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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Chandler, Arizona
    Posts
    27

    Wink How to become a successful web-biz

    I am a newbie here, what do I do now since I have accomplished these following steps:

    1. Bought website at www.morphxtech.com
    2. Bought business cards
    3. Listed on Yahoo
    4. Hired marketing team

    Now where do I go from here? Most of our clients have been through word of mouth. Also, could someone tell me how many clients they receive per/mo on average?
    Sheehan Alam
    alam.s@morphxtech.com
    www.morphxtech.com
    Tomorrow's dreams, today's realities

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Maryland
    Posts
    537
    Just wondering, if you've hired a marketing team, why are you asking us? Isn't that their job? I'm really just wondering. Good luck and welcome to the hosting biz!
    VERVE Web Solutions, LLC
    http://www.vervesolutions.com
    New Name Same Quality Service since 2000!!
    Now offering SiteBuilder :: Build your site in 5 easy steps

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Chandler, Arizona
    Posts
    27
    Marketing team in terms of local B2B consulting. I am talking about drastic measures over the net.
    Sheehan Alam
    alam.s@morphxtech.com
    www.morphxtech.com
    Tomorrow's dreams, today's realities

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    409
    Have you considered writing a business plan?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    6,623
    Originally posted by SYAlam
    Now where do I go from here?
    Well, since you made another post about search engine marketing, you clearly already know the answer!

    Search engine positioning for web design firms isn't easy; it's a very competitive area -- you really have to target a niche, and focus on a few terms for which competition isn't too bad. The bright side, of course, is that there is a lot of traffic to be had, even if it is being divided among so many sites.

    And if you have the budget to hire a marketing team for local business, you might also consider some paid placement/positioning campaigns. And well... first you should make sure your site is optimized as well as possible, before it is placed in search engines.
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    79
    Without advertising, even the best site is not going to succeed. As for the site itself, I try not to criticize but in this case, I think it might help.

    The main page is kind of bland for my taste. There is no call to action, all I see is text. The pictures are nice and the general design is great but fact is, you want to focus on getting sales and with that, you need to remove at least 40% of your text from your home page and focus on getting the attention.

    From an unbiased point of view, if I were a customer looking for a web hosting account, I would have left your site in seconds. Look at the most successful web hosting companies and get some ideas.

    As for advertising, get your name out there. Directories, trade organizations, everything. Don't miss a chance to get noticed, everything and anything. Try partnerships, they are very time consuming but really help.

  7. #7
    Originally posted by inbuco
    Without advertising, even the best site is not going to succeed. As for the site itself, I try not to criticize but in this case, I think it might help.

    I agree with that, a site without visitors simply doesnt exist.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Location
    @ Work - Usually!
    Posts
    835
    Advertising works up to a point - then when you have a solid enough customer base you will find that most of your new business will be refered from your old business. You will then not have to advertise so much.

    Another good way may be to start an affiliate program. But the best advertising is word of mouth.

  9. #9

    Re: How to become a successful web-biz

    Originally posted by SYAlam
    Also, could someone tell me how many clients they receive per/mo on average?
    Well, we've only been operating 10 days, but we get about 1 signup a day now.
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  10. #10
    I think your quarterly hosting prices are messed up. They are all a multiple of four times the monthly price.

    Since there are only three -- not four -- months in a quarter, I think you may want to correct them.

    Take care,

    Louis

  11. #11
    Originally posted by stlouislouis
    I think your quarterly hosting prices are messed up. They are all a multiple of four times the monthly price.

    Since there are only three -- not four -- months in a quarter, I think you may want to correct them.

    Take care,

    Louis
    *phew* thought you were talking to me!! *L*
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  12. #12
    Greetins Jeremy:

    "Well, we've only been operating 10 days, but we get about 1 signup a day now."

    What factors do you attribute this early success?

    Thank you.
    ---
    Peter M. Abraham
    LinkedIn Profile

  13. #13
    It would be rude to say this but: the failure of other companies.

    Every single person who has signed up has said they did because of our emphasis on personal service. Any company can provide hosting, but people signup because they find something we like.

    We generate decent traffic (1,000 uniques a day) becuase of advertising, but we generate sales, consistently (in fact today was a banner day with 5 sales) because of our focus on personalised service
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  14. #14
    Greetigs Jeremy:

    "Every single person who has signed up has said they did because of our emphasis on personal service. Any company can provide hosting, but people signup because they find something we like."

    It sounds like they call you before signing up.

    Is that the case? Or just email response time to questions about your services?

    Thank you.
    ---
    Peter M. Abraham
    LinkedIn Profile

  15. #15
    Questions about the service, posts in the forum, trouble ticket comments, etc. We've only been serving customers for a week and we have 10, so it's not like it's an overwhelming majority of people or anything.

    I wouldn't say we are "a success" either *L*
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Originally posted by Jeremy W.
    [B]It would be rude to say this but: the failure of other companies.

    Every single person who has signed up has said they did because of our emphasis on personal service. Any company can provide hosting, but people signup because they find something we like.
    But you only kicked off 10 days ago??
    We generate decent traffic (1,000 uniques a day)
    Traffic means nothing. Is the "traffic" targeted?? Which keywords did they come through from? Search engine traffic from highly descriptive keywords will convert heaps higher than your "traffic"
    becuase of advertising, but we generate sales, consistently (in fact today was a banner day with 5 sales)
    1000 uniques per day. How much did that cost?? What is your traffic acquisition cost and subsequent customer acquisition cost?? How long will it take to absorb that customer acquisition investment into your cashflow?? 1000 uniques/day for 5 sales must mean low quality "traffic" and not folks "hunting" for your specific service etc.
    because of our focus on personalised service
    But you've only been going for 10 days. How can these clients know all about this "service" ??

