A Quick Way to Put $1,000 into Your Paypal Account

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by TinkerAndPo

Okay here's the thing: if any of you are finding these blogs, and just feel too terrible to charge the owners...just go ahead and send them to me...

We'll both sleep better tonight, but me? I'll be sleeping on 1000 count sheets.

Just sayin'.

Now I'm ROFL!! I love the 1000 count sheets!

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by robbie foster

I used allin one SEO pack and google xml sitemap plugin. But what's up with headspace2 ? I mean for what it is used ?

I like it for SEO..

right from the free plug in download site - ( HeadSpace2: Advanced meta-data manager for SEO titles, tags, descriptions, and more | Urban Giraffe )

HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks.

[AndrewCavanagh]

While you're doing this you might want to ask how much business that blog is bringing them.

If it's already making them some good sales and profits then just putting it onto their own domain is genuinely valuable to them.

If it's not making them sales and profits and all you do is put the blog on their domain then you've really just taken advantage of them for $1,000 (put another way you ripped them off).

I know Maria wouldn't do this but I think it's important to also think through adding a strategy or two to ensure that work you do brings the business back some profits.

Even if it's just an extra $100 a month in profits you'd be helping them make an extra $1,200 a year...paying for your $1,000 fee.

The money is in the back end repeatedly selling new projects to a business where they can make more profits.

Help a business make profits and they will hire you over and over for project after project.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[JackPowers]

Originally Posted by Maria Gudelis

Jack here is the interesting thing to note - yes I agree for low tech businesses...

however...the biggies need it too - it will suprise you how much they DON'T KNOW...

seriously, this client is a very sophisticated (has a $60,000 CRM software installed - Siebel) and an IT department with very knowledgeable staff...they just don't understand how all the new web 2.0 stuff works!

Or cut their budgets to only focus on core stuff and not hire a 'social media expert'..

more opportunity for us

Thumbs up Maria! That's definetly an angle I can see working!

[Mari Raven]

Awesome!
Thanks for sharing

[drivedoctor]

Thanks Maria,

Awesome ideas!.... obviously it must of made good business sense to the customer to engage your services or they would have looked for alternatives.... or if they weren't making money from their website, chose not to do anything different.

Thanks again,

Mark in Nashville

[IMproducts]

Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh

While you're doing this you might want to ask how much business that blog is bringing them.

If it's already making them some good sales and profits then just putting it onto their own domain is genuinely valuable to them.

If it's not making them sales and profits and all you do is put the blog on their domain then you've really just taken advantage of them for $1,000 (put another way you ripped them off).

I know Maria wouldn't do this but I think it's important to also think through adding a strategy or two to ensure that work you do brings the business back some profits.

Even if it's just an extra $100 a month in profits you'd be helping them make an extra $1,200 a year...paying for your $1,000 fee.

The money is in the back end repeatedly selling new projects to a business where they can make more profits.

Help a business make profits and they will hire you over and over for project after project.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Hey Andrew,

you raise a very important point, thank you for sharing.

I'm a little ignorant when it comes to stuff in general, so apologies in advance for any "ignorance" I write in this post, or any other post for that matter ;-) But if a blog that is hosted on a Wordpress domain or Blogger domain, is receiving a ton of traffic via the search engines and has a ton of backlinks, do you simply setup a permanent domain forwarding to the new self-hosted blog domain to ensure that the traffic is being driven to the new self-hosted blog?

Any insight would be appreciated

[devilishsaint]

Its simply great is that true wordpress doesn't like that commercial blogs hosted on their server I've came across this thing first time.

[IMproducts]

Originally Posted by devilishsaint

Its simply great is that true wordpress doesn't like that commercial blogs hosted on their server I've came across this thing first time.

Hey devislishsaint,

so does this mean that Wordpress have publicly stated that they recommend all commercial blog be moved to their self-hosted solution?

If so, it would be helpful to know where that it is written, as this would help serve our needs in terms of providing proof to the clients, to help them make the decision to transfer their blog/s to self-hosted blogs.

I hope that this makes sense

Thanks in advance

[IMproducts]

Originally Posted by JackPowers

Great story Maria!

