When I started my web hosting company I had hoped it would grow enough to take me away from my day job. I hoped to eventually live in an RV and live in the warmest area of the US depending on the time of year. But that hasn't come close to even happening. I don't even have enough clients that I earn any money. Maybe I need to advertise more but with money as tight as it is it's hard to get many ads out there.
Trying to grow
- Thread starter webling
- Start date
It is sure tough out there for the few of us who does cater to quality thanks to the competition out there. But there are ways to get over such depending on what resources you have at your disposal.
For example if you already have clients you may wish to reach out to some/all of them about getting the words out. And/or even try to go local if you can could help as well.
webconfigure
Member
As it is initial stage of your business, mouth marketing and face to face meetings, direct contacting clients or people who are really interested is best. Once you will get the few clients then you can focus on various medium of advertising.
Digital marketing is one of the method which you can try latter. Social media will play important role in that.
Digital marketing is one of the method which you can try latter. Social media will play important role in that.
Precisely, one should focus on the clients and inner circles and such. Then when the brand picks up speed then consider paid advertisements.
That way when your ads do run, people will have an "idea" who you are since then you would have a client base, at least few reviews, and so on.
easyhostmedia
Well-known member
also on your website i would charge your footer as
Copyright (c) 2010 BusinessName.com. All rights reserved.
does not look professional.
also for your TOS i would get rid of the iframe and make it part of the page
and your logo you have Indcluded which should be Included
Copyright (c) 2010 BusinessName.com. All rights reserved.
does not look professional.
also for your TOS i would get rid of the iframe and make it part of the page
and your logo you have Indcluded which should be Included
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A buddy of mine on facebook who is knowledgable about this stuff told me about EIG. When I ran a search on them it's not hard to see how they are dominating the market. Even though my prices are reasonable, people shopping online still look for the lowest price. So I am becoming aware that I have to compete with the big dogs if I want a piece of the action. Even if it means giving away hosting for the first year for each new client. My friend said that my prices are second year prices. So I may crunch the numbers and see not only if I can give away hosting for the first year but also lower the current prices.
When I was at the dealership last time buying another truck I asked for $2,000 off the cost of the truck. But the salesman explained to me that because so many people shop online that they have to keep their prices at rock bottom prices. So because of the internet many industries are feeling the crunch. Even some of the drywall companies here are hiring cheap labor and taking work from other companies. So I am learning the thinking and realizing that to lower prices and offer award winning services is the way to compete in our crazy market today.
I haven't had any success in social media. Maybe I'm just brain dead that way. I have a page on Facebook and an account on Twitter. It seems that those who have messaged me about hosting want it cheaper than I can offer. The large providers are obviously over selling. I know that if I sold the space I have on my servers so that each client actually had what is allotted to them according to their plan I could not charge less than what I am. So I'm seeing that in order to survive in this business I have to over sell. I know that every client does not use 100% of their space.
I do offer an affiliate program to get people to sell for me. However, nobody is using it currently. I have a friend who is looking into trying it since he has one or two sites it may work on. I want to get his hosting too and since he has been helpful to me I told him I'd be happy to help him with his hosting if he decides to transfer his domains to my servers.
Because I don't have a lot of personal contacts I think is part of the reason I haven't gained many customers from among the people I know. My boss at my day job hosted his website with me for two years, I charged him annually. And trying to get a payment from him for the second year was like trying to pull a tooth. No idea why. He does well without a website, but at the same time I know he has gotten jobs off the site when he had it up.
Thanks for the tip on the TOS.
easyhostmedia
Well-known member
i would also make your logo uniformed throughout
just use this through the whole website
https://order.chosenwebhost.com/assets/img/logo.png
24x7server
New member
Hosting is definitely an easy industry to get into, but very hard to compete in, unless you either have a unique niche, or are very good at marketing & networking.
It seems that we almost have to give hosting away and set up a zillion and a half servers and simply earn a little off the top of each one.
You are right about it being an easy business to get into. Anyone with a brain who knows how to use it can get started. What I'm seeing mostly is the way to make it in this business is by doing volume.
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That not true. Any business who is doing volumes will always get more sales but as you mentioned will they thrive for the long run?
Hosting if anything tend to lack businesses that offer more than the "flashing lights". If you can offer something else better/not that anywhere else offers (or very few does). At a competitive rate then you should have a good start.
From there you just need to focus on marketing that to the right people. Add patient, improvements, and efforts and you should be in business.
easyhostmedia
Well-known member
Not really, i started in 1999 very small on a reseller plan offering hosting to friends and it was only 2007 when i moved to a VPS due to a previous hosting doing a runner and i have never looked back. I have 2 VPS servers running cpanel with clients on and 2 cheap servers that are used to take backups, i also have a cheap server used for testing. I am a 1 man band, so dont offer 24/7 live support, but i have a very extensive Knowledgebase and out of my 300+ clients i can count the amount of support tickets i get a month on 1 hand.
So you can run a successful hosting business without doing volume
easyhostmedia
Well-known member
If you searched EIG then you would have read all the negative reviews of them
Yes people look for the lowest price and that is why we have the kiddie hosts on ebay selling unlimited everything reseller plans for $2 a year and when these fail people come to us.
These big dogs have huge budgets, huge staff levels and all you are to them is a number and $$
us little dogs can in no way compete with them, you just have to find your own niche and use it to your advantage. The main advantage of being a small host is you treat your customers as friends and offer a personal service.
Good words. That's basically what my company is, but I do need it to grow more. So even though I can't chop the numbers like the huge companies do. I can still chop them more in hopes of gaining new clients. I know I won't become anything like the giants and I don't want to. But I want to compete enough that my company grows.
But you don't need to do it with pricing. You already mentioned that quality is risk if you drop your prices. So why not figure out a different way to compete without hurting your business in the long term?
easyhostmedia
Well-known member
looking at your website, you offer limited domain registrations as rather expensive and you dont offer SSl certs.
you should look at these. take a look at resellerclub and TheSSLstore.com.
also sell your IPs as single IPs and not just blocks of 8
I may have to do what is easiest for me. One thing I might do is give away free hosting to new customers for a certain period of time.
I do sell SSI certificates.
I do offer IP based hosting and the domain only has one IP. The blocks of 8 are for the larger accounts.
I allow clients to order as many domains as they want. I barely make any money on domain names once I take on a small amount to my wholesale cost.
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