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An Awesome Business Idea: Link Building for Websites - Part Five

Author Cameron Martel | 26.09.2007 | Category Sample Business Plans, Online Business Ideas

Part Five: Sample Business Plan

Made it this far? Great- by now you probably realize the profitability and feasibility of link building as a business. You’ve probably done a bit of research and have found an absolutely staggering market, and you’re more enthusiastic than ever about getting your business up and running.

To launch your business, you’ll need:

• A business plan - A document that completely outlines what the steps we are going to take will be, what the business goals are, and spells out what our products and services will be. The business plan should educate anyone who isn’t “in” on the business and have them fully aware of what’s going on after they’ve read it.

• Startup costs - This business can be started for under $100, as your only initial startup costs are web hosting ($9.99 per month from Crucial Web Host) and perhaps some PPC marketing (that one’s optional).

• Initial marketing campaigns - You’re really going to focus on offering your services to forums and communities. That’s where your customers hang out, and getting in there is free and a great way to build relationships.

The Business Plan:

Please keep in mind that this business plan is just an example, and that should you choose to pursue this type of business that your business plan will need to be more detailed and have more information. However, the general format of the business plan is true to the example.

Mission statement:
It is the mission of www.welink4you.org to provide quality, reliable, and quickly delivered backlinks to our clients. Through successful delivery of a quality product we will develop and maintain a long standing relationship with our clients as a dependable provider of excellent backlinks.

Market Analysis:
Our research shows there to be a massive market by which our services will be able to grow and become profitable on. The rapid expansion of internet business has created hundreds of thousands of customers for us to serve with our services, and the rising importance of SEO and relevant backlinks make our service one that is invaluable for a webmaster.

At this present time we have determined that the market is currently undeserved by quality providers that operate at a decent price point, and it is our intention to fill this void by:

1. Developing a product to serve the market specifically - Our products will be designed for the most benefit of those that choose to use them.
2. Working with our clients to continue to offer excellent service - We know that our job does not end at the completion of the client order, and because of this we will strive to work with the client and provide whatever amount of service that they need.

Our research has shown that there are no providers that are willing to operate on the same personal level that we are going to focus on, and because of this we will have a significant advantage over our competition.

Product and Pricing
Initially, welink4you.org will only offer one product:

• 250 Quality Backlinks - $49.99 - This package will be a directory submission to 250 quality directories with high pageranks and relevancy towards a variety of topics.

Once we have determined further pricing and interest in expansion packages we will begin to offer them to our clients at a premium above our base package.

Marketing and Promotion
welink4you.org will utilize social networking and community based marketing in favor of other popular paid promotional mediums, such as PPC or lead-generation marketing. Marketing on community forums and outlets will allow us to gain immediate exposure to our target market as well as become a known brand within the community, helping us generate credibility and sales.

We will start by marketing on the following websites:

• WickedFire.com
• DigitalPoint.com
• SitePoint.com
• WebHostingTalk.com
• WorkAtHomeMoms.com
• WAHM.com

Operating Expenses and Profitability Estimations
Updates4you.com has little overhead ($9.99 per month hosting from Crucial Web Host), so we project profitability within the first week of operations.

This business plan above is quite brief. We will be releasing a business plan template available for free via PDF/.doc/.html file that will provide a better example of what your business plan should look like. However, the fundamental elements of this sample business plan

Closing Comments:

The market for this one is infinite. With billions of websites online, going online, or just getting ready to be launched, the market is ripe for a service that can offer the SEO backend needed for profitability. Many people will pay for it without complaint, and those same people will be actively searching for what your business will be offering.

If you’ve got the desire to create a legitimate income from home with definite possibilities of growth and expansion, jump on this one before the market becomes saturated.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

An Awesome Business Idea: Link Building for Websites - Part Four

Author Cameron Martel | 25.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Four: The Product

Before you progress your link building business any further you should already have the following:

• An idea of the time that it will take for you to perform the links - If you are unsure of where to build links or how to go about it, order a link building package from someone already in business and see how they perform for you. Many of these people use programs (available for free generally online) and simply copy and paste the information as they go.
• A website - The total cost to purchase your website/hosting is $90 or so initially (if you use Crucial Web Hosting), and then $9.99 per month after that. You won’t need someone to design you a website if you use WordPress, as it’s quite easy to use. We won’t get into detail about WordPress simply because there is a ton of information about it all over the internet.
  However, so long as you have hosting and a website you are good to go. Your domain name should be something related to link building, such as “www.welink4you.org“. You want the name to be catchy, memorable, and relatively short.
• The time to dedicate to the business - During the first few months you will be growing and expanding. Make sure that you have the time to be there to promote the growth and expansion of your business.

Got all of that down pat? Good- it’s time to take your business from “in development” to “in business”.

Product Research and The Product Itself:

A bit of research into a potential market for the product and you will realize that the market is literally begging for more services like this. The internet is rapidly expanding, and so are the number of entrepreneurs out there looking to make a name for themselves online. You can capitalize on this if you can offer:

1. Convenience - Internet marketers and businesses often have multiple projects on the go. Being able to “ease the pain” a bit will make you highly sought after.
2. Time - Making life a bit easier for an entrepreneur’s SEO efforts (via link building) will keep you in high demand.
3. Quality - Deliver what you promise and only promise what you can deliver. In this case, it’s targeted, relevant backlinks.

