Hi all, I am looking for any ideas that people may have to get some hosting clients... trying to think out of the box this time... Not the usual post on forums or use adwords. Also budget is small... Thanks, Tom
Here are some ideas I shared with another fellow asking the same question: 1.) Start giving away free scripts. I don't mean offering them as part of your hosting packages. You have to actually make them available for download and market them in forums, script directories etc. Don't forget, free scripts are easy to market so this really isn't something that will take up hours and hours of your day. You can then market your hosting service along side the scripts you are giving away. Everyone loves free scripts and the word of mouth will give your hosting company some good exposure. People are going to need to host their new sites running your scripts. Last note: Start with simple scripts that won't require a lot of updating and support. (even a simple free joke script can bring new customers to your hosting company) 2.) Become the experts in one sepcific niche. For example, AptHost.com specializes in hosting video sites by offering ffmpeg etc. which is required to run many of the video scripts being sold online. This is what makes them different and has allowed them to prosper. What makes you different? Who's your target market? Good service is not enough - every company offers "Great Service". Don't be a "Me Too" company. Find something that makes you different and use that to market your brand. 3.) If you have the money, you should start an affiliate program. There are many script developers online that do not offer hosting. Give them a good incentive to recommend your hosting company to their customers. (If you're working on a budget, you can simply make the affiliate program an invite only program. Only work with a small handfull of sites/developers) 4.) Reward your current customers for referring friends. This works well if you don't havea big budget and can't afford to payout $50+ per referral with an affiliate program. Try rewarding them with a free month. You could also hold a contest to see who can refer the most people in a specific time. (Make the prize worth the effort)
think most people looking for hosting after creating a website will use search engines or contact people they know or post on forums they familiar with. ive seen one other things though: a contest with a tv serie 'gamekings' they challenged you making a better, more fun etc. website then they had. you could compete with contracting 1 cheap hosting company.. think that will be hard to do but you will certainly get clients edited some words i forgot to type:s
Thanks for the idea's ActiveWeb. 1) I like the idea but my current coding isn't really good enough to create some decent scripts. 2) This is something that I have been looking at, just always seams to me that most of the areas already have a leader that is going to be hard to beat. 3) Really like this idea, where would you sugest to get in contact with these script developers? 4) Not really got the current customer base to use this method.