Would This Web Development Business Idea Work?

It could work, the next step is to find clients. Are you going for online or offline clients?

I would get $50-$125 per client (depending on the number of clients per month). The plan would only work well if people would see the offer and flock to it. If it would require lots of time and advertising to get clients to take the offer, then it wouldn't be worth while. I guess finding clients is the hardest part of design.

I do the same thing!.... It works fine..check my sig file

Work is more compared to the money you will earn.

Two things:

1. There was an interesting post about Hostgator commissions not being paid out, you may want to read it:
Getting Screwed Out of Hostgator Affiliate Commissions? | My 4 Hour Workweek

2. It *might* work if you specify 'exactly' what you will be doing for 'free'. Clients tend to be exceptionally picky, and if you are not careful, could end up doing 10 hours of work for $10.

3. Finding the clients is also a tricky part. Just because it is "free" doesn't mean people are going to jump aboard. And if you are offering website design for "free", you will tend to attract people who can't really afford it in the first place. (Business owners will doubt the quality because it is 'free', and freebie seekers will try to get you to do 10x the amount of work you initially thought you would be. I.e., lots of complaints, and nitpicking).

So that model - not really a good idea.

One thing that you might consider though is what some people here discussed a long time ago, which is the "Rent-A-Site' model.

Basically:

1. You create a really snazzy website for a particular type of firm, i.e., dentist, lawyer, whatever. Generic, but something that you can 'plug-in' pictures, etc for.
2. You then contact those people through the yellow pages/books, and ask them if they want to "rent" your site for say $50/month, but with their name/logo/etc.
3. If they say yes, you sign them up - and as long as they are with you, you get income. If they stop paying or don't want it anymore, you find someone else.

A lot of work upfront, but very good residual income (as people are not likely to change once they leave), such that it would be reasonable to say that with the proper amount of work, you could be doing $4,000-$5,000/month in about 6-12 months. At that point, you could either decide to scale up, or just enjoy the income.

John

I think it is a great idea. And yes, it will work. I have known people who do things similar to this.

For those saying its to much work for to little money. Assuming he can find clients, and do 1 per work day. He would make 20+ sales a month and earn 2500+ a month.

Not many on his forum have found a way to do that. To many people are looking for a way to earn big money with little work. That's a dream world most never reach because they never decide to put in the work.

95+% of the people in the world exchange some of their time (work) for money. It's.a great plan. It will take work, and you will have a learning curve, but it is definitely a workable plan.

Here is what I would do.

Create Fiverr offer that you offer unique website for $5.
After sending the website to the buyer ask him if he needs a hosting account, now it may be not cool not to send him the ready website after he paid you, but you will find out that many people dont have a hosting or even domain name (namecheap also have affiliate program). Hostgator pays $40 + $5 from fiverr is not bad.

You want to create either unique website, 1 page, or use some template and change the logo and colors only (themeforest). It won't take you more than 5 minutes. And as you see thats $45 for 5 minutes of your time. You can also upsell the person to namecheap affiliate program and some SEO package. Or offer consulting 1o1 about IM. Or offer traffic generation service. Etc etc. You can easily increase customer value to $60+ and 1 client a day from $5 unique site on fiverr would be easy to get. Its all about marketing here. Also capture these people to your customer list and upsell them in the future using autoresponder. They will be your big fans.