The market tends to lean towards services that can offer good quality backlinks, not just backlinks en masse. Spend some time building up a list of websites that have a decent page rank, decent traffic, and are relevant to many niche’s. A good idea is to build up a list of 250-500 websites (directories) that accept links, and then another 250-500 article directories. The numbers may sound daunting, but in reality it’s simply a matter of searching for them and knowing where to look.

If you’ve used a link service before they will surely tell you which websites they linked to you from, and though you shouldn’t steal their lists, they can provide an idea of the type of websites that you should be looking for.

Essentially:
Your service should be offered in “packages” of X many links per package. Shoot for a starting price of $50, and offer at least 250 reliable backlinks for it. You will receive customers like you wouldn’t believe.

Keep in mind that you will need a certain amount of information from your clients in order to submit the backlinks:

• Website Name - The name of the website
• Website URL - The URL of the website
• Desired Anchor Text - The text that you will use to format the link. IE- SEO Help, “SEO Help” is the anchor text of the hyperlink.
• Short description (60 words) - A quick blurb about the site.
• Relevant categories - What the site is about.

Your clients should be sending you stuff like this:

• Website Name: SimplifiedSEO.com
• Website URL: www.simplifiedseo.com
• Desired Anchor Text: SEO Help, SEO Tips, SEO advice
• Short description: SimplifiedSEO.com is dedicated to the successful development or search engine optimization for your website. Begninners and experts alike will find a refreshing take on vital information.
• Relevant categories: business, internet business

With that information you would then submit it into the link directories as required.  Copy and paste- no thinking involved.

What your customers are really paying you for is time, so make sure that you can afford it to your customers.  Staying on time with your quotes will be the best and only way to guarantee your longevity.

Need Examples?

Still unsure of what link building is? Good examples are:

• INetZeal.com - (http://www.inetzeal.com) - Offering packages that are comparable to what you will be offering.  The difference, of course, would be your price.
• SEOCompany.ca - (http://www.seocompany.ca) - Another good example of a website that offers link building and an explanation of their packages.  They are also a bit more expensive.

Alright, you are now armed with information about the market, where to advertise, and the product itself.  Next is making a business plan, launching your business, and sending us 10% of your profits

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

An Awesome Business Idea: Link Building for Websites - Part Three

Author Cameron Martel | 20.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Three: Business Goals and Product Requirements

Okay, so we’ve figured out a few things related to link building (profits and revenue projections), so now it’s time to talk about what the long and short term goals of the business are as well as the requirements of the product itself. Proper goal setting is absolutely vital for a business to experience any amount of longevity, so it’s important that you don’t skip past this opportunity to sit down and really assess what you want your business to be.

Remember, the goals set below are just examples that we feel are feasible. You can (and probably should) really sit down and determine what your personal and business goals are, as well as possible daily, weekly, and monthly goals might be.

Setting Realistic Business Goals:

Link building is a service that is only going to experience more demand for it. The internet is rapidly expanding, and of course, SEO is now the name of the game. In terms of what you can offer as a link building service, the primary component will be time. You are offering webmasters a service that will build quality links in a relatively short time frame, meaning that they won’t have to do it themselves. While you’re building links they can move on and start their next project.

As webmasters, we actually pay for this service for many of our websites (this one being one of them). So, what does that mean for you? Well, this has several positive implications for your prospective business:

1. There’s demand for what you are offering - It is unlikely that you will experience a shortage of clients.
2. Many customers will be repeat customers - Most webmasters have more than one website, so multiple client orders and repeat clients are very likely. Offer a good service and don’t be surprised when you have tons of clients.
3. Your business has definite possibilities for longevity - Expansion of businesses, the accumulation of wealth, and the creation of new websites means that you will be around for a long time.

Taking those points into consideration, your business goals can be created that take both time and monetary value into account. You know that your business has the potential to be around for a while, and you know that setting the right goals will help you get there. In this case, setting initial goals for about a year’s worth of business sound entirely plausible and are very reasonable.

Your goal sheet may look something like this:

Immediate goals:

• Generate six new clients, valued at $50 each, per week - Your first clients will help you determine future marketing efforts and help rationalize potential income. Meeting this goal will net you at least $1,200 your first month.
• Generate 15 unique hits to my website every day using free promotional methods - This one may be harder to do, but there’s plenty of information about traffic generation and search engine optimization from places like AffiliateWeb.org or SimplifiedSEO.com.
• Have a 25% customer retention rate - In all honesty, your initial customer retention rate will probably be closer to 35% to 50%, but setting 25% as a goal is still quite ambitious. This sets you up for future repeat orders.You will be able to accomplish this by maintaining excellent service, making sure that your pricing is competitive, and getting things done quickly.

