pa2phoenix

I have learned a lot from this forum and I wanted to put this up here to possibly help and to keep myself accountable...

The Challenge:
Make at least a $1500 dollars from 10/7 to 10/15

How?:
call businesses out of the yellowpages that have ads but no website listed and sell them a website + SEO services. This IS in my local area and I will be meeting with the clients face to face if I need to, to close the deal.

What am I charging?:
$97 dollars for a one page website with basic business info + making them use hostgator through my affiliate link

$395 for a 5 page website for lead gen

$197 for G places optimization (UBL + red virus BM service)

$xxx for ongoing seo service

I attached a DOC thats a checklist of what I am selling, how much I charge and what is included.

What am I saying?:
The script is really simple. "Hi my name is Dan and I actually have a web design and marketing company here in the valley... I am giving you a call because I saw that your ad here in the yellow pages but I noticed that you did not have a website listed... I was wondering if you were thinking about getting one or thinking about trying to get some business by being online?"

at this point about half of the time they usually tell me that they were thinking about getting one but either have not gotten around to it or whatever other excuse they have.... I follow up by asking them simply "how has your add in the yellow pages been doing for you?"

They will usually say it blows... You can prob figure out the rest from there... But basically I just have a conversation with them and explain to them why they need to have a website/be focusing on driving traffic to the website... Will either usually sell them over the phone or meet with them in person and upsell the shit out of them..

____________

I have done this before but only started again yesterday. I made about 15 phone calls, talked to about 7 people set one appt that was earlier today and closed the guy but his CC declined... will be putting more funds in and will charge again tomorow(I will not be including that money in the challenge).. of the others that I talked to I set another appt for later and scheduled 2 more callbacks...

I do have years of hardcore sales experience including your typical boiler room shit where I used to rip people off with shitty biz opp type stuff... But with this I basically just talk to these people and tell them the truth.. Seems to work pretty well for me..

I will be updating daily with calls made, appts set and sales made with total dollar figure.. (NO, there will not be shitty ebook or system for sale afterwards...)

Also, I will not be working on the weekends as this time is strictly reserved for pussy and getting black out drunk....

pa2phoenix

attachment didn't work. Here Wickedfire

bauss

Good looking setup man. I don't have any doubts about your goal.

TylerDurden

I was thinking about doing something similar but instead of having them sign up for for Hostgator through your affiliate link (which creates an extra step for them) why don't you get a new shared hosting account which you can put all of your client's sites on and then charge each of them $10/month for hosting. This way if you have 5 clients on your hosting you'll be making $40/month ($50-$10 hosting fee) rather than the 1 time $50 commission you would get from Hostgator. You can even offer them a discount if they pay for the entire year in advance.

pa2phoenix

I will prob do that in the future but prob charge 19.99 a month.. 100 websites built = 2 grand a month for no work... Not too bad.. For right now though it's not really an extra step because i just sign up for hostgator with their CC... So far I have not run into any problems doing this, but we'll see....

hellblazer

How do you structure your lead generation sites?

pa2phoenix

5 standard pages with the home page having a good call to action then the phone number and opt in form, below that i throw a bunch of relevant content that's kw optimized.. Other 4 pages are usually just standard shit you see on a company's website...

pfgannon

How are you charging their cards?
Do they just give that info to you over the phone?

And thanks for this thread! It gives me inspiration to GTFO of my house, to absorb some much needed vitamin D, and to make money in what seems like a really exciting business.

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Celtik

I will definitely keep checking this thread to see the progress.

imkazu

clever pitch there, interested to see how this plays out for you. good luck

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pa2phoenix

I have a merchant accounts already that in conjuction with a virtual gateway. And with this particular business model I usually just charge their card on my laptop right in front of them when we meet and I close them.. My out of state clients just give me their CC info over the the phone though..

NickRac

HUGE flaw in your business plan...

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blank_czech

I thought soupyone just did this or something real similar. Oh well, the more the merrier.

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Soupyone

I did, I have no problem seeing people try to do it themselves though

The 10 Day Challenge: Starting at $0...

hellblazer

Yeah, I think threads like these are a good idea. Besides motivating someone to do something they've perhaps never done before, it also helps educate others to do the same thing.

megatabbers

Good for you man and best of luck.

Also might add: if you're planning to do this on a bigger scale (i.e. beyond this challenge/case study) perhaps you should prime your prospects with a strong direct mail piece.

Something like this works wonders: Copywriting: Gary Halbert Dollar Bill Letter

You can direct people to call you at the end of the letter (i.e. pitch them the same way you would do over the phone then have a CTA to call you).

