Hi,

I've been lurking here for a few months now and thought I would throw up a quick money making case study me and a friend have been working on.

Because the customers are acquired offline I'm 100% certain that I can discuss this and others replicate it without worrying about saturation. In comparitive the Warrior Forum is a small place so we can share as many ideas, tips, tricks and money savers on this method as we like without treading on other peoples business.

On with the show..

Summary of idea
Advertise a free website, a free com domain name (for 1 year) and professional e-mail and in return they use your monthly hosting plan.

How much are we making
After 6 months we are making $6116 per month (you need to exclude around $1000 for offline marketing costs and the reseller hosting account).

If we carry on expanding our customer base at this rate in 12 months we will have a monthly recurring income of $12232. We're aiming for anything over $10k per month.

Time spent per day
We spend around 3 hours per day doing sales and creating these websites for new clients. If we stopped accepting new clients we would need to only spend 30 minutes a day checking that everything is running smoothly.

Our offline marketing is outsourced so we don't need to leave the office.

Getting customers
We use cheap plain white A4 sheets with large black text in a fancy professional font saying

You want to put these where your desired clientele will see them but you don't want any hassle from the local authorities. I suggest college campuses (the meeting areas, foyers etc..), sports centres, village notice boards etc..

There is also the business card idea - this is where you order a few thousand business cards, get some plastic holders and place them in certain shops, community centres and any other places that could have business cards on the side. The advantage of the business cards is that they will actually take them home and be able to remember the contact details.

You need a phone number (we use Skype which also allows us to make unlimited calls per month for a really cheap fee).

And a domain name and e-mail account. For this you need the cheapest reseller account you can find that also has a reputation for reliabilty (we use ResellerZoom which cost us around $6.00 per month when we first got going).

As for the domain, something simple that an average member of the public would understand and always a com i.e. getawebsite, paulswebsites, superwebsites, yourwebsite etc.. could work best. Maybe even something 'designs' i.e. paulsdesigns., superdesignsor 'paulonline'.. have a think!

Now, after putting the adverts up you're pretty much guaranteed to get a few people either do the following

- call you up
- view your website
- email you

What are you offering them
When they get in touch you are offering them the free web design, and a free domain, they then have there web site hosted on your reseller account.

The $6.00 reseller account we mentioned earlier can easily host 100 websites. The type of people you're attracting won't get many hits and won't use much webspace (you obviously outline all these specifics in the terms and conditions so that it doesn't bite you!).

Ideally you want them to call you. When they call explain that this is a special offer and they can get started as soon as tomorrow.

Explain that they can have com, ask them if they're interested in a personal website or business website and give them examples of .com's they could use (They love this bit).

Then state that for January only you're offering free professional e-mail that is hosted by Google and can be checked anywhere with Internet access, and even on a mobile phone. This service can easily be set up for free with Google Apps.

The potential customer will be excited but wonder about the catch, you need to make it sound minor, just say "and when you're happy with your design and your domain name we host it for you for just 11 bucks a month - that includes everything even your e-mail and a few e-mail accounts for work collegues if need be". Try and make the offer sound like it's for this month only.

You can obviously try different price plans.

Now ask them to go to a specific page on your website i.e. /start

This has the following input fields and options:

- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- E-mail
- What would you like your domain name to be?
(Note: this must be a .com, these are the most used and most professional)
- Is your site personal or business?
- Do you agree to the following terms?
(you terms need to be clear and consise and cover your back)

Then have a submit form that takes them to a 10 day free trial followed by the $11 a month recurring billing. Setting this up in PayPal is a breeze.

The best thing to do is walk them through this 'start' process page over the phone so that you can explain the 10 days is for you to get the website up to there standards.

One of my other friends now sends a contract to them by mail, gets them to sign it and send it back. I'm not sure if this is needed.

Once that is all processed you now need to work on the site.

Just create an account in WHM, then install Wordpress with Fantastico, find a theme, go to settings and put a page as front page, then perhaps use the blog as an 'updates' or 'news' feature. Ask for any info off your client, ask them to email text and images etc..

Now make a page on your site /therename and have a welcome text intro, now give the link to there site and also add quick 3 minute Camtasia video that videos you goe to there site, logging in, edits some texts on some pages, perhaps adds an image and updates the blog and then logs out and checks the changes. We also install a simple stats package and show them how to log in and check that out via another Camtasia video.

Ask them if they are happy with how the design is. If they are then say you will upload the site properly, register the domain and set up there professional e-mail on the 10th day. This way you get the money for the domain name if they decide they don't want to go ahead (and unfortunately it does happen).

Once everything is set up they should be happy to continue paying your set fee every month. If they ask to cancel say they lose control of the domain name which is stated in the agreement and will not be able access to there email. You can be harsh with your terms and conditions but you really should just refund whenever asked.

They SHOULD be happy with your service so whenever they get in touch ask them to recommend a friend. You can even put your site url on the footer text.

Your website. This should be a quick sales page explaining the offer, I have actually just forwarded it to the /start bit but perhaps a quick sales page would work better?

As for the figures.. We charge $11 per month. My friend runs everything and I just set up the websites for him.

The customer stats
Day 10 - 9 customers
Day 20 - 45 customers
Day 30 - 89 customers
Day 40 - 147 customers
Day 50 - 259 customers
Day 60 - 300 customers
Day 70 - 440 customers
Day 80 - 501 customers
Day 90 - 556 customers

Average of 6 signed up customers every day.

Any opinions/advice would be greatly recieved!

The great thing about this MODEL is that we are NOT in competition with each other. We can help each other GETTING THE SALES and KEEPING THE CUSTOMER HAPPY and MAKING MAXIMUM REVENUE by SHARING cost cutting info!Also, if anyone wants a full look into our business get in touch.