One Month Goals:

At the end of your first month, assuming you have met those goals above, you should have made at least $1,200 (though you probably would have made more) and have at least 6 repeat customers. This month, using what you’ve learned from the last month, your goals should be more ambitious:

• Generate eight new clients per week with a value of $50 each - Remember, these are new clients, and assuming that you meet this goal your income from new clients will be $1,600. It is also perfectly reasonable that you would attain this goal with identical advertising methods as you did before- in fact, we’re willing to bet that you probably would have had this level of success last month.
• Generate 30 unique hits to my website each day - As you become more well known people will actively search out your website. As well, if you have been SEO’ing your website you should be beginning to experience some initial benefits.
• Offer two new product packages at $75 and $100 each - Alright, so now it’s time to start upselling. Take what you’ve learned from last month and apply it into two new (more expensive) packages. Many people will order the mid-range package ($75) over the $50 one simply because they won’t want to feel “cheap”.
• Have 6 repeat clients order at $50 each - So now we have residual income kicking in. Assuming a 25% retention rate from last month, that’s another $300 in income, making the month’s total $1,900.
  
• Have a 25% customer retention rate - This is identical to last month, and should become a long-term goal.
  

Three Month Goals:

By now you are probably doing quite well for yourself. Ideally, you have positive word of mouth business and over 50 satisfied clients, 13 of them which are repeat customers. Your third month will be your most ambitious yet:

• Generate 10 new clients per week with a value of $75 per client - Now we’re doing $750 per week in new clients alone. You are now making a very decent income working online, and you haven’t even considered repeat orders yet.
• Begun generating 150 unique hits or more per day to the website - SEO is now probably working in your favor, and assuming you targeted relevant keywords, plenty of people are finding your website (also helping with a higher order rate).
• Have 22 repeat clients order at $75 each - Assuming you’ve met your growth goals, you should have around 22 clients that are going to order from you again. What’s great about this business is that not only is this goal reasonable, it’s very likely. It also adds $1,650 to your income for the month, bringing the total to $4,650- you are now making a pretty decent income.
• Hired first employee come the end of month three - Ahh, time to expand. Hiring employees who work for you will allow you to take even more orders, expand your business, and generate more revenue. This employee should be paid for the work that they do for you, and will likely only need to be part-time working once or twice per week from home.

Six Month Goals:

Three months ago you should have been earning nearly $5,000 a month in income. Now it’s time to ramp it up and really expand.

• Generate 14 new clients per week with a value of $75 per client - $1,050 per week from new clients. You will need an employee to help you handle the new workload.
• Generate two clients per week with a value of $100 each - Now you’re looking at $800 a month from clients ordering the top package. This will take a bit more selling on your part, but it’s worth it (especially if they become repeat customers).
• Have 46 repeat clients order at a value of $75 each - $3,450 in income, and still very plausible. We figure that the actual customer retention rate will be higher, but that doesn’t mean you need to plan for it. Also, make sure that you can handle the workload. If you need to hire another part-time employee, do it (it’s not like you can’t afford it).
• Hire at least two part-time employees - You will be paying these people at least $1,600 a month each, so expect $3,200 a month in additional expenses. $400 a week each is very reasonable, fair for both parties, and still leaves plenty of room for profit.
  

One Year Goals:

So your first year in business has come and gone. How did it go? With this business you probably met all of your goals due to insane demand. For your one year goals, you should be more aggressive than ever.

• A total of 120 clients with an average value of $75 per month - $9,000 per month in revenue from these clients. This provides the basis for a very profitable home business, as you are earning over $100,000 a year at this point for your business.
• A total of 48 clients with an average value of $100 per month - Another $4,800 in income, and very plausible. Work hard to achieve this one!
  
• Hired a total of four part-time employees - Assuming you pay these employees $1,600 a month each, you are looking at $6,400 in expenses, leaving you with $7,400 profit. This is necessary in order to ensure that orders are filled out smoothly.

Though the figures quoted in the example may not actually reflect your businesses pricing they do an excellent job of illustrating the profit potential for this kind of business. Before you start actively marketing your link building service, conduct a trial with a few different marketing methods and study the results. From there you can then accurately base your goals and business objectives.

Product Requirements:

Link building will be time consuming until you’ve figured out how to automate it.  Luckily, there are many ways to do this (programs, site lists, links, etc.).  The requirements for your product (from the customers point of view) are the following:

• Fast - Get the job done as quickly as possible.  This will increase the odds of a re-order from a specific client and will also allow you to take on more work.
• Reliable - Do what you say you are going to do.  If you sell a 50 link package, make sure that they deliver exactly 50 links.
• Value oriented - You don’t have to be the least expensive, but you do need to provide value.  Make sure that your prices are reasonable, affordable, and worth what you’re offering.

Your initial package should be $50, and it should offer a minimum of 200 backlinks, achieved either through directories, article submissions, blog links, or a combination of the three.  Once you’ve attained more experience with the market you can expand even further by offering a $75 and $100 package that offer more links and more value.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

An Awesome Business Idea: Link Building for Websites - Part Two

Author Cameron Martel | 19.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Two: Analyzing Expenses vs. Expected Profits

Your link building service wont have too many expenditures. In fact, outside of web hosting and maybe a new computer (since you’ll want something that is fast and reliable), you’re unlikely to have any external expenses at all. For reasons that we’re going to talk about in a bit, link building is a business that you can get started for nearly no up front investment, and your monthly costs are next to nothing.