I could only see this work with low-tech self owned businesses. There's a lot of money in the crafts and many of these guys have no clue whatsoever about how to use the internet. Any office would naturally have an IT guy or two.

What I take away from your story is how important 'perception' on the part of the customer is. Your client would indeed rather pay $1,000 than attempt to move a blog.

hey Jack, good point that you raise about non-tech biz owners preferring to pay someone to move their blog :-)

I suppose the amount the client is willing to pay to have their blog moved indeed depends on how much their blog is worth in revenue to their biz ;-)

[mark z]

Originally Posted by Maria Gudelis

I personally love outsourcing as you give all the details to your outsourced resource, go to bed and wake up next morning with the work all done! Most of the outsourced Wordpress resources I use are in India, Pakistan or Eastern Europe.

Just to be safe, change the access (password) details after all done...

This is very important point.
Still, it is amazing how many people are missing this crucial security protection.

Furthermore, after checking of proper dbase and files transfer (or finalization of any remote project at all) I strongly advise the client (owner) to change the password once again. So he would be the only one with valid access permission.
For his own security reasons. And for my own convenience, too.

[LNSTRM]

Originally Posted by Vince Runza Online

BTW, if anybody wants to take a swipe at this model and doesn't have an idea where to start, do a Google search for make money online.

The #2 and #5 spots are BLOGSPOT blogs!

Vince Runza

Don't attempt it. You have NO idea who you are dealing with. I would STRONGLY suggest reading those blogs, though.

[source47]

This is a great idea! It got the wheels in my head spinning about other ways this idea could be used! Thanks for sharing!

[Ehanson]

This is such a great simple idea. Consulting is something I've always thought about doing.

Now, as for the price to charge ask yourself how much would you pay for a service like this? That seems like a fair resolution.

My only concern is dealing with someone else's business (in many cases their livelihood). For example a little which could turn into a big legal matter. You need to make sure you're outsourcing the task to someone who knows exactly what to do.

This is a great tutorial and a potentially great business.

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by IMproducts

Hey devislishsaint,

so does this mean that Wordpress have publicly stated that they recommend all commercial blog be moved to their self-hosted solution?

If so, it would be helpful to know where that it is written, as this would help serve our needs in terms of providing proof to the clients, to help them make the decision to transfer their blog/s to self-hosted blogs.

I hope that this makes sense

Thanks in advance

It is under their policies I believe - you can go to wordpress.org and find it - basically that is also why you can't put an opt in for instance on a wordpress hosted blog - which then obviously isn't that great for you since we all want a lead capture mechanism for biz owners.

I learned the hard way a while back having a high ranking wordpress hosted site and one morning I woke up and bam...site as taken down -they said - too commercial....or some words to the effect...

[Lady_T]

Maria,

Your post PROVES there's plenty
of money out there and more
importantly there are people out
there willing to pay you what you
are worth.

I appreciate the fact that you
shared your method which has
given me a lot to think about.

Now, I'm in action mode...thanks
for the inspiration!

This is one of those threads that
you subscribe to so that you don't
miss anything...

[Steven Wagenheim]

I have so much to say about this, um, thread that I don't even know where
to begin.

So let me start with this, and I am by no means going to try to be anybody's
conscience here.

Andrew Cavanagh brought up a very good point.

Imagine charging somebody $1,000 to move a blog that isn't even
monetized properly, if at all.

Sure, they have no need for your service again but imagine the bitter taste
in their mouth when they look back and see that they spent $1,000 on
something that wasn't really worth it.

However, imagine you did this.

You went over the person's business plan with them and maybe even
gave them suggestions on how to better monetize the blog and by doing
so, they actually made more money.

Suddenly, not only is that $1,000 a steal for them, but they're telling
their friends about your great service and you get more customers.

Or, you could offer this person a referral fee for each person that they
recommend to you who has a WordPress blog not hosted on their own
server.

Now you've saved yourself the trouble of having to look for all these
blogs...which brings me to my next point.

No way in hell would I spend the time it would take to find a WordPress
blog in the number 1 slot for whatever keyword I'm searching for.

Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack.

The 30 minutes work to move the blog may be nothing, but imagine the
countless hours you could spend before you even FIND one.

