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Would this business model work?

Discussion in 'General Business' started by Tim_Myth, Nov 10, 2008.

  1. #1
    I've had this idea rattling around in my brain for a while, but I haven't quite figured out the math on it yet. I really need someone to look over my numbers and point out any flaws. Any advice or suggestions would be welcomed too.

    I wrote an article on the economics of WhyPark, and as you can see in the article, one could make money with this plan. My idea is this: rent a conference room, setup a bunch of PCs, and walk people through buying a domain name and setting it up at WhyPark. There could be a couple of different revenue streams here by charging people for my time and also from affiliate revenue.

    For example, I have a short seminar showing the money that could be made by having a bunch of domains parked at WhyPark, and then get the people who are interested to pay me $25 to attend the second seminar where I walk them through the entire process. During that second half, I provide them with affiliate links to 1and1.com, WhyPark.com, and digixmas.com. I'll earn $2.50 per domain, $45 per WhyPark account, and $5-$250 for the digiXMAS acount, so I'd make a minimum of $77.50 per person and as much as $570 if they purchased all 100 domain names on the spot and enough digiXMAS credits to cover all of them (highly unlikely since that would take quite a long time). I'm going to stick with the $75 per customer for calculation since I'd much rather err on the side of caution.

    I can get a conference room that will hold a few hundred people for about $300-$500 on a week night in my area. I'd have to send out mailings or something first I suppose, but perhaps a post on craigslist might work? I have no idea what presorted mail costs. My mailing could be a very simple post card that directed people to a website. I'd guess the response on postal mailings would be fairly dismal (1/2 of 1%?), but people who signed up for the seminar would be prequalified leads, so I could expect a decent conversion rate from the actual attendees...maybe 25%? So, we can figure approximately 1 buyer for every 1000 mailings? That seems like too nice of a number. This site gives the total cost of 20,000 peices as ~$8,000!! At that rate, I'd loose money. Hmm.

    Another dilema would be coming up with a few hundred PCs. I could require them to bring their own laptop, but I'd still have to deal with desktop owners. Maybe rent a college computer cluster instead of a conference room?

    I don't know, there's all the peices I've managed to figure out. It looks like there could be some money made, but would it generate a net income? Anybody have any thoughts on how to make something like this work?
     
    Tim_Myth, Nov 10, 2008 IP
  2. Staxx

    Staxx Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Well, I think the overall concept is a good idea (and very nice article by the way...looks like I have something new to play around with when I get some spare cash the wife doesn't know about, lol).

    Did you think about a few local area radio show ads? They may seem expensive at first, but I bet it'd be cheaper than sending out 10s of thousands of paper mailings ;) Find some talk radio channels and then some times where they air financial/business type shows...and get some ad blocks in there.

    As to the computer issue, this is just a guess, but I'd say the College Computer Cluster renting idea would be the most cost effecient. Because even if you told them all to bring their own computers, getting the wifi for that setup (if it's a lot of people) would prove to be pretty pricey as well I'm sure.
     
    Staxx, Nov 10, 2008 IP
  3. aimlessless

    aimlessless Active Member

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    #3
    Also some affiliate networks may have problems with hundreds of people signing up at the same time from the same IP
     
    aimlessless, Nov 10, 2008 IP
  4. Staxx

    Staxx Well-Known Member

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    #4
    I suppose a good idea to help solve that problem is to contact the network ahead of time and let them know your plans.
     
    Staxx, Nov 10, 2008 IP
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  5. JosefSawyer

    JosefSawyer Peon

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    #5
    For the pc aspect, you may be able to rent/buy dirt cheap business pcs but setting up 100 pcs with internet etc would take a long time, what you could do is go for thin computing, basically one pc, with about 10 monitors and computers connected to it all acting as if they are their own pc. That would be more expensive but 100 times quicker to setup etc.

    I think you should start off with a first sort of meeting with just a nice PowerPoint, some nice leaflets, then offer bookings of say 10 people for an hour/ 2 hours session. Where you make sure they all convert.

    Just my 2 cents.
     
    JosefSawyer, Nov 10, 2008 IP
  6. DiscussNow

    DiscussNow Peon

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    #6
    Why not find a way to offer this service online via chat + a live feed of some sorts? Would save you a lot of overhead costs.
     
    DiscussNow, Nov 10, 2008 IP
    Tim_Myth likes this.
  7. Tim_Myth

    Tim_Myth Peon

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    #7
    Now THAT is a hell of an idea! It would be quite simple to arrange an online meeting, and would completely eliminate the need to provide PCs for people. The thin clients would work well too, so if I had a lot of people that didn't want to (or couldn't) view an online meeting thing, I could still provide a smaller more intimate setting less frequently (and charge more for the service to boot!).
     
    Tim_Myth, Nov 10, 2008 IP
  8. mentos

    mentos Prominent Member

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    #8
    There is a flaw.
    Why the people want to sign up under your affiliate link?
    And the product selling at 1n1 is more expensive than other company such as domain name pricing.
     
    mentos, Nov 11, 2008 IP
  9. ErikJ

    ErikJ Peon

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    #9
    yeah I would work the whole online thing since people are allot less willing to go out then spend money on something this saves you allot of money renting a room and hoping they come which always winds up being allot less than you expect

    so avoid renting the room is possible
     
    ErikJ, Nov 11, 2008 IP
  10. Tim_Myth

    Tim_Myth Peon

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    #10
    First, the people I would be selling to I'm not imaging as the most web savvy people. Second, I simply explain to them up front that I do get a comission if they use my affiliate link. Or maybe I could say they're free to pay me another $45 and use a non-affiliate link. This would likely be something to talk to the affiliate about. Third, I guess I kind of imagined having a web page with my links already on it. If I provided the PCs, I would have that set as the home page.

    As for the domain names... The cost is going to go up at the other places too (unless they like selling domains at a loss). Does this other place pay me a comission of $2.50 per domain? Further, its amazing that many people still use register.com at $35 a domain. Even if you can get domains for $1 or $2 less... So?
     
    Tim_Myth, Nov 11, 2008 IP
  11. FlakDevelopment

    FlakDevelopment Banned

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    #11
    you dont need them to bring laptops, just use a projector
     
    FlakDevelopment, Nov 12, 2008 IP
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  12. Tim_Myth

    Tim_Myth Peon

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    #12
    A projector wouldn't quite work for what I had in mind. If I provide a PC for them, I can have a clickable affiliate link all laid out for them and all they'll have to do is click it. If I send them home with a sheet of notes, I'm A) much more likely to lose some of them and B) likely to lose comissions since some may not type my affiliate code in.
     
    Tim_Myth, Nov 12, 2008 IP
  13. mark9510

    mark9510 Peon

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    #13
    May i just recommend doing a live closed seminar on a video streaming website. you could pay some money for a good quality camera and make the stream as close to no delay as possible then close it off with a password
     
    mark9510, Nov 12, 2008 IP
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  14. motex

    motex Peon

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    #14
    conference/seminar = radio or tv ads....
    + all the free ads you can get = craigslist
    dunno sounds like a lot of overhead if you went all out with advertising

    i do agree with the online live seminars...would be a new concept
     
    motex, Nov 12, 2008 IP