All of that applies, of course, assuming that you run the show and don’t hire any employees. Expand your business a bit and add a few employees and you’ve really complicated the mix up. However, if you’re doing that, you’re clearly making money (which is the whole point of this thing anyway, right?). Some unique traits related to financial obligations of link building are:

• The link updating service has very low monthly expenses - Your only primary expense (an expense that you must pay in order to maintain the ability to function) is your web hosting. Crucial Web Host only charges $9.99 for a very competitive hosting package, and 1and1.com is even cheaper at $2.99 (though their hosting is much more limited than Crucial’s).

You will be able to market your services for free via related web forums, free classified websites, and viral marketing (more on that in the marketing and promotion article). This means that so long as you do the work yourself, the money that you make goes into your pocket. Nice, huh?

• There are limited secondary expenses - As mentioned earlier, you may use this business as an excuse to invest in a new computer (you can get great deals at Buy.com). Other than that, you won’t be using or purchasing anything that you don’t already need. Basic services, such as a phone or internet connection, are probably already active and running anyway, so you can just use those.

If you plan on expanding down the line and hiring employees you are adding primary expenses, and because of that we won’t talk about them now as a secondary expense. Look for an article to come up in the near future talking about expansion, your responsibilities as an employer, and how you help transform your business.

• The expected profits are high - Our initial expectations are quite high given that we figure that there is a lot of demand for this type of service right now. Affiliate marketing is really taking off, so it only makes sense that more affiliates are going to want their websites to be SEO optimized, and link building is a big part of that.

As well, with low operating costs, we fully expect a profit margin over over 95% on every dollar made.

• The product is singular - Link building is something that a webmaster needs to do for every website that they launch. Do good work for one webmaster and don’t be surprised when they come knocking on your door the next time they launch a website. This could mean huge viral marketing and word of mouth advertising.

Repeat business guarantees longevity, especially online.

• The product is quick to deliver - Once you have mastered a method by which you can actually create the links, delivery becomes a matter of repetition. Since it becomes brainless, you could have clients done quite quickly as it becomes a matter of copy and paste.

Having a system in place saves time and maximizes revenue.

Expenses and Scalability:

Link building can be scalable, but at some point you will reach a saturation point of what you are capable of achieving in a day. Once this happens you are going to have to expand your operation, hiring employees and purchasing more equipment. However, you should also be in a position where you are taking in multiple orders in a day and doing enough volume to make expansion a logical option.

When you begin to expand your business it is unlikely that your primary expenses will need to increase. Your secondary expenses, such as employee wages or advertising, will have to increase, and with them your sales volume in order to maintain your profit margins.

Remember:
Your employees will be doing basic data entry, so there’s no reason that you need to be offering a premium salary for the job. A touch over minimum wage is all that would be required given that the job requires no skills outside of basic reading comprehension and typing.

You may also find it easier to offer an incentive for each client completed, as it will likely cause your employees to work harder in an effort to increase their inventive.

If you find that you are unable to keep up with demand for your business you would probably get by temporarily increasing the wait times of your services. This will keep income coming in while only diminishing the overall experience slightly for the user. In reality, so long as you maintain acceptable wait times (within two weeks or so) and inform your customers of those wait times, you’re doing just fine.

Profit Margins and Acceptable Pricing:

You want your profit margins to be as high as possible, and with a business like this (that is offering an intangible service), you will have to base your pricing on market rates and acceptable payment given the amount of time that it will take for you to actually complete the tasks you are being paid for. First things first, you need to assess the market. You can do this by browsing around related forums and message boards and see if any competing services are functioning, and if so, what they are charging.

Being reliable and punctual will allow you to command a price premium over your competitors, as being the cheapest game in town isn’t always the best route to take. Many people associate an incredibly inexpensive price with poor quality, so don’t be afraid to charge what you feel you are worth.

Your pricing will be based entirely around packages, since it is unlikely that someone will place an order on a “per-link” basis. It is recommended that you take some time to see how long it takes for you to build the links, and then work out a price based on the time.

In our experience it took us 20 minutes to complete 250 backlinks. We feel that charging the client $30 for those 250 backlinks is quite fair to both the client and to us (our income would be $90 an hour at those rates).

If your expenses total little more than hosting, anything above and beyond an order over $10 is profit, so don’t be afraid to go with the market on this and see how profitable it makes you.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

An Awesome Business Idea: Link Building for Websites

Author Cameron Martel | 17.09.2007 | Category Business Overviews, Online Business Ideas

Part One: Business Overview

Here’s an idea that will appeal to anyone who loves catching trends and milking every dollar out of them while they can. The internet, and it’s multi-trillion dollar economy, is the place to be right now. Hundreds of millions of dollars are exchanged over the course of a matter of hours, and it’s no secret that you want a part of that. Here’s a business that can be launched for under $100, expanded quite quickly, and marketed for free.

It will take approximately eight hours a day of solid work once you’ve got it up and running, so don’t think that this will become a cash grab. However, a bit of research into it has shown income projections exceeding $200 per day in profit- who’s going to complain about that?

