Best place for Advertising ?

[MichaelLaws]

Is there any web gurus out there who can advise me the best place to advertise for the hosting business ? (With a limited budget)

I spent almost $100 on Google Adwords and 7search without getting any signups.
Maybe ppc Web Host directories are better ?

Please give your input ...and the URL

[Brangwyn]

You could try findwhat.com I've had a few people recommend them (almost started using them myself but found I wasn't getting too bad results with Google adwords).

You might want to have a browse over this forum here as well for some info on search engine optimisation

http://www.jimworld.com/

[JabagAngela]

Networking with others is the best promotion. Find yourself a small business message board to "hang out" on. Answer their stupid tech questions, become the local web guru, make sure your sig line has your hosting company info. Take awhile, but it works well.

Also, do you do web design? You could have a "all sites designed by me must be hosted at my company" policy.

Good Luck

Angela

[MichaelLaws]

Thanks for the advise. Will try that. Anyway does anybody has
good results with ppc Web Directories ?

Which traffic will convert into sales the most ?
1) Overture ?
2) Google ?
3) Findwhat /7search /Kanoodle
4) PPC Web Directories like FindSP /Hostapproval etc ?

Anybody out there advertise with ppc directories ?

[jmbeach]

Originally Posted by JabagAngela

Networking with others is the best promotion. Find yourself a small business message board to "hang out" on. Answer their stupid tech questions, become the local web guru, make sure your sig line has your hosting company info. Take awhile, but it works well.

Also, do you do web design? You could have a "all sites designed by me must be hosted at my company" policy.

While I agree with the first point - that word of mouth ends up being the least expensive and best paying form of advertising, I cannot agree with the second idea that all the work you do must be hosted by you. Seems like a hard line approach in a world where hosting is a dime a dozen. Cultivate loyalty, and it will pay off almost every time.

As for the PPC model for hosting - everybody and their brother is fighting for those signups - unless if you're in a market where you're the only option, there are just too many hosts and resellers out there to make for a decent ROI.

[electricfox]

On that networking idea, I've had great success getting to know a few good web designers in my area. If you send them some business (when you're too busy), and perhaps offer to host their own site for free, they will start bringing you clients. These clients are a lot more reliable/stable than those found at random through adverts on the internet. Today I just do the programming and pass my design to my three designers - in turn they send me the programming and hosting. Not a bad set up.

[Silverbug]

I agree with the word of mouth comment. ive been in business for just over a year and done no advertising, and still have work comming out my ears.

I have a client who has had some really good success with adwords (altho he is in the clothing market)

[MichaelLaws]

But can you survive doing hosting alone ?
I am not much of web designer, I am a System Engineer.
How many percent web design contribute to your overall
profit ? More than 50 percent ?

[Silverbug]

hmm good point.

[Vixen]

Originally Posted by MichaelLaws

Thanks for the advise. Will try that. Anyway does anybody has
good results with ppc Web Directories ?

Which traffic will convert into sales the most ?
1) Overture ?
2) Google ?
3) Findwhat /7search /Kanoodle
4) PPC Web Directories like FindSP /Hostapproval etc ?

Anybody out there advertise with ppc directories ?

1) Overture will cost you ALOT, since they decide how much money you must have in your acount in order so keywords remain active.

2) Google Ad Words I have never used. Brad uses them and he seems to get nice results.

3) FindWhat is excellent if you are on a budget since you can choose how much money you can add to your account and when. 7Search I have never dealt with and I would never recommend Kanoodle to anyone.

As for the PPC Host directories, that is more Brad's expertise than mine since he knows what kind of results he gets from the ones he uses. Maybe he will weigh in on this thread at some point.

[mresell]

Do you advertise with tradition medium locally or maybe not locally, like newspapers etc? The people you are looking for may not be on the web yet or not real well anyway. I pay way more than that for little ads in local papers, but I would not do it if I did not get responses that lead to money.That said webhosting/designing is not as large a part of my bus as repairing TS/tutoring etc... Altho it is growing.There is tons of competition in the web hosting/design bus. Heck some people don't care about design, even. The fact that it is cheap anyway, doesn't help. But to make real money I think you have to get some serious volume and that takes cash and/or a serious niche or innovation. Better to get a small base of good customers than a large base of bad customers.

P.S. My def of Bad means not right for you or them. It can also mean people who don't understand that business is a 2 way street. This can sometimes be out of wack from the business end and sometimes the customer. Either way leads to a "bad" end.