A Quick Way to Put $1,000 into Your Paypal Account

by 187 replies
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Hi all, just wanted to let you know on a 'test strategy' I did that got me a client paying $1,000 for about 2 hours of work (this includes getting the client and the execution of the work)

1. I noticed while doing some google searches that someone had page 1 ranking for a search term and it was a wordpress blog NOT hosted on their own domain - it was on wordpress (e.g. "thesearchterm.wordpress.com")

2. I emailed the owner of the wordpress blog 2 brief paragraphs saying basically:

- you have a nice site, ranking well on google page 1 except you have a major risk exposed to your business. Wordpress does not like companies hosting blogs on wordpress that are commercial and whether it is today, tomorrow, or in the near future, you are exposed to wordpress simply deleting your blog that must have taken a fair bit of energy to create. It happened to me once and cost me some money as I was ranking on google page 1 in number 1 position.

If you are interested, I can help you eliminate any risk of you losing your blog for a fee of $1,000. That would involve transferring it completely to your own hosted domain, you have full control now in the future and no one can then delete your blog!

Everything will be the same and as an added benefit, you can get better search engine optimization with added plug ins and I can also put an RSS feed onto your blog.

***
Now I know the above paragraphs are not 'ad copy' optimized - nevertheless, it worked,
1.The prospect said yes
2. I sent the company an invoice via paypal functionality
3. $1,000 came into my account and I got the info to log into the wordpress blog hosted on wordpress.

4. I spent 15 minutes on the phone helping him with a domain name to use.
5. He set up a namecheap acct. and a hosting acct. at dreamhost
6. I got the access info
7. I went over to scriptlance, posted a job description to transfer the existing wordpress hosted blog over to own hosted WP blog (including all the comments as his blog had a lot of user comments)
8. Cost of scriptlance resource- $80

Hmmm...2 hours of my time, net profit of $920...

Anyhow, hope it helps fire up some ideas to all of you and feel free to test out the fee you charge as one thing that is interesting, is I now am getting other work from that company so the continuity is an added benefit.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #account #cash cow #offline gold consulting #paypal #put #quick
  • nice one miaroman
  • Banned
    That is great.

    Thank you for sharing.


    Mario
  • Glad it brought value to you!

    One thing I forgot to mention - be wary of the time wasters...sometimes some folks just want free consulting from you so limit the conversation to 15 minutes or so... (I learned that the hard way )
    • [1] reply
    • That's just what I was wondering! What if they took out a 'lot' of info from you, thank you and then do it themselves! Would this work for free blogger sites too, as in does google too hate companies who are using their free blogs for commercial activites?

      Thanks!
      • [1] reply
  • Very clever idea - thanks for sharing!
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  • Do you have a company name, or just sent a personal email?
    • [1] reply
    • Hi there - u can just send a pm - I have a few company names/entities...

      cheers, M

      • [1] reply
  • wow, that is awesome dude
  • Amazing Idea Let me try my hand at it now.
  • I can't believe it worked. If I had some one asking me $1000 just to transfer my blog, then he would have had it.
  • Hi,

    Thanks for sharing your success story..
    it is very inspiring...

    For me, i would have saved that $80 also as i have in-house resources
    to do that stuff :-) LOL

    Again thanks for writing so positive post...
    Mohsin Rasool
  • smart! thanks for sharing!
  • Great tip, miaroman. A nice method for complimenting my existing methods (I look for businesses using adwords that needn't be, and re-vamp/SEO their site)
  • pretty slick, thanks for sharing
    • [1] reply
    • Good idea, I will give you that.

      However, very hard to believe that you've made $1000 doing this....

      Why? Because paying $1000 just to transfer the blog from wordpress to your own host is extortionate.

      Anyone who owns a site that is making enough money online to justify this, will obviously know their share about how the Internet works and such. No way would I believe they would pay this much.

      Maybe $100 or $200 at most but not $1000.

      If this is true, good luck and keep at it. Even if it isn't, its a great idea and informative post.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [4] replies
  • Now thats what i call being creative, you did very well there to get him to pay $1000
  • I guess I'm not seeing how this will work. If the blog is on the wordpress.com domain, then switching it to his own domain will change the domain name, and thus change the google placement. Am I getting it wrong here?
    • [3] replies
    • Miaroman Thanks for sharing your great strategy!
    • I'm not an seo person by any means, but ...

      If the blog has made it to that point for keywords only, and not backlinks, it is probably quite likely that the new blog will gain rank.

      I would think that he should be posting to both blogs, but personally, I would post extra to the new blog. Over time, and maybe not much time, it could quickly overtake that number 1 spot, and then he might have the first 2 spots.

      If the blog is ranked for offpage optimization, he will need to build new backlinks to the new blog.

      While this may be an issue to keep in mind, so you can answer the question, your focus should be on selling the control over the blog. If your blog is deleted, that google position means nothing!
    • How to Move from Blogger to WordPress Using Your Own Domain Name tells how to do it so you don't loose google ranking. Takes more than one day the way they say do it.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Cool tip! Sometimes you just read some threads and you're just astonished to see how people come with very creative ideas! Well done!

    Cheers
    • [1] reply
    • another creative way to make money online
  • Good job man. Keep up the great work.

