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Has anyone tried selling websites this way?

by Capbell
11 replies
Hello guys.

I have decided to tip my feet into the offline world.

First the boring part. A bit about me

I am 25 years old. I studied Architecture and recently left my job to become self-employed. I have been making money from seo/adsense/amazon for about 7 months now, but I want to expand and spread my income out.

I have decided to start by having a go at selling websites, as I am a proficient designer and programmer.

I have picked the niche I want to try to sell to - Health/beauty/fashion. And I have spent the past day customizing a theme I purchased. I have started to make the website and set it up on a subdomain url of my marketing url, and the idea is to simply contact potential clients and offer the site to them.

I am almost finished and I am really happy with the website, I have started compiling a list of retailers that either a) don't have a website b) have a terrible website.

What I am thinking is to complete the website and then email the ones with websites with a short email explaining that I am a new business owner, and that I have made a website before getting in contact to prove my competency and explain that my website will improve their image and other brief benefits + the url demo, and to get in touch if they are interested.

For the ones without websites I am planning to hand write a similar letter and post it to them.

The reason I am thinking about trying this before cold-calling is that as I already have a demo site for them to see, they will probably see it and can do so on their own time.

I will keep a track of my visits as I send all this out, and I am thinking to start by sending emails/letters to an initial 100 or so business'. If I get contacted I will charge a small fee to my first 10 clients (£97/$147) with a £27/$47 monthly hosting fee if they do not have their own already and ask for testimonial to use on my marketing website that is under development.

Has anyone ever tried a similar method? If so, do you have any tips or advice for things I should know/I might run into?

And what are your thoughts on selling customized template websites? I see many people around here doing it, but some are selling the bare minimum and without trying to insult them - they don't look particularly professional. My only hesitation is the thought of selling the same site (albeit with different logos, images, etc), to multiple business. Even though they will probably be so far apart from each other that one of their clients would never see it.

Any opinions on my strategy? Am I being naive? Am I charging too little to start with?
#selling #websites
  • Profile picture of the author Capbell
    Also, how do you guys usually handle the recurring fee? I am thinking of using paypal, but if the client doesn't already have a website, what are the chances of them even knowing what paypal is? I don't want them to get frustrated to set it up, but I definitely do not want to go round picking up cheques from them every month.
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  • Profile picture of the author arsen buya
    Hi capbell ... I like the way you tried selling your websites...actually i did the same marketing to a "mobile site builder service" in my area...the big difference is that i am an affiliate of that service...and you provide the service by your self..

    Few tips: 1) keep marketing that way ...this old strategy works !!
    2) try not to sell the exact same website to competing businesses...

    good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author d1ey0u
    I would recommend NOT selling the same website design to different company, or if you decided, at least tell them it's not a unique template. This can cause HUGE problems. Imagine if you paid someone $700+ to make a website for you, and you happen to run into another website with your design? You would think they stole it from you. You would probably try to contact your designer and ask what the hell is going on. I would just use different templates.

    I like the idea of hand writing businesses. I've wanted to try this, but haven't got around to it. If you decide to give it a go, it would be cool if you shared your results with us.

    -Zack
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    • Profile picture of the author zimbizee
      At the very least use a different template per niche per town, not 2 of the same templates for the same niche

      IE:if your going after say...roofers in orlando, use a different template for each one, but nothing to stop you using this same template for another roofer in Dallas - highly unlikely they will ever see each others site.

      Regards the recurring fee, try to get it all upfront for say six months or a year at a time, much less hassle. Offer a discount if they pay for a years hosting upfront over monthly.

      You can always setup a recurring payment direct to your bank.
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    • Profile picture of the author sodomojo
      Originally Posted by d1ey0u View Post

      I would recommend NOT selling the same website design to different company, or if you decided, at least tell them it's not a unique template. This can cause HUGE problems. Imagine if you paid someone $700+ to make a website for you, and you happen to run into another website with your design? You would think they stole it from you. You would probably try to contact your designer and ask what the hell is going on. I would just use different templates.

      I like the idea of hand writing businesses. I've wanted to try this, but haven't got around to it. If you decide to give it a go, it would be cool if you shared your results with us.

      -Zack
      Plenty of companies do this. Take a look at this site:
      Buxbaum Family Chiropractic - Chiropractor In Kennewick, WA USA :: Home

      then go down to the bottom and see this:
      Chiropractic Marketing By ChiroMatrix

      put that into google and you'll see hundreds of sites with the exact same design, exact same articles, etc. This seems to be their newer template, they also have an older much uglier template they used.

      Bottom line is it works. I'm not saying its my business model, but they are huge with chiropractors and have a big presence, so that method can and does work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Capbell
    Thanks guys for your comments.

    I think you are right about the "not use same template for competitors" but how do you guys do it then? Do you make a demo site and use it as an example but not sell that one? And then with every order you get a different base template?

    I'm almost convinced I can sell the one i've already made, but how do I limit it to one customer per city or area? It's a numbers game so I need to be contacting hundreds to get some sales.

    However, how can I tell them "only the first client will get this theme, the others I'll make a different site", because it may sound to them like they're getting second best if they aren't the first client.

    I think I am going to contact loads of different types of similar business in the niche, that aren't directly competing. As opposed to only hundreds of "plumbers" for example.

    I also think there is something special about handwritten sales letters (not that I have any experience in sales), but I would think it adds a personal touch and connection. I will definitely be updating this thread as I make progress.
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    • Profile picture of the author RyanLester
      Your method for contacting the businesses seem very long, why not just pick up the phone and get a quick response.

      cold-emailing is not one of the best ways to go about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Capbell
    The main reason I'm thinking is that the clients will most probably not have a pc nearby, when/if they read an email they will be able to click to immediately see the demo site and because they can see their final result, they can make a low-risk decision.

    I will do cold calling also though. I have never done cold-selling in any shape or form, so I'm slightly hesitant about it. But I realise that to see results I have to do, therefore that's exactly what I'm going to do.
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    • Profile picture of the author neighborhub
      Are you doing hard code or using a content management system? The other issue you might run into is the monthly fee if the industry hardly ever changes content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Capbell
    I'm not hard coding it, it's wordpress. The monthly fee covers managing their hosting fees. Most clients who have bad websites/no website at all will probably not want to deal with opening a new hosting account, buy domain name etc, they will most likely want to simply pay a monthly fee directly to me as long as I manage it all.
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  • Profile picture of the author neighborhub
    Gotcha. Good move! Just make sure you are careful with your hosting that you have strong tech support from it too.
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    Custom Web Development | Google Search Console | Specialized in Wordpress/Joomla Development

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