Webhosting business

[Richard]

Hello Everybody,

My name is Richard and we started our hostingcompany a few months ago in the UK. We are thinking of doing business with a PPC company that has it's own transparent network. That means that we can see how big and how value this PPC company is.

Does somebody know a good PPC company which is reliable etc.

Hope to here from you soon.

Richard

[thehost]

SEO should be first, did you've done that?

[tamecrow]

Originally Posted by thehost

SEO should be first, did you've done that?

Agreed. PPC is wasted money in many industries. With web hosting, many people just want to look at prices and compare, and then go with a big name anyway. Besides, it'll cost you thousands a month (if not a week) to be able to get anywhere near the front page.

If you choose a reputable company, SEO will always pay for itself. We've never had a single client who hasn't made a shedload of money from our SEO work. Some people are surprised at having to pay a couple of hundred quid a month, but if that investment gets you an extra three grand a month, would you think twice?

[Brian Turner]

Actually, while I'd make the site SEO friendly I wouldn't be aggressive with the link development or PPC because the industry is so competitive I'm not sure you could compete cost-effectively, especially with so much loss-leading going on.

If I had to go into the webhosting markets, I'd actually push more on an affiliate program - more likely to get traffic targeted, but wouldn't have to pay unless it converted. Would need to be aggressive with this, though, not least giving affiliates money based on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) rather than anything else, and a generous payout at that.

2c.

[TWD-Tony]

Good luck with your new hosting business - you are going to need it!

I actually feel sorry for anyone just starting up in this business, I started some years ago (6 or 7) and I do "okay"... But if I knew then what I know now... I don't think I would have bothered (seriously)

There are several different angles you can attack the market from - I would suggest you leave "generic" hosting well alone - BIG companies like FastHosts have that market well and truely nailed. Instead you should concentrate on a Niche (blog hosting, image hosting etc) and then try banner advertising on site's dedicated to your niche.
You can join forums that relate to your Niche and try and help people out - word of mouth will blow away any PPC campaign. (Why do you think I am a member and moderator on several business forums?)


Brian is spot on though with the affiliate scheme idea - it's a good way of getting new clients, but you do need a decent client base to start with in order for them to become affiliates... Maybe an affiliate network such as Affiliate Window would be better but I have no idea on costs?

[monaghan]

Echoing both Brian and Tony, generic hosting a a cut throat business, the market is full of big names with huge loss leaders and also with the bargain bucket (often referred to as school boy hosts) little guys running from a reseller account. You need to find a niche and exploit it otherwise you'll either get no custom or you'll cut your prices so low you'll not be able to sustain the business. Just look at many of the "big names" selling .UK domains, they offer the domain for less then you or I could buy it from Nominet and collect the payment through paypal for

Most of our customers are local or through word of mouth.

[SARHosting]

I concure to Brian, Tony & Monagan. Starting is rudy hard, we should know we have been running for about 2 months now and its been an uphile struggle to start with. Costs of hardware, bandwidth, connectivity etc can be expensive. Finding a niche is a biatch, - offer something that other hosts dont. Get a good website, this is important! Its the end of of everything.

We are just waiting, for search engines to start to pickup our site and this. Oh yeah and dont sell from a reseller if you are serious. It causes so many problems having to two an throw between you and your host and your customer.

If you need any more assistance, drop me a PM.

[tamecrow]

Originally Posted by SARHosting

We are just waiting, for search engines to start to pickup our site

It looks like they have. The difference is, you have just over 100 links in to your site (most of which are on-site links anyway). Heart have almost 6,000, FastHosts have over 12,000, and 1and1 have over 67,000. Also, your domain is very new so you're going to need a good backlink campaign and some uber-strong on-page optimisation

[monaghan]

To be honest, you'll not get much passing trade from search engines in the hosting business unless you have a very specific niche, most hosting searches just bring up the "big guys" with their pile it high sell it cheap (and put on T&Cs' which prevent you from using it all anyway). There are large numbers of "hosting directories" out there which rank well and are populated not with the best hosts, but the ones with the best affiliate programs , then somewhere below this lot are the kiddy bedroom hosts overselling Gb's of space for £1/month from oversold reseller accounts on oversold servers.

Your best bet is to find places where you can pick up the business from those who don't work out with the above and have decided that you do get what you pay for in the hosting world. Or look for those who want a managed hosting service and are prepared to pay so they don't have to worry about things.

[TOliver]

Get the best possible SEO service and your hosting company website should receive alot more customers