It’s no secret that some hosts have found ways to make their offers stand out on LowEndTalk and other hosting forums.  If you look at LowEndTalk’s offers category, you’ll see a myriad of offers and the question for the aspiring provider is “how do I stand out from the pack”?

First, the basics of any business strategy always apply:

• Your offers need to be competitive (though need not be rock bottom or unprofitable).
• Differentiate yourself from your competition to either grab a niche or position your company in consumers’ minds as the go-to for certain needs.

Beyond this, there are some tricks I’ve seen savvy providers use in order to maximize their exposure when posting offers:

1. Offer enhancements but require the user to reply to the thread with the invoice number to receive it.  For example, “we’ll double your bandwidth if you post your order #”.  This creates buzz and excitement in the thread, as well as bumps it frequently as people reply seeking the enhancement.

2. Run a giveaway in conjunction with the thread.  While standalone giveaways are great for brand-building, a giveaway that is posted with your offer can draw viewers to it and increase commenting.  For example, “here are our offers, and we’re also giving away some VPSes.  We will pick three winners at random.  To enter, just reply to this thread and say “I love ExampleHost!”.  This will attract people who want to enter to win, and other people will see a lot of comments and activity in your thread.

3. Use the site’s reputation system.  Believe it or not, on LET some people look at the amount of Thanks they receive and cherish the number.  Offer to thank every reply.

4. Use a teaser thread title.  You’ve seen this sort of click-bait used on YouTube all the time.  Thread titles are often boilerplate like “Summer Sale!  30% Off!” which doesn’t really tell the reader much.  On the other hand, “This Offer May Be Illegal In Your Country”, “Why is This Offer Considered Scandalous?”, “Order Before This Offer is Taken Down”, or “As Seen on MSNBC” certainly stand out.  Of course, you have to tie that into your offer and if it’s clever and funny, people will forgive the click-bait.  On the other hand, if you just copy-paste something bizarre, you’ll get negative comments.

5. Give people another reason to read your offer besides the offer.  For example, always include a funny original meme or a hilarious joke.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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