    Tal
  • Great idea!
  • great idea...I can't believe you got him to pay $1000 dollars..have you gotten someone else to pay that much?
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  • Sweet idea.. my only question is then how do you get the new blog to rank highly? I guess there will be a cross over period, but all the backlinks are no good anymore....
    • [1] reply
    • Having never used wordpress.com I have to ask is there no way to do a redirect to the new blog to save pagerank and backlinks? i.e. alter the headers to do an html 301 etc...
      • [2] replies
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  • Way to RIP THAT GUY OFF!

    Please don't take that the wrong way. I know that there is no "real" price for a product. It's just what the consumer is willing to pay. But I still have to point it out.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Now a bunch get bad ideas about money online, and offline...

      $1000 and friggin "billy joel" can do it to... this is how I did it,

      No No No - The world is just getting worse by the minute with this type of guides that leave a lot of info out, and then overcharges XXX$
  • If he was that willing to pay, then that's a fair deal. Anyone read Adam Smith lately?
    • [1] reply

    • Yup. That's what I said right after my comment. But between you and me...you know...if that guy ever finds out about elance.com he'll never trust you again and there goes a long term relationship. That's how I look at it.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Man, should i say, owner was totally newbie? Anyway, I liked your method too much, I am gonna to try out this today!!

    Thanks a lot, you make my day
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I find it hilarious that people are doubting that a business owner would pay $1000 for this kind of service.

      I work with a lot of "offline" clients and they easily cut me a check for $2000 as a deposit just for me to find a solution to a problem for them. These people are "offline" business owners and if you have ever operated an "offline" business you will realize that you will not have near the amount of time you may now have (being an online marketer and all) to keep up with methods of technology.

      In this particular case the person had a blog online that had acquired decent Google placement but let's remember that it was a FREE blog that is easy to sign up for and operate. I don't understand how this can be seen as someone that "is knowledgeable or internet savvy".

      You may be aware of the fact that this could be something you could do for yourself with the proper knowledge, but to take 10 hours researching and learning how to solve the issue (or trying to find someone else to do this specific task for you cheaper), another couple of hours preparing the task (a lot involved in a switch over), and then actually doing all the work involved and praying that your new-found knowledge didn't leave some important tidbit of information out, you would have been WAY better off just paying the $1000 and being done with it. And this is how most, stretched for time, business owners would feel about the situation. This is without the value adds of all the other benefits this service offers the client.

      I mean, it may be hard for some to believe a client would pay $600 bucks to have an auto-responder added to their site with advice on what to do with it, but clients pay it all the time. After teaching them what the benefits are, and weighing in on the fact that they are not "techies", plus the fact that it would take them forever (if they actually did it at all), it is well worth the $600 bucks to them.

      Just my 1 cent. The economy is too scary to be giving my full 2 cents worth.
      • [ 7 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • Sorry, but I would like to ask one more thing, can you give me some hint on how to find such buyers? Means, what niche?
    • [1] reply

    • Hey Laura - glad it gave you and others some ideas. Here's the thing, I never went 'looking' per se for it - I stumbled upon it when doing a google search for a certain keyword term...and just had my eyes open/brain open to say - wow - can't believe this blog is there and it is not hosted on their own domain etc. as in the future - it will be worth more money and just build in value.

      ...so that can be also in your back pocket when you are on the web and a scenario like above comes up in your search results.

      Here are some key pointers I'd say - the real opportunity is that Wordpress will / could truly delete your blog if it is hosted on wordpress if they deem it too commercial in nature...

      so...I'd stay away from pitching blog owners that are not commercial in nature. In my case, that blog was a company, pitching a company and branding key people in their company so I knew wordpress one day would take it out.

      it would requred surfing wordpress dot com a bit (suppose you could outsource that too!)- click on the tags on right hand side and you find a bunch of blogs - I just went there and clicked on 'health ' tag - suprised to see one blog that is one year old and yet has no page rank - (you can install seoquake in firefox to quickly see age of the blog, pr, links etc.)

      Besides commercial in nature, if the blog is fairly young, OR has no page rank at all - you can also pitch the benefits of growing 'your own asset' to the prospect - when you own the domain and a whole slew of benefits to them such as:

      1. ability to put an autoresponder on your own hosted wp blog (when you create a free hosted blog on wordpress.com - you can't install the html code from your autoresponsder (I've tried!) - showing wordpress hosted no like commercial in nature blogs...
      2. Flexibility to add more functionality at a later stage in your web development - e.g. adding a forum on it down the road
      etc.

      Hope that helped,
      • [ 5 ] Thanks
  • Congrats!!! Now that's what I call savvy business work
  • Hey Maria,

    Good going girl!

    Lol there are gobs of services like this one you posted that will help people and bring in good money. The thing is, they are so simple, most people don't pay attention to them, or try them out.

    I know I was guilty of this for a couple of years. I kept thinking, "Na, that's too simple to work." But I soon found out that nothing is too simple, and if you run a good service, are a little persistant, and do a little reasearch, you can accomplish much in a very short time.

    Another thing too is that some people under cut their price underestimating the value of the service. You have to know what to charge, when to charge, and have a keen eye for the need.

    Simple SEO, and light design work are other services that come to mind as well.