There is a MUCH better way to do this and while I'd love to just keep
this under my hat and sell it for $37 as a WSO, I'm going to spill the beans
here.

I happen to know that a lot of free WordPress blogs hosted on the
WordPress domain are hosted by clueless IMers...usually newbies.

Many of these people use things like safelists and ad blasters to FFA
sites.

So what you do, is join some of the credit based safeslists (they're free)
and send the following subject in your email:

"Warning To All WordPress Users...You Are In DANGER Of Losing Your Blog"

And then in the email, go into detail of why and offer your service to
transfer the blog to their own domain.

Charge whatever you're comfortable with.

Again, I am not your conscience. But if you want to turn this into a
great referral service, take the advice I gave above.

Now, for you folks who categorically bashed the OP for charging $1,000
for this service, understand something.

For starters, there are some people out there who can't even FTP let
alone do something like this. And if they have even a $500 a month
business in jeopardy, this service is more than worth it.

I could start quoting you prices for some services in the off line world
that would make your hair stand on end...like $2,000 just to power snake
a backed up drain...but there's little point to it.

People charge what they know they can get for what they do.

We need to stop living in our "Oh, I know how to do that" world and
realize that some things, simple to us, are near impossible to others.

Again, I am not advocating blatantly ripping people off, which I don't
think the OP was doing intentionally. A few questions to determine the
need for the service first might make the customer feel a little better
about the whole thing.

Personally, I would have handled the whole transaction much differently,
but that's just me.

The idea itself has some merit, but not as a "hit the SERPs and start
hunting for these blogs" routine. You could end up wasting hours first,
trying to find the blogs and then, second, finding somebody who will
even agree to the service. Some people might just say, "Hell, I don't
care if the blog gets killed. Ain't makin me nuthin anyway."

It's not a business model and I don't recommend people start wasting
their time doing this UNLESS they find a way to automate the search
process as I have outlined via contacting safelist members.

The mailings, once setup, can be set to go out automatically each day
and even if you only get one customer a month, you haven't wasted
countless hours looking for them.

And there are other things you can do as well such as write WordPress
tips articles and have a link in your resource box to your service page.

Naturally, setting something like this up will take some time, so you have
to decide if you think it's worth it.

Personally, I don't think it is because I don't think there is a HUGE market
for it. But if you are going to do it, don't spend countless hours doing
keyword research.

It's not the most optimal way of going through this process.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on this subject which has been a
very interesting thread to say the least.

[Michael Gentry]

Its like how many things can you do at once. Its a nice problem to have.

[source47]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

I have so much to say about this, um, thread that I don't even know where
to begin.

So let me start with this, and I am by no means going to try to be anybody's
conscience here.

Andrew Cavanagh brought up a very good point.

Imagine charging somebody $1,000 to move a blog that isn't even
monetized properly, if at all.

Sure, they have no need for your service again but imagine the bitter taste
in their mouth when they look back and see that they spent $1,000 on
something that wasn't really worth it.

However, imagine you did this.

You went over the person's business plan with them and maybe even
gave them suggestions on how to better monetize the blog and by doing
so, they actually made more money.

Suddenly, not only is that $1,000 a steal for them, but they're telling
their friends about your great service and you get more customers.

Or, you could offer this person a referral fee for each person that they
recommend to you who has a WordPress blog not hosted on their own
server.

Now you've saved yourself the trouble of having to look for all these
blogs...which brings me to my next point.

No way in hell would I spend the time it would take to find a WordPress
blog in the number 1 slot for whatever keyword I'm searching for.

Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack.

The 30 minutes work to move the blog may be nothing, but imagine the
countless hours you could spend before you even FIND one.

There is a MUCH better way to do this and while I'd love to just keep
this under my hat and sell it for $37 as a WSO, I'm going to spill the beans
here.

I happen to know that a lot of free WordPress blogs hosted on the
WordPress domain are hosted by clueless IMers...usually newbies.

Many of these people use things like safelists and ad blasters to FFA
sites.

So what you do, is join some of the credit based safeslists (they're free)
and send the following subject in your email:

"Warning To All WordPress Users...You Are In DANGER Of Losing Your Blog"

And then in the email, go into detail of why and offer your service to
transfer the blog to their own domain.

