Is advertising at WebHostingTalk worth it?

[CanSpace]

This is how much the other known web hosting forum is charging for a variety of add-ons within its Dedicated Hosting Offers marketplace forum.



That's $1,000 a week for a sticky. If you keep it highlighted in yellow and in with bold title, that's $1,200/week. You keep it running for 2 months, you are out of almost $10,000 USD (that's $13,500 in Canadian currency). A year's worth of "stickiness" will run around $60,000 USD (just over 80k in Canadian money with today's rate). Premium members may be getting a discount (last I heard it was around 25%, but even with 50% off, that's still serious budget).

You look at who is advertising, it's globally recognized companies like OVH, Hivelocity, LiquidWeb. They've certainly got the cash. You see smaller firms experimenting with cheaper priced add-ons (like highlight or big&bold), but looking at one such example, the number of views your ad receives isn't significantly higher than of those that post ads free of charge. In some instances it's lower.



My question is: have you ever advertised via WHT stickies? Did you find it was worthwhile for your company?

 

[SenseiSteve]

Personally, I've never advertised stickies on WHT, but have on other forums and that did help with sales. The average cost I've seen elsewhere is $25. There really aren't that many web hosting forums worth advertising on.

 

[whmcsguru]

Personally, I've never advertised stickies on WHT, but have on other forums and that did help with sales. The average cost I've seen elsewhere is $25. There really aren't that many web hosting forums worth advertising on.

Steve, can you give me a list (via PM if necessary) of those that you would consider worth advertising on? If not allowed, that's fine. Just kind of need to get back up on my feet after this last issue

Just had a major client shut down after 6 years of doing business with them primarily. Need to do something desperate if necessary to get back up ...

 

[Artashes]

Just had a major client shut down after 6 years of doing business with them primarily. Need to do something desperate if necessary to get back up ...

Terrible, sorry to hear that. Was your client a web hosting company or a software company? I am asking because a hosting forum may not even be the right audience.

The list is relatively short for web hosting forums:

webhostingtalk.com
hostingdiscussion.com
lowendtalk.com
lowendspirit.com

 

[OnTheCloud.co]

This thread is a little old, but we've done a few rounds of this and it was worthless. We just did a two week deal on WHT for sticky and it brought no sales. We do however gain sales from normal WHT advertising (via posts), but its slow. I believe we did a sticky or bold & highlight in the past and it didn't really gain much. Participation, recognition and repetition of your name is key.

 

[SharedGrid]

Participation, recognition and repetition of your name is key.

Completely agree with this.

Out of interest do you see benefit from having the Corporate membership? I tried it earlier in the year for 3 months and had a slight increase of leads from WHT and some extra sales but I can't say if those sales were due to the membership - there wasn't enough of a increase to warrant the cost, anyway.

I have previously read other providers are saying Corporate membership is worth it though, I'll probably look to resubscribe next year again and see how things go a second time.

 

[OnTheCloud.co]

Out of interest do you see benefit from having the Corporate membership? I tried it earlier in the year for 3 months and had a slight increase of leads from WHT and some extra sales but I can't say if those sales were due to the membership - there wasn't enough of a increase to warrant the cost, anyway.

I have previously read other providers are saying Corporate membership is worth it though, I'll probably look to resubscribe next year again and see how things go a second time.

I do find value in it, whether or not it's worth $1,440 or not may be debatable. The keyword alerts alone is very nice along with 3-day ad posting and the badge. There's not much activity in the extra forums though.

 

[CanSpace]

I have previously read other providers are saying Corporate membership is worth it though, I'll probably look to resubscribe next year again and see how things go a second time.

@OnTheCloud.co thanks for your feedback.

I've heard that Corp membership is worth it from the perspective of discounts you get on advertising positions. But if ads are not as effective as you'd expect, then what's left?

 

[VeloxMedia]

This thread is a little old, but we've done a few rounds of this and it was worthless. We just did a two week deal on WHT for sticky and it brought no sales. We do however gain sales from normal WHT advertising (via posts), but its slow. I believe we did a sticky or bold & highlight in the past and it didn't really gain much. Participation, recognition and repetition of your name is key.

I totally agree, when I post on WHT I find it takes a few days and then sales follow (I sometimes use codes to track it), but it's certainly a great place to advertise.

 

[Artashes]

I do find value in it, whether or not it's worth $1,440 or not may be debatable. The keyword alerts alone is very nice along with 3-day ad posting and the badge. There's not much activity in the extra forums though.

Is there a way you can show me how that keyword alert tool is working? Would love to offer the same functionality here, free of charge.

 

[OnTheCloud.co]

Is there a way you can show me how that keyword alert tool is working? Would love to offer the same functionality here, free of charge.

Honestly, I think it's worth charging for, at least $50/mo or something. It's a very valuable tool. They give you a list of like 20 text boxes to list keywords, a time frequency option along with the option to exclude the main forums OR exclude advertisement forum categories.

 

[OnTheCloud.co]

@OnTheCloud.co thanks for your feedback.

I've heard that Corp membership is worth it from the perspective of discounts you get on advertising positions. But if ads are not as effective as you'd expect, then what's left?

The ability to advertise more frequent, the keyword alerts and the badge. I do wish that advertising returned better, it may be my fault in advertising. Hard to say. We've gained some large clients and purchased multiple businesses via WHT and keyword alerts have helped with that.

 

[Artashes]

Honestly, I think it's worth charging for, at least $50/mo or something. It's a very valuable tool. They give you a list of like 20 text boxes to list keywords, a time frequency option along with the option to exclude the main forums OR exclude advertisement forum categories.

Hmm... I'd love to hear what other members think about it. I mean I can see how important it can be to be able to respond quickly if someone posted something about your company or competition.. so you can jump in without wasting any time.

 

[Mivocloud]

Our WHT account has been created since 2016 and we post links and offers there, in principle, it is very good in terms of the number of views and even the number of buyers has increased over time. However, it also makes no sense to focus on it, I think it's worth looking for alternatives and not forgetting about advertising in Google, etc.

 

[Artashes]

Our WHT account has been created since 2016 and we post links and offers there, in principle, it is very good in terms of the number of views and even the number of buyers has increased over time. However, it also makes no sense to focus on it, I think it's worth looking for alternatives and not forgetting about advertising in Google, etc.

This discussion is primarily focused on paid sticky advertising positions rather than free threads anyone can post.

 

[Mivocloud]

This discussion is primarily focused on paid sticky advertising positions rather than free threads anyone can post.

I understand, but I think it's also important to clarify.