    Mary
  • Taking this up one level, it helps to have the mindset of a
    Buccaneer. Someone who works a 9 to 5 and comes home
    to sit in front of the TV and drink beer is never going to see
    this. You have the skills to give the client genuine value, the
    mindset to see the opportunity and the moxie to take action.
    Nice going.

    Tom
  • It's interesting, the wide variation in responses to this post. Some are here to learn and grow, and they "get" the basic idea right away. They may need some details explained, but the concept resonates for them because they're open.

    And then there are those who are so locked into their "making money is bad" mindset that they can't see past their own prejudices. It's no mystery why we see so many complaining about not making it and how hard it is. The culprit here is not Internet marketing, and it's not those who are earning the money. It's the mental habits that condemn boldness, confidence, professionalism and self-worth. Makes you wonder why they're so afraid of those qualities.

    A suggestion - for what it's worth - when you run across one of those "I'm shocked" posts, mark the name well. Maybe even keep a list. Then if you ever see that name again and they're offering to sell anything about marketing, sales or success, don't buy it. You've already witnessed the size of their vision. Do you reeally think they can teach you anything useful?

    What a great opportunity! We can not only learn from the positive, helpful posts here, but we can also learn something from the "other side" too.

    Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
    Charles
    • [ 8 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hey Charles,

      Some people think this way because they think like a consumer, not a marketer or a person who is in business. When they get to thinking about thrier own business, it'll sink in.
      • [2] replies
  • This is a great idea! I will try this soon and post any results that I may get.

    Thanks Maria
  • Great idea. Outsourcing rocks! You can apply the same concept for a ton of other tasks...
  • It's not about how good you are, it's about finding clueless noobs with deep pockets - best way to make money as many have testified here.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • great idea. it's not for everyone though. centainly one of the quickest way to make money in big way. i'm pretty interested in your product though but i believe that i do not possess those expertise and i end up not ordering. thanks for sharing.
  • Awesome job, Maria. Your quick whit never ceases to amaze me.

    This is good information for those wanting to make money and lack the technical know-how to do it.
  • That's a really good idea - thanks for sharing - well done!

    Mary
  • Great idea! I don't know that I'd charge $1000 for such a simple job (whether I did it myself or outsourced it), but I don't doubt that someone was willing to pay that price either.

    Now I'm off to try this one myself.. lol.. could use a little extra in my paypal account right now (I have bills to pay, not a lot of money coming in online, and in this town you couldn't find a "J.O.B." if you paid them to let you work.. there isn't even so much as a liquor store or a gas station in this town lol).
  • Awesome.

    Consulting has no limit on the web.

    Bravo!
  • Clever. How many times have you done this?
  • Thanks for sharing. You can also make a lot of money moving forums from one host to another if you know mysql. Typically what happens is that a person gets tired of poor cheap hosts and their forum is down more than it is up. You ask them if they want to move it. You get money from the hosting company for the new client.
  • thanks for this it's a really good idea. Do you think you go lucky or do you think a high percentage of company blogs would transfer?
  • Hi guys,

    Here's a point that a lot of folks who don't deal with brick-and-mortar businesses don't know: these business owners know their business, but don't know marketing.

    Local or regional businesses can spend way more than $1,000 on one-shot ads in newspapers, monthly circulars and the like. Plus (?), they can't track whether or not the ad paid off, unless they put in a coupon or some other way to do so.

    If it looks like charging $1,000 is a lot of money to just transfer a free Wordpress blog to one's own domain and server, that's because you're thinking like an IM'er. That's a fatal mindset!

    You cannot set the price for a service like this based on the "wholesale" cost of what needs to be done. The real value is long term -- keeping your blog (and the revenue it can generate) versus losing it to the Wordpress Police.

    Most importantly, business owners don't want cheap -- they want the best and they want it to work! If you are afraid to ask for big bucks as a consultant to businesses, you may drive away potential clients. That's because if what you offer isn't worth a lot of money, then YOU don't deserve their business.

    Remember the story of the furnace repair man? He tapped the furnace twice with a hammer, fixing it, and charged $250. The outraged client demanded an itemized bill. Here it is:
    1. Tapping with a hammer -- $1.00
    2. Knowing where to tap -- $249.00
    Go thou and do likewise...
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
    • Has Maria or anyone else had anymore luck with this? I tried to do something similar, but so far I have not gotten any responses. Perhaps I need to sharpen my strategy for finding possible customers.
    • Amen. That says it all. I really feel sorry for anyone who doesn't understand this and is also trying to make a living online. They are there own worst enemy.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • I had to read this 3 times. Great post!
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Great strategy. You really are very familiar in internet marketing. Thank you for sharing your experiences to us. Hoping it will help lots of warriors here who are looking for some income while they are looking for a right job.
    • [1] reply
    • DAMN IT!

      I had this great response that I typed up after reading the 1st page and it was all ready for me to 'copy and paste' and then...I see the posts from "Vince Runza Online" and "Bellis160", who literally took the words right out of my own mouth..sorta off... :-)

      Not sure how you guys pulled that one off, but I guess great minds do think alike! ;-)

      Well, that and you two made it sound so much nicer then what I had written down!