Charge whatever you're comfortable with.

Again, I am not your conscience. But if you want to turn this into a
great referral service, take the advice I gave above.

Now, for you folks who categorically bashed the OP for charging $1,000
for this service, understand something.

For starters, there are some people out there who can't even FTP let
alone do something like this. And if they have even a $500 a month
business in jeopardy, this service is more than worth it.

I could start quoting you prices for some services in the off line world
that would make your hair stand on end...like $2,000 just to power snake
a backed up drain...but there's little point to it.

People charge what they know they can get for what they do.

We need to stop living in our "Oh, I know how to do that" world and
realize that some things, simple to us, are near impossible to others.

Again, I am not advocating blatantly ripping people off, which I don't
think the OP was doing intentionally. A few questions to determine the
need for the service first might make the customer feel a little better
about the whole thing.

Personally, I would have handled the whole transaction much differently,
but that's just me.

The idea itself has some merit, but not as a "hit the SERPs and start
hunting for these blogs" routine. You could end up wasting hours first,
trying to find the blogs and then, second, finding somebody who will
even agree to the service. Some people might just say, "Hell, I don't
care if the blog gets killed. Ain't makin me nuthin anyway."

It's not a business model and I don't recommend people start wasting
their time doing this UNLESS they find a way to automate the search
process as I have outlined via contacting safelist members.

The mailings, once setup, can be set to go out automatically each day
and even if you only get one customer a month, you haven't wasted
countless hours looking for them.

And there are other things you can do as well such as write WordPress
tips articles and have a link in your resource box to your service page.

Naturally, setting something like this up will take some time, so you have
to decide if you think it's worth it.

Personally, I don't think it is because I don't think there is a HUGE market
for it. But if you are going to do it, don't spend countless hours doing
keyword research.

It's not the most optimal way of going through this process.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on this subject which has been a
very interesting thread to say the least.

I have to say! You really added a lot of value to this thread. You made some very good points. I think that most of us has at one point or another tried to market to safelists with very few results. I believe that there is value in how you go about marketing to IM newbies.

I think that there are a lot of interested concepts presented in this thread however, it seems like the success that you would gain working on something like this would not be constant and probably not worth the time to find those blogs that need this specific service.

[wordwizard]

Originally Posted by Maria Gudelis

Glad it brought value to you!

One thing I forgot to mention - be wary of the time wasters...sometimes some folks just want free consulting from you so limit the conversation to 15 minutes or so... (I learned that the hard way )

Oh so true! I once had a client who was shocked, SHOCKED, that I expected him to actually pay me for the hours we spent on the phone consulting about what to do with his website. He thought that was all free! My bad for letting him get away with this too long, and for not keeping close enough tabs on the talk time in the first place.

But I've learned my lesson!

Awesome thread, Maria! And thanks, Steven, for your comment about how to find those bloggers ;-)

One more thought -- I would be a bit weary about advertising this as an emergency cash method. I have found it works least well when you really need the money. It's like you're wearing potential client repellant.

Better to find another emergency tactic and approach those businesses when not in an emergency mode.

Elisabeth

[Chris Pambos]

Smart thinking and quick execution Maria Gudelis, resulting in an insane net profit for 2 hours of your time or even less.

Goes to show that one only needs to use their smarts and take action on potential profitable situation to turn those potential profitable situations into profitable situations.

[IMproducts]

Originally Posted by Maria Gudelis

It is under their policies I believe - you can go to wordpress.org and find it - basically that is also why you can't put an opt in for instance on a wordpress hosted blog - which then obviously isn't that great for you since we all want a lead capture mechanism for biz owners.

I learned the hard way a while back having a high ranking wordpress hosted site and one morning I woke up and bam...site as taken down -they said - too commercial....or some words to the effect...

Thanks Maria.

That's why I believe the project cost of moving a "commercial" blog from a wordpress hosted blog to a self-hosted blog is correlated to the value of the blog to the business owner. :-)

For e.g. the $1000 you charged the owner for the migration could of actually been undervalued. Imagine if that blog was turning over $24,000 per year, and the same event that occurred to you (blog just disappeared overnight) happened to that biz owner.

