Hi all! I am going to be focusing on my free Web hosting site for the next month - at least. As such, I would love to hear suggestions for creative ways to increase the number of signups. Thanks!
Im blunt and Im sorry for that (this post is also random / rantish). Get rid of that ridiculous template. Get something a little more - professional. It doesnt have to be staight hair / tie kind of template, but at least one were you can actually see whats on the page (my eyes hurt). Template monster has some great templates for $50 or you could go to http://www.openwebdesign.org and download a pretty nice free template. Better yet, run your site off wordpress. You will be able to update content much easier, PLUS its great for SEO AND people can subscribe to your RSS feed very easily. Make sure you run the static frontpage mod. Now onto gaining traffic. 1) place social bookmarking / networking links on your site 2) submit a press release (prweb, prleap, pr.com, etc) 3) engage in link exchanges (as you have started) 4) post on a few forums (http://www.freewebhostingtalk.com, sitepoint marketplace, digitalpoint, namepros, something awful, dnforum, etc) Try that and then report back. Good luck!
Even blunter here. Most people do not want a free web host account where there will be banner advertising placed on their site. If you want to continue doing this, you should spell out what kind of banner advertising, etc. Can the advertising be complimentary to a hosted site? Stuff like that.
Thanks for that. First off, the site's not a template. And until you have said something, everyone else has loved the design. Is it just the color scheme that seems wrong, or is there something else? I'd be interested in hearing more of your thoughts on the design. As for the list, I've tried all of those except for point 1. Can you expand on that? What exactly do you mean?
Hmmm, really? What are you basing that on? Anyway, thanks for the advice. If you look at our listings in directories (currently our primary way of gaining new users), you will see that we do show what kind of ads (text and occasionally banner). What do you mean by 'complimentary to a hosting site'? Thanks for the input and taking the time to take a look! I really appreciate it!
Sure. Place links to some social networking sites on your site. Users can then tag your site and then other people can find it easier. Free marketing. Here is some places to make the links: http://www.arnebrachhold.de/2006/07...ks-to-social-bookmark-services-like-delicious and a larger list at http://3spots.blogspot.com/2006/02/30-social-bookmarks-add-to-footer.html And the site IS a template, just might be a unique one. Either way, I dont like it.
Ah, thanks for the links! Very helpful indeed! Ok, ok, so I see what you're saying about the template. Can you expand on what exactly is wrong with it, though?
To me it looks very childish and early 2000ish. Plus the colors REALLY hurt my eyes. Try a more "web 2.0" layout (http://mediatemple.net/) or take a look at the designs from TM (http://www.templatemonster.com/cate...from_=&to=&cat=21&style=0&author=0&x=45&y=18).
You need to make the site more professional. Make it look more like other hosting sites (check out the big boys - RackSpace, 1 And 1 and so on. Search G for "web hosting" and hit a few of the AdWords) Also, this sort of text: Is not at all convincing. I want to know how many servers you've got, how fast they are, what sort of backups you provide and how big your internet connection is. Also, do you have SLAs? Oh, and don't have the number of users you've got on the front page. At least not till you have 1,000 or so.