I SAW THE LIGHT! ..Making money in the Offline Biz has NEVER been easier!

[J smith]

This one time I decided to do somethign similar (was a similar thread/idea a bit ago on wf) Where I'd offer a free .com name + free wp theme design (artisteer =p) and 4-5 pages of content (clients provide text) Put up some tutorials to explain/show clients how to update their wp site. All that for a pathetic 10$/month (but the idea here is that at 3 clients per day after a year I'd have 1,000 clients making me around 10k in fairly passive income)

So, all enttusiastic I got to a real estate office (where I work) and offer it to about 10-15 agents there to gouge the respones.. Well, I almost got half a response! (something along the lines of "I am thinking about it") lol, anyone wants to tell me what I was doing wrong? Granted I should've probably said I'll charge 100$ a month and 500$ set up fee, but act now and the set up fee will only be 250$!

But still, anyone wants t guess what went wrong? (other than the average age of an agent in my office being 45-50)

[MichaelHiles]

Originally Posted by ChrisByrns

Well, my clients aren't those trailer park, redneck, std-ridden, cheap ass kind of h*es. They are business women with class and style (and more money than the average IM'er).

The smileys were to indicate joking. I missed your niche disclosure in your later post.

If you're a single guy, maybe you could work out some trade.


^
|
|
This is another smiley face to indicate my jesting.

[Phil Spinelli]

They are business women with class

you mean
ass

[MarkR]

J Smith,

I can't say for sure where you went wrong. But my thought is that a bunch of broke real estate agents, that usually have broker-funded sites already, that haven't been able to sell houses in a long time wasn't the best place to start. The real estate market has been brutal for a year or two, at least in my area. The only three "collections" issues I've ever had (that most people don't talk about) with my offline web design business are all three real estate related, and all recent. That's the one market I won't do business with anymore unless I get 100% upfront.

I would try another market that is in better shape, that doesn't require constant modifications (houses sold, listed, off-market, etc.). Restaurants, doctors, plumbers, chiropractors, electricians and other businesses that people can't (or won't) do themselves and are a necessity in life are maybe a better way to go! Try it and see.

Mark

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

The smileys were to indicate joking. I missed your niche disclosure in your later post.

Oh.. ohhh, i got that now!

@Jsmith:
People are generally hesistant when you offer them some kind of service. In my case.. i had the idea, created my site and was looking for an opportunity - but wasn't pushing it. Then (surprisingly on the same day my site went live - pure coincidence), i saw an online advert "We need websites for our girls - contact info: xxxx(at)xxxxxxx.xx". I hit 'em up, described my services and the rest is history.
Later that week, i got orders from all around the country and when i asked from where they got my url, they replied "i just phoned with a buddy and she showed me her new website".

Cheers,
Chris.

[jamesdj1]

Amazing how this decent thread went from Marketing to sticking up for hookers. LOL

Chris congrats for taking action and on the success you are having regardless of the niche.

There's another marketing lesson found in this thread from RDG who posted...

IM Leadership

Saw it like 5 times already, just can't take it out of my mind... will find the way out eventually... lol

RDG

Howie's showing exactly how you can create another stream of profit by simply "repositioning content you already have or own" using it for what is now another hot market topic... "taking your marketing skills offline".

He's not really talking or teaching about anything really new or different from what he's been the past two years...just positioned it differently.

[msoon2k]

very nice idea

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by jamesdj1

Amazing how this decent thread went from Marketing to sticking up for hookers. LOL

Hey, i didn't want to share my niche - I only did because i didn't feel like replying the same to all the pm's i got.

Originally Posted by jamesdj1

Chris congrats for taking action and on the success you are having regardless of the niche.

Thanks, man!

[tnleverett]

Originally Posted by ChrisByrns

Okay here you go:

I'm offering domain-name registration + hosting + design to:

"professional" ladies (call them h**kers, h*es, pr*stitutes, escorts - whatever you like)

The first client i got was actually an escort agency, they wanted sites for all their 16 ladies - from that point the word spread in no time.