    No big deal. Just curious at your stats.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    England
    Posts
    677
    Hello,
    One big advantage all hosts starting out is that they can offer a pretty much dedicated responce to their new potential clients. Every support/sales e-mail you get, you can work your socks off to ensure you can get that client, or even talk for an hour or so over chat.

    Your first few clients important, to be a successfull company you need a client base, as is said above you will find once you have a good range of clients/customers you will see maybe 70% of your business coming from refferals.

    Refferal programs themselves can be very effective, personally on our site we dont see a great responce from our affiliate program, we see maybe 5 - 7 a week, better than nothing I suppose, but we have alot of memebers!

    Well, I wish you the best of luck with your new hosting company, with the right dedication and support you will succeed.

    Take care,
    dot5hosting.com
    chris@dot5hosting.com
    "We look after our customers, or someone else will"

  18. #18
    *L* No problem, all info here

    We may be only 10 days old, but myself and my 2 partners have relatively good reach within the online community. We are all on staff at SitePoint Forums (which really helps), we all recently got published on various sites (www.alistapart.com, www.sitepoint.com, www.devarticles, www.scene360.com, www.designers-network.com, etc) so we had good exposure from that as well.

    Anyways, down to the questions

    Is the "traffic" targeted?? Which keywords did they come through from?

    I would say so. Every piece of it is related to "personalised web hosting". It all came from those keywords, or similar. One odd one was "miromalised dance mix", but besides that they are all related to our target audience: those who aren't necessarily finding the personal service they require.

    1000 uniques per day. How much did that cost?? What is your traffic acquisition cost and subsequent customer acquisition cost?? How long will it take to absorb that customer acquisition investment into your cashflow?? 1000 uniques/day for 5 sales must mean low quality "traffic" and not folks "hunting" for your specific service etc.

    We have spent a total of 10$ on advertising. On a per-sale basis, that works out to about 50 cents, average sale is 30$/quarter. 1000 uniques a day, 5 sales is a .2% conversion rate which is actually quite good for an unbranded service. As I said, much of our traffic comes from people just seeing us on SitePoint and wanting to know our newest venture. Every single person who has signed up either says "I heard you guys were ..." or "I was looking at your site and the level of ...".

    Sure, .2% conversion ratio isn't spectacular (though it is high on a pure-traffic scale), it also isn't bad for the first couple of weeks. If we were relying solely on advertising, a 2% CTR would be pretty good. Out of that, good traffic conversion is roughly 5%. 5% of 2% is a .4% conversion ratio. We aren't too far off the ball, but considering our costs I think we're doing okay

    But you've only been going for 10 days. How can these clients know all about this "service" ??

    Already explained above Word of mouth is a powerful thing. I have never had such a succesful launch. Next month we should generate more traffic than several of the sites we maintain put together (in fact, it will probably be our second most popular site, way behind RingQuest).

    Anyways, I think we should get the thread back on topic, it shouldn't be about me or my company. We aren't a success, we are'nt a beacon. We've done okay with what we've had, but until it pays my wages it's nothing to brag about
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Location
    Melbourne, AU
    Posts
    1,392
    One of the most important components of a successful web hosting company is providing friendly customer service to your customers. We have received a number of customers that have moved from other hosts that simply do not provide this. You'd be surprised how many customers out there love receiving great customer service.
    SERVSTRA | THE ENTERPRISE CLOUD SERVER & DEDICATED SERVER SPECIALISTS
    中国优先网络 - 最快到中国大陆
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  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Originally posted by Jeremy W.
    Anyways, I think we should get the thread back on topic, it shouldn't be about me or my company.
    Thread is on topic - "How to become a successful web-biz"
    We aren't a success, we are'nt a beacon. We've done okay with what we've had, but until it pays my wages it's nothing to brag about
    Good to see you're using your positions at places like sitepoint for customer acquisition etc. Can't beat the "street level" visibility in the forums.

    But it's going to take a fair while before all 3 of you are earning several thousand dollars a month [after costs] with the type of plans you offer. IE - you offer nothing different. No niche market etc...Best of luck though.

    I love the smell of a new venture.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  21. #21
    I hear what you are saying, believe me I do, but I dont' want to grow and then lose our level of customer interaction. That is why we started the business, and that's why every customer has come.

    Any income that comes in really is secondary. We can now offer our development clients hosting, we can cross-pollinate with our other sites and we can have a concerted strategy to grow the network.

    There are some holes including a "pure content" site and that kind of thing, but we'll get there
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  22. #22
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Location
    St. Louis, MO, USA
    Posts
    59
    Originally posted by Jeremy W.
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    Personalised hosting: http://www.barefooting.com
    Design/Development: http://www.studiococo.com
    Is it not supposed to be "personalized"? Personally, I've always used a "z", not an "s".

    Could just be me though.
    Best Regards,
    Dustin Oder
    http://www.sector31.com
    "Growing With Tomorrow's Technology"

  23. #23
    I'm Canadian :p
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

  24. #24
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Location
    St. Louis, MO, USA
    Posts
    59
    So if I used the slogan: "Personalized Hosting," would you be mad?

    j/k
    Best Regards,
    Dustin Oder
    http://www.sector31.com
    "Growing With Tomorrow's Technology"

  25. #25
    ::: Jeremy C. Wright :::
    http://www.ensight.org

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