Web Hosting website - feedback appreciated

Hi,

I have just launched a web hosting website and it doesn't seem to be converting too well :???:

I was hoping you could maybe have a quick look over and tell me your thoughts. Any feedback is appreciated.

The site is http://www.squirrelservers.com/

Thanks

 

Took ages to load for me, that might be one factor

 

Like the website design but took an absolute age to load, which for a hosting company, would be the worst possible representation of your services.

 

£2 a month unlimited everything? There is no such thing as unlimited. This business model is really old and no longer viable for hosting. With some really established and well known hosts out there I can't see how you ever hope to compete with this archaic business model I'm afraid but I wish you good luck.

 

You should really take the .co.uk/.uk and twitter handle while you are at it.

 

I always like to see big name customer recommendations

 

Like the design - also took ages to load (fibre optic too).

What are you using for your Cookie banner, what WP plugin please?

 

Hi everyone that's posted and thanks for your feedback/comments.

I'm not sure what's causing the loading issue but I'll look into that immediately - I understand that's going to be a major issue for any potential customers.

Thanks

 

It's Easy Cookie Popup - https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-wp-cookie-popup/. Quite a nice little plugin

 

I agree entirely, however I'm not aiming to compete with these guys. The market is saturated with big and small web hosting providers but building up a smaller customer base will still turn over a profit since costs are so minimal. I have provided web design clients with hosting for years and didn't see any harm in opening up the door to any newcomers.

 

I like the design but the site is very very slow... Not the best promotion for a hosting company

Have a look at this: http://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.squirrelservers.com/fZR7EEbg

Quite a few easy fixes to help you speed up the site.

With regards to the market you are in.. Wouldn't it be better to aim at a different market segment? People who are willing to pay a bit more or people who are looking for a specific type of hosting? Wordpress hosting for an example.

The market you are in is very competitive and you will have to do quite a bit of work to make that £1 or £2 a month per customer.

 

Like any business you need to find what converts best, building a site even if your getting a reasonable amount of visits a day doesnt mean it will automatically start converting.

Doing cheap shared hosting on a grand scale your going to need a good marketing budget or a good team willing to spread the word, alot of time and exceptional support and equipment to even make a dent and turn a profit, you'd be much better off charging more and targeting a sector of the market until your more established and the branch out, you can offer cheaper starting packages to a select few people in those sectors to gain reputation and recommendations.

Do a bit of outreach to already proven affiliates offering them above average conversion commissions to get the ball rolling.

Running a higher quality service at a higher price will mean you turn a profit on smaller number of clients but it will also mean you havent got 200 crappy coded client scripts smashing your resources to bits who expect the world for £2 and taking all of your support time.

Id much rather have 60 clients at £10 a month who have been approved and vetted than 300 at £2 a month auto sign up and setup clients who use and abuse or are too stupid to know a script from 2004 from a warez site is the issue and not the server

P.s Site is not slow for me at all, working well .

 

Hi Adam,

Really good advice from you and it's definitely made me think - and I think you're right.

Do you think there are people willing to pay this price (around £10 per month) through advertising as well as affiliate links, if I go for the quality/professional option, i.e. make the website look more expensive rather than the present look?

I'm looking forward to your thoughts, and anybody else's.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Thanks, and I'll use your help to fix the speed issue. Great help!

 

It depends on your personal business plan really, if your prepared to offer a higher standard of service, can afford to be picky with your clients and/or offer a specific niche script type or format of hosting then yes people pay what ever they feel they are getting value for money for.

I personally wouldnt purchase a £2 hosting if you paid me £10 to do it, i like to know that customer service is spot on and when i talk to support im their priority ( or at least made to think that by speedy and professional responses ) , Not everyone is a cheap bastard and if thats all your getting your marketing to the wrong people.

Yeah you'll get people say £10 is too expensive, but generally those are the people which you dont want on your servers because they will expect you to jump through hoops , they will have 30+ addon domains to one cpanel account and generally cost you more work than its worth.

Be picky , limit your addon domains, sub domains and offer realistic quotas of what a particular niche needs and you will get custom if promoted right and to the right people. Your growth maybe slower but you will also have ALOT more space on your servers, alot LESS support tickets and a much happier client base because there will be no resource hogs if you do your due diligence before accepting the order. It also gives you the time to support your premium customers better and go above and beyond what your service outlines.

My two cents anyway. Good luck.

 

With the greatest of respect, with the questions you are asking, I get the impression that you are new to hosting in this manner and these days, most seeking hosting want better than you may be able to offer, even at a low price. Without knowing for sure, I sense that you may just have a reseller type account with a third party, looking to sell a bit of space, but this means no direct support, all having to be passed up the chain, resulting in longer delays to technical issues and queries. I personally would only deal with companies with their own servers, but that's just my opinion

Regarding the site, I suspect the images are library images, not related to your business, the testimonial is made up (sorry), the Comodo security certificate isn't valid (not linked correctly) and your telephone number links back to Runfresh Events LTD, not your hosting company. Also 30,000MB is 30GB, use that instead, don't make it seem more than it actually is, most people work in GB's now (refer back to mentions of using an old structure/method). Maybe customers don't look so closely, but if you were holding my data/websites, I'd want to know I was covered in all aspects.

Sorry for the damning view, just an opinion, meant in good faith.

.

 

I recommend tapping into the new blogger niche - make your hosting a 'blogger specialist' package. Everything they need to get started.

As someone else mentioned, setup a good affiliate programme. Programmes with ongoing commissions are rare as hen's teeth, so that should get you some traction.

Then look for bloggers who share income reports and tips on how to start your own blog. Most of those include an affiliate link for web hosting.

I'd probably recommend putting up your pricing to £2/mo and then offering each blogger you work with an exclusive 50% off discount code.

It's a good time of year to be taking this approach. Lots of people will have a resolution to start earning a bit of part time money and you'll be able to tap right into that.

 

when doing a domain search, when i click the whois info it brings up the whois box that says "You must use the domain checker to get here". Loading wise, it was really fast for me.

 

As an affiliate I don't want 50p a month forever, I want £10 right now and if the OP can't keep his business alive for 20 months and/or retain the customers, I couldn't really care less.

imo the advice of ongoing commissions on an affil program like this one is poor.... we (larger affiliates) aren't interested in gambling on whether the OP can stay in business or not. Fair enough if its recurring income from a big established host. But a little player like this? Money up front or you're getting no leads.

 

Thanks Monkey - that's interesting feedback and a useful perspective.

What about £10 now and £0.50 every month after the first year?