The one's that don't, you call them up 3 days after you've sent the letter (which they will have gotten by then since you'll have mailed first class) and you ask them if they received your letter. Then you remind them that it was the one with the dollar bill attached to it. At this point they'll say yes, and then you go into your pitch.

You will convert much better this way because, essentially, you won't be "cold calling".

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1nspire

Brick and mortar plus cyber skills equal solid foundation. When it comes down to it, its really simple. Provide a service that solves a problem.

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aojon was here

pa2phoenix

Yup, he did.. I wanted to put something up that was a little more specific, laying out EXACTLY what I was doing... His thread was certainly the inspiration for this one...

I will be starting around 11am on Thursday calling. Either I will call for about 4-5 hours, or if I get someone on the hook who is available I will stop calling and go close them immediately... Will post an update sometime tomorrow evening on calls made / appts set / sales made.

bizzykehl

I'm not hating and no offense, but what does this have to do with internet/affiliate marketing?

pa2phoenix

well... nothing to do with AM, however there is a pretty consistent theme on here of people who are doing local seo and related things. Hence the local seo sticky thread... Also this is posted in a section that consists primarily of tits and off topic discussions...

Also, part of the services being offered to the business owners is SEO services... And almost nobody buys the website and doesn't pay me monthly for SEO work..

Soupyone

Start calling at 8:30am, easier to reach the decision makers.

emdeeay

drunk work is the best work

Sandman

What kind of fees do you charge for monthly SEO services and what do you typically include in the different SEO packages?

Do you tell them you'll get them to the front page for x amount of dollars or do you charge them for certain amount of 2.0 pages, comments, general backlinks, profiles, etc a month?

Great to see more guys trying out the Local SEO and helping out others with what they learn.

stumpyb

who cares it has to do with making $

mala11883

good for you mate. i need to get off my arse and do something. lol

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BigWill

Tip: Remove the word "actually" from your script. Makes you sound not confident in your services / company.

Soupyone

If you want I'll look over your stuff, since I have sales guys now I'm spending 99% of my time supporting a sales team.

bizzykehl

Why not get a job as a telemarketer then, it's the same thing.

Soupyone

In my experience telemarketers don't make $1,200 a day.

leadsupplier

telemarketers clearly wont get commissioned what this guy will be making ...

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Magic Hat

Raise your prices. You might be able to deliver on those prices, but you will lose money in the end based on your time communicating back and forth. Unless you are purely outsourcing your services and getting some sort of commission. I can't believe you would have enough margin there.

I also recommend you have some sort of project intake method/form. This will cut back on a lot of back and forth communication. Make it "madlibs style".

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matt3

Nice work!

As an aside to the comments about hosting yourself, has anyone ever tested the price points on that? Not just $19.95 vs $24.95...

I only ask because I've had local clients for quite some time now, and never used to offer hosting. Come to find out, many are perfectly fine with $60 bucks /mo (this is low; some of my own clients are paying 100++, which I thought was outrageous for oversold boxes with lag time, though not hatin' one bit on the hustle).

Small business owner expectations just became a lot more interesting to me.

pa2phoenix

May take you up on that. Thanks

This.

Margins are actually pretty good. I usually spend about an hour to get the deal with average ticket being around 500-700 dollars upfront.

I do have a standard process that I take new customers through that pretty well streamlines everything and makes it so there is not any real need for voice to voice communication after the initial sale. Unless I want to sell them something else.


Yea, I know this to be true... I've thought about switching that part of my pitch from "I'm not going to charge you some frivolous large monthly fee to keep your website on the internet" TO "It's 29.95 per month for hosting and maintenance and this allows you to add pictures or more content later on down the road" as most business owners don't ever contact me again once their site is live..

Kind of related update: My guy from yesterday who's card got declined put more money in his acct so I got the 400 from him this morning.. Not bad for an hour of work.. Now it's back to the phones for me. I'm gonna try and make at least 600 dollars today. Will update later this evening.

sarafina84

Are you using an autodialer or anything?

Do you have a certain amount of calls/hrs you're devoting a day to hit the challenge goals or putting time in as it allows?

seabreeze

I look forward to the results. I'll take the over bet on the $1500.

hellblazer

Not sure if you've posted a progress report yet, but what's the usual package you sell them? A 5-page with G Places? What's the average cash you're squeezin outta these people?

TFLNetwork

Lol ya gotta love haters

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what the hell am i doing
viva la dullspace

Tamra

I thought the same thing.

Good luck with the challenge.

