The Pitfalls of Online Marketing/Web Design Business (And Why I Quit)

Thanks for sharing your story and congrats on your new job!

Of course, there are things you could probably have done different to make the business successful, but what is it worth if you are not happy?

In the end, we make money to feel fulfilled and if you are happy and fulfilled in your new position, it doesn't matter if you could have made your biz more successful or not. Your life is successful because you are happy.

Good for you payoman. Glad you are happy and doing well.

There's a lot about offline marketing that sounds so attractive and it is but there's also a downside. It can be alot of work and if you don't have systems in place and a good team it can turn into a treadmill.

Ron

First off, let me say I'm glad you landed on your feet. I'm pretty sure we talked a few years back, and I'm happy that you've come to a good ending place in your career/business. With that said, let's take a look at "why" you failed so that others can avoid your mistakes.

First off it's a lot of work to get a website deal for $600. Do some research, look up the top 20 designers in your area, and find out what they charge for websites. I've actually done that research, they normally charge between $1500-3000 with some outliers less, and some outliers way more. I actually found a competitor that won't talk to you unless you have a budget of $25k. I started around $1200, and ended up my last few "websites" being around the $10k range. But at that point, you're not really selling websites, you're selling a marketing funnel. You're positioning yourself to where it's apples and oranges. ABC Website Designer will give you a five page website for $599. I'm going to give you a website that has been researched to give you four times more business. Do you know what color background has been proven to engender trust in your visitors. The one thing you can put on a landing page that is 3x more likely to engage your customers. The exact color your phone number should be? The exact formula for testimonials that pre-sell your service/product. blah, blah, blah. This is pretty easy stuff to come by, a business partner of mine compiles this stuff at Meclabs. For $400(the cost of a marketing sherpa report) I can completely change the conversation about what I'm actually selling. Because I'm no longer selling 5 page websites. I'm selling a proven marketing system in the form of a website. If you're in the website creation business and you haven't read these reports, you're doing your customers a huge disservice.

The conversation changes when you are the expert. You no longer get the PITA customers who want every little thing changed for free, instead you are more effective because you can truthfully tell them that you're doing the right things for them. It seems to cut back on the constant back and forth in website creation.

Personally one of the things we focused highly on, is conversion optimization and funnel creation. Who gives a shit if you can build a pretty web page if you can't get a prospective customer to call, or make them inclined to do business with you. When you specialize in conversion optimization and funnel creation, again the conversation is completely different. It's no longer about 5 pages of a website for $400. It's about selling a six month process in which we're going to fine tune their process so that it brings in 100-400% more customers. And you're obviously not going to buy a process for $600. You're expecting that to cost thousands. But the payoff is that you get to keep that finely tuned machine for years as a steady money maker.

Yes, that's what you get when you're looking in the $5 per hour mark. First off you have to realize that most "professional" web design shops are divided into different specialties. You have copywriters, graphics and layout and design. They really are completely different things. If you want to create stellar websites, you need to separate out those roles. And you're not going to get quality anywhere near that price point consistently. You should expect to be in the $20-30/hr range for good quality outsource help. It normally takes 10-20 hours to get a website done. So you can expect your outsource costs to be between $300-1,000. But, you're going to have a darn good website for that. It's no fun selling crappy products. You can do it for a while but that's not going to be something you're going to want to make a long-term thing. There's no point in spending $100 to get something done poorly when you can spend $300 and get something done well. But then again, that's not going to work for you if you're only charging $600 for a website.

I'll tell you one of the reasons why you didn't succeed is because you gave people what they said they wanted(a cheap website), instead of what they really needed which was a good website that had been optimized to make them money year over year. The core of a good business is in the referrals. It's a ton of work to go through the effort to try to bring customers in, provide them a half assed effort and then go on to finding the next sucker... customer. Do you realize that it only takes about a half dozen contacts to build a $100k a year business. My very first client I ever got, I did for $3k. Over the years I ended up with at my best count around 30 clients from that initial contact. He referred me to someone else, who referred me to someone else and so on and so forth. That's how you make a sustainable business. It's not sustainable to keep going after new people month after month. It's a lot more scalable and predicatable when you go after repeat and referral business.

The thing is I'm exactly like you. I only want to do the sales, and be the idea guy. I don't really want to get my hands dirty. That's why you can't charge $600 for a website. And why you need to make yourself worth getting $5-10k checks consistently. Read that last line again, as I think it's important. You need to make yourself worth getting more money. It's not enough to say I'm not going to charge $600. You need to know that the value that you're providing is worth $5-10-30k or more. Like if the client actually knew what you could do for her, she'd be an idiot to turn you down. People like you and me need to systematize it as soon as possible and hire out the parts that we aren't good at. You can hire a part-time project manager to keep track of all of the projects that you're working at. There are online collaboration tools that allow you to do this. We're not detail guys you and I, if that's what's required of us, we're going to be miserable. The reality is detail guys are a dime a dozen. You can hire them every day for super cheap. Guys that can actually get out there and sell stuff, now they are worth their weight in gold. You can take on a partner if that's what it takes(although my preference is always to hire).

The thing is all, we're warriors here. We're on the quest for ever expanding knowledge. We aren't satisfied with just building 5 page websites. We grow and become more valuable. When we are worth more, we are paid more. The question isn't how do I make $100k-250k a year or more. The question is how do I become worth being paid $100k - $250k a year or more? When you provide value the marketplace of a high worth, you will get paid that amount, sometimes you just have to have the cajones to ask for it.

Thanks for sharing payoman. Understand I was not attacking you for your choices, just trying to help those who might follow behind in your footsteps. One of the problems is that many warriors aren't knowledgeable enough yet to really provide good services to the marketplace. It's really not that hard to get clients in this business once you know your stuff. When your trail is litered with companies who have had significant increases in growth because of the work that you've done, you'll find it's pretty easy to get your next client. But if you provide little value, but only do a good job selling them a half-assed solution then you're going to struggle. I saw my income skyrocket in the last 8 years because I became better. I learned everything I could, I attended every seminar, I bought every course, I became a master of marketing. I think it comes down to when you are good enough to be able to really help businesses transform, then your income will rise accordingly. If you just want to sell websites, then you're probably looking at making $30-40k a year, because that's what website guys make. If you're looking to become a marketing expert on high-converting websites and marketing funnels then you can easily make $100-250k or more. Make sense?