      Ray
  • hmm thats a very nice work..
    Great job and good earning with so much less effort..
    • [1] reply
    • You guys that are moaning about Maria overcharging her client are missing a few very important points, and they have nothing to do with thinking like a consumer or marketer.

      1. Maria knew about the risk of putting the company blog on a service which frowns on commercial activity. The client did not.

      2. Once aware of the risk, the blog owner didn't know how to fix the problem. Maria did.

      3. By turning the job over to Maria, it allowed the blog owner to continue operating his business, rather than pay the opportunity cost learn to do it himself.

      As for those who think the job was too easy, think about it. Setting up blogs and websites, moving them around, promoting them - this is your stock in trade. It's fast and easy for you, because you do it a lot, and you get better/faster every time you do it.

      For most real world business owners, setting up a blog or website is a one time deal. Sure, they could learn to do the mechanical parts, but they won't have the repetitions to be really good at it.

      Just this morning, I paid a local business just over $300 to fix my car window. Part of the power window mechanism wore out, and I couldn't shut my window.

      I had choices...

      I could let the dealer fix it. I'd know going in that whatever they quoted me would be the highest possible price, at least in raw terms. It would have meant driving to the dealer, and cooling my heels in a waiting room until they got around to doing it.

      I could have taken it to a repair shop, maybe saved a few bucks, but still lost several hours.

      I could try to do it myself. Research online and at the public library for the proper manual. Dig out the tools buried in my garage. Go to a parts store or salvage yard and try to get the best price on the part. Rip my car door apart. Curse loudly, bandage my knuckles and check the effing manual again... If I got it back together and working, I might have saved some money but lost a whole workday (not to mention the skin on my knuckles and my dignity).

      Or I could do what I did. I called a local mobile repair service. He showed up at the house, with the right parts, tools and skill. Start to finish, it took him about 35 minutes. A few more minutes of conversation, and he was off with a check and my business card and I was back at work.

      The part I needed ran about $150, so at most I would have saved $150 trying to do it myself.

      How many of you value your time at more than $150/day ($18.75 per hour for an 8 hour day)?

      I was happy to write the check, and so was Maria's client...
      • [ 6 ] Thanks
  • that is pretty cool but i can't believe someone just dished over $1k and the passwords to their site that easily. good thing you werent malicious

    nice job though making a pretty penny!
  • Good idea though I don't believe the price of 1000. YOU give us a choice of earning.
  • Those who think that $1000 was too much for this job need
    to read this book ...


    Value-Based Fees: How to Charge - and Get - What You're Worth (Ultimate Consultant (Pfeiffer)) by Alan Weiss

    Enough said ...

    -Ray Edwards
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
  • I am so amazed at the cluelessness of some of the people who come here supposedly to learn how to make money and run a business, online or offline.

    You're the same noobs and bozos who would cry in agony when learning that some IT consultant charges $2500 an hour - and gets it. So he spends 10 hours working out how to revamp a company's IT systems and gets paid $25K. Not bad for a day's work, eh?

    RIPOFF!!!, you cry!

    The company changed its systems, and because of the changes, saves $350K every year in costs.

    Is the IT consultant still not worth $25K?

    Many of you would still say "NO, he's not!"

    Amazing.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Can't believe I missed this post .... maybe I slept through October.

    This is a great tactic and I think I might employ it. What some of you are missing is that everyone has a duty to charge for their time and their skill. I think $1,000 is a deal to make sure your site is intact and not stripped off the wordpress site.

    Information is money. This is something I'm drilling in my head. I live in such an Internet bubble that I take it for granted that others know what I know and then I shocked when I get out and find out they know NOTHING! I mean nothing. They don't know what PPC is, SEO, keyword research, none of it.

    Lately I've been thinking of doing a free seminar with offline buisnesses so they can hire me to do their PPC etc.

    Anyway, great post!
  • This is a useful idea, so thanks to the OP for sharing.

    The value of the service is only an issue, because on the face of it, it appears to be a very simple job. When you itemise the work done, the broken down cost becomes more manageable and understandable.

    The cost also determines the quality of service and previous experience of the person offering the service. A client paying $1,000 for this job can expect near perfection, wheras a client paying $10 for this job cannot.

    It only becomes an issue when high prices are charged for poor services, which then gives others in the same field of business a potential bad reputation (not suggesting the OP is doing this - it looks like a job well done!).
  • Maria,

    You might want to learn a little about Wordpress - as that $80 is only 5 minutes work when you know how to back up and restore wordpress databases.

    Andy
  • This is a real nice idea. However, I would'nt have the guts to charge a person $1000 for a $80 job. Is this about the hammer and where to put it to fix the problem kind of story. I guess so.

    Anyways, I now understand the WSO about making money giving away free consultations.
  • Interesting idea on how to make a consulting profit...I will keep it in mind...thanks for sharing...
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  • Wow, that's really so inspiring.
    Its these type of posts that makes me want to do offline marketing.

    Nice work.

    Faraz
  • Maria - I Can not thank you enough... I purchased your wso offline marketing for $5 and then I purchased your wso for $27 a little less then two weeks
    ago... I just got home from securing my first deal. A Duct Cleaning Company is paying me $1500.00... I got $500 today and the other half he agreed to pay on Monday... I spent 4 hours this morning explaining the mind map and this was the first time that we met... He then cut me a cheque and signed a legal consultant agreement to pay the remainder by next monday...

