Creating Free websites for local businesses: Web hosting affiliate

17 replies
Hello everyone! I need some help and I hope I can find great suggestions here at Warrior Forum.

I am in affiliate marketing (couple months now) and currently, I am promoting web hosting platforms by offering to create free websites for local businesses in my area. My strategy is to create a free website and disclose that I will get paid when a client pays for a certain hosting platform, which they obviously have to. I aim to over deliver and create a relationship with the person soi can upsell them on things they will need like writing content for example. I am a student in South Africa, Cape Town and I am exceptionally good at creating Wordpress websites. Cape Town is extremely developed and most people here use the internet with over 50% accessing the internet through mobile.

There are 100s of businesses here without websites and reasons I have discovered is that some feel its not necessary while some feel its too expensive. Initially, I thought I would just search for different niches on google and see which ones do not have websites. I did this collected numbers and I started calling. I realized people are very impatient so I optimized my cold call script to just get to the point. Initially, I believed people would be at my feet thanking me (free website...hello?) but it seems that people either got scam like vibes, one lady laughed and was in disbelief and some were just impatient and hostile and seemed not to appreciate a cold call. In most instances however people allowed me to pitch my offer and actually gave me an email address. Great! Out of 10 people, 5 give me email addresses and like 1 person will reply.

So I am thinking there is a more efficient strategy I could be using. There is no doubt most businesses want websites but perhaps I'm coming at from the wrong angle. Has anyone ever utilized this sort of affiliate marketing? I could really use some help. I have a website (didn't want to post it because I'm not sure if it's allowed here) and I have been doing this just for a month so maybe I could be jumping the gun and maybe I should continue on this path? I don't know but I would appreciate any and every suggestion. Thanks in advance!

I brainstormed and came up with these ideas
- Connect with black-owned business (I am black myself so perhaps they will be more patient and less skeptic) plus most black-owned businesses here cannot afford 1000s of dollars for website development
- Attend businesses events and attempt to network with people
- Physically go to people's place of business and pitch instead of cold calling
- abandon trying to acquire local leads and attempt to find leads worldwide with a different strategy altogether
#affiliate #businesses #creating #free #hosting #local #web #websites
  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    I personally would think twice three times four times if you have to about not doing this.

    So you get the affiliate fee of $125? give or take... you have NO opportunity in monthly hosting fees. Your up-sell opportunities are null due to the crowd you will be attracting. You literally will have nothing more than the $125 per customer.

    How long do you anticipate each site build taking? 2 days, a week, 2 weeks? what ever number you have you should probably double it. So think about the time invested vs the Dollars coming in. I don't see you building these sites in 4 hours - let alone 2 hours or 1.

    Everything about this screams you working for maybe a $1.00 or $2.00 per hour.

    The idea of doing this to draw a customer base... Im not seeing it... only if you offer other free offers maybe.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nigel Nyangwe
      I have thought at length at many upsell strategies and I believe that the $125 is certainly not all I would get from each individual. I anticipate I can definitely build 2 sites in a day, very high quality using a good theme and a drag and drop page builder. From the onset, the client would know I am only creating a 5 page basic website. What are your thoughts on that?
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  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    I have heard this idea before.... It doesn't take most people long to figure out why its not the best strategy... Don't feel bad. Lots of people have thought of it. The thought quickly fades when you think hard about the logistics. You could do a lot better things with your time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nigel Nyangwe
      I have thought it out at length, however maybe I have not covered all the bases. Perhaps you can shed light on "the logistics" that simply would not make sense for you personally to do this.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    I really don't like leaving messages that say " Your idea sucks " so let me give you a bit of a twist to show you some contrast.

    Instead of offering a free website by using your affiliate link to get hosting where you make $125.00 Why not build the website for free and provide the hosting and charge the $125 per year?

    Now you can start working with Life of customer. Say they have you build a site and each and every year they pay you the $125 to host their site. over 5 years that's $625.00 vs the $125 one time. This becomes a relationship. This allows you to send monthly reports of traffic etc. This allows you to offer other services.

    I get what you are trying to do.. and honestly have respect for your thought process and thinking this out. have a look here: https://www.warriorforum.com/offline...l#post11391912 this is a method of walking into a prospects place of business offering them a quick 10 minute service at no charge that produces results and starts building a relationship built on value.. this is what some might call a trip wire. gets your foot in the door. Allows you to produce results with minimal effort, and develops trust with the person on the receiving end.

