Is site designing a good business

Web design is pretty common nowadays and lots of people can do it, or even just outsource it. So what you should do to get ahead of the pack is to pre-make websites and then sell them.

You can do this 2 ways.

1) Online - Make websites targeted to specific niches. Use keywords which can convert well. Throw up quality unique content and some adsense ads, or an affiliate product link/image. Remember to use call to actions. Then work on the site's SEO, and get it ranking. Get traffic, get sales. That's it in the simplest form. Once you make some sales, you can either keep it, or go ahead and resell. Problem online is that lots of people will NOT buy a site if it isn't making money, UNLESS, the domain is of quality, or you have some sort of advantage (age, backlinks, rankings, etc). So you have to make sure you do something right here.

2) Offline - This is what I'd preferably do with your skills. Basically, what you do is develop and sell websites to local trades people/businesses. Why? Because this way you can have the benefit of NOT needing to have a site that's generating money, and also NOT needing to have a site that's generating any traffic. Instead, it just needs to be a simple, professional website.

So you can do this in 2 ways:

- Make up prototype websites and take it on your laptop/iPad to local businesses without a website and say, "hey can I just have one moment of your time, check this out..." Or email them/call them and just see if they're interested in a website, because web presence is getting more and more important these days. I read on the internet the other day that here in Australia, only 37% of small businesses have websites! That's a great statistic for an idea like this. But how exactly can you find the local businesses who don't have sites? And how can you make them interested if their business is currently successful? This is how:

Go into Google and search for a certain business in the local area. Eg. I live in Melbourne, Australia, but one of the local suburbs in Melbourne near me is Bentleigh. So I type in "electricians in bentleigh". Now with the introduction of Google Places, I get a list of 10 local electricians! Guess what else, it shows their contact information, and a website if they have one. So I find the businesses WITHOUT websites (4 with this example), and then go approach them. I open up with something like, "I searched for electricians in the local area last night and you came up, but you didn't have a website, where as, all your competition did." The great thing about this is you can go in store, and show them exactly what you're talking about... Show them the guys who have their website up and running, and say to them, "Look, people can get more information/quotes/prices from these guys direct, what if it's after hours, they won't be able to contact you." Say things like that, and then go onto say, you're a student who is working on your web design portfolio and specialise in developing simple but professional websites for small businesses. You can do it for them for $X, (can even cut hosting/domain deals in here), and you're set! So find the local businesses or trades without websites. Another great thing is that Google places is becoming the new "Yellow pages" (that's what we call it in Australia, surely you have something similar but called something different - it's basically just a big book/or online directory of businesses). Instead of looking in the book, or going to the website, people are just searching for what they want in Google (which is commonly their home page!). Do this in one area, rinse and repeat in another, then rinse and repeat in different businesses/trades.

Believe it or not that was just the first way, the second is similar but still different.

- Buy a domain before you begin. Using the example above, I'd probably get something like www.bentleighelectrians.com.au. Then you build a great website that is general, and try to get it ranking in Google (shouldnt be hard because they arent competitive keywords to rank for locally). But ranking isn't important. Then you go approach (send a letter, email, call) 5 electrians in Bentleigh and tell them what you have, say that this is the price, are you interested? Do it for 10 and I'm sure one will display more interest and maybe even buy. I've heard of people using this method and clearing websites for over $2000 each. Again you can cut hosting/domain deals, or maintenance deals.

Just learn from your mistakes and attempt SOMETHING! Make a plan and take action! Remember you have a skill, but there are times when you just have to go that one step further to create those extra opportunities.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me for more information. Good luck mate!