Since everybody these days is so obsessed with making money with websites and advertising, I though it would be nice to give an example of something I tried years ago that worked well for me and is NOT based on advertising. Back in 2003 I was a programmer for a small IT company, started getting a bit tired of the long work hours so I decided to quit my job and do what everybody else wanted to do: work from home and make money on the internet. Things didn't work as fast as I expected and I really needed the cash. I decided I needed to try something different if I wanted to continue paying my car and house rent. I came up with this simple idea: - Some business would like to have a website on the internet - Most business owners don't know much about it - For most business a website doesn't really makes much of a difference but would still be a nice thing to have I printed out some basic forms and GOT OUT. Yes out, to the street. You know, where the sun shines? It's still there if you look for it. I went to small business in my area and asked if they wanted a website. Most didn't or though it was too expensive. I presented them that small form I printed out and told them for a small fee of 60 euro(about 80 bucks) they could get a nice website with the name of their business, contact form and some photos. They then, would have to pay a small renewal of 20 bucks each year for the domain name and mantainance. Guess what? Most ended up buying the package. All they had to do was to fill out the form. Those who didn't want to, I still made a website for them and showed it for them the next day. They would then buy the site. Most did even if they didn't show much interest. My work for each site I "developed"? About 30 minutes. I had a small python script that would go through a directory of templates and a small txt file with the form data that would generate a website for each business. That's it. Just for 30 minutes I would get paid 80 bucks. I still needed to get out and talk with business but all in all, it was worth it. I did it for 8 months total and then gave a friend of mine this "business". Thats when I started to make good cash in IM so it was not worth my time anymore. As a bonus I developed my social skills and created a network of contacts where I live. It was probably the best idea I had in the past years and the most simple to implement too. So what's the lesson here? Sometimes the best reward is just a step away. We get so obsessed with "passive" income we quickly forget other options out there. Yes, they're not passive, but when you just want to pay the rent, it is a great reward. Good luck.
Great Idea, I'm guessing this is top line revenue and not pure profit. I'm not seeing server costs (I'm assuming you own), Domain costs, Internet cost, etc.
You are right. Server costs at the time were about 40$ month. Internet 30$. I would have wasted money on both these services for the simple reason that I needed them anyway, whether or not I did this. The significant cost were the domains(and time).
this is a very good proactive way. when you get out a wbesite for them. for a business owner, the $80 is nothing. they probably just buy it because it seems that you sincerely took the effort to make a website for them
I am sure that you readed a similar story before. That's the way I started with working after school aswell OP! Mot people don't know how powerful offline marketing could be! In the 1996 ies companies were willing to pay much more for a website. That time I charged about 400-600$ for a website design(a webdesign company charged about 2000$ for a website creation). I just went down the street and asked the small shops if they want to have an internet presence. That time it was a pioneer idea to start a website for a small shop. That way I made about 3000-5000$ only by creating websites for the shops in my neighborhood. This method still works, but the prices went down ....
really good idea, i am from india, where most people dont even know how to get a website done..lol i'll try wht u did
Looks like i will have to implement some of those idead too. Theres a lot of money out there, the thing is in how you capture that money/revenue..
This is a refreshing idea. It's true that when you are out of work, you are more likely to get off your butt and actively go and try to make money. However, for those of us who still work full-time, it would be very hard to do what you did.
I started the same thing in my local area...wow...people were really interested but my problem was fighting the price structure these people were being quoted already... The local businesses were being quoted in excess of $1300 for a two page site on the internet..... Now I am retired and did not want to get into another big income tax hassel so I was offering services at $400 per month to build the site, build their mailing lists, promote to that list for them and maintain the web sites on my servers for them. Even with my sites being provided as an example of my 'talent' and ability the biggest resistance was the price! Go figure. SO, anyone out there reading with some time and knowledge, the idea WORKS if you price your services to what they have already been quoted. Don't go cheap.....shop around on the Internet and you will see that pricing is in the ridiculs (sp) arena but if people are willing to pay, and your willing to tackle the taxes......getter done.....
Yep but in my country it doesn't work i've tryed it Oh well i earn more from SEO i quited making websites