I would of thought that in this hypothetical example, the value of the migration was ca. $2,000 (1 month's revenue)

I would prefer to pay $2,000 to 100% remove the risk of losing all of the income.

What do you think?

[Troy_Phillips]

A friend owned some lake front property. At the time he developed lake front property in our area was around $60,000 an acre (few years back)

He manicured the property and put a $250,000 an acre price tag on his . Real estate investors at the time only used local brokers to market property. He used local brokers but did more marketing Himself . He targeted places such as West Palm Beach and other spots that He knew had some real money .

The local brokers said He was crazy . The area competition laughed at him when he was not looking . With a handful of brochures and a nine hour drive south he started the process of closing ten deals .

In less than 45 days he closed . Now the local brokers and competitors alike thought he was a genius. You see he drove the price of lake front property to a new level in our area .

They started listing and getting $250,000 an acre for their property.

The local businessman Then done something that branded him as crazy again. He took his property off the market for 2 years . In this time all the available good lots sold in the area .

He put his lots back on the market ... only at 1 million an acre this time . He had 26 lots left and sold 16 of them in less than a year . Took the other ten off the market . I wonder what the price will be on these in a few years ?

The point is . The op offered a service for a set price . The price may seem high to some . The one it didn't seem high to was the only one that mattered ... the one with the money .

A new precedence was set for this type of research , sales process, and service .

Now for the ones that can do this type of service . Will you do the same type of service at this new perceived value or will you leave money on the table ?

[discrat]

Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips

A friend owned some lake front property. At the time he developed lake front property in our area was around $60,000 an acre (few years back)

He manicured the property and put a $250,000 an acre price tag on his . Real estate investors at the time only used local brokers to market property. He used local brokers but did more marketing Himself . He targeted places such as West Palm Beach and other spots that He knew had some real money .

The local brokers said He was crazy . The area competition laughed at him when he was not looking . With a handful of brochures and a nine hour drive south he started the process of closing ten deals .

In less than 45 days he closed . Now the local brokers and competitors alike thought he was a genius. You see he drove the price of lake front property to a new level in our area .

They started listing and getting $250,000 an acre for their property.

The local businessman Then done something that branded him as crazy again. He took his property off the market for 2 years . In this time all the available good lots sold in the area .

He put his lots back on the market ... only at 1 million an acre this time . He had 26 lots left and sold 16 of them in less than a year . Took the other ten off the market . I wonder what the price will be on these in a few years ?

The point is . The op offered a service for a set price . The price may seem high to some . The one it didn't seem high to was the only one that mattered ... the one with the money .

A new precedence was set for this type of research , sales process, and service .

Now for the ones that can do this type of service . Will you do the same type of service at this new perceived value or will you leave money on the table ?

Troy, I might not see eye to eye with on this thread but I must admit you have a masterful skill of making a point and I give you credit.
Although I guess I can see your point to a certain extent. I imagine you could compare it to a Gator Fan who would perceive the $300 ticket to yesterdays game pretty reasonable compared to a Dawg Fan whose his perception of that Price might be a little different after the outcome.

[Chris-]

Firstly, thanks for an interesting idea!

Secondly, how do you contact them? Do you put all the details of what you are offering, or just a "teaser" sentence, as a comment on their Blog, or is there some other way to contact them (I don't know much about WordPress.com!)??

thanks

Chris

[DannyLucas]

Thanks for the post.

Great info. Thanks for sharing with us.

Also, I have to agree with Jonathan and Janet. The "value" is actually decided by the customer/client by what they are willing to pay for something. But still - you are to be congratulated for noticing an issue and subsequently sharing that issue with the client. You capitalized on your knowledge and yet the client benefited too. A true Win Win!

[rayneman]

Wow,thats pretty cool alrite!

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by Chris-

Firstly, thanks for an interesting idea!

Secondly, how do you contact them? Do you put all the details of what you are offering, or just a "teaser" sentence, as a comment on their Blog, or is there some other way to contact them (I don't know much about WordPress.com!)??

thanks

Chris

You contact them as per 'your style' as 'keep it real' is what works in today's world.

