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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
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    112

    Where to advertise?

    For a new hosting company starting up what are the different places one can advertise? I already know about WHT and word of mouth. PPC ads and paid links might work too. I know other forums might be a good place but am I missing some medium that is commonly used?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Read this section.. There are suggestions on about 3/4 of the threads here because people do not do their own research.

  3. #3
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    Oct 2008
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    Local advertistments on newspapers. (make it large & eye-catching)

  4. #4
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    Jan 2002
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    Toronto, Canada
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaptopFreak View Post
    Local advertistments
    Agreed. Your dollar will go so much farther locally as opposed to online. And you'll end up with much higher quality accounts.

    Vito
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  5. #5
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    May 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by vito View Post
    Agreed. Your dollar will go so much farther locally as opposed to online. And you'll end up with much higher quality accounts.

    Vito
    Interesting idea--do most hosts including yourself prefer phsyically close accounts signing up? I always thought that since hosting was an "internet business" that neither buyer nor seller cared that much for how close a webhost is especially since most largish webhosts are obviously getting the bulk of their clientelle from around the world rather than their own zipcode.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
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    Toronto, Canada
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    Quote Originally Posted by wormy View Post
    Interesting idea--do most hosts including yourself prefer phsyically close accounts signing up? I always thought that since hosting was an "internet business" that neither buyer nor seller cared that much for how close a webhost is especially since most largish webhosts are obviously getting the bulk of their clientelle from around the world rather than their own zipcode.
    It really depends on your own business model. Personally, I prefer local clients, particularly small to mid size brick and mortar businesses. I prefer them over the "usual" customers found online because:

    - higher degree of loyalty / less churn. They won't switch hosts to save 2 bucks a month.
    - no spam, no high resource sites, no headaches.
    - very low disk space / bandwidth usage.
    - very few support tickets, if any.
    - good source of referrals. WOM travels very well in a local community.
    - will usually be willing to pay much higher prices than the "Internet shopper".
    - prefers to cut a check once a year rather than monthly cc payments (so no cc charges, less bookkeeping, etc).

    Generally, a business owner prefers to write a check for a few hundred bucks a year and just wants to get back to running his business. Usually, they are just brochure sites, and as long as his email is always up, you never hear from him. Perfect customer.

    Vito
    DemoDemo.com - Flash tutorials since 2002
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    858
    I agree, less tech savvy clients are willing to pay more and are more reliable. I was very surprised by the level of fraud for domain registrations.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by vito View Post
    It really depends on your own business model. Personally, I prefer local clients, particularly small to mid size brick and mortar businesses. I prefer them over the "usual" customers found online because:

    - higher degree of loyalty / less churn. They won't switch hosts to save 2 bucks a month.
    - no spam, no high resource sites, no headaches.
    - very low disk space / bandwidth usage.
    - very few support tickets, if any.
    - good source of referrals. WOM travels very well in a local community.
    - will usually be willing to pay much higher prices than the "Internet shopper".
    - prefers to cut a check once a year rather than monthly cc payments (so no cc charges, less bookkeeping, etc).

    Generally, a business owner prefers to write a check for a few hundred bucks a year and just wants to get back to running his business. Usually, they are just brochure sites, and as long as his email is always up, you never hear from him. Perfect customer.

    Vito
    I think we all like those customers the best
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Texas
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    As I said, look around this running a web hosting business. You will see that most hosts prefer it. It appears you haven't done any research otherwise you would know that the most successful way to gain customers is locally, especially when first starting out. Do you really think you can compete with thousands, if not millions, of other hosts on the internet?

    Look in the tutorials section too.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    633
    Quote Originally Posted by vito View Post
    It really depends on your own business model. Personally, I prefer local clients, particularly small to mid size brick and mortar businesses. I prefer them over the "usual" customers found online because:

    - higher degree of loyalty / less churn. They won't switch hosts to save 2 bucks a month.
    - no spam, no high resource sites, no headaches.
    - very low disk space / bandwidth usage.
    - very few support tickets, if any.
    - good source of referrals. WOM travels very well in a local community.
    - will usually be willing to pay much higher prices than the "Internet shopper".
    - prefers to cut a check once a year rather than monthly cc payments (so no cc charges, less bookkeeping, etc).

