On what forums and rating sites do you advertise your hosting?

NetRay

NetRay

Member
I have a couple of forums where clients regularly come from.
On what forums and rating sites do you advertise your hosting?
 
The problem with vast majority of web hosting forums specifically is that they are left unmoderated and overrun with spam, making your advertising useless. The community itself is long gone, so there is no audience except spammers themselves.

If anything, you can probably do more damage to your business by having backlinks from such forums.
 
Artashes said:
The problem with vast majority of web hosting forums specifically is that they are left unmoderated and overrun with spam, making your advertising useless. The community itself is long gone, so there is no audience except spammers themselves.

If anything, you can probably do more damage to your business by having backlinks from such forums.
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What can you advise to advertise your hosting?
I still use google ads but it doesn't help much
 
Google Ads are expensive and unless you have $2,500+ per month to experiment with on your conversion rates, I find that you are better off hiring a full time writer to create clever and useful content for your company blog. Content that will appeal and be useful to the core segment of your customers.

I'd also try to get into the newsletters sent out to members of variety of groups you are trying to reach.

As for forums, you have to be smart with your money. If you don't want to come back every week to post the same deal, sticky ads provide a consistent premium visibility for your company. It's usually also not expensive.
 
Artashes said:
The problem with vast majority of web hosting forums specifically is that they are left unmoderated and overrun with spam, making your advertising useless. The community itself is long gone, so there is no audience except spammers themselves.

If anything, you can probably do more damage to your business by having backlinks from such forums.
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If the forum is thematic and it has traffic + your target audience is located, then there is nothing wrong with that. In addition, it is useful for diluting the link mass.
 
This is not a slight to any forum in particular, but I find most forums do not generate much in terms of sales. You may get some traffic, but it doesn't entirely create the conversion levels it used to years ago.
 
SwiftModders said:
This is not a slight to any forum in particular, but I find most forums do not generate much in terms of sales. You may get some traffic, but it doesn't entirely create the conversion levels it used to years ago.
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A lot of forums are dead as most people stick to Facebook, Instagram, etc. where these companies have rules and policies, but can't be bothered to enforce them so people get away with anything.
 
NetRay said:
I have a couple of forums where clients regularly come from.
On what forums and rating sites do you advertise your hosting?
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I'll not giving up my sources as I don't need more competitors to drive up the pricing :) HOWEVER, think about forums where the users are ideal candidates. Posting an ad in a thread is one thing, but people often overlook them. As mentioned previously, think about sticky posts and pay more than the "free post" option.

As far as where I'd recommend posting, think about your audience directly. We do a lot of stuff with WooCommerce, so any help forum offering WooCommerce, or plugins related to WooCommerce are ideal targets. They're not saturated with web hosting offers (usually), so you can stand out from the crowd.

We do quite a bit of plugin management and advertising in newsletters would be a great marketing angle. Again, not directly web hosting related, but those that are using plugins or need help with management are likely ones that might make a decision on web hosting too.

We have a client that provides industry news regarding backups, NAS and Disaster Recovery. Their clients are C-Level Execs and people using the industry news as part of case studies. While yes, they're a great target for web design clients in terms of the industry, the people reading their newsletters are NOT the decision makers on whether to get a new website created.

Not every newsletter or forum is created equal - you must review who is using it, and are they a decision maker, and then are they an ideal candidate.
 
bigredseo said:
I'll not giving up my sources as I don't need more competitors to drive up the pricing :) HOWEVER, think about forums where the users are ideal candidates. Posting an ad in a thread is one thing, but people often overlook them. As mentioned previously, think about sticky posts and pay more than the "free post" option.

As far as where I'd recommend posting, think about your audience directly. We do a lot of stuff with WooCommerce, so any help forum offering WooCommerce, or plugins related to WooCommerce are ideal targets. They're not saturated with web hosting offers (usually), so you can stand out from the crowd.

We do quite a bit of plugin management and advertising in newsletters would be a great marketing angle. Again, not directly web hosting related, but those that are using plugins or need help with management are likely ones that might make a decision on web hosting too.

We have a client that provides industry news regarding backups, NAS and Disaster Recovery. Their clients are C-Level Execs and people using the industry news as part of case studies. While yes, they're a great target for web design clients in terms of the industry, the people reading their newsletters are NOT the decision makers on whether to get a new website created.

Not every newsletter or forum is created equal - you must review who is using it, and are they a decision maker, and then are they an ideal candidate.
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Exactly why should we give up our sources?
Also, make sure whoever you chose to advertise with targets the right audience.

Currently, my main business is printing personalised items and I am sick of the Facebook adverts that pop up on my timeline advertising personalised items. To me, these companies have paid FB to advertise their wares, but no point advertising these to a competitor, so a waste of money and time
 
easyhostmedia said:
To me, these companies have paid FB to advertise their wares, but no point advertising these to a competitor, so a waste of money and time
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I tried a few FB ads to get a feel for it and see how well they perform. It was not worth the effort. That may be specific to my business, but that was my key takeaway.
 
easyhostmedia said:
Worthless if FB target people in the same business
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Yup. When it comes to Facebook, don't target Web Hosting as an interest - target other groups.

Years ago I had great success targeting "scrapbooking" people. These folks would often setup websites to showcase their work, service or templates that others could purchase. Some of them were just galleries, but you get the idea.

That was a number of years ago, but the relatable field today would be coloring books and adult coloring books. There's a small fortune made in those online today with people downloading drawings etc. Do they all need hosting? No, but might there be SOME interest sitting out there, other than targeting a competing web hosting company? It's worth $200-$500 to find out!
 
This is a good forum where you can do it. Another good forum where you can advertise your hosting is webhostingtalk
 
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