The Business Overview:

There are a few ways that a website can make money. Affiliate programs, AdSense (or some other type of PPC service), PayPal donations, merchandise… the list goes on. None of that matters to you, however, as your focus is going to be on targeting those people who are actively seeking to earn an income via their website. You are going to try to sell your services to these people, and not only will they buy it, they will throw heaps of money at you as the service that you will be offering them will be invaluable.

This business is all about valid, legitimate link building. A big part of a websites SEO strategy (for SEO help check out SimplifiedSEO.com) is link building: having as many targeted, relevant, viable back links as possible. This business will focus on offering websites the outsources creation of those links (for a fee, of course).

This business is a guaranteed money maker for the following reasons:

1. Webmasters need backlinks - With Google running the show these days there is no webmaster who will turn down this service. Google demands back links, and you’re going to offer them.
2. Generating backlinks is a pain in the behind - For a webmaster, generating qualified backlinks is a pain in the butt. Finding the websites and getting the links up is about as much fun as being punched in the face. I would gladly pay someone else to do it for me.

The Product:

The product is quite simple, and you could actually break it down into different packages if you wanted. At the core, you are offering qualified back links with anchor text that reflects the customers SEO strategy. The more links you sell, the more money you can make. What will take you time is the actual creation of the links- inputting them into websites. This can be automated to an extent, streamlining your process a little bit. However, you’ll still have to do it manually.

A big portion of this type of business is directory submissions, where you will be submitting websites to directories with chosen anchor text and descriptions. This type of information will be gathered from the customer before you commit to any work, ensuring that you won’t be on the chopping block to come up with something yourself.

Advertising and Promotion:

You will have to actively find and generate your customers. However, the service itself is in high demand for qualified and reliable people/businesses that can provide back links for a reasonable price. Since this business has a definite prospect for longevity, you want to be that business.

You will be able to advertise for free via:

• Forums - Webmaster and affiliate marketing forums will not only allow you to advertise your services, but they will likely be where most of your initial business comes from.
• Social networking - Promoting yourself via Digg/Stumbleupon/del.ici.ous/etc. will generate traffic and revenue without costing you a dime.
• Classified ads - Offline businesses still have websites that need to be SEO’d, and you’re offering an essential element of the SEO strategy.

Revenue/Profit Potential:

Your revenue is going to come from volume.  An individual client may only be worth $10-$20 to you, so the more you have the better off you are.  The trick to developing massive amounts of profit is keeping your operating costs low and your income high.  You’ll want to generate at least 10 clients a day in order to make the business worthwhile.

We have not yet done the research to determine what the median price will be, but generating 10 clients a day will be a minimum of $150 a day in revenue.  This will all be profit.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating - Part Five

Author Cameron Martel | 14.09.2007 | Category Sample Business Plans, Online Business Ideas

Part Five: Sample Business Plan

So now the time has come to take our idea - a service that sells blog updates - and turn it into a fully functional business. To do this we are going to need a few things:

• A business plan - A document that completely outlines what the steps we are going to take will be, what the business goals are, and spells out what our products and services will be. The business plan should educate anyone who isn’t “in” on the business and have them fully aware of what’s going on after they’ve read it.

• Startup costs - For this particular business there’s no reason that you couldn’t be up and running for as little as $100.

• Initial marketing campaigns - Focus on finding related forums or communities that you can market your services to.

The Business Plan:

Please keep in mind that this business plan is just an example, and that should you choose to pursue this type of business that your business plan will need to be more detailed and have more information. However, the general format of the business plan is true to the example.

Mission statement:
The blog updating service, updates4you.com, will generate the core of its business from successful bloggers and entrepreneurs who will find value in the automation of their blog. With a value focused price structure and relatively unique product, updated4you.com will become the number one blog updating service.

Market Analysis:
An analysis of the market shows there to be little competition in this field. Many bloggers are outsourcing their blog updating needs to foreign or international firms that are not capable of providing the type of quality or attention to detail that updated4you.com offers its customers.

Further analysis of the market reveals that there is definite room for rapid, aggressive growth and that there is longevity and potential for future expansion.

We estimate an initial acquisition of eight customers during our first month of business, with a gross revenue of $1,600. We project 150% growth rates for the next two months, followed by a surge in growth as updates4you.com rapidly and aggressively promotes its brand and services.

Product and Pricing
Initially, updates4you.com will only offer two products:

• “Core” package - $200 per month - This includes one update per business day for the duration of the subscription. These updates will be at least 350 words long and will be on any topic the client wishes.
• “Advanced” package - $300 per month - This includes one update per day of the month (for a total of 28-31 updates depending on the month). These updates will be a minimum of 400 words long and will be on any topic that the client wishes.

We estimate that 75% of customers will opt for the “core” package, while the remaining 25% will opt for the “advanced” package. However, during the first few months of operation we estimate that nearly 100% of customers will opt for the “core” package.

Marketing and Promotion
Updates4you.com will utilize social networking and community based marketing in favor of other popular paid promotional mediums, such as PPC or lead-generation marketing. Marketing on community forums and outlets will allow us to gain immediate exposure to our target market as well as become a known brand within the community, helping us generate credibility and sales.

