity sake. I hope I didn't edit it while someone was mid-way through reading or quoting.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  19. #19
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    305
    Many thanks Tina, that's a generous reply, and just what I was looking for.

    What I'd like to do is build up a small business, based upon my personal connection with the clients. When the business gets too large for me to maintain that one to one connection, I'd like to sell the business to someone reliable who is set up to do a good job of serving large numbers of clients.

    I've done this once before to great success (boom years helped), and hope to do a repeat.

    Ideally, I'd build this little company at the kind of host who might be buying such projects, thus I've got a built in buyer, and the customers get a seamless transition.

    Anyway, that's why I asked, and your reply is very helpful. You happen to be a very good salesperson, by the way.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    332
    Originally posted by AH-Tina

    We've been doing this for quite some time. I learned as I went along and got burned a couple of times. In the end, its paid off quite nicely.

    --Tina
    Seems that your ah customers now saddled with dotcanda disagree. Buying and selling customers is only undertaken by those that cannot or know not how to grow organically. Acquired customers churn at a much higher rate and tax support centers and resources long after acquisition. Acquired customers are not loyal, they bought someone else’s brand after all and they don’t like to be treated like a faceless business assets. Buying a handful of customer here and there may work for some bottom-feeding small concerns, but to build a real company learn how to grow the right way using fundamentals - develop a brand value and message which resonates with your target, create and deploy effective advertising and marketing and integrate service- 1 call resolution and sales efficacy into support lines. A healthy company should have a 60-40 split between referral and advertising contribution to sales with a fractional churn rate. Current market climate should provide at least a year-over growth rate of 30%.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Lisbon - Portugal - Europ
    Posts
    268
    cowabunga, if you're starting a hosting business, the ratio 60-40 for referral and advertising is incorrect. Most of the new orders will come from advertising.

    But you're right about word of mouth and brand value.

    Also, a new company will have to grow above 30% to survive. That's a good number for an established company.
    Lookup your IP: snoopmyip.com
    Proxy Guide: proxyspot.com

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Originally posted by cowabunga
    Seems that your ah customers now saddled with dotcanda disagree. Buying and selling customers is only undertaken by those that cannot or know not how to grow organically. Acquired customers churn at a much higher rate and tax support centers and resources long after acquisition. Acquired customers are not loyal, they bought someone else’s brand after all and they don’t like to be treated like a faceless business assets. Buying a handful of customer here and there may work for some bottom-feeding small concerns, but to build a real company learn how to grow the right way using fundamentals - develop a brand value and message which resonates with your target, create and deploy effective advertising and marketing and integrate service- 1 call resolution and sales efficacy into support lines. A healthy company should have a 60-40 split between referral and advertising contribution to sales with a fractional churn rate. Current market climate should provide at least a year-over growth rate of 30%.

    I'm not talking about the affordablehost.com customers who we sold to DC - but that is actually a very good example of what I said about "unless you do something to completely shatter that loyalty". It goes without saying that if you are not able to live up to what the customer is already expecting, you can't expect that buying clients will work to your advantage.

    In my previous posts about purchasing clients, I was referring to customers that *we* purchased (most of whom we still have). In my experience, acquired customers do NOT churn if you treat them right. To the contrary, they are often more understanding about little bumps in the road because they figure its something to do with the transition and will work itself out. Think about it, how many times have you seen posts from customers who were sold that said something like "I'm going to give them another month to get this stuff worked out before I decide.".

    Also, to address your point about picking up a handful of bottom-feeding clients here and there...that's exactly what I'm NOT talking about. I want to stress that you can't just scoop up clients for the sake of bulking up your numbers. It only works if you do the research and make sure you're picking quality over quantity.

    By the way, I'm sharing MY experience. If you look back over my posts, we began actively purchasing clients approximately a year and a half ago. The first couple were a learning experience and didn't go 100% smoothly. What I've learned, I've tried to pass along in the posts here. Take it or leave it...but its my real world experience and how its worked out for us.

    Axishost.com was one purchase we made after learning what to look out for. It worked out so well that we shifted our entire focus to this brand. Have you yet to see a purchased axishost.com customer complain, after almost a year after we bought them? Purchasing customers CAN work and I can't imagine, at this point, throwing money at an ad campaign designed to pick up customers at a .01% ROI.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

  23. #23
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    305
    Originally posted by cowabunga Seems that your ah customers now saddled with dotcanda disagree.
    Nobody is "saddled" with any vendor. If we aren't satistfied with the service we are receiving from a host, there are hundreds of other vendors here competing for our business.

    they don’t like to be treated like a faceless business assets
    Yes, I agree.

    Let's be careful to avoid an assumption that the host is supposed to be loyal to a customer for life, but it's fine for the buyer to bolt whenever they find someone who is a dollar a month cheaper.

    Just because someone feels passionately entitled to an unbalanced loyalty equation doesn't mean that's a reaonable emotion.
    Last edited by Nature-Talk; 07-29-2005 at 01:31 PM.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    332
    Originally posted by squirreldog
    Nobody is "saddled" with any vendor.
    OK, then how would you characterize your site and account transferred to another owner without your knowledge or consent?

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    West Michigan, USA
    Posts
    9,687
    Originally posted by cowabunga
    OK, then how would you characterize your site and account transferred to another owner without your knowledge or consent?

    A sale of assets (your hosting contract) by one company to another.

    --Tina
    ||| 99.999% Uptime SLA!!!
    Plenty of space and bandwidth to fit your needs!
    www.AEIandYou.com - - (WP Friendly - Premium Reseller Hosting and Cheap Dedicated Servers)

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •