I Need Some Advice

[jeana900]

Hi All,

I need advice on how to drive customers to my hosting website. I wish to know if it really is possible. What type of time span are we talking about? And what steps should I take.

Blessings,

[Paul Cooley]

One thing I told a friend of mine to do is make a 7-10 question survey with questions ranging from, who is their current hosting company, to are they happy with them, what would keep them from changing to another hosting company, etc.

Then after they complete the survey, they receive a free one month hosting coupon.

You can make up a free survey at: www.surveymonkey.com. They will give you a url link to post your survey.

Hope that helps a little.

[robert adams]

well, no offense, but you won't get many customers with your pricing for the packages you are offering.

I think you should look around the net and do some comparison shopping.

see what the hosting industry is doing by visiting here:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/

luck,
robert

[JosephRatliff]

Pricing is about value, not competition, so if you are over-delivering on the value you provide with hosting, don't worry about pricing yet...until your market tells you so.

As for traffic...there are a TON of ways:

- Articles
- Social Marketing with an attached blog to your domain
- Blogging in and of itself
- Forum marketing (properly)
- Surveys (the advice given above is excellent)
- many more...

We would need to know your objectives, what you are trying to accomplish, what you have done already etc...

The doctors need to know more about your pain Jeana.

[JosephRatliff]

After looking at your site though...I will say that you could use some help with the "confusion" I detect on your main page.

It isn't clear to me what your specials are...there is a link in the top right center...but that should be explained on the main page...not hoping I will click the link.

Just some more feedback.

[robert adams]

everyone saying that pricing is about value is a nice sentiment.

however, in the real world ( at least in the hosting world)

you just can't compete on value with high prices.

the average joe public has no idea what "value" in hosting means. they see that they can get a gazillion MB of space and two gazillion MB of bandwidth for $5 a month and they will buy it.

They will not buy 150 MB of space and just a few MB of bandwidth a month for $20.

If they do, it is because they have not shopped around and as soon as they do , they will move.

Most hosting is done by affilitate and resellers these days.

It is like many other things, the close you can get to the supplier, then better wholesale price you get and the lower you can make your retail prices to attract customers.
However, when you are too many steps away from the supplier, your "wholesale" price is too high for you to be competitive in the marketplace.


robert

[JosephRatliff]

the average joe public has no idea what "value" in hosting means.

That part of your statement to me identifies that hosting companies aren't making their value clear to "average joe public", or if that offering is on a level playing field...that hosting companies don't care to offer related items with their hosting packages to increase the value of their hosting.

Competing on price is a dangerous game, even with a commodity like hosting...

Big companies like Wal Mart can do it, because that was the foundation of their business model to begin with.

All I am saying Robert, if hosting is $20 a month, and I see $20 a month in value with the offering...I will pay it every time as a consumer.

That value doesn't necessarily have to come from the hosting package alone

[robert adams]

I am not arguing about the principal of what you are saying. I am talking about what consumers are doing, and what the hosting market is doing.

You probably understand about how hosting works.

I understand how hosting works. joe public doesn't.

If my hosting package deal is;

gazillion MB of space
gazillion MB of bandwidth
gazillion emails
gazillion databases
$4 a month.

your hosting package is;
150MB of space
100MB of bandwidth
10 email accounts
1 database
$20 a month
however, we do offer extras,
we own our own servers,
we have technobabble this
and technobabble that.

so our package is worth the extra cost .


guess what, joe, doesn't know what technobabble is
and he doesn't care.

what joe sees is that he can get gazillions of stuff for only $5 a month instead of a little bit of stuff for $20 a month.

The people that spend more money for something than they have to, because they percieve it to have more "value", are the people with plenty of money to spend anyway.

That is not joe. joe will always take the cheaper price unless he has a very strong reason not to.


hey, I have been in the hosting business in the past, I understand how it all works, and I still go for the cheapest hosting package I can get.
That is because, most of the them are all the same.
The biggest difference in the "value" and therefore the prices, is the support , and I rarely need it.


robert

[JosephRatliff]

guess what, joe, doesn't know what technobabble is and he doesn't care.

I love this

Robert, you are exactly right, "Joe Public" doesn't like or know what technobabble is. And all else being the same, your point is proved...because most Hosting companies speak "hosting" to their potential clients (most of them being "Joe Public").

So, "Joe Public" is conditioned to just take the $5 "cheap" option, because almost no hosting company markets to Joe Public, they are focused on marketing their product.

If you make it sound like "technobabble", instead of attaching value to your packages with:

- Proper marketing copy. Most hosting companies don't do well here at all. Might have to do with the technical nature of the hosting, but that is just an educated guess.

- Different marketing approaches altogether.

- Better focus on Joe Public and his/her perceptions of hosting.

- IMPORTANT: Quit focusing on hosting alone, and add value with other related services or items. Thirdsphere does pretty good here last time I checked, but still could use some pizazz, they are $24.95 a month.

Just my 10 cents.

Come on Robert, if you have some time, let's keep the debate going

[robert adams]

wait, wait, I am getting wound up again.....

watch this, hold my beer!

are you ready?

I agree with you.

damn that hurt.

just kidding.

I do agree and that was my point.

( I hope my point doesn't go to my head!)


Ok, to expound on one of my other points.

Hosting is hosting. You have hardware and software and you buy bandwidth from the biggies and you sell it all to joe.
You also sell the same stuff to sally. I mean the same stuff, like if you only have a jigabyte of storage you sell it all to joe and then you sell it all to sally as well.
If you have a 4 lane highway of bandwidth, you sell it all to joe and to sally as well.


You then hope that neither joe or sally will use very much of it because you want to sell it all to larry tomorrow.

Now, because all of this hardware and software and bandwidth is so cheap to supply, and you know that nobody is going to use even a tenth of what you sell them, you can sell it all to joe and to sally and to larry at a very very low price.

If all of that is true, then there is not much incentive to offer better service, or associated products/services and charge the kids more money.
It is just not worth the effort. You will make much more money treating the kids like mushrooms. ( you know, keeping them in the dark and feeding them bull.... oops, sorry. you get the point. )

So , along comes robert and joseph. two wild and crazy guys. ( I may be dating myself with that reference to SNL ).
robert and joseph are very savy internet consumers. they have been around the block a few times.

well, robert has been around the block way too many times. but , I digress...

robert and joseph are in the market for some hosting.

joseph says, " I want quality hosting, I want that hosting account that costs $25 a month for a few MB and only 1 database and a couple of emails. They must be good or they wouldn't cost that much.
I know, if I want to put up another webpage, I will have to upgrade the account to add another few MB for another $10 a month, but hey, they have good support and will submit my site to 1,000 search engines for me for free.

robert says, hey, I want the gazillion package. I may want to run a bulletin board like Lynn has , and maybe install some BANS sites or a couple of WP blogs. I will need all that space and bandwidth but I only can afford $5 a month so why should I have less and pay more for it.


I can't go on, I can't go on.....


robert

[JosephRatliff]

robert,

You are funny

I have almost split my sides...

[JosephRatliff]

I just love debating a little when it is appropriate, because I think it adds value to the thread.

[robert adams]

I had da bait, but the fish took da bait, so I aint go none of da bait left.

robert

[jeana900]

Thank you Robert and Joseph for all your advice and suggestions. I get the idea and the point you guys are making.

You are much appreciated.

Blessings,