We will start by marketing on the following websites:

• WickedFire.com
• DigitalPoint.com
• SitePoint.com
• WebHostingTalk.com
• WorkAtHomeMoms.com
• WAHM.com

Operating Expenses and Profitability Estimations
Updates4you.com has little overhead ($9.99 per month hosting from Crucial Web Host), so we project profitability within the first week of operations.

This business plan above is quite brief. We will be releasing a business plan template available for free via PDF/.doc/.html file that will provide a better example of what your business plan should look like. However, the fundamental elements of this sample business plan

Closing Comments:

Before I conclude this weeks idea, I’d like to talk a bit about my personal experience with this type of industry. I, by profession, am a copywriter. I spend hundreds of hours a month writing and analyzing copy for websites, magazines, and even publishing companies. I see the value of a blog updating service like this- especially if that service is reliable, able to produce high-quality content, and is cost effective.

This is the perfect example of a business that anyone with a grasp of the written word could launch. Work at home mom’s, unemployed professionals, or anyone else looking for a dynamic income that is sure to grow and expand as time passes. If you do launch this business, please let me know (e-mail me at editor@greatbizideas.org)- I would love to see it. As well, the example domain (http://www.updated4you.com) is also available for purchase as a turnkey blog updating business for only $999.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating - Part Four

Author Cameron Martel | 13.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Four: Product Research and the Product Itself

Before you progress your blog updating business any further you should already have the following:

• An idea of the time that it will take for you to make each blog update - You will need to know exactly how long it will take you for you to update a blog. Remember, the product itself is going to be focused on daily or alternating blog updates, and the more than you can do (and the faster that you can do them) the more revenue you’ll be able to generate.
• A website - The total cost to purchase your website/hosting is $90 or so initially (if you use Crucial Web Hosting), and then $9.99 per month after that. I will be setting up a Crucial-specific how-to on how to get your website designed, uploaded, and launched in a matter of minutes that anyone, even someone who has never heard of the internet, will be able to follow.
  However, so long as you have hosting and a website you are good to go. Your domain name should be something related to blog updating or outsourced content, such as “www.updated4you.com“. You want the name to be catchy, memorable, and relatively short.
• Decent English writing skills - Since the product is a blog update, and you will have to write said blog update, it is important your writing skills are up to par. If not, perhaps take a bit of time to reacquaint yourself with spelling, fundamental grammar mechanics, and writing style.

Once you have those elements in place you are ready to move forward and take your business from planning to operation.

Product Research:

This is one of the most important parts of your business plan and it is something that you should give a lot of thought to. Your product is going to be what maintains a client- you can “sell” anyone just about anything (if you know how), but retaining them as long-term clients is where the product quality and value come into play. Your goal should be to offer a product that is fair to both the customer and to your business, has value for the customer, and is something that your customers would be happy to recommend to friends.

As we’ve mentioned in prior articles, the product itself can be offered in the form of packages. For example, you may want to offer your “core” package, or the package that you expect to do the most volume with. This package should be set at a median price point so that it is not too expensive or inexpensive. Offering 20 blog updates a month for $200, for example, may act as your core package. From there you can offer less expensive packages (10 blog updates for $110) or more expensive packages (35 updates for $300), giving your customers variety and choice.

If you are fortunate to have known competitors take a look at their offerings and pricing. Basing your initial start-up packages off of their rates may convert a few customers on the basis of uniformity and familiarity. However, your long term success will be the result of you offering products, services, and packages that are unique and value focused. The bottom line is that you are a service, and keeping your customers happy is your number one priority.

Create an account on webmaster/blogging message boards and start asking what people would feel is a fair price for 1 daily blog update. Remember, people are going to reply ultra-cheap ($1/post, for example) and highly speculative (up to $30 a post, for example). Our initial research has shown that charging roughly $10 per update for lower volume orders is price acceptable.

Estimated Suggested Pricing:

This is a rough outline of what you could charge upon the launch of your new business.

• Baseline Blog Package - $110 for 10 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.
• Core Blog Package - $200 for 20 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.
• Advanced Blog Package - $350 for 40 blog updates at a minimum of 350 words. Each update will be posted directly to your content management system.

As you become more experienced you could offer graphical integration, longer update lengths, or long term updating packages. You may do well to offer a 10% discount to customers that purchase four months of updates or more- a bit of incentive never hurt anyone and people love a good deal.

The Product:

All of this talk about “product research” and “product value” doesn’t necessarily define what the product actually is. The base product that you could offer would be a blog update- you log in to their content management system, either write the update or copy/paste the update that you’ve prewritten, check it for any grammatical or spelling errors, and post it.

The whole process should take you under 20 minutes from start to finish for a 400-500 word update. Always ask the client how to log in to their content management system and for a username and password- don’t forget what they are either!

The product is quite basic, but what you’re really offering them is time. By allowing you to update their blog for them you are essentially allowing them to automate their blog. So long as you do a good job with the updates they will continue to allow you to update their blog, and hence stay active as a paying customer.

Need Examples?

