Cost-Effective Ways To Promote Web Hosting Services

As we discussed in the article "Web Hosting by the Numbers" there is a great deal of money to be made by building the web hosting end of your business over a reasonable period of time. Here are some of the top ways to promote your web hosting services. We have broken these strategies down into offline and online methods:

Offline Marketing Strategies

1. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce. If you develop a quality website and competitive offers for shared hosting and dedicated servers, you can gain a great deal of business right in your local area. Most small businesses prefer to outsource to local companies. It gives them a greater comfort level and makes them feel they will be able to get personal attention. Once you setup your hosting offers, the first thing you should is contact the local chamber of commerce and let them know about your site. Offer a 10-15% discount to all Chamber Members.
   
   Tip: Offer a 5-10% fee to the Chamber in exchange for promoting your services. Local Chambers are always looking to raise money and if you agree to split some of the revenue with them you may be able to get them to endorse you as a "preferred provider" to all Chambers Members. This is a very worthwhile strategy to pursue and you should setup a meeting with your local Chamber President to discuss this type of partnership.
   
   
2. Take out a small display or classified ad in the business section of the major daily newspaper in your area. Copy should be something along these lines:
   
   Web Hosting and Design Services
   Affordable, high quality hosting and
   custom web design. 99.9% uptime
   guaranteed. Visit http://yourname.com
   or call 1-800-xxx-xxx
   
   
3. Send postcards to your target market. We discussed selecting a "target market" in the article "Know Your Customers." You should obtain a mailing list of your target market and send out a postcard to them in order to drive traffic to your website. For example, let's say you have decided to focus on the Restaurant market. You might send out a postcard with the following copy:
   

Online Marketing Strategies

We've tried everything over the years, and since we don't offer web hosting at the retail level any longer, we are happy to share this hard won information with you, our partners and prospective partners.

1. Web Hosting Directories. This should be your #1 focus. Start by submitting a free listing to each of the directories below. When you submit a free listing, you should also ask for advertising rates from each directory. Keep those in a folder to review later because you will want to go back and place banners and text ads in many of these directories -- they reach your most qualified buyers. Here is a list of some of the top hosting directories.
   
   http://webhostdir.com
   http://tophosts.com
   http://findmyhost.com
   http://webhostsonline.com
   http://hostcompare.com
   http://hostreview.com
   http://findwebspace.com
   http://hostseek.com
   http://hostrecord.com
   http://acehosts.com
   http://hostspot.com
   
   
2. Pay per click search engines. Pay per click search engines are your next best advertising option. You will find that bidding on the top keyword "web hosting" is very expensive (up to $5.00 per click in some places). But you don't need to do that. You can start bidding for as low as .05 per click and use more targeted keywords, such as "linux web hosting," "or h-sphere control panel," or "cheap web hosting," etc. Use the keyword suggestion tools at Overture or Google to get a list of appropriate keywords to bid on. Consider geographical terms also, such as "chicago web hosts," or "web hosts in sydney, australia." The more targeted you make the phrases the more qualified the visitor.
   
   Here is a list of the top pay per click search engines:
   
   7Search
   Submit: http://www.payperranking.com/
   ah-ha
   Submit: http://www.ah-ha.com/list/
   Business.com
   Submit: https://secure.business.com/registration/featured.jsp
   ePilot
   Submit: http://adcenter.epilot.com/ListYourSite/
   eSpotting
   Submit: http://www.espotting.com/advertisers/list_yoursite.asp
   findwhat
   Submit: https://secure.findwhat.com/signup/signup.asp
   goClick
   Submit: http://www.goclick.com/register.mod
   Google AdWords Select™ - Its All About Results™ - CPC
   Submit: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=Login
   Kanoodle
   Submit: http://www.kanoodle.com/
   LookSmart
   Submit: http://listings.looksmart.com/submit/
   Mamma
   Submit: http://www.mamma.com/search_results.html
   Yahoo Search
   Submit: http://www.overture.com/
   
   
3. Standard search engines & directories. The standard search engines and directories are your next best option. Here are the main directories you should be listed in. Search engine optimization is beyond the scope of what we can cover here, but for full details see the additional resources listed below:
   
   Top Search Engines
   Alta Vista
   Submit: http://addurl.altavista.com/sites/addurl/newurl
   Alta Vista / Info Spider Paid Express Inclusion Services
   Submit: https://www.infospider.com/av/app/signup
   AOL NetFind (powered by Google and Inktomi)
   Submit: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=Login
   Submit: http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/
   Ask Jeeves (powered by Teoma and Overture)
   Submit: http://static.wc.ask.com/docs/help/help_faq.html#submiturl
   Excite (powered by Overture)
   Submit: http://www.overture.com/
   Fast (alltheweb.com)
   Submit: http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php
   Fast PartnerSite - Paid Inclusion (managed by Lycos)
   Submit: http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/
   Gigablast (real time spidering, really!)
   Submit: http://www.gigablast.com/cgi/1.cgi
   Google
   Submit: http://www.google.com/addurl
   Google AdWords - CPM
   Submit: https://adwords.google.com/AdWords/Welcome.html
   Google AdWords Select™ - Its All About Results™ - CPC
   Submit: https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=Login
   Inktomi Search / Submit (paid inclusion) - Inktomi Partners
   Submit: http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/
   Lycos (powered by Fast)
   Submit: http://home.lycos.com/addasite.html
   Lycos InSite™ Select
   Submit: http://searchservices.lycos.com/searchservices/select_overview.asp
   MSN Search (powered by LookSmart, Overture, and Inktomi)
   Submit: http://listings.looksmart.com/submit/
   Netscape Search (powered by Overture and Google)
   Submit: http://www.google.com/addurl
   Teoma (acquired by Ask Jeeves - http://www.ask.com/)
   Submit: http://static.wc.ask.com/docs/addjeeves/Submit.html
   WebCrawler / Excite (powered by Overture)
   Submit: http://www.overture.com/
   WISEnut
   Submit: http://www.wisenut.com/submitsite.html
   
   
4. Ezine Ads
   
   Your next best option is to start placing low-cost ads in quality email publications (newsletters and disucssion lists).
   
   The best strategy to make this work is to offer a FREE trial of your hosting service. This is because the competition is usually pretty heavy in these publications with other hosting offers, many making outrageous claims. Place a simple, straightforward ad offering a free trial and you will get sign-ups from quality publications. Here's an example:
   
   WEB HOSTING MADE EASY - FREE 14-DAY TRIAL!
   
   Take control of your site with our incredible web-based control panel. Over 40 free applications including POP/SMTP, free Website Builder, free Shopping Cart, PHP/MySQL, formmail, chat, sub-domains, and much more! Fast OC-12 connections and 99.9% uptime guaranteed. Take a FREE 14-DAY TEST DRIVE right now at http://yoursite.com
   
   
5. Participate in forums and mailing lists
   
   This strategy is well known and does not require too much explanation. You can get free publicity by becoming a member and participating in web-based forums and discussion groups related to web design, hosting, and small business in general. Be sure to create a good signature file with your URL listed and regularly post by asking and answering questions in the forums you join.

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