Improve Your Internet Marketing

I did a post recently about creating online profits from offline businesses. The idea was to create and market info-products by approaching local ‘experts’ - trainers, repairmen, craftspeople, etc - and recording them doing there thing. A list subscriber told me about a different method they’re using to generate very large profits from offline businesses.

The fellow who emailed me, Alan, is an Internet marketer who had been building websites for local businesses. Apparently the hay-day of finding clients with no web presence who were willing to drop a couple of thousand bucks was waning. He found no shortage of businesses without web sites, but most of them were very small businesses - the local eateries, shops, professionals, etc.

While having lunch at a diner, it occurred to him that they might benefit from having an online presence, but couldn’t really justify spending a whole lot. After thinking about the problem, he got a domain name and put up a page entitled “Gatesville Dining”. He took a few take-out menu’s he had stashed in the kitchen ‘junk drawer’ and created a few mock-up pages, each for a different restaurant, including their logo, menu, hours, and telephone number.

He then took his laptop and began calling on these and other local restaurants. His pitch was simple and effective: for $99, he would create and host a web page, linked to the “Gatesville Dining” home page. A $25/month fee allowed the restaurant to call or fax Alan with changes to the menu or pricing, up to twice per month.

That first day he came home with payments and deposits for 5 “sites”, netting him $500 plus $125/month recurring revenue.

He has since expanded his efforts and now has a “Gatesville Shopping” and “Gatesville Contractors” page, and is in the process of tying them together into a ‘portal’ site.

With little or no competition, he has created his own niche market segment, netting him a few thousand bucks per month plus an ever-increasing recurring revenue stream!