LOL Brilliant!!!

I like this!

T

[ChrisByrns]

I recently took this a bit further, in order to convince the customers that are undecided whether they should use my service:

Since my potential clients are not too internet-savvy, i offer a free "check out my services" package.. I basically design their site for free and put it up on a temp url (myservice.com/clientxxx/xxxxxxblah_previewarea_xxxx/preview.html).

When they see the result, they usually want me to register a domain and finalize the site.

Of course, i wouldn't advise you to do this if your service caters to a niche that know's how to rip a design and then just gets some cheap hosting.

But as a designer you should know how to protect yourself - one tip to protect your works is (i used it before and i won a lawsuit with this):

Take a screencapture of the site you created for your client, print it out, put it into an envelope and mail this letter to yourself. Do this on the very same day you created it. When you get it, put it into a safe, don't open it. The postmark makes it an official document. Just in case you're suing someone, pull this envelope out and open it.. the defending party will have a hard time explaining why you have a screencap of their site, dating from before their domain was registered.

[MarkR]

Chris,

You touched on something I was going to post. You could always give the potential customer a screen capture of the page(s) you designed, so they can't rip off the HTML for it. Depends on how paranoid you are and the niche you're into.

Also, on another topic, I struggle to find a nearly foolproof way to quantify the value local businesses are getting from the sites I create. I can't just say "look, you got 487 visitors this month". That's not real revenue to a local business owner. I need to say "look, you sold 7 deals, worth $1,387.00 this month - all from leads from my $120/month website".

I thought of having a coupon on the site, that visitors can bring in and get a discount, or get a free something, and then track the number of coupons. How do you create a tracking system that you can tie actual business sold dollars to the value of the site? I'm not talking about email marketing here, just tracking website visitors that turn into real incremental business.

And no, I don't want to interview hookers, etc.

I mean a real provable system for tracking value of a site for an offline business. i.e. how many more meals at a restaurant? How many loads of laundry for a dry cleaner? How many more mortgages for a mortgage broker?

Mark

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by MarkR

Chris,

You touched on something I was going to post. You could always give the potential customer a screen capture of the page(s) you designed, so they can't rip off the HTML for it. Depends on how paranoid you are and the niche you're into.

That's of course the most simple solution to this, but you can't show the "functionality" of the site this way.

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by MarkR

(...) just tracking website visitors that turn into real incremental business.

I mean a real provable system for tracking value of a site for an offline business. i.e. how many more meals at a restaurant? How many loads of laundry for a dry cleaner? How many more mortgages for a mortgage broker?

Mark

Well, that's something i've been thinking about a lot lately - You could *perhaps* create a website with just ONE special offer.. or with all the offers renamed (not the usual "menu 1", but
"special xxx") ..when the client walks in and enquires about that offer, the business owner knows that the customer has seen the website.

Or, you tell the biz owner to get a seperate phone # which is listed only on the site.

[SteveJohnson]

Originally Posted by Tsnyder

My question is if you started the business one week before your original post and got 27 customers in that week what could you possibly have done that was of any real value other than putting
a website on a hosting account?

Are they expected to promote it themselves? How would you
have time to do what is necessary for good search engine results
for all 27 in one week? That's a lot of work.

I'm not trying to be negative about your success but call me
skeptical about the real value to the customer.

Tsnyder

Any real value to WHO? Hey - this is 2009. If a business isn't on the internet, it's because they don't know how and they don't have any employees that know how. If the did or had, they'd be there.

This gets them ON the net, and opens up the door for a LOT of added-value services like content development, SEO, marketing...

And remember - just like the old guy who charges $500 to hit the broken machine in the right spot, it's not only time that is being exchanged for value here - it's KNOWLEDGE.

[Tsnyder]

Originally Posted by SteveJohnson

Any real value to WHO? Hey - this is 2009. If a business isn't on the internet, it's because they don't know how and they don't have any employees that know how. If the did or had, they'd be there.

