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"Don't Sell Websites"

by digidoodles
9 replies
I'm trying to generate multiple streams of income... ok, ANY stream of income at this point (No, I'm a copywriter and I do fairly ok ... the problem is... wait for it... TIME!)

I have such a varied skill set... and I saw someone's suggestion about making a test site and sending it to offline businesses.

Then I saw someone in another thread say "Don't sell websites."

Can anyone and everyone elaborate please?

Are we talking selling them a website and then selling them services such as monthly articles for article marketing to boost their google rank? If not, then what am I missing?

What should I be selling them (besides me ?

Thanks in advance!
#dont sell websites
  • Profile picture of the author edpudol1973
    Well in my experience in site flipping, sometimes some of my customer after buying the site, they acquire my outsourcing service to promote their site.

    I guess your idea is great way to make more money in your side, and easier way for the buyer to get more article for their site or for article marketing of their new owned site.
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
      That was someone whom hasn't had much success in selling websites.

      Flipping will not work for everyone, and most who claim to make a living at it use methods that amount to a minimum wage job.

      A domain, WP blog, free theme won't cut it in most cases. People want to see a modest income, custom graphics, traffic, a Click Bank ready product, list, reports, original content, etc...

      You have to have a system in place where you can build multiple sites fast, and with all the features mentioned above. A defined target market, and solid business plan.
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      • Profile picture of the author digidoodles
        I think the people I need to answer haven't peaked in.. ha

        It's offline-- it's not about website flipping.

        For example, I create a site for a dentist and I need to charge him a monthly fee.. FOR WHAT?

        What, other than hosting, do I provide to him? (article writing to boost google like X articles per month or ?)

        Thanks in advance!
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  • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
    Ok, I can only guess what this person means by "Don't sell websites"... but... here's my take on it. This is only my own interpretation:

    You're not selling the actual website. You're selling all the benefits and awesomeness that having a good website can bring the business owner.

    For example: A pet store. They have puppies and kittens and stuff. They have no website OR they have a that kind of corporate, "find a store" address-and-phone-number kind of thing.

    You put up a a good, attractive, friendly-looking website of your own. It can be a WP theme. You then, for example, film your daughter or your niece playing with a kitten, playing with a puppy, having a great time. You put these videos up on youtube and on your website. You get people to comment on them: "So cute!" "I love this puppy he's funny!" etc.

    You then start hitting pet stores. You show them your website with the videos. You then say to them "How would you like it if, for every puppy and kitten you have here, you could make this exact same thing, a video featuring that very puppy in your store, playing with someone, being cute, people going aww and laughing at it falling in love with it before ever even setting foot in your store? Would that be valuable to you?"

    You then say "How you like it if you had a list, a literal LIST of people who would sign up to hear about when you had a new video to show? A list of people whom you already know love puppies and kittens and watching videos of them, at your beck and call, ready to receive messages from you whenever you like? Would that be valuable to you?"

    ...and so on and so forth. Again, I can't say what this person really meant, but that is what I used to do as an "offliner" and, it works.
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    • Profile picture of the author MarkR
      I think the intent of the post you may be thinking about that says "don't sell websites" is that you don't want to get caught selling a "product", or a specific item, that can be comparison shopped, and whittled down to the cheapest price.

      Instead, you want to sell your skills as a "marketer" (notice I didn't say "Internet marketer"). Sell a plan that creates new business for an offline business owner. Sell a time-tested, well thought out "plan" for taking a business owner to a position of higher profits/revenue.

      The plan may indeed start with a "website", but it also may include a Blog, social marketing, press releases, email list building, auto responder services, traffic generation/SEO, etc. etc. But don't confuse the business owner with all the jargon/acronyms. Just tell them that you will use your "marketing skills" along with the power of the Internet to bring them more business. That's what they want to hear and what they will pay for.

      I hope that distinction makes sense.

      Mark
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      • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
        Originally Posted by MarkR View Post

        But don't confuse the business owner with all the jargon/acronyms. Just tell them that you will use your "marketing skills" along with the power of the Internet to bring them more business. That's what they want to hear and what they will pay for.
        Yep that is exactly right. Put everything into terms of what's going to be happening for them. The fact that there are websites or videos or whatever involved, is incidental.
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    • Profile picture of the author Roger Mayne
      Originally Posted by hmbehrens View Post

      Ok, I can only guess what this person means by "Don't sell websites"... but... here's my take on it. This is only my own interpretation:

      You're not selling the actual website. You're selling all the benefits and awesomeness that having a good website can bring the business owner.
      This is how I would have interpreted it. A web site isn't a thing, it's a medium for marketing, if worked properly.

      As Mark says, they don't necessarily need (or want) to know how you market their site, they just want results. If that means you write and distribute articles, or create a blog and even write posts for it, so be it.

      The trick is to sell the benefits, and you do the rest. Just set your price according to the level of work it will take, and how much they want to get out of their web site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Harry Behrens
    Ok, you know what, I probably shouldn't do this and if I see anything weird going on I'll come back and delete the link, but here is an actual, real-life, literal website that I made for a client two years ago. With the very same pitches I describe above "Imagine that the parent of the children at the camp, at the end of the day, could actually come on to the website and literally see their children playing and having fun at your camp.. would that be valuable to you?"

    She was deliriously happy with it and it's just a simple wordpress theme I customized with some graphics done up in photoshop very easily, some paypal buttons, and the wonderful cForms plugin. Here it is: Hola Mundo Camp

    Like I say, I'm a bit leery of posting this here but in the interest of helping people see what can be done, here it is. Please respect the site and don't do anything weird to it
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  • Profile picture of the author Lightlysalted
    sites like SEDO.COM are the market leaders in the purchase and sales of websites and are used by many individuals to do website flipping. Essentially website flipping involves you buying a domain and then putting some content on as quickly as possible and making it ready for sale in the fastest possible time so that you can move on to the next project. If you are a copywriter then website flipping my be a good strategy for you if you are used to writing high quality content quickly. Usually you would need around 50 articles on a site to make it worth selling and also be able to demonstrate a growing stream of traffic or revenue. It's very hard work but the returns can be excellent.
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