    This is such a great feeling... Thank You Maria... From The bottom of my heart... Matinees on me... I'll bring my girl ... you bring the hubby... Lets party!!!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks Maria... a-w-e-s-o-m-e !

      Just one thing you do that I can't quite grasp

      is a client's WP hosted on my hosting account? or do I set up (a separate host account for each client? I'm thinking of user/password access, but guess I would take care of that on their behalf? and then updates would either have to be accommodated within the original budget, or as an additional cost.

      Thanks
      • [1] reply
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  • Thats a brilliant idea just wondering how to estimate the financial value of a potential client site and are there easy ways to identify such clients.
  • Simple innovation, It is and always will be the biggest way to drop some bank.
  • Maria,

    Excellent. Just plain excellent. It is obvious to me that many of the naysayers are, well, inexperienced.
  • that was awesome
  • I think it's great!

    It really does come down to perceived value and what the client was willing to pay for it, you pointed out a very genuine concern and at the same time presented the solution, so why not get paid accordingly for it?

    You should beef this out and promote it as an emergency cash WSO.

    Kudos and rewards for thinking outside the square.

  • A little bit of an exorbitant amount you are charging this fellow wouldn't you say ?? I am all about Capitalism and making a very healthy Profit. Trust me I am !! But my gosh it cost you $80 and 15 minutes and you charge the guy $1,000 ?? I just wonder what your Customer would think if he happened to stumble upon this Post and read it ??
    In all due respect to the OP would you be comfortable inviting him on this Forum to check out this Thread ? Seriously ? Because I can honestly say I wouldnt have ANY problems for any of my Customers to check out anything I have said on these Forums. Can you say the same ?

    Remember, this guy is also an Intenrnet Marketer as you openly talk about in your original Post.

    Is it very prudent and business saavy to be talking in such a Public Forum about how much you just made off of a fellow Marketer ?? Just asking.......... Because he could easily come on here and see this.

    Not trying to single you out or be a hard arse but just trying to provide a little Food for Thought !!
  • This shows that ideas = money. Pretty clever. Thanks for the great tip.

    One question though: When you move the free site to a paid hosting, doesn't the client lose his SEO ranking? How do you about convincing him on this?
  • I think the key to your system would work in any field

    1. Show that you have looked at their site and done research
    2. Show genuine interest
    3. Try to help them, offer free advice
    4. No sales pitch cr*p

    I tried this approach today in my business (webdesign & SEO) and it worked a charm.

    One bloke couldn't afford my services, but I gave him advice and tips anyway. 2 hours later I got an email from his friend who wants to spend a lot of money.

    The original person I was helping phoned me back and asked me was it alright that he'd given my email address out, and offered to do any Joinery I may need. lol

    It just shows the power of "taking an interest"
  • Very cool stratagy!
  • Great work Maria: To those thinking the price is a bit high:

    Yes in part, the client paid $1000 for a new self hosted site. But mainly, he paid for being alerted to the jeopardy he was placing his business in by relying on a free WordPress site, which could have been pulled at anytime potentially collapsing the business.

    Maria had the good grace to point this out to him, and so prevented this disaster, set him up with a new web-site and did some SEO as well. There was also some project management involved, with part of the project being outsourced.

    I think $1000 is quite a good deal for all of this.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • WOW! I can't believe this is sill going. I love the Warrior Forum. It's posts like this that can really help people if they take action.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Wow. Huge price gauge on something that would take literally 30 minutes to do.

      I guess if you can find someone willing to fork over the cash, then why not, right?
      • [1] reply
  • All I've got to say is...ho. ly. crap.

    You're amazing, Maria!
  • Not at all - there's no price gouging going on! Your product or service is worth as much (or as little) as someone is willing to pay for it.
  • It isn't a huge price gouge for 2 hours of work.

    Here's why: She spend a long time learning her trade.

    If a plummer stops water spraying across your floor in 5 minute do you complain about the price or respect their knowledge?
  • I think its a price gouge(learned how to spell a new word today) only because you could go to elance and put up a $50 offer to move your blog to a hosted server and you would have offers pouring in.

    Now, obviously not everyone knows about elance or freelance sites - but is that knowledge of how to use a free lance site really worth $950?

    I think I came up with an idea for my next product launch!
    • [1] reply
    • No, it's not a gouge. Here's why:
      1. The blog owner had no idea that a "free" blog is at risk for disappearing.
      2. Suppose someone pointed out the threat, but didn't offer to do the work.
      3. The blog owner would have to have searched around and found out how to either move the blog himself or hire it done.
      4. Either way, it would have taken time to do.
      What is your time worth? Suppose it's worth $50 per hour. In only 20 hours of searching, joining elance and putting up a job offer, you'd be out $1,000 of your time. Never mind the $80 extra you'd have to spend to get the job done for you.

      Also, keep in mind that the OP provided a complete solution that worked. Suppose the blog owner picked an outsource that screwed it up and had to hire someone else to fix it?

      Be wary any time you say (or think), "All you have to do is...", because that phrase implies knowledge and ability another person may not have. Gaining knowledge and ability takes time.

      Time is money.

      So there!