So you can email and say 'you're valued website on 'the url' is at risk...you may not know this but it can be taken down for being used for commercial purposes - I can help...call me

or I can help...when would be a good time to call you and at what convenient number?

or call them if you have the phone number..

cheers ,maria gudelis

[Troy_Phillips]

Originally Posted by discrat

Troy, I might not see eye to eye with on this thread but I must admit you have a masterful skill of making a point and I give you credit.
Although I guess I can see your point to a certain extent. I imagine you could compare it to a Gator Fan who would perceive the $300 ticket to yesterdays game pretty reasonable compared to a Dawg Fan whose his perception of that Price might be a little different after the outcome.

I am not siding one way or the other . For me I would have a problem with me doing this . I in no way judge the op .

At the end of the day ... the person starring back at you in the mirror has to be happy with the decisions made that day . Something that does not effect me might be subject to my opinion but it is still just an opinion.

As far my reply in the post . I am just saying if this is for you ... think about the new precedence that has been set and do not under sale yourself .

I wear many hats . If I wasn't a true Tennessee Vols fan... That could have stung

[Steve1776]

How to Move from Blogger to WordPress Using Your Own Domain Name tells how to do it so you don't loose google ranking. Takes more than one day the way they say do it.

[Steve1776]

Originally Posted by xrahull

You may be aware of the fact that this could be something you could do for yourself with the proper knowledge, but to take 10 hours researching and learning how to solve the issue (or trying to find someone else to do this specific task for you cheaper), another couple of hours preparing the task (a lot involved in a switch over), and then actually doing all the work involved and praying that your new-found knowledge didn't leave some important tidbit of information out, you would have been WAY better off just paying the $1000 and being done with it. And this is how most, stretched for time, business owners would feel about the situation. This is without the value adds of all the other benefits this service offers the client.

There are three reasons that I can think of for a business person to pay.
1 See quote above
2 He could be doing something to put money in his pocket instead.
3 His time is free. Your bill is tax deductible.

[Chris-]

Originally Posted by Maria Gudelis

You contact them as per 'your style' as 'keep it real' is what works in today's world.

So you can email and say 'you're valued website on 'the url' is at risk...you may not know this but it can be taken down for being used for commercial purposes - I can help...call me

or I can help...when would be a good time to call you and at what convenient number?

or call them if you have the phone number..

cheers ,maria gudelis

Thanks very much Maria!

Chris

[reedk]

Hi being skepical as we don't want to get get burned do you have proof of your earnings?

mma fanatic
HawaiiUFC.com - UFC Gear, UFC Videos, UFC Books, UFC News, and More.

[owenn]

ya man nice way to earn but dont u think you unnecesserly scared that person to earn money for ur self ??

[davis9461]

Beautiful technique! I think that is a perfect example of "Thinking outside the box."

[kevinfar]

nice one Maria. Great thinking outside the box that everyone has a lack of these days.

For those who are saying that Maria ripped off the I completly disagree. For the business owner, the whole process would be have worth much much more if WP just deleted his blog. Also, for someone who said that he could research the solution himself in just a couple of hours. So what?

Just because he could research it, does not guarantee that he would do the whole process correctly.

Therefore, in my opinion the deal would have been just as 'correct', if the owner was willing to pay $2000 or more in the end.

It is all about perceived value

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by kevinfar

nice one Maria. Great thinking outside the box that everyone has a lack of these days.

For those who are saying that Maria ripped off the I completly disagree. For the business owner, the whole process would be have worth much much more if WP just deleted his blog. Also, for someone who said that he could research the solution himself in just a couple of hours. So what?

Just because he could research it, does not guarantee that he would do the whole process correctly.

Therefore, in my opinion the deal would have been just as 'correct', if the owner was willing to pay $2000 or more in the end.

It is all about perceived value

You got it Kevin! thanks for the input...

...if only I could reveal who this client is....and how much MORE money than the measly $1,000 investment made....

AND...remember everyone - now the company was able to install an autoresponder and lead capture...all those leads, all that traffic...

hmmm....when they sell product over $1,000 -

double hmmm...ROI is quite nice!