We all know how competitive it is in the web hosting industry these days. With all of the increased competition it has become increasingly difficult to acquire new customers - especially on any kind of budget. So instead of dwelling on all of our current hardships, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and remember a simpler time. A time when the Internet was fresh and new. A time when budgets were high, and scrutiny was low. A time before Google and max bids. A time of banner ads and keyword stuffing.Search engines have always provided a fertile ground for web hosting marketers. Even in the early days it was easy to see the clear relationship between top keywords listings and a growing customer base.These advertisements take the form of text ads which adhere to a strict set of character limits and editorial guidelines. The rates are not CPM based, but metered out on a pay-per-click basis. Each click is a billable charge - with little or even no emphasis placed on the number of impressions required to get the click.One interesting thing that is appears not many realize is that the industry can really control the overall cost of CPC advertising. This of course means that competition would have to be friendly and everyone would have to bid low, so basically this will never happen. But hey it’s a nice thought.Many online firms vanished, as did a number of web hosting companies. In the aftermath of this learning experience, Internet businesses were forced to do something radical and completely new: turn a profit. Management turned their attention to reducing operating costs and growing in a much more conservative fashion. Web hosting marketers now had to justify every marketing placement by generating a minimum number of new customers proportional to the ad dollars spent. Each and every visitor had to be qualified with the expectation that they would convert to sale. Budgets shrank. Expectations soared. A new Darwinian environment prevailed in web hosting marketing - survival of the fittest (marketers). This has evolved into today’s web hosting environment where acquisition costs are closely monitored, and tight competition and expert marketing prevail. So then it was all about CPM and placement, this has been aptly replaced by CTR (Click Thru Ratio), CPC (Cost Per Click), CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) and CPL (Cost Per Lead).fOR EXAMPLES:Yahoo! and Alta Vista, Banner Ads and Doorway Pages, Google and Yahoo!, Text Ads and Exacting Keyword Densities,Drive Traffic (ANY Traffic!) and Spend ALL This Money (Now)OWNS Web Hosting.
we can all benefit from our industry hindsight. The past several years have seen many changes in web hosting marketing - many for the better. One thing is for certain; as long as there is a need for web hosting there will be dedicated web hosting marketers who use every tool and tactic to gain the most customers for the lowest cost. Good luck in growing your web hosting customer base in the days and months ahead.