I have a web hosting venture-- Hosting-Q. I do not attract clients and I am not sure why? I have great incentatives, yet not even an email inquiry. What could be wrong? Q...
The main problem is that this market is way too saturated. You have to make your business stand out from the rest. Why should clients register at your host rather than others? Answer this and use that to market your site properly.
Agreed - why should anyone sign-up with you? btw, your site is full of incorrect statements. Maybe a refresh of your site?
I am known for the term "Blogger Calendar". Should I paste that all over the site? ...Karl-- What statements are you referring to? Q...
It's simple economics. Your prices are a lot higher than most host for comparable features. The internet is leaning heavily towards high banwidth sites(video, sound, etc...). Even your top package doesn't include enough banwidth for a small site with any kind of streaming media.
Thank you Bunny-- for the insight. I have done some price comparisions.. I am pretty happy with my pricing plan. As a matter of fact recently-- most others with similar offerings have raised their fees. Getting a cheaper plan for bloggers, etc. in the long run is not going to be the best way to go. Q...
Hosting is definitely a highly saturated market already. Some people are not fond of moving from one host to another either. Expect everyone to be hosted already. There has to be a good deal or a great reason for someone to sign up with you. So do some promotion. Like maybe give the first month for free.. or just "something".
http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml Just one of many comparable in price with a lot more to offer. Unfortunately I don't see any reason to choose you over them. You may want to network with some designers who would use your service for their clients. Also concentrate on local business who may like the idea of supporting another local business. As others have mentioned, the market is saturated. It is also highly competative.
Q - Sorry, just making the rounds on the board. I was clicking around and it looks like I ended up on your qisoftware.com site. The thing that jumped out at me was the database list: # SQL Compliant Databases * SQL Server * MySQL * Oracle * Microsoft Access 2 of those are not SQL compliant. Any guesses which ones? I do like your pricing, and think more hosts need to get realistic with their price/performance ratio.
Careful - hostgator is an overseller. Do not delude yourself into thinking you are comparing apples-to-apples. You will never be allowed to use the resources that you are being sold. This being a forum about marketing I would think people would have caught that....
This is a great method to get customers. Small business owners love to support other small businesses. They know how hard it is to start out and as long as you have a good service most would be more than happy to use you.
I almost forgot, you can sell some websites on ebay and offer hosting plans for them, or you could also try an affiliate program. Both methods work quite well.
I find it hard to believe that a reputable host like Hostgator is outright lying about what they give you. On that note, even if you only use 10% of the Gator's offered bandwidth on their $14.95 package it's still 5x Q's top package at $10 more. As I said earlier, the lack of sales is equated with simple economics. Our host, 1and1, offers packages comparable to Hostgator and we've maxed out our resources on several occasions with never a problem. Obviously they're not "overselling". In conclusion, I'm just trying to give QiSoftware a realistic view of the state of the hosting industry.
1and1 is one of the largest overselling in the market. Look at dreamhost as well, they sell dedicated server specs for $7/month and you think they are not overselling? Come on... Overselling has gotten out of hand and it only going to get worse these companies will stop at nothing make their offer look incredible. Now to the question at hand targetting a local market with the offer of web design AND hosting is the way to go, much less competition in the local area then on the web, plus you have the advantage of being local.
You don't get to be one of the largest hosting providers lying to your customers. As I mentioned before, I consistently use 1000+ gigs of bandwidth with one of their shared hosting plans. Never a problem. Their offer doesn't "look" incredible. It "is" incredible. Your "overselling" assesment may be clouded by the fact that you are in competition(link in your signature) with them(1and1).
initially, you should try getting into niche hosting rather than competing with the big players and once you have a medium client base, you can take them head on
The big players spend thousands upon thousands of dollars in advertising every month + they offer the lowest prices in the market, you cant compete with that...
Can you back that up with a screenshot of your stats for a month? It's not necessairly that I don't believe you, but I feel, being in this business for almost eight years, that I know the financial models involved. I have yet to find a host that offers that much transfer for under 10$/mth that does not oversell.
It's the law of averages, bunny. While you're making full use of your 1,000Gigs, the 150 clients beside you on the same server may only be doing 500mg of bandwidth. Just cross your fingers that a few other clients with your requirements don't saddle up beside you. Q - Stick to your guns... I own a hosting company too and my prices are inline with yours. I would much rather have 500 clients at $9/month, than 1,500 at $3/month The key is to find a niche... Established businesses bringing in 6 and 7-figure revenue streams aren't going to nickel and dime you. They are the best clients to have