Still unsure of what a “blog post” is? Good examples (as well as examples for websites to approach) are:

• CareerRamblings.com - (http://www.careerramblings.com) - This website is updated three times a week (on average). Each update is a new post that is around 400 - 500 words long. An example of a good post is “Conducting a Job Interview: The Right Answers“.
• AffiliateWeb.org - (http://www.affiliateweb.org) - Updated once or twice per week (judging by post stamps), each update is around 400-500 words long. An example of a good post is “Writing Search Engine Enabled Content: Five Essential Tips“.

Essentially, a blog post is little more than a post talking about the topic that the blog is based on. You don’t need to worry about graphics (unless you’re charging for them) or HTML/PHP programming (content management systems are just type and post). Keeping the product simple will keep your productivity high.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating - Part Three

Author Cameron Martel | 12.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Three: Business Goals and Product Requirements

Once you’ve determined the general overview of your blog updating business and what your monthly expenses are going to be the next stage of the game is to determine what your business goals are, and hence, what your product requirements are going to need to be in order to achieve those goals. Goal setting is very important when you are starting a business, and being able to set and meet realistic and achievable goals is one of the best ways to become successful.

Setting Realistic Business Goals:

It is important to remind yourself that the goals of your business and your personal goals should be two separate things. Unless it is your goal to live to work keeping your goals separated will allow you to develop both personally and with your business.

For a blog updating service that has nearly no overhead it is not unreasonable to have one of your goals be focused on developing quick and early profitability. For example, one of your goals may be something like “to generate three new clients, valued at $300 a client, within two weeks using free promotional methods”. That gives you 14 days (10 business days) to generate three clients- not an impossible feat, and with the demand that we are expecting it should be a cakewalk.

Set out your goals so that they are progressive and are focused on a time line of “immediate”, “one month”, “three months”, “six months”, and “one year”. This will allow you to set some objectives that are both short and long term, and it will also give you a yard stick to measure the success and growth of your business by. Don’t forget to include a brief explanation about the goal to remind yourself why you set it.

An example goal list might look something like this:

Immediate goals:

• Generate two new clients, valued at $200 each, per week - These clients will form the basis of the businesses initial income.
• Generate 25 unique hits to my website every day using free promotional methods - The conversion ratio from visitor to client will be studied over the next month to determine what the average targeted conversion ratio is.

One Month Goals:

By the end of the first month, it is the business goal of INSERTBUSINESSNAME to have :

• Generated a minimum of eight new clients valued at $200 each - This results in a net revenue of $1,600 for the first month and is congruent with the immediate goal of two new clients per week.
• Attracted between 700 and 1,000 unique visitors to INSERTBUSINESSNAMEWEBSITE - This remains consistnent with the goal of 25 unique hits per day and will provide information that can be used to analyze the conversion ratio the website is experiencing.
• Begun offering three new packages at higher price points - Being able to offer clients a $300, $350, and $400 package will increase revenue and possibly increase sales through variety.

Three Month Goals:

By the end of the third month, it is the business goal of INSERTBUSINESSNAME to have:

• Begun generating three new clients per week with an average value of $300 - This will increase revenue from $1,600 at the end of month one to $6,800 at the end of month three ($3,600 in month three sales, and $3,200 combined month one and two sales.
• Begun generating 150 unique hits or more per day to the website - This will be accomplished by free promotional methods and possibly some paid PPC or ad placement marketing.
• Hired first employee come the end of month three - Increased volume will result in the need for an employee to assist in updating client blogs. The employee will be paid 80% of their daily volume, which is an estimated $80 per day.

Six Month Goals:

By the end of the six month, it is the business goal of INSERTBUSINESSNAME to have:

• Reached a total client load of 64 clients that are billed an average of $300 per month - This equates to a monthly revenue of $19,200.
• Begun acquiring one new client a week with a value of $500 a client - This will require more a larger sales focus.
• Begun acquiring five new clients per week with an average value of $300 a client - This will be the result of an increased sales initiative and positive word of mouth advertising.
• Hired six employees come the end of month six - Each employee will be required to conduct 12 updates throughout the course of their workday and will be paid $80 per day for a total monthly salary of $9,600.

One Year Goals:

At the end of the first operating year, it is the business goal of INSERTBUSINESSNAME to have:

• A total of 250 clients with an average value of $300 per month - This is substantially less than projected client acquisition as it compensates for client loss throughout the year. The value of these clients is approximately $75,000 per month.
• A total of 30 clients with an average value of $500 per month - The total value of these clients would be roughly $15,000 per month.
• Hired 15 employees come the end of one year - Each employee will be responsible for 20 updates throughout the course of their day and will be paid $120 per day, for a total monthly salary of $36,000.

Though the figures quoted in the example may not actually reflect your businesses pricing they do an excellent job of illustrating the profit potential for this kind of business. Before you start actively marketing your blog updating service, conduct a trial with a few different marketing methods and study the results. From there you can then accurately base your goals and business objectives.

Product Requirements:

A blog updating service is going to be labor intensive, so the onus will be on you in order to determine how long it takes you to do each blog update and at what price you need to set those updates at. If you estimate 20 minutes for each blog update, for a total of 3 updates per hour, you can reasonably estimate that you are capable of 24 blog updates in a day. That is 24 potential clients assuming each package that you set specifies one update per day.