      Vince Runza
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  • BTW, if anybody wants to take a swipe at this model and doesn't have an idea where to start, do a Google search for make money online.

    The #2 and #5 spots are BLOGSPOT blogs!

    Vince Runza
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    • Brilliantly said Vince :-) Anyways, I think there will be trend to move blogs over to the self-hosted versions, and most people are not techies, so that means there is a HUGE market for this idea.
    • LOL Vince,

      You NEVER get Griz to budge from his beloved and FREE blogspot blog. He's the guy in number two and he ROCKS.

      Monika
    • Don't attempt it. You have NO idea who you are dealing with. I would STRONGLY suggest reading those blogs, though.
  • This is the kind of creativity that makes people money. Thanks for sharing this idea. This gets me thinking of other ways to make money like this.
  • Man, just realized that this thread has been resurrected twice now.

    I am highly skilled in webmastering. I'm not bad as a teacher, either (having taught, at one point, at Apple Computer.)

    I have spent literally hours teaching people to do the simplest things.

    Sure, some people can look things up on the Internet -- but it doesn't mean they'll understand them or have the confidence to do it themselves. And, with a valuable property -- it's important to have it done "professionally" rather than DIY.

    I mean -- there are DIY on wiring your house -- do it wrong -- you can burn down your house or electrocute yourself. Some people -- rightly so -- simply don't want to take that risk.

    Some people would look at the instructions for transferring a wordpress blog and be cross-eyed -- they'd be having to look up every other word (dashboard? What's that? Plugins? what are those? ftp -- what's that?). They have a few hurdles to overcome:
    1/ can I understand it? 2/ do I understand it? 3/ what are the risks of doing it wrong.

    Maria also indicated she sweetened her offer, as well as provided the business with extremely valuable information.

    The value she provided was only partly in transferring the blog. It was also in knowing the tremendous risk the business was facing (big problem) coupled with the great potential (big benefit). Wouldn't you be grateful for something like that?

    If it hadn't been worth it to the business person, they wouldn't have paid it.

    There are ALL KINDS of things that people "know how to do" that are simple -- but it's how they got to the point of knowing that which was simple that is paid for.

    A friend of mine, back in 1991, charged companies $1000 for a 1 line fix in a piece of software. He was a smalltalk expert. He "knew where to tap."

    (and yah, I was a bit envious...LOL.)

    Live JoyFully!

    Judy

    PS -- I will transfer blogs; upgrade blogs; convert blogs -- you can find my Warriors-For-Hire thread in my sig.
  • Maria offered a service to a person who lacked the skills to do what she got done for them. She offered them a price for her services that they had every right to refuse or counter offer but they took it. They could (and should) have also went and got a couple other quotes but didn't as they were satisfied with what she offered.

    Yep, if they find this forum, she's hooped for sure but if they can't Google "set up my own blog" are they going to go looking for her? Not likely. They are probably happy to have had their "problem" taken care of.
  • Great post! Thank you for the advice. I am going to try that myself.

    Thanks,
    William
  • Again, I'll repeat: not everyone has your technical ability or technical confidence.

    I've done installs of wordpress configurations for a product where there was a video showing EXACTLY how to create that configuration.

    And people were happy to pay.

    Following something on the web -- sure, you can find it. But how do you know that the instructions are reliable? What does the person do if they get in trouble?

    People have set up scripts incorrectly and then asked me what they did wrong. Unfortunately, that's not always an easy thing to answer. I don't try to "fix" what people broke. I just go in and do it right the first time.

    When people hire me to do installs, what they get is not just the install. They also get the fact that it is trouble-free for them. It's one less thing they have to spend worrying about. One less thing they have to learn.

    People have limited resources. How they choose to use those resources makes a big difference. If I am a mechanic, will I make more by learning how to do a task that I may do once in my life (transfer a wp blog) -- or by learning a skill that I can market to my customers over and over again (like, oh, I dunno -- I'm not a mechanic. Say, something that the mechanic could do to save someone gas...)

    This is something that gets repeated over and over and over again: just because it may be easy for you to do, it's not necessarily easy for someone else. Even if a google search will bring up a video showing exactly what to do.

    There are lots of people out there who only want to learn what pertains to their particular area (and it can be an excellent decision.); there can be people who are set in their ways and don't even want to learn, period.

    I'm in Silicon Valley. Arguably, there should be more computer-literate people here than any place else, right? There's still a lot of people around here who know very, very little about computers. Some even know nothing.

    It's easier if you've grown up with computers; not so easy for folks who haven't grown up around a technology. My life has been spent in computers, so, even though I am older, dealing with computers is easy. But people hand me cell phones from time to time, and I frequently have to ask -- "what button do I push?"
  • Once again great stuff Maria!
  • That's an amazing story, considering I just built a complete (A-Z) online affiliate marketing biz for a new client for $2000, and that included Social Media Package (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube), optimised blog with automated content, keyword research, niche selection, product selection in niche, opt-in page, 40 messages created in autoresponder series in Aweber, setup of semi-automated backlink getting system, setup of PPC campaigns.