This gets them ON the net, and opens up the door for a LOT of added-value services like content development, SEO, marketing...

And remember - just like the old guy who charges $500 to hit the broken machine in the right spot, it's not only time that is being exchanged for value here - it's KNOWLEDGE.

With all due respect being on the internet is akin to having a pamphlet on
file in the Library of Congress. You know it's there but unless you tell someone
its exact location they'll probably never see it.

The value of having a website isn't in just being on the 'net. The value of
a website is no different than the value of any other form of advertising. It's
measured in dollars spent by actual customers who purchased your goods and
services as a direct result of your advertising.

If the client doesn't know how to drive targeted traffic to their site they
are wasting their advertising budget regardless of how much knowledge you
may possess... your knowledge alone doesn't bring them real customers. That
requires work... and that's a lot of work to do for 27 clients in one week.

Tsnyder

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by Tsnyder

With all due respect being on the internet is akin to having a pamphlet on
file in the Library of Congress. You know it's there but unless you tell someone
its exact location they'll probably never see it.

The value of having a website isn't in just being on the 'net. The value of
a website is no different than the value of any other form of advertising. It's
measured in dollars spent by actual customers who purchased your goods and
services as a direct result of your advertising.

If the client doesn't know how to drive targeted traffic to their site they
are wasting their advertising budget regardless of how much knowledge you
may possess... your knowledge alone doesn't bring them real customers. That
requires work... and that's a lot of work to do for 27 clients in one week.

Tsnyder

I completely agree with you.. but in this special case, my clients know how to promote their sites: they are handing out biz cards, they rely on word of mouth, they announce their services in special online directories - having an own website adds a lot of value to their profile..

[stsnelson]

Chris,

Great job. Keep doing what you're doing and within a years time come back and let us know how things turn out.

I target a different market and I do not make any changes to the sites once up except changing a phone number or picture. It's pretty much a set it up and leave it type of site.

It's not new but it works when you fully understand your target market.

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by stsnelson

Chris,

Great job. Keep doing what you're doing and within a years time come back and let us know how things turn out. (...)

Thanks! ..And i definitely will share my story in a year. (Let's hope it will still be a success-story =)

[Robert_Rand]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

Congratulations, you just invented a web development company (which incidently is a pretty old business model).

You'll soon find that your $360 a year client that gets a free site in exchange for expensive hosting will ultimately turn into $2500 in overhead.

You're goint to have to figure out how you're going to afford all the changes they are going to want to make to the website on an ongoing basis, track your hourly work and connect that with accounting so you can get billed accordingly, and then deal with all the issues when they figure out that they can use a whole plethora of free sitebuilder tools with much cheaper hosting and demand to get out of the deal with you - suing your on the same basis of a health club where you cannot force someone to pay for services that they don't use in the future.

I think it's amusing how a bunch of IM guys are freaking out over a very old business model that was invented 15 years ago... and trying to rush to the table and compete in a very mature market. I mean, it's great that everyone is out rustling up local business -- but the path is littered with landmines. It's not the autopilot nirvana that IM'ers dream about with money coming in while you sleep.

It's a lot, lot, lot of ongoing, hard work.

I started a web development company in 1994 and sold it in 1999 to a large publishing firm.

Yes, ExRat, I am talking about my experience again, because I have it. ;-)

Funny, I think it's the exact opposite.

Considering well over 1/2 of business owners still don't have a website and a big % of the rest need help I think the industry is still in it's infancy.

Hard work? Maybe if you choose to not to outsource.

The truth though, is that even though you'll have plenty of pain in the ass clients... you'll rarely hear from most of them.

Just like most people who stop going to the gym... They continue paying - automatically.

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by Robert_Rand

(...)
The truth though, is that even though you'll have plenty of pain in the ass clients... you'll rarely hear from most of them.
Just like most people who stop going to the gym... They continue paying - automatically.

Exactly! With restaurants (e.g.) you'll have a lot of work, updating the sites.. On the other hand, with.. say.. nail art studios.. the only updating you'll have to do is change the prices once every six months - or upload a new batch of photos.. All this can be done in 10 minutes.

