Making your Web hosting business stand out in this competitive marketplace isn't easy. Contrary to popular belief, however, it won't take a lot of money to do it - all you need to do is give it some thought.

The Web hosting industry is both crowded and highly competitive, making the task of getting your Web hosting business stand out in a sea of companies a difficult task. To properly market your company, you'll need to put a lot of thought in to how, where and when you spend the money you have allocated to marketing.

Your first step in marketing a hosting business should be to take advantage of free advertising opportunities. First and foremost, make sure your site is listed with all of the Internet's major search engines and directories. These include, but are not limited to:

• Google (google.com)

• Altavista (www.altavista.com)

• Excite (excite.com)

• Hotbot (hotbot.com)

• Alltheweb.com (alltheweb.com)

• Open Directory Project (dmoz.org)

Google is a particularly good source of free traffic, as it has quickly become one of the Internet's most popular search engines. And while DMOZ won't lead to much direct traffic, it will factor in greatly as to how other search engines calculate your rank in their indexes; therefore, it's crucial to submit your site to them as well.

Submitting your site to the Internet's major search engines and directories will take less than an hour, and is a must for anyone truly serious about success. Try to avoid using "autosubmitters" when submitting - many search engines won't recognize them. Instead, submit each manually. Check back in a few weeks, and if you're not yet listed, submit your site again.

If you have a few dollars available, you should also consider paying for inclusion into major search directories as one of your first marketing tactics. Like DMOZ, paying the $299 to be listed in major directories like Yahoo and Looksmart will ultimately boost your search engine rankings. If your budget is a bit smaller, consider at least opening an account with a popular Pay-Per-Click directory, where accounts start for as low as $25 and you only pay for the traffic you receive.

Some of the more popular pay directories include:

• Overture (formerly GoTo) (overture.com)

• Sprinks (an About.com property) (sprinks.com)

• Search123 (search123.com)

Also take a look at Google's AdWords program, a similar program that charges on a CPM basis instead of a per-click basis.

You can learn more about getting listed with major search engines and directories at Traffick (traffick.com), Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com) and Spider Food (spider-food.net).

Of course, search engines aren't the only place to market your business. Hosting directories like Hottest Hosts (hottesthosts.com) can be an economical source of traffic and exposure, as most are geared toward consumers in search of Web hosting services.

Also be sure to take advantage of free communities. Places like Jim World (JimWorld.com) and SitePoint (sitepoint.com), where Web site and business owners gather can provide you with a wealth of free information.

Lastly, stand behind your guarantees - doing so will often lead to customer referrals. Many companies will tell you that price usually isn't the deciding factor when a customer chooses a company to host with; it's service. In fact, according to marketing guru Chris Knight, ISPs and hosting companies can control up to 85 percent of their customer turnovers simply through solid customer service. This means if you manage to establish a reputation as a reliable host and spend your advertising dollars wisely, success is likely to soon follow.