Are You Working The Free Site Model? If So Can You Help?

I would have thought that the value would have been in creating the free website.

However I had plans on charging $14.95 per month which would include website updates, and a small seo backlink package.

Baring in mind this is only to get my foot in the door with businesses with the change to upsell them to better services.

Let me re read the thread an offer some input. I just answered based on the main question in the first post...one sec.

Okay,

There are many things that theoretically should work and dont....and there are many things that theoretically should NOT work, and Do.

I think$24.00 per month is what you want to charge if you have a "directory" site and you are just putting up a little info on a template page for them. "Hosting" is a word that perhaps I myself even have used too loosely, and its meant to include maintenance...the way I use it sometimes.

If you are working on ranking your site every week, and they dont want to pay $500 per month to guys like the ones above in order to get traffic... then they should pay you more than regular $7.00 hosting to be on your site which DOES get regular maintenance...

Its kinda like "shared" SEO for them. In fact Thats a great hook. Im going to use it because its an excellent way to put this in perspective.

Many people dont want to buy a vacation condo, but they participate in TIME share... Because they get all the desired benefit without all of the other stuff that comes along with it...

So lets say your site ranks at page 2 for its keywords... Is it worth paying $24 bucks per month to be on page two? Half the guys that charge $500 are only getting them that far anyway.

So now what else do you have?

Also, you have an opportunity to upsell them... "Look Bob, your page is getting views and clicks, it may be a good time to go ahead and buiold that website and take this all the way...".

A way to think of it could be - We offer cheap products as loss leaders in the IM community... and we develop big lists... Free websites are an excellent opportunity to build your own market.

Dont be surprised if you see this in someones WSO soon, but "Now you have a mailing list of your own customers...". If you are doing one page template listing, it might be even worth while to do for free period.

In any event, to get back to the point, yes its a good workable business model. Back when I ran 100 telemarketers who did nothing but this all day...sometimes it would take a week to train one....but they were driving hard core taking 500 calls per day for forty hours per week.

"Most" of the guys who say it doesnt work havent put in anything nearly close to that effort... So they dont really deserve to say it doesnt work.

Many offline marketers dont even have 10% the work ethic of an 18 year old, hourly paid, pot smoking punk in a call center cubicle, and they dont get nearly as many sales for that reason.

The truth is all around that it works... As I have stated, Bower who I use to work sold 10's of thousands of template pages every year, and to my knowledge still does... by offering a free 30 day loss leader.

Hey, you want your own web page? You want to maintain it for $7.00 bucks per month? You think you are going to get the same value as you would from my site which gets constant attention every day?

Go for it.

Lastly, 2 more points:

1: If you give away 50 free web pages per month you have built a $1200 per month residual, thats faster than any MLM company I have ever heard of. If you scale out like bower and sell 1000 of them per month....then look oput! The evidence is all around us that alot of companies are able to do that. Its not an either /or thing for a business owner always, it can be an added stream. Just because you buy backlinking services from one person doesnt mean you wont buy them from another too, but dont take my word for it, because the evidence is all around

Also the evidence surrounds us that "loss leaders" work. Its not reasonably arguable.

Point #2: Every new listing you put up adds more content to your site and increases your rankings if you do it with a directory. Every time you upload a new customer its building authority and increasing relevance. Especially if many of your site owners have links on their own websites leading back to your directory...

So there are a hundred benefots.

Honestly though I would not build a site for free and 24 bucks per month... I WOULD build a directory, and charge $24.00 per month for 1-2 page listings that could be cranked out easily with a uniform template for each listing.

In a sense its better to make $2,500 per month charging 100 people 25.00 because if one drops out it doesnt hurt you...whereas for another type of offer you lose $2500 per moth when one drops out.

I myself am seeing benefits to both way, and honestly there are 100 spins you could put on any idea here and it would work, the real key is whether or not you are going to be excited enough about your vision to stick it out and take it all the way home.

Are you going to be as dedicated as that 18 year old, $8.00 per hour , uneducated pot smoking punk?

If so, then it will work.

I think its a great biz model if you are going the directory route.

Just think if you didnt even charge $24 per month at all and you made it TOTALLY free... Within a month you would have hundreds of people potentially, all on your mailing list, all targeted business owners with at least SOME interest in the web.

You could use that base to make more sales than any cold caller or marketer of any other kind... Just have to be willing to lose first in oprder to win BIG later.

I guess putting the "chipotle" in your biz as someone said in another thread, is what you would call it.

There is no agenda for this long post BTW, by now most people have the Bower report so this post isnt going to sell that report. Just want to answer your question the best I can.

I think it has been directly answered, but also I think there aare some more angles laid out here for you...Hope it helps!

Ps. You can make alot of things work if you do. Most offliners work for 20 hours per week and divide that time over 5 different areas of their business, whereas an hourly telemarketing focuuses 40 hardcore hours per week, on only ONE thing - "Sales".

So you see, alot of the stuff that you hear doesnt work around here is because people expect something for nothing. an hourly terlemarketer either makes it work or he gets fired... You'd be surprised how many things will work if you get a real fire under your ass... Most people think they are on fire and they arent working with urgency or focus at all.

Once you start working llike hardcore, all kinds of things will work that didnt before, but you have to realize that, and be real about your actual level of dedication and not imagine its more than it really is.

Not everyone succeeds and there is a reason... but you CAN.

Yes, the free site model works, but I would do directories if I were going that route.

Actually this thread gave me a new hook - "Time Share Sites - Shared SEO". Thats what it is but I have never found such good words to describe it. This could really clear things up for people about the value. The more people on the site the higher it ranks. Its almost natural SEO without trying because when you put a new person on the directory its just one more page full of relevant keywords and info. Plus you get paid instead of paying.

Like a forum for example. This forum draws its own power and is self sufficient, almost every post causes it to have more authority.

Avanyx,

The free business model is one that can work and work really well.

You just have to understand the many different forms it can take.

For you I have a few resource that you should check out.

Here is a free report that has a chapter on the Free business model.

http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/nrdl/NewRules-HR.pdf

Now it's the first chapter that you want to read. The rest of the report is up to you. I always read everything myself.

Next up, is a bonus for you.

Go over to amazon and grab a copy of the book:

Free: The future of a radical place.

By Chris Anderson

He goes in depth about the free business model and gives you a gold mine at the end of the book.

It's over 50 different Free business models that he throws in there that you can use in your business.