Advertising on a $500 a month budget?

my-e-space

my-e-space

321Hosted.com
Hello, I am looking to do some advertising, and I figure I have about $500 a month to work with. I have tried Google Adwords, and that was the BIGGEST waste of money I have ever seen! I went through clicks like mad, and didnt get 1 client from them!
Where are some good forums or websites that I can advertise on that will get me a decent amount of targeted traffic, but that I don't have to mortgage the house to pay for?
Do online radio shows produce very good results?
Thanks in advance!
 
Local Advertising.

Every community has advertising venues.
It is far easier to market to people who know where your physical presence is.

Build a trust relationship grow your business and then worry about national advertising.

The hosts who make it big on a national level have many thousands of dollars to spend on monthly advertising so there is no use in competing with them.
 
Your budget is good enough for the advertising.
But What are you offering and What sort of customers are you targeting?
 
Do you have a defined target market? What is that? If you let us know a bit more info, we can probably suggest even better methods. Good luck!
 
You may want to create a new website before you concentrate on advertising. I visited your site and had a hard time reading the content. It's kind of a mess...

Good luck,
Steve
 
hi, I'd also have a new hosting site and don't know what I have to begin its promoting with.
What type of add is the most paybackable?
 
my-e-space,

I do like your site; however, many things need to be changed. You cannot have images missing, some plans with prices and some not, and you may want to add more FAQ's. I am not 100% sure if anyone uses those anymore anway because of the ease of submitting a support ticket but who knows. In addition, please make your forum integrate with your site layout. That is like taking your header image and replacing it with the phpbb. As may as you may not think it, clients do look at how well you have seamlessly integrate other software. Its all about having a professional image.

As far as our order forums and support desk you cannot tell a difference from going from pages we designed and the ones that we have purchased software.

Another thing from personal experience no matter how much money you throw in to advertising the best advertising is word of mouth and testimonials. To this day, we have lossed over $1,500.00 in advertising expenses just to generate 1 customer. Yet, we have had more customers come to BHN because of my mouth and because of the customers mouth of I have talked too.

Think about this, we had one of our partners refer us a web design job and from there she referred us three more. All hosting clients and all e-commerce sites. One client generated over $4,000.00 worth of revenue. How much did we spend on that client $0.00.

Post to forums, purchase text link, and talk.

If you post on forums clients will that how knowledgable or unknowledgable you are.

If you purchase links on webmaster sites you can purchase many of them for a much chaper price and you start building up a PR. In addition, the traffic the link generates.

If you talk about your company to people they will go hey I have a friend, co-worker, family member, or company that is looking to do a website. Do you have a card with you? Well yes I do have them call me or better yet do you have there number. I will contact them and see if I can be of any assistance.

It is called priceless, inexpensive, and profitable.

And, people think your cool because you own your own business. I know because I am cool like that.

If you have any questions on what you should improve on your website PM me. As much as I do not like new host I will help you out because no customer should have to suffer because of pport content. Best of Luck!
 
BHNSupport said:
And, people think your cool because you own your own business. I know because I am cool like that.
Click to expand...
:)

Nice read, I must agree, word of mouth and testimonials are definitely the best way to gain clients. Along with targeting locals, advertising online usually doesn't help much. As BHNSupport stated, I'm down money from advertising that didn't turn into sales, too.
 
I thought someone would like that. That is one of the best ways to gain business.

There is a whole lot of more people who have lost money in advertising online then who have gained it. That is what keeps Google Adwords in business is because people think they can gain big (Runs off to gamble $50.00, hehe).

In matter of fact, I was talking to a owner of a fairly successful marketing company based in SD, CA. And, we were talking about the different ytpes of advertising, budgets, ect. ONe of the first things that we happen to get on is how online advertising needs to die. :) The suggestion that was made to me is to use Radio Ads in the local area. Haven't tried it yet but I am sure that I will soon.
 
Radio advertising is nice, although it's hard if you have a longer domain (both of us). I'd have to find a quick domain to register and redirect it to my site if I ever thought of placing a radio ad.
 
Steve,

Yes, and if your trying to create brandawareness by registering a short domain is not cool.

Personally, the only way that I would hit the local Radio & TV is if I had a well signed office located downtown in the city.

The reason for this is ocal business owners and people enjoy seeing you. They do not want to just e-mail you or call. That is one reason why I have done online advertising is because of the setup I personally have right now.

I have two home offices located in two cities about an hour and a half away from each other. If I go to advertise they might get the wrong location. That does me no good. The final movie is planning on being in August to Grand Rapids, Mi which is by far a larger market and a metro in MI. At that time, I will have an office with Radio, phone book, and TV.

For now though, I would get business cards, postcards, and a sticker on your car with your companies name on it. Maybe, a couple t-shirts to wear. Just talk about it.
 
Hello,

It all depends on where you are advertising and the product you are trying to sell. The internet is by far cheaper for how many people see your ad; however, your ROI is much lower.

For example, most radio stations cost a $120.00 per spot. Most advertising agencies suggest running 10 spots per week. That equals $4,800.00/month. Typcially, that generates over 45 calls per spot after the first month. How many clients did you gain maybe 1%. 4.5 customers per week times four weeks. That would equal 20 customers.

In the web hosting industry 20 x 3.95/month does not pay the bills.

Newspaper advertising typically cost for a small business card spot $100.00 per 5,000 people and it requires you purchase 5 sections. We are looking at $2,000.00 per month. We are looking at 25,000 x 4 = 100,000 people. Once gain lets say you receive 1%.

Online advertising costs $5.00 - $30.00 per thousand. You purchase $2,000.00 worth of advertising for the month. Lets say at $10.00 CPM. 200 x 1,000 = 200,000 x 1% (click through) = 2,000 x 1% (purchase) = 20.

20 x 3.95 does that still pay the bills? No However, with online advertising typcially you do not have repeat views like a newspaper or radio ad dodes. Even though they might be more expense with a smaller return if you have a local office in the end it will pay off.

You could be like me and a couple other web hosting companies around here who tried the online game and loss big. Then went locally and kick butt.

Radio - $120.00/spot
Newspaper - $500 - $1,800.00/run
Ping Zine - $1,500.00 - $3,000.00/issue
Banner Ads - $5.00 - $30.00 CPM

Does that provide you a better idea? These were all taken from local papers, radio, magizines, and web sites. However, online and local advertising are not comparing apples to apples so you must perform and more indepth look at it.
 
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