T

RedFireGreg

Keep the posts coming. I want to see how this pans out.

stumpyb

by your logic all businesses are telemarketers if they call people trying to drum up business..

guess we better quit using telephones.

jedediahd

Interested in seeing this as well, thinking of doing a case study of the same type of thing in Tempe

pa2phoenix

You can have Tempe... My least favorite part of this city..

UPDATE: Had some personal shit I to deal with today, so I would say I prob only worked a total of 2 hrs looking up and calling on businesses... Talked to some interested people.

Rough stats:
-around 30 calls made
-Mostly answering machines today for some reason
-3 Not interested
-2 just had a website built in the last month
-1 Face to face appt set for next week. (client is sold on website, but wants a face to face consult so I can explain what needs to happen to rank their site)
- 1 callback for tomorrow, and if he is available he wants to meet. (should also be an easy close for me)

No new money generated today.. Also my first appointment's friend who also owns a business has been telling her he wants a website, just doesn't know who to talk to etc.. That was an easy referral and he will be sold within a week as well.. Sucks I couldn't put in a full day today, but tomorrow I should be able to.

leadsupplier

where in pa u from

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pa2phoenix

Grew up back and forth between Philly and Allentown. Both places that I strangely miss... People here in phoenix/scottsdale are just not my style.. I'm a little to "direct" for them lol

hellblazer

What kind of businesses are you targeting? Lawyers? Doctors? Are you targeting specific occupations or casting a wide net?

pa2phoenix

I target pretty much everyone except for any kind of business that does artsy type shit where I think they are going to be a pain in my ass when it comes to designing the website..

bigb3433

looks like a good start...
question though to soupyone and pa2phoenix or anyone else running this type of biz.. i used to basically do this same thing before i ever got into affiliate marketing although i was really just a sales rep for a company using this type of biz model and making a good commission on every sale.

My only pet peeve/problem with going out and doing this myself was that the clients usually more than half the time were a pain in the ass or didnt put in their content. We specialized in doing more of a template type site with a simple what ya see is what ya get editor and allowed the clients to put in their info (although most of the time we wound up doing most of it for them) they also rarely if ever had any type of digital material such as their logo, photos, info etc.

So I wound up doing a lot of extra work to get this stuff for the site and also deal with their requests like "could you make the background all look like leather?" (horse-farm) if anyone here reads theoatmeal.com its basically those type of situations.

do you offer a selection of colors/templates for them to choose from? Do you offer any graphic design type stuff included or charge them extra?

Just curious on how some of you guys deal with/avoid some of these clients turning into more work then their worth. Of course with this type of biz you need to work with people and its more involved than most AM type stuff which anyone should expect, but if you have any tips or pointers feel free to share.

l3msip

^^ a contract.
"Cient can choose from a selection of pre tested and proven design templates......bespoke customizations beyond those provided in template editor are charged at $xxx per hour.....SEO agreement is persuant to client provided copy meeting all copy guidelines..... changes to client supplied copy will be charged at $xxx per hour.."

Obvioulsy just something i threw togetter as an example, if doing any volume get your contracts looked over by a lawyer

bizzykehl

I'm really not a hater I just don't get what's so fascinating about this thread. So you're starting a web design company and you're cold calling people out of the yellow pages? What am I missing that's getting everyone else excited? I'm not against doing it, in fact I used to run a web design business (albeit I still do... just not so cookie-cutter anymore). If this is indeed just a web design business I wish you luck, but beware and be prepared to handle a ton of support calls, especially if your customer base is made up of old-timey "anti-website until you came along" types... It gets to be a serious burden. And customer service believe it or not is pretty hard to outsource or subcontract when you're dealing with local clients who each have specific needs and a history with you. Again though I haven't really read that much of the thread so correct me if I'm wrong.

ncmedia

^ I agree with bizzy but it's still cool he's documenting the startup and ins/outs - most people here are dying in this industry looking for cheap quick flips. Used to run a design biz as well and can relate to everything stated, however if it's quick automation and proper foundations with each client, it's a nice monthly recur within 6 months plus new rev. If you can handle a few hundred clients a year with minimal/autoamted support sure it can be lucrative and passive.

Wish you luck if you take it past the test, lot's of money in local biz it's just what you do with your time, and everyone here enjoys the (idea of) passive automation without having to deal with idiots for $ one to one. I say who cares how you make your million or what you test to do it to get them in your funnel. If I could tie shoelaces for a year straight to ensure me a million I'd do it.

EDIT: http://www.fiverr.com/users/amandajo...your-shoelaces << Fuck even that idea is gone.

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