    It took me 4 full weeks (min. 100 hours) to set this whole thing up, and for 2 hours of work you earned $920 ;-) That's not fair. ;-)

    Anyway, if anyone thinks my service is cool, I'd be interested to know if you would pay me $2000, send me a PM.
  • Hey, Maria. Congrats. Even though your email was not "ad copy" worthy (I know, I'm a copywriter), you nailed the right hot selling button. You hit the owner with a few emotionally packed lines (panic that he'd lose his site, desperation) and a readiness to spend money for a real solution. You gave him the fear and then offered the solution. Good job. If you DO have any ads out there and you're not ready to convert to the copywriting business, (please don't, you'd be stiff competition!), i'm happy to look over what you have. ~ Amy
  • Wow how did you got him to pay $1000? Did he mention that it was too much or did he agree instantly?
  • Great example of thinking outside of the box. Well done
  • A guy takes his car to the mechanic , he can't get it to start, he's tried everything else, the mechanic says he can fix it for $100.

    The guy's ecstatic, so says to go ahead.

    The mechanic goes under the dash, and reconnects a faulty wiring loom, takes him 3 minutes.

    Guy says , that's not fair, all you did was reconnect some wires and you wan't $100.

    Mechanic says , you're not paying me for connecting the wire, your paying me for knowing where the wire was that need reconnecting.

    ===

    Maria charged a guy a good sum of money because all of her experience and knowledge set a lightbulb off in her head that gave her the concept. It may have taken her only an hour of work to action the process but she's spent years understanding the craft allowing her to come up with the idea and knowing how to implement it.

    If any of you feel awful at making a big margin, then hell - charge less...
  • For those who think Maria overcharged her client...

    She said this job took her a total of two hours, including the outsourcing. $1000 / 120 minutes = $8.33 per minute.

    Backing up and restoring a WP database takes 5 minutes at most if you know what you're doing. $80 / 5 minutes = $16 per minute.

    Where's the outrage about the "overcharging" of the outsourcer?

    This is definitely a "knowing where to tap" situation.
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    • I love people who say people are overcharging.

      Here's the deal. The market decides what the going rate is. If they pay a $1,000 and are happy with it then there are no issues. If you don't want to pay that amount then they won't.


      Now you can charge minimum wage if you want but I like to eat and make money.
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  • Great story Maria!

    I could only see this work with low-tech self owned businesses. There's a lot of money in the crafts and many of these guys have no clue whatsoever about how to use the internet. Any office would naturally have an IT guy or two.

    What I take away from your story is how important 'perception' on the part of the customer is. Your client would indeed rather pay $1,000 than attempt to move a blog.
    • [3] replies
    • Jack here is the interesting thing to note - yes I agree for low tech businesses...

      however...the biggies need it too - it will suprise you how much they DON'T KNOW...

      seriously, this client is a very sophisticated (has a $60,000 CRM software installed - Siebel) and an IT department with very knowledgeable staff...they just don't understand how all the new web 2.0 stuff works!

      Or cut their budgets to only focus on core stuff and not hire a 'social media expert'..

      more opportunity for us
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    • That's a huge assumption and in my experience not at all accurate. Most small businesses and many mid-sized businesses do not have a dedicated IT staff. Those that do have an IT staff utilize the staff for help desk and server maintenance, not blogs or web design and certainly not any type of marketing.
    • hey Jack, good point that you raise about non-tech biz owners preferring to pay someone to move their blog :-)

      I suppose the amount the client is willing to pay to have their blog moved indeed depends on how much their blog is worth in revenue to their biz ;-)
  • Okay here's the thing: if any of you are finding these blogs, and just feel too terrible to charge the owners...just go ahead and send them to me...

    We'll both sleep better tonight, but me? I'll be sleeping on 1000 count sheets.

    Just sayin'.
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  • I like it for SEO..

    right from the free plug in download site - ( HeadSpace2: Advanced meta-data manager for SEO titles, tags, descriptions, and more | Urban Giraffe )

    HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks.
  • While you're doing this you might want to ask how much business that blog is bringing them.

    If it's already making them some good sales and profits then just putting it onto their own domain is genuinely valuable to them.

    If it's not making them sales and profits and all you do is put the blog on their domain then you've really just taken advantage of them for $1,000 (put another way you ripped them off).

    I know Maria wouldn't do this but I think it's important to also think through adding a strategy or two to ensure that work you do brings the business back some profits.

    Even if it's just an extra $100 a month in profits you'd be helping them make an extra $1,200 a year...paying for your $1,000 fee.

    The money is in the back end repeatedly selling new projects to a business where they can make more profits.

    Help a business make profits and they will hire you over and over for project after project.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh
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    • Hey Andrew,

      you raise a very important point, thank you for sharing.

      I'm a little ignorant when it comes to stuff in general, so apologies in advance for any "ignorance" I write in this post, or any other post for that matter ;-) But if a blog that is hosted on a Wordpress domain or Blogger domain, is receiving a ton of traffic via the search engines and has a ton of backlinks, do you simply setup a permanent domain forwarding to the new self-hosted blog domain to ensure that the traffic is being driven to the new self-hosted blog?

      Any insight would be appreciated
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  • Awesome!
    Thanks for sharing
  • Thanks Maria,

    Awesome ideas!.... obviously it must of made good business sense to the customer to engage your services or they would have looked for alternatives.... or if they weren't making money from their website, chose not to do anything different.

