SEM Tycoon

**alhallinan** · 05-09-2010, 12:57 PM

(Moderators - I'm new here, please excuse me if this is the wrong place to post this question!)

Hi, all,

I have a website that gives away free Joomla CPANEL hosting with no size limits or anything. Currently, it's getting a lot of Google Organic Traffic, and it has a conversion rate of about 14% - basically, 14 of every 100 people that visit the site actually sign up for a free hosting account.

I have Google AdSense installed, but I'm curious - how else could I monetize this? I'm at a loss. I just don't know.

Any suggestions?

-Buster

**lynxus** · 01:00 PM

Maybe offer a good amount of space, a limited amount of databases etc.
Then charge a small fee for extra storage and databases?

IE:
Give enough away free so the end user can have a good useful fast working site and if they outgrow it they can then "upgrade" extras?

The last thing you will want to do however is limit useful things like bandwidth, dns lookups etc.

Just add extra boltons that add to the usefulness of your service, however dont hinder free users.

**alhallinan** · 05-09-2010, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lynxus

Maybe offer a good amount of space, a limited amount of databases etc.
Then charge a small fee for extra storage and databases?

Just add extra boltons that add to the usefulness of your service, however dont hinder free users.

I think this is a great idea, but will it really be worth my time? Ultimately, I'd either like to make at minimum $2 per day with this website just so I can cover my server bill. Is it even worth it?

**chrishirst** · 05-10-2010, 06:51 AM

The idea of "free hosting" covering server costs is a flawed business model.

**lynxus** · 05-10-2010, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alhallinan

I think this is a great idea, but will it really be worth my time? Ultimately, I'd either like to make at minimum $2 per day with this website just so I can cover my server bill. Is it even worth it?

Will be very hard work.

Your main issue is people will come to you for "free" services.
If they could pay, they would of gone somewhere else.

getting people to pay for something when ultimately all they want is a free ride is very hard to do.

**Ronni** · 05-10-2010, 01:10 PM

Offer a Free Package with limited space and bandwidth & then Ask users for upgrading to a Premium Package...

**virtualmarket** · 05-12-2010, 03:17 AM

Check for affiliate links, Adsense and potential media buyers

**benicio** · 05-12-2010, 02:57 PM

i think they redirect some traffic, especially 404 error from your site

**john546** · 07-08-2010, 12:08 AM

Is the adsense ads showing on just your web hosting site or the members webpages also which is hosted on your server?

With having the ads showing on the members webpages, they could do something which means you are showing ads on webpages that break their TOS so I wouldn't do this.

Have you tried Co-reg maybe. When they sign up to your hosting site, they have the option to check a view boxes to signup to some other stuff where you get paid a lead for each offer that gets signed up to. Some CPA networks offer this co-reg sort of thing. There's a list with reviews of over 140 networks here if you are unsure of where to find them and want to look into co-reg or even CPA offers.