In the last post, we have talked about how to start a web hosting reseller business. So, today I’ll show you simple tips and ways, about how to promote a web hosting company.
If you’ve created a cool website design or just used the one made by your hosting provider, and tried to get new customers and sign-ups, you will find it hard to do, especially, if you are new to the web hosting business. It’s a very powerful business with high competition, so, you need to find your way to succeed.
First of all, don’t think that the game is over, even, when you have zero customers, and try to ask yourself why? The answer is simple, you’ve just started and you need some time to get customers. It’s all about time, but of course, you won’t wait months for your first customer.
So, focus on your website in the first week and make it unique as possible. If you use a premade theme, browse all the available options to customize it, create a beautiful logo, and upload it. Then compare your prices to other popular web hosting companies, to make sure you have logical prices.
To be clear, the price is not the only thing that webmasters are looking for. For example, some people pay twice the price of another low-quality hosting, because they trust the company and find their customer support, fast, and professional. So, prices are only one of many factors, to make people decide.
Instead of that, ask yourself if your website will attract customers or not. That can be done when comparing it to other popular sites. You don’t have to create a copy, but you need to test your colors and layout, with the other successful companies.
My advice is, never use a dark color for your background theme, it’s a hard color for eyes. At the same time, use lighter colors as possible in the background. Some people like the dark color because they’ve told that, it represents professionalism, but, dark colors shouldn’t be used for the entire site.
You can use it in a sidebar, or in the menu, but not as the main background color. If you’ve done the work with your theme and look, you can start the next step.
Places to promote a web hosting company
1. Google and Other search engines
The most important way to promote your website is search engines. But, that needs work and patience to get results, the minimum things to do is by creating a Google webmaster account, and submit your site from there to Google.
You don’t need to pay someone for a click of the button that you can do yourself for free. You should also create a Bing webmaster tool account, and submit your website to Bing and Yahoo, at once.
2. Your blog
The biggest mistake that people make is posting links everywhere in forums and blogs. That will risk your website with ranking, so, stay away from these old ways, and create two or three, good articles about your company and publish them on your website.
You can do that by creating a blog and make it linked to the website from the menu. Create a simple, but professional looking WordPress blog and publish articles with links to your website. It’s not hard if you work on it, it will help to rank your web hosting company on Google.
3. Popular Forums
The next thing to do is to post offers, if you have, on forums, it will be better if you can create 50% discounts or so, for the first months. It’s just an example, this will attract some people who look for low prices to test the service. One of the best hosting forums is web hosting talk.
There are thousands of forums, but only some of them will really help you get your first customers. If you need detailed information about the top ones, you can check my post about the biggest internet marketing forums.
You don’t have to join hundreds of forums with low traffic and forget them later. Instead of that, the biggest high traffic forums are the best and can send you some visitors from time to time. Don’t expect to get thousands of them, but if you create a good signature with them, with a link to your website, you can get your first customer soon.
Every forum has its own policy and terms, in general, you’re required to post some helpful answers or questions, and then, you can create your signature. At the same time, browse forums and, especially, the web hosting section to learn some great tips from other members.
4. Create your social media accounts
This is an important step in our days, people will trust your business when you show them active Facebook and Twitter pages. You don’t have to get thousands of fans in one day, but work on it and promote your page to your friends and family.
Remember that these people are near to you, and they’re the best to get help from them. So, create a Facebook page with your logo, do the same thing for Twitter and Google plus. If you have some money to invest with Facebook, you will get fast followers who bring you other people.
5. Advertising Ways
Not all people can advertise with Google, but if you have the money to invest. So, I highly recommend using the great Yahoo Gemini ad network. It’s cheaper, and user-friendly with amazing options.
On the other side, if you have a larger budget, I recommend the Google AdWords program. You’ll get targeted visitors from a Google search page, and their partners.
It’s the best advertising methods to get customers quickly. Don’t be surprised if you get sign-ups from the first hour of account validation with AdWords. What makes the difference is a professional design for your website and really good services.
Please make sure to use SSL for all your pages. That will build trust and people can see that you care about security. This is not an option these days, you should encrypt all your connections.
You can also use other methods with less investment like blog advertising. All you have to do is to contact bloggers and site owners and see if they can accept a banner from you.
In general, they accept advertising from new companies, you have to search for websites about web hosting, and related topics, to advertise with them.
Another good way is to advertise with BuySellAds, you will find thousands of websites by category. If you have other tips about how to promote a web hosting company. You can share them in your comment. Or just share your own experience and let us know about it.