    Generally, a business owner prefers to write a check for a few hundred bucks a year and just wants to get back to running his business. Usually, they are just brochure sites, and as long as his email is always up, you never hear from him. Perfect customer.

    Vito
    +1

    That basically sums up the local clients I have.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    New Jersey, US
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    1,597
    First you have to decide where your target audience is based on what type of services you are offering. If you have a niche for example, you can't do general run of site advertising.

    If you have a store front then local advertising may work, otherwise advertising locally may not work the best. People that buy from local in town advertisers usually want to meet.
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  12. #12
    i guess it really depends on the company, as for me, its much harder to get local clients

  13. #13
    - Advertising your web hosting site.
    - You should start from local marketing targeting your potential customers.
    - Try listing yourself on web hosting directories or just use their links and add to them yourself.
    - You need to become listed on popular web host directory sites.
    - Market your website using various forum signatures.
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheProxyHoster View Post
    i guess it really depends on the company, as for me, its much harder to get local clients
    That's very true. It's easy for people to say the best place to get clients from is locally, but not everybody is going to be able to do that due to where they live.

  15. #15
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    Jan 2002
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    Toronto, Canada
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    Getting customers locally doesn't mean they have to necessarily be in your community proper. And it doesn't mean you necessarily need to meet up with them face to face. Regardless of where you live, target your town or your city or even your state/province. Most people will consider that dealing locally, and prefer that to dealing with someone half a world away.

    Vito
    DemoDemo.com - Flash tutorials since 2002
    DemoWolf.com - 5,300+ Flash tutorials for hosting companies, incl. Voice tutorials

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Texas
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    We go to all the major cities in Texas (Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, etc.). You don't have to only deal with your specific community. If you did that you wouldn't make any money.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Posts
    191
    That's true, but if you don't have any major city near then I can still see it being difficult. =)

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Btcc22 View Post
    That's true, but if you don't have any major city near then I can still see it being difficult. =)
    You dont need a major city. Every town in America has small business operating in them. Target those small business!
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    593
    I advertise locally, and now I'm hitting the radio market. I will be advertising on 2 stations in my area that are listened to by many business owners, and those that just want a website. Since I sell the whole package (design, hosting) it's worth it for me to spend $1200 per month in advertising because 1/2 a client will cover that cost. I'll report my findings next month.
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  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Internet54 View Post
    I advertise locally, and now I'm hitting the radio market. I will be advertising on 2 stations in my area that are listened to by many business owners, and those that just want a website. Since I sell the whole package (design, hosting) it's worth it for me to spend $1200 per month in advertising because 1/2 a client will cover that cost. I'll report my findings next month.
    Please do. Be sure to let us know how the radio market works out.
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  21. #21
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    Sep 2006
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    NY
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaptopFreak View Post
    Local advertistments on newspapers. (make it large & eye-catching)
    I agree, also post advertisements on very popular forums, including this one.
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  22. #22
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    it depends on the business plan, i suggest try local advt first..
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  23. #23
    There is lots of places you could do this, type in Google, "web hosting directories" and adds your website to the lists.

  24. #24
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    Minnesota
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    Quote Originally Posted by wormy View Post
    Interesting idea--do most hosts including yourself prefer phsyically close accounts signing up? I always thought that since hosting was an "internet business" that neither buyer nor seller cared that much for how close a webhost is especially since most largish webhosts are obviously getting the bulk of their clientelle from around the world rather than their own zipcode.
    I just wanted to say I get a lot of hits locally in papers and whatnot, it may be worth looking into!
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  25. #25
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryanwashi View Post
    There is lots of places you could do this, type in Google, "web hosting directories" and adds your website to the lists.
    this does....pretty much nothing for you.

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