Knowing Where to Tap
Knowing Where to Tap
You guys know the story about the lady who calls an
expert plumber to fix her boiler because other plumbers
couldn't do it?
The guy taps on the pipes, listening carefully. Nods
his head, pulls out a ball-pean hammer and whack the
boiler. Problem solved. Took him 2 minutes.
He takes a break and joins the lady for some coffee while
he writes up the invoice. They chat amiably - yet when
she gets an eyeful of the bill her jaw hits the deck.
"You only spend 2 minutes and you are charging me $200?"
She exclaims.
(at this point we could go into porno territory but that's
not what this is about and you should be ashamed for having
such a dirty mind).
"Well, ma'am," the master plumber drawels,"it's right there
on the invoice - $2 for the tapping and $198 for knowing
where to tap."
###
Knowing where to tap.
For a long time in this business I had no idea where to
tap. I got better though and now I have a clue.
Today I typed in URL for a business that should be pretty
good at the web. I estimate that their domain-name
is worth about $100,000 just for top-of-mind awareness.
YET - I type in the url "website.com" as I often do in
my sloppy way, expecting my browser to just figure out
I mean http://www.website.com - and you knwo what?
It takes me to a page that says this:
Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)
So I'm thinking "What the heck? is the site down? That
could cost them a lotof money with such a great domain
name"
So I type in www.website.com and up comes their website.
###
Now the thing is - I know where to tap. I know how easy
it would be to fix their hosting so they aren't leaving
all kinds of lazy people like me thinking website.com is
down... when in reality it's not down, it's just next
door at www.website.com.
All they need is the address painted on the curb. Easy
fix. Could be worth $10k to them this year easily.
How do I approach them and how much do I charge?
Any thoughts. I'm laughing at this and I don't want to
rip anybody off, but seriously, this business is doing
something extremely stupid and I deserve to profit, right?
You guys know the story about the lady who calls an
expert plumber to fix her boiler because other plumbers
couldn't do it?
The guy taps on the pipes, listening carefully. Nods
his head, pulls out a ball-pean hammer and whack the
boiler. Problem solved. Took him 2 minutes.
He takes a break and joins the lady for some coffee while
he writes up the invoice. They chat amiably - yet when
she gets an eyeful of the bill her jaw hits the deck.
"You only spend 2 minutes and you are charging me $200?"
She exclaims.
(at this point we could go into porno territory but that's
not what this is about and you should be ashamed for having
such a dirty mind).
"Well, ma'am," the master plumber drawels,"it's right there
on the invoice - $2 for the tapping and $198 for knowing
where to tap."
###
Knowing where to tap.
For a long time in this business I had no idea where to
tap. I got better though and now I have a clue.
Today I typed in URL for a business that should be pretty
good at the web. I estimate that their domain-name
is worth about $100,000 just for top-of-mind awareness.
YET - I type in the url "website.com" as I often do in
my sloppy way, expecting my browser to just figure out
I mean http://www.website.com - and you knwo what?
It takes me to a page that says this:
Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)
So I'm thinking "What the heck? is the site down? That
could cost them a lotof money with such a great domain
name"
So I type in www.website.com and up comes their website.
###
Now the thing is - I know where to tap. I know how easy
it would be to fix their hosting so they aren't leaving
all kinds of lazy people like me thinking website.com is
down... when in reality it's not down, it's just next
door at www.website.com.
All they need is the address painted on the curb. Easy
fix. Could be worth $10k to them this year easily.
How do I approach them and how much do I charge?
Any thoughts. I'm laughing at this and I don't want to
rip anybody off, but seriously, this business is doing
something extremely stupid and I deserve to profit, right?
nothing to see here.