So I have, what I think is a pretty good plan, for franchising out my website. Heres the general concept. The website is already created, and I am getting ready to launch it on the back of some other sites I have created in the past, which have been successful. The website is a business directory of sorts, but I wont get too detailed right now. Each franchisee in the business would be responsible to market the site to his/her specific geographic area. They would keep 80% of the revenue generated from advertising in their area, which they would have reports for. Advertising on this site is available in a few different forms: -- Exclusive banner ads for that geographic area, which I have sold for my test area at $350 per year fairly easily. -- Google Adsense, which would be distributed on a traffic generation basis(so if I own the NYC area, and 5000 pageviews are logged for NYC listings, and 10000 pageviews are logged on the site in total, then I get to keep 50% of the adsense revenue for the site) -- Featured Listings on the site, which I have successfully sold for $150 per year in my test area. Prices for franchising would depend on the size of the target audience of that region. Franchisees would also be able to get referral fees for introducing other Franchisees to the business. I think the best part about this is that as you have Franchisees in different areas who are familiar with their areas building out the site, and spreading the word, you essentially can put together a synergistic online effort which could pay HUGE dividends down the road. Think about it, 100 online marketers/entrepreneurs joining forces to make 1 site great, instead of working to build out 100 different little sites with their spare time, could really leverage some viral techniques and seo efforts that would become huge assets. If anyone has any thoughts about this, please respond to the thread. I would like to plan this on the most solid foundation possible, as it is for real, and could be a huge deal if done correctly. Robster
I am pretty sure that I am going to have to find the right price to make this feasible, but at the same time, keep it high enough that only serious people buy in to the business. The worst thing I have ever done is give people control and responsibility when they were not serious about keeping up their end of the deal, so I really need to make sure that those I franchise out to are really interested in making this successful. I imagine that a "trial" run for a few selected cities would be a good start, with a lowered cost but giving those individuals the rights to buy in at full cost once they have tried it out. That would also give credibility to the business as well. Please try to keep all comments here so that others can see the responses, instead of PMs.
there are plenty of bigger directories that already employ this method with varying levels of success, try googling "UK Businesses Directory" you will find a few of them that already do this, some charge for listings some dont, but most give 50% to 90% of the profits to their local agents.
I was pretty vague when I said "business directory" This is more of a local search site than a business directory, and its used to help a specific niche group of users find/rate/review/list local resources they find helpful. The current site gets over 150k pageviews a month, and is well ranked. So, its not simply a business directory. Furthermore, I have a facebook application for this site, which will be launched in parrallel.
Hi Robster, 150k hits per month is a great base and from there you could develop it nicely, howerver I do know others that are already doing exactly what you are saying - my in-laws are both local councillors and one of the directories even pitched a localised service to the council to promote local business. When it gets to the stage that they are entrepreneurial-ly taking these steps, you wonder how much business they actually have. as for the facebook app, this sounds like a great idea, when well marketed - Im assuming your putting together a great big version of the restaurants example app that facebook have put together (im NOT saying thats bad by the way, just commenting on the general app type) - I think that this would add serious value at the very least for your local agents to sell the advertising. One final thing, check out the full (full) version of phplynx, as I think that will suit your needs right down to the ground. MOG
I took a look at that ... Definitely not what I am creating. So, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I should probably build this out as a community, with a very small entrance fee. It will probably be two or three weeks before I start looking for interested people, but I am thinking that I may want to focus on getting US college students as the main source of local owners.