[MarkR]

The value of having a website isn't in just being on the 'net.

Spoken like someone who's been in this offline local business game for a while! Great insight.

Exactly. Any business owner that has his act together should be justifying every marketing dollar he/she spends. It's only good business.

Armed with just 2-3 case studies of successful websites you've built for local businesses gives you more than enough credibility to sell the heck out of this kind of service over and over again. Being able to say that you have an average annual return on investment of 400% or 1,300% or whatever it is, is music to a smart business owner's ears.

You'd be surprised how many small businesses just pay $100's a month to Yellow Pages or the phone company or whoever to "manage their Internet advertising" and get way less value that most IMrs can provide for less money.

This offline, local business opportunity is and has been a goldmine. I continue to struggle to build a process whereby I can prove/document the hard dollar value of my sites. With the social proof of the incredible ROI, selling to local businesses becomes just taking orders!

I'm still open to hearing workable ideas. Bring 'em on!

Mark

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by ChrisByrns

That's of course the most simple solution to this, but you can't show the "functionality" of the site this way.

Do a Camtasia Video of the site and try blurring out the url (if possible) or create the video size box small enough where they can't see the URL (just brainstorming for you).

Cheers,

Chris Negro

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by MarkR

You'd be surprised how many small businesses just pay $100's a month to Yellow Pages or the phone company or whoever to "manage their Internet advertising" and get way less value that most IMrs can provide for less money.

Mark:

Something to consider (and chew on) is the Yellow Page advertising does bring "known traffic" that brings business to the business owner. What Chris is suggesting is offering hosting and updating their website which does not bring "known traffic" to their website. There is a difference here in my opinion. One brings traffic....the method Chris is suggesting does not bring traffic ---unless their is an add on package later on.

[chrisnegro]

Warriors:

This has gotten me thinking of how to nail down a niche where there would be "low maintenance" of updating website content. Any thoughts on some niches that are low maintenance outside of the "professional ladies" niche?

This should be an interesting twist to the thread !

Chris Negro

[MarkR]

Chris,

I'm thinking the same way!

From my view, medical professionals, whether they be doctors, chiropractors, podiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, allergists, etc. would be great places to target. They don't change their service offerings, or their locations, or their prices, or much of anything else. They have money, and are historically very poor marketers.

I'm thinking most people have a family doctor and/or a pediatric doctor (i.e. won't be searching Google for one). But most don't have a regular chiropractor or a regular orthopedic surgeon or a family podiatrist or an allergist, and may look to Google for locations / doctors close by, which will help bring in leads for these types of doctors. Your thoughts?

Mark

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by MarkR

Chris,

I'm thinking the same way!

From my view, medical professionals, whether they be doctors, chiropractors, podiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, allergists, etc. would be great places to target. They don't change their service offerings, or their locations, or their prices, or much of anything else. They have money, and are historically very poor marketers.

I'm thinking most people have a family doctor and/or a pediatric doctor (i.e. won't be searching Google for one). But most don't have a regular chiropractor or a regular orthopedic surgeon or a family podiatrist or an allergist, and may look to Google for locations / doctors close by, which will help bring in leads for these types of doctors. Your thoughts?

Mark

Actually...nice tips Mark...they make total sense! Many thanks for your thorough response!


Chris Negro

[Jim Cockrum]

Brilliant strategy Chris - thanks for sharing. Interested in a membership at OfflineBiz.com? PM me if you are.

[stevenh512]

I actually had a similar idea a while back.. won't reveal my niche, but let's just say my brother and I both know a lot of people who would be interested if the price is right.

I wouldn't use a cheap "shared" reseller account though, my plan involves either a dedicated server or a VPS.. and rather than offering custom design services, I'd be offering a preinstalled CMS (I'm thinking Joomla). Price would probably be a lot lower than what you're offering considering my niche, but 2 or 3 customers would more than cover my costs and everything else would be pure profit.

