Hello, I've been reading the forums for some time and just decided to sign up. I'm creating a web hosting business yet, as i'm sure some of you are aware, its getting very competitive and even more so to advertise. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for me to get high on google and other SE without spending alot of money. I've heard PressReleases are very good forms of advertising but not always sucessful in whether it gets published. My site, so far, is properly indented, and designed in XHTML with CSS and PHP. Has anyone got any tips at all, I'm completely new to this, all would be much appreciated. Thank you. j0nAsh
My recommendation would be to get onto all the toplists and general listing sites for hosts, thats where most people click through from. If you can, make your firm stand out...in some way...
Thank you, I have been studying the 'top' listing sites. The only issue I found was that so many hosts, good or bad, fill in the two minute application form therefore leaving the site full with so many different companies. Makes it hard for smaller, newly established companies, to be found never mind to have clients. P.S Dont mean that in a nasty way, not at all. Just from what I have heard its generally a very tough ride. Thank you, j0nAsh.
I second to what DSM56 said. Also, hang up on the forums, you can get some business that way for starters, and if you will be real good, you will soon start getting word of mouth signups. DP might be good, or webhostingtalk, and others. Try to find some good niche. IMHO there are plenty of niches to fill even in such competitive fields as webhosting is.
I suggest go to hosting forums out there... toplists,, and be sure you offer great deals.. this will later on gives you a better search engine rankings
You can write articles related to your site then submit to article directories. You can also start giving freebies and promos to attract clients.
Make something absolutely amazing incredible that noone ever could imagine. Submit to digg, shoutwire, slashdot, furl, delicoius etc. - get 20K visitors and thousands of links - break loose from the sandbox and you have it made. All for free.
First off, it is a tough ride and has been for years. I know, because I've watched a few of my friends start up hosting businesses and go down in flame wars among other things...one bad customer and it's lights out. A few things that may help: 1) The article thing that was suggested. That will not only get you in there quickly, but you may rank in a term related to your hosting company but that you may not have thought of (e.g. Sheboygan, Wisconsin web hosting). Which brings me to 2). 2) Rather than target "web hosting" as such, target a subset of that (e.g. PHP hosting, hosting for your hometown/region, etc.) Build a customer base from that, and then expand. In other words, niche market. 3) To hell with the top list sites. They haven't worked at all since the mid-90s and never will. Nuts to 'em. Burn 'em all. Stab 'em with a fork. They'll do you no good whatsoever. 4) As Jim Westergren pointed out, come up with something so unique and cool that no one else would ever have thought of it. In hosting, that's gonna be a complete bugger. But hey, you may pull it off (maybe a referral contest...the customer that refers the most customers gets a lifetime of free hosting or something like that.) 5) Be prepared for a long fight. No matter what way you play it, it's not going to be an overnight success.
It has to be something 100 bigger than that or it will never make it on digg and slashdot. Something in the magnitude of the V7N SEO Contest and milliondollarhomepage but for the hosting world. If not, then:
True dat, but it's all that I could come up with as a starting point. I figured it might lead to a chain of thought that would eventually give the guy the idea.
Better yet, you could use the organized crime approach: "Eyyyyyyyy, if you don't use my host, Cousin Vito will make sure you can never use the space bar again. All he's gotta do is break ya thumbs!"
You may also want to contact some web design companies and develop partnerships with them. Give them discounted "bulk" rates for hosting their clients with you.
As a web design company, I'd disagree with the above suggestion, just because it's getting done to death. If you want to offer a web design company discount promotion, that's fine, but don't go cold-soliciting us. We don't like that very much. I get enough of that kind of crap (HELLO BULLET PROOF HOSTING, ya scumbags!) as it is.