    If you want to go out in the world.. start networking and develop long term business relationships, VALUE is the foundation you want to start with. Offering something of Value ( in this case to be listed on Google Maps ) and then coming back and offering your service to develop a web presents - based on your previous positive result is a good foot forward.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nigel Nyangwe
      I appreciate the link, it was very enlightening. Cold calling by walking into a business also seemed the best way to go. For businesses without a listing on google this sounds like a pretty good strategy, but could you point me in the right direction for business WITH a listing but without a website. Furthermore, what kind of strategy could I use for a business with a social media presence and no website?
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    • thanks for your great idea sir
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  • Profile picture of the author Nigel Nyangwe
    Thank you all, I appreciate your different views and the time you took to reply. I will reply all you separately so I can pick your brains and further understand your reasoning.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chet Marlin
    I was thinking about how some web host do not allow any incentivizing of affiliate sales. You might want to check the terms of service for your web host before you start off on this venture. Is building a free website an incentive? I don't know.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nigel Nyangwe
      I was sure to check, a free website is definetely not an incentive, well with the we hosts I aligned with. But definitely would suggest to check with each host, as some are more sensitive than others.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chet Marlin
        Thank You for clarifying that! Appreciate the info!
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  • Profile picture of the author electricguitar
    Banned
    So many good answers here. Very useful and informative.
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  • Profile picture of the author brownr
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author grimsby
      You've literally just (very badly) spun the comment John Durham made.


      Originally Posted by brownr View Post

      Hello,
      I've discovered that idea until... It will not simply take many individuals extended to determine why not exactly the very optimal/optimally way... Do not feel awful. A lot of men and women have an idea about this. Whenever you consider in regards to the logistics the notion stinks. You might perform things.
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  • Profile picture of the author owenlee
    Originally Posted by Nigel Nyangwe View Post

    Hello everyone! I need some help and I hope I can find great suggestions here at Warrior Forum.

    I am in affiliate marketing (couple months now) and currently, I am promoting web hosting platforms by offering to create free websites for local businesses in my area. My strategy is to create a free website and disclose that I will get paid when a client pays for a certain hosting platform, which they obviously have to. I aim to over deliver and create a relationship with the person soi can upsell them on things they will need like writing content for example. I am a student in South Africa, Cape Town and I am exceptionally good at creating Wordpress websites. Cape Town is extremely developed and most people here use the internet with over 50% accessing the internet through mobile.

    There are 100s of businesses here without websites and reasons I have discovered is that some feel its not necessary while some feel its too expensive. Initially, I thought I would just search for different niches on google and see which ones do not have websites. I did this collected numbers and I started calling. I realized people are very impatient so I optimized my cold call script to just get to the point. Initially, I believed people would be at my feet thanking me (free website...hello?) but it seems that people either got scam like vibes, one lady laughed and was in disbelief and some were just impatient and hostile and seemed not to appreciate a cold call. In most instances however people allowed me to pitch my offer and actually gave me an email address. Great! Out of 10 people, 5 give me email addresses and like 1 person will reply.

    So I am thinking there is a more efficient strategy I could be using. There is no doubt most businesses want websites but perhaps I'm coming at from the wrong angle. Has anyone ever utilized this sort of affiliate marketing? I could really use some help. I have a website (didn't want to post it because I'm not sure if it's allowed here) and I have been doing this just for a month so maybe I could be jumping the gun and maybe I should continue on this path? I don't know but I would appreciate any and every suggestion. Thanks in advance!

    I brainstormed and came up with these ideas
    - Connect with black-owned business (I am black myself so perhaps they will be more patient and less skeptic) plus most black-owned businesses here cannot afford 1000s of dollars for website development
    - Attend businesses events and attempt to network with people
    - Physically go to people's place of business and pitch instead of cold calling
    - abandon trying to acquire local leads and attempt to find leads worldwide with a different strategy altogether
    Hope everything is well there.

    I would suggest offer a free listing directory for them. Just a simple of company name, their contact and what they does.

    Start producing content on the directory itself.

    Once they are happy, offer them your services.
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  • Profile picture of the author acnescars
    Website directory is one of the best thing in hosting a affiliate. So you should be very careful while doing these process.
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  • Profile picture of the author cris Aborn
    Thanks sir sharing very good ideas for word press
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  • Profile picture of the author poweredspeaker
    Ya i too agree with it, because the website directory is very important in hosting.
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