[billionareHuman]

$810 per month to manage 27 clients? I'm sure they're not all calling you for changes/updates/help at the same month but if half of them are, that's quite a lot of time for $810 per month.

[ryansjones]

That kind of reminds me a bit of Global Domains International. They too have an interesting type of system, where you can get a web hosting plan through them as well as take advantage of their 5 tiered affiliate program where you can refer others to the company and get commissions for whatever web hosting plan they get through the company. I've only gotten 2 sign ups so far though (though I have gotten at least 40 different leads since joining), though part of the reason of my low performance there is that I have been focusing much of my efforts of putting my websites together, so that might change once my websites are complete and have an autoresponder system in place (possibly either with traffic wave or aweber) to follow up with leads.

[MarkR]

healymedia,

That's a great example. The ability to build it once and sell it over and over and over again has always been very intriguing to me. One piece of code to support and improve is way cool.

I've seen this done with tire dealers, dentists, etc.

The best part is that the business owner gets a website that would have otherwise cost $5K-$15K to develop, for a fraction of the cost.

Mark

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by healymedia

Definitely not a new concept at all, but definitely one that can bring in big money.

For reference, check out this site:
martialartsites.com

My brother knows a guy who's site is run by these guys and its almost sad how much he pays to get essentially nothing but hosting. Changes are almost never made.

Check out the price structure of what these guys offer, then do a google search of martialartsites.com (every site they host has their link in the bottom corner) and take a look at just how many martial arts schools use this service.

You won't need to be a mathematician to figure out how much these guys make to provide a templated site and hosting.

How do you get the Wizard Software Program so you can offer this to your clients in a specific niche? If there was a Wizard Script or Software to do this....this would be powerful

Thoughts?

Chris Negro

[Adaptive]

Chris, let's take this to private messaging. Can you please delete your post and I'll delete mine.

Regards,
Allen

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by Adaptive

Chris, let's take this to private messaging. Can you please delete your post and I'll delete mine.

Regards,
Allen

Done......

[Glenn Leader]

Originally Posted by chrisnegro

How do you get the Wizard Software Program so you can offer this to your clients in a specific niche? If there was a Wizard Script or Software to do this....this would be powerful

Thoughts?

Chris Negro

Hi Chris,

I do have a very simple system for achieving something like this, and once
my videos have been recorded, I plan to offer as a inexpensive WSO as
payback to this wonderful forum...It will probably be the week after next
before I get the time to complete this work...But I warn you, the system is
very simple indeed... a lot of people will kick themselves when they see it's
simplicity and ease.

HTH

Glenn

[GeorgeO7]

I basically do an inversion of this process.

I give away the first year web hosting on my dedicated server. Each client gets their own unique IP address.

I then sell a well crafted, targeted website, fully optimized for their local keywords that really works and brings them new business.

My fee is only $2500 - $6000 + ongoing maintenance fees of $50 - $500 per month.

I do offer a guarantee that IF their website fails to double their investment over the course of one year, that I will refund their purchase in full and take the site off line.

I've never had to refund a client, they all renew their web hosting and continue some sort of maintenance agreement to ensure the on-going success of their website.

My clients DOMINATE their local market and refer their business friends. I never have to advertise other than my website which also DOMINATES the SERPS for my keywords.

Some keys to success:

Do what your promise.
Provide excellent and timely service.
Exceed their expectations.
Get them new business.
Do ask for referrals.

George

[MarkR]

George,

That sounds great! But how do you document the real value/revenue your site brought in over the first year or any time frame? How do you track that?

If a client challenged you to say your site didn't bring in double the value, what do you show them? It's got to be more directly related to revenue than just "the number of unique visitors" the site pulled in.

Thanks!

Mark

[Hackbridge]

Originally Posted by william.jack38

Hey bryns, done a good job. But what the reason for hiding your niche? Its a mouth publicity so no one can eat your money. Please share with us.

How many times have we read about people having their niches stolen? I can't believe that you should even ask!?