    Thanks again,

    Mark in Nashville
  • Its simply great is that true wordpress doesn't like that commercial blogs hosted on their server I've came across this thing first time.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey devislishsaint,

      so does this mean that Wordpress have publicly stated that they recommend all commercial blog be moved to their self-hosted solution?

      If so, it would be helpful to know where that it is written, as this would help serve our needs in terms of providing proof to the clients, to help them make the decision to transfer their blog/s to self-hosted blogs.

      I hope that this makes sense

      Thanks in advance
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  • This is a great idea! It got the wheels in my head spinning about other ways this idea could be used! Thanks for sharing!
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    • This is such a great simple idea. Consulting is something I've always thought about doing.

      Now, as for the price to charge ask yourself how much would you pay for a service like this? That seems like a fair resolution.

      My only concern is dealing with someone else's business (in many cases their livelihood). For example a little which could turn into a big legal matter. You need to make sure you're outsourcing the task to someone who knows exactly what to do.

      This is a great tutorial and a potentially great business.
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  • Its like how many things can you do at once. Its a nice problem to have.
  • A friend owned some lake front property. At the time he developed lake front property in our area was around $60,000 an acre (few years back)

    He manicured the property and put a $250,000 an acre price tag on his . Real estate investors at the time only used local brokers to market property. He used local brokers but did more marketing Himself . He targeted places such as West Palm Beach and other spots that He knew had some real money .

    The local brokers said He was crazy . The area competition laughed at him when he was not looking . With a handful of brochures and a nine hour drive south he started the process of closing ten deals .

    In less than 45 days he closed . Now the local brokers and competitors alike thought he was a genius. You see he drove the price of lake front property to a new level in our area .

    They started listing and getting $250,000 an acre for their property.

    The local businessman Then done something that branded him as crazy again. He took his property off the market for 2 years . In this time all the available good lots sold in the area .

    He put his lots back on the market ... only at 1 million an acre this time . He had 26 lots left and sold 16 of them in less than a year . Took the other ten off the market . I wonder what the price will be on these in a few years ?

    The point is . The op offered a service for a set price . The price may seem high to some . The one it didn't seem high to was the only one that mattered ... the one with the money .

    A new precedence was set for this type of research , sales process, and service .

    Now for the ones that can do this type of service . Will you do the same type of service at this new perceived value or will you leave money on the table ?
    • [1] reply
    • Troy, I might not see eye to eye with on this thread but I must admit you have a masterful skill of making a point and I give you credit.
      Although I guess I can see your point to a certain extent. I imagine you could compare it to a Gator Fan who would perceive the $300 ticket to yesterdays game pretty reasonable compared to a Dawg Fan whose his perception of that Price might be a little different after the outcome.
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  • Firstly, thanks for an interesting idea!

    Secondly, how do you contact them? Do you put all the details of what you are offering, or just a "teaser" sentence, as a comment on their Blog, or is there some other way to contact them (I don't know much about WordPress.com!)??

    thanks

    Chris
    • [1] reply
    • You contact them as per 'your style' as 'keep it real' is what works in today's world.

      So you can email and say 'you're valued website on 'the url' is at risk...you may not know this but it can be taken down for being used for commercial purposes - I can help...call me

      or I can help...when would be a good time to call you and at what convenient number?

      or call them if you have the phone number..

      cheers ,maria gudelis
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  • Thanks for the post.

    Great info. Thanks for sharing with us.

    Also, I have to agree with Jonathan and Janet. The "value" is actually decided by the customer/client by what they are willing to pay for something. But still - you are to be congratulated for noticing an issue and subsequently sharing that issue with the client. You capitalized on your knowledge and yet the client benefited too. A true Win Win!
    • [1] reply
    • Wow,thats pretty cool alrite!
  • Hi being skepical as we don't want to get get burned do you have proof of your earnings?

    mma fanatic
    HawaiiUFC.com - UFC Gear, UFC Videos, UFC Books, UFC News, and More.
  • ya man nice way to earn but dont u think you unnecesserly scared that person to earn money for ur self ??
  • nice one Maria. Great thinking outside the box that everyone has a lack of these days.

    For those who are saying that Maria ripped off the I completly disagree. For the business owner, the whole process would be have worth much much more if WP just deleted his blog. Also, for someone who said that he could research the solution himself in just a couple of hours. So what?

    Just because he could research it, does not guarantee that he would do the whole process correctly.

    Therefore, in my opinion the deal would have been just as 'correct', if the owner was willing to pay $2000 or more in the end.

    It is all about perceived value
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    • You got it Kevin! thanks for the input...

      ...if only I could reveal who this client is....and how much MORE money than the measly $1,000 investment made....

      AND...remember everyone - now the company was able to install an autoresponder and lead capture...all those leads, all that traffic...

      hmmm....when they sell product over $1,000 -

      double hmmm...ROI is quite nice!
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    A Quick Way to Put $1,000 into Your Paypal Account

    Hi all, just wanted to let you know on a 'test strategy' I did that got me a client paying $1,000 for about 2 hours of work (this includes getting the client and the execution of the work) 1. I noticed while doing some google searches that someone had page 1 ranking for a search term and it was a wordpress blog NOT hosted on their own domain - it was on wordpress (e.g. "thesearchterm.wordpress.com")