How successful can one be in the hosting industry, advertising services on ebay? Has anyone had experience doing this? Are there any tutorials out there for doing this? I recently stumbled upon that section on ebay. It was a bit intriguing so I figured I'd ask.

Is there any input for this?

I don't see much use of advertising hosting services on ebay. I would suggest you to try Google Adwords or top blogs in your niche

Other companies do it. You're saying I won't get business from advertising there?

Dunno, I've seen people auctioning coupons for certain hosting plan

Did you mean advertising on Ebay?

Ebay is a huge market place.There are still plenty of room for us to make money.

Right, I own a hosting company, would listing my company there somehow be advantageous of me? What should I do? Just list plans and offer promo codes?

Originally Posted by athomas

Right, I own a hosting company, would listing my company there somehow be advantageous of me? What should I do? Just list plans and offer promo codes?

I think advertise on ebay wont bring much benefit to you if you are running a hosting company.You can advertise in those popular make money online blog, or running a Google Adword.My opinion Ebay is popular on household product.

I've posted quiet a few classified ads on eBay and to be honest, it have not been very effective. One would think that 30 days on there would generate some hits...blah.....plus the categories are VERY limited.

Did YOU ever go to Ebay looking for hosting before you had a company that sold hosting??

I go to eBay and buy stuff all the time...mainly traffic...it's dirt cheap, though as of late it's dried up a bit

eBay Advertising enables brands/advertisers/agencies to take advantage of the wide range of on-site advertising opportunities across eBay.

There's no harm in trying. But Ebay is primarily designed as an online shop for objects, they're not created for marketing/selling services. Also, Ebay listing expires after a week or so and you need to relist your ad. It's kinda time-consuming.

I disagree, guys.

I happen to know of a man named Rick that owns a very large Canadian company called FatNetwork. I've worked with him several times for his dedicated and reseller hosting services. In fact, he was the backbone (the actual datacenter) behind my 2002-2004 company HostWard.

I found his services through eBay. And last I checked, Rick had gone from about a thousand feedback when I first ran into him, to about four-thousand, or something of that nature (exaggerated, but you get my point). And he's still doing the same -- even with the same ad I responded to, more or less, with updates for new technology and offerings. So, I'd have to say eBay is surprisingly OK, if this particular person (who I've spoken to many times personally and who has a great business ethic...) is still doing it, then that means he must be thriving at it.

Now me, since my provider used eBay (in my case), I went with AdWords and hosting directories. And then I sold the company on eBay about a year or two later. But that was just me. I've sold traffic (back when it was more common, say...2001-ish), websites (when it was all but eight of us NOT selling "turnkey" sites), domains, but never hosting.

To be honest, in crowded marketplaces like hosting it pays to go where your competitors aren't. For instance -- some computer stores cater to the knowledgeable user ... while another may cater to the complete n00b. The same goes for ISPs. If your competitors are fishing in one lake, why not try another. Aim for the market that they aren't and you'll probably find more success.

And besides, Google AdWords costs money. Up front. Is it not cool anymore to be cheap? Has the Internet gone entirely to the guys with deep pockets? What gives here?

Originally Posted by SecureSearch

I go to eBay and buy stuff all the time...mainly traffic...it's dirt cheap, though as of late it's dried up a bit

But I WOULD agree with this post. After coming back from my net-hiatus early this year, I spent about a month re-exploring eBay to find that it had changed somewhat.

For instance, when it came to website sales, forget it. It does still happen on there, but it doesn't have the same POP it used to when I sold my last few sites, pre-hiatus, in 2005 (in fact, a lot has changed in those three years!) And traffic? Same tale. It doesn't mean you can't do it, because as I've said, people have been pulling clients off of eBay (even for web design, if you can believe that) for years and still do...

...but what's been said here is also true. He may just be talking about traffic, and I haven't spoken personally to Rick for a couple years, but my month back on eBay did tell me that the game had changed. In the end, I do say to give it a shot. People are NOT prepared to find hosting on eBay, and that's why it has always worked!

I suppose you should prefer google adward, ebay is good but far behind for the stuff you are going to offer. The proper channel is must to be opted for proper results. You got to prefer google.

I have advertised several times on eBay....no sure why I keep going back....I get very little in traffic for the cost

If you try advertising services on ebay, why not on google, google can bring you much more potential customers

I found ebay very effective in advertising money making opportunities.
It would probably be the same effect for web hosting, as it is cost vs gross income.

the cost of advertising back when I did the experiment was approximately 0.50 per week. Thus the cost of a 3 leads worked out to be around 0.50.

Ebay is certainly a highly traffic sight and it is a good idea to try to arrange a program using it. People most certainly go there. It's up to you to figure out the numbers and what ever features you are offering on your site.