Brian

[Hackbridge]

That sounds awesome! I'd love to see the videos when they're done. I approached a business today. I know that they don't have a website and have been wanting to get my foot in their door for sometime.

Brian

Originally Posted by Glenn Leader

Hi Chris,

I do have a very simple system for achieving something like this, and once
my videos have been recorded, I plan to offer as a free WSO as payback
to this wonderful forum...It will probably be the week after next before I
get the time to complete this work...But I warn you, the system is very
simple indeed... a lot of people will kick themselves when they see it's
simplicity and ease.

HTH

Glenn

[Glenn Leader]

Originally Posted by Hackbridge

That sounds awesome! I'd love to see the videos when they're done. I approached a business today. I know that they don't have a website and have been wanting to get my foot in their door for sometime.

Brian

Don't wait on me then.. get your feet wet. My system will also show
you how to prospect for new clients too.

Glenn

[T.R. McCarroll]

Originally Posted by J smith

This one time I decided to do somethign similar (was a similar thread/idea a bit ago on wf) Where I'd offer a free .com name + free wp theme design (artisteer =p) and 4-5 pages of content (clients provide text) Put up some tutorials to explain/show clients how to update their wp site. All that for a pathetic 10$/month (but the idea here is that at 3 clients per day after a year I'd have 1,000 clients making me around 10k in fairly passive income)

So, all enttusiastic I got to a real estate office (where I work) and offer it to about 10-15 agents there to gouge the respones.. Well, I almost got half a response! (something along the lines of "I am thinking about it") lol, anyone wants to tell me what I was doing wrong? Granted I should've probably said I'll charge 100$ a month and 500$ set up fee, but act now and the set up fee will only be 250$!

But still, anyone wants t guess what went wrong? (other than the average age of an agent in my office being 45-50)

I think you needed to sell them on the benefits of getting a website including the exposure of course, but the fact they can cut back on their print advertising (saving cash), their website is exclusive to them, they have the opportunity on their very own website to offer referral fee(s), if legal in your area, etc.... BENEFITS.. go after the movers and shakers in your company, once they are talking about your service the others will follow... real estate agents don't like to get trumped.

Thom

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by chrisnegro

Warriors:

This has gotten me thinking of how to nail down a niche where there would be "low maintenance" of updating website content. Any thoughts on some niches that are low maintenance outside of the "professional ladies" niche?

This should be an interesting twist to the thread !

Chris Negro

DJ's / Entertainers - I've done some sites for those kind of guys and the only updating i had to do in the past 2 years was 1) changing an address, 2) adding some lines of text to the discography-section, 3) changing a background color for one dude and 4) adding a link to a fansite.

[Glenn Leader]

Originally Posted by majidmaskat

well done chriss, but we internet marketers are not so familar with offline things, except postcards....

Then you should do a lot more reading around this forum. There's tons of good info for offline biz.

Glenn

[GeorgeO7]

Originally Posted by MarkR

George,

That sounds great! But how do you document the real value/revenue your site brought in over the first year or any time frame? How do you track that?

If a client challenged you to say your site didn't bring in double the value, what do you show them? It's got to be more directly related to revenue than just "the number of unique visitors" the site pulled in.

Thanks!

Mark

The offline business is about relationships. Working with the client and fine tuning their websites. After 3 months, I review their accrued Google Analytics with them and make suggestions to improve performance. If the website were not pulling it's load... I would know and hear about it.

I get great feedback from my clients about how well the site is working... how it eased their load of information disemantion... client stories from them as to how they were found on the web, etc..

This works for me... and for them. As I said previously, I can just take it offline. No One has ever requested that. After one year, I am off the hook.

The bottom line is that it works for them and they are happy.

George

[ChrisByrns]

Another niche that won't need a lot of maintenance would be beauty salons / nail art studios.. you set 'em up once with a custom wordpress design (cms style) and the only thing you'll have to do once in a while is upload some new images. Or add a news-item when they run a special offer.. when you have a good setup, this can be done in five minutes.

[AndrewCavanagh]

There's something missing from the strategy you mention in your original post...

Helping the businesses you work make real sales and profits.

You certainly can make good money charging business owners fees to put up a website for them.

And you can charge a WHOLE lot more than what you're charging at the moment.

Web designers have been making a living doing things this way for years.

But if you're not helping businesses make real profits over what they pay you it's a rip off regardless of what your fees are.

Put another way if I charge a business $300 a year for a website and that business makes 0 profits from the website I just ripped them off for $300.

On the other hand if I charge a business $5,000 to implement an internet marketing strategy and that business makes $10,000 in profits from it I just did them a tremendous service and the owner is likely to hire me over and over even at this multi thousand dollar fee.

As a Warrior you need to act with integrity and make sure you're genuinely helping the business owners you work with...not just lining your own pockets.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[ChrisByrns]

Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh

(...)
But if you're not helping businesses make real profits over what they pay you it's a rip off regardless of what your fees are.(...)

I'm talkin' about MY niche, Andrew. My clients get MORE profits - they advertise their services on forums, directories, etc already and having a website adds value to their biz. Consider this:

------------------------------------------------------
Name: Iris
Contact: xxxxx (at) blahblah (dot) com

OR:

Name: Iris
More info on my homepage at: iris-xxxxxx (dot) com
------------------------------------------------------

While i respect you for being a "top notch" warrior, please don't come across implying i rip off people - that's simply not the case.



Kindest Regards,
Chris Byrns.

[xlfutur1]

Originally Posted by MarkR

Chris,

I'm thinking the same way!

From my view, medical professionals, whether they be doctors, chiropractors, podiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, allergists, etc. would be great places to target. They don't change their service offerings, or their locations, or their prices, or much of anything else. They have money, and are historically very poor marketers.

I'm thinking most people have a family doctor and/or a pediatric doctor (i.e. won't be searching Google for one). But most don't have a regular chiropractor or a regular orthopedic surgeon or a family podiatrist or an allergist, and may look to Google for locations / doctors close by, which will help bring in leads for these types of doctors. Your thoughts?

Mark

Medical professionals is a good niche. I've checked domains of all the towns in my area and almost all the domains (ex. www.citynamedentist.com) are not taken. I use jon leger's webcompanalyst to see how hard it would be to rank in the top 3 and its a joke. some of the top spots have only a couple of links pointing to their sites.

There are plenty of dentists that don't have sites, and putting up a quick 5-8 page wordpress site with contact form (cforms) wouldn't take long at all. You could just do one for them, charge them $27 bucks a month for hosting, then tell them that you can get them ranked number 1-3 but to do that would be alot of extra work and that would be $100 per month (or more) as soon as that happened. There are lots of ways to work in the back end stuff.

[MarkR]

xlfutur1,


I agree. Medical can be great. But it pays to be picky about what type of doctor.

My only disagreement is the choice of "dentists". My contention is that most people already have a preferred dentist (except new families moving to the area) and therefor won't search Google for a dentist. Most people see a dentist at a young age and stick with them if they like them, until they move.

Whereas, most people don't have a regular, long-standing relationship with a chiropractor, or a podiatrist. Those are generally one-time problems (car accident, sports injury, foot injury, etc.) being solved. Therefore, many more people will use Google to find a local office for those types of situations. I think focusing on a business that people haven't been doing business with for many years is a better long-term strategy. i.e. I've used the same dry cleaner, dentist, family doctor, and grocery store for many years. But when I need a plumber, a podiatrist, a roofer, or a landscaper, I go to Google to find options in my city. See the difference? Make sense? I hope I'm not all wet!

Mark

[Phil Spinelli]

I'm still lost as why someone would build a site for a professional service industry for FREE and charge like $30 bucks per months for hosting?

These people make good money, charge em more money.
And provide a top notch professional service.

If you're an electrician in a lower income area you may charge $50 bucks an hour for service. In an upper income area you may charge $200 per hours (for the same job)

I guess it's the mental attitude and self worth thing.
People who feel like they are worth more money charge more money.