The pricing for your service should be based on the amount of time that it takes for you to fulfill your obligations. If you are charging $10 per blog update and are able to do 24 in a day that’s roughly $240 per day, or $4,800 a month, in revenue that you are capable of completing. Charging $15 for each blog post adds another $2,400 to your bottom line.

The product needs to be designed from the customers convenience, however, so keep your offerings attractive in both price and execution. You can do this by addressing your target market, or by determining what your customer (bloggers) will want from your service. Running a survey among bloggers is one way to find out their expectations, or you can approach several well-known bloggers address the market’s concerns through their concerns.

A business is generally defined by three variables: price, speed of delivery, and quality. It is hard to accomplish all three, so my advice would be to focus on quality and speed of delivery, as someone who is making thousands of dollars per month from a blog is likely to pay $500 or so to have it run automatically.

In our estimation a new blog updating business will likely see success by offering two distinct packages:

• Package A - $200 a month - One blog update each business day with a minimum of 350 words. This price includes research and remote posting.
• Package B - $300 a month - One blog update each business day plus one blog update on the weekend. Each update will be a minimum of 450 words. This price includes research and posting.

Keep in mind that those prices are set without any actual product testing, though we feel that they are a good place to start.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating - Part Two

Author Cameron Martel | 11.09.2007 | Category Online Business Ideas

Part Two: Analyzing Expenses vs. Expected Profits

Every business has certain expenses, financial commitments, and fiscal obligations. The key to maintaining profitability and developing a trend of growth and prosperity is finding a way to offset the costs of business. Traditionally, this has been done with smart pricing and clever forms of marketing. However, when applying these kind of concepts to a blog updating service.There are a few things to keep in mind:

• The blog updating service has very low monthly expenses - Primary expenses, or expenses that must be paid every month, are few. As far as I can determine, the only primary expense that a blog updating service will have is the monthly fee associated with its web hosting.Hosting ranges from $2.99 to $2,999 a month depending on the package and level of competence that you need. For a blog updating service, the $9.99 shared hosting packaged from Crucial Web Hosting is very sufficient- plenty of bandwidth, disk space, and bundled features. When your only primary expense is $10 a month for web hosting the room for profit is high- very, very high.

• Secondary expenses will vary drastically depending on the amount required by the business itself - If you have tried various free marketing methods and have decided to branch to paid marketing methods you have introduced a secondary expense, or an important but fundamentally optional expense. Paid marketing is a great way to generate new clients, but because you are now paying for marketing you have introduced a whole new series of components to your business:
  • Return-on-investment (ROI) - When focusing on free advertising the only real “expense” is the amount of time that it took you to set up the advertisements and generate new clients. Essentially, the ROI on your investment is the percentage of profit (or lack thereof) that you have received from you marketing methods.For example, if you spent $250 on PPC marketing and generated $250 in sales you have experienced a 0% ROI, as you spent $250 to make $250. However, if you spent $250 on PPC marketing and generated $500 in sales you have experienced a 100% ROI, as you spent $250 and made $500, with a profit of $250, or 100% of what you spent. If you made $750 from a $250 promotional campaign, your ROI would be 200%, as your profit is $500, or 200% of $250.
  • Budget increases - Now that you spending money in the form of secondary expenses (advertising, outsourced content, search engine optimization, etc.) you will have to initiate a budget in order to ensure that those expenses are met.

• Time is an expense - If you are spending 8 hours a day to generate $100 a day in revenue you will have to find a way to determine what your time is worth. You should be paying yourself approximately 80% of your total business profits (with the last 20% being reinvested into the business somehow).For example, if you’ve been working 8 hours a day for $100 in revenue, you’re really only making $79.74 per day assuming your only primary expense is $9.99 a month for web hosting (remember Crucial Web Hosting offers an extremely affordable $9.99 per month plan).Following our example, you’re working for $9.97 an hour. That’s about one-third of what I would consider the bare minimum, so you’ll have to find a way to generate a larger income based on your current volume or find a way to increase how much you can do in a day (thus increasing your daily revenue).

Expenses and Scalability:

In the case of this business plan, in order for this business to be scalable it will have to increase its expenses first. This is because of the nature of the product- unlike drop shipping or distribution, for example, blog updating requires a significant amount of input from the business in the way of blog research, topic research, and the actual time it takes to write the blog post.

Hiring writers that have been trained in the various methods that you have been using to update your clients blogs is a great way to increase how much work you are able to perform every day. By hiring writers you are essentially leveraging your time, where you put in one hour of work and it is multiplied by the number of employees that you have. Charging a 20% premium over what you pay your writers, for example, is a great way to earn a passive income from your business without having to do any work.

Remember:
Pay your writers fairly and base your prices as a premium over what you’re paying them. If you are paying your writers $15 an hour, or $120 for an eight hour day, you’ll need to be charging at least $18 an hour, with you retaining a premium of $3 an hour, or $24 a day.

Of course, you could charge as much as you want so long as you are generating enough of a profit to pay your expenses and yourself.

Before you can hire writers you’ll have to generate the new business, but you won’t want to generate new business without the writers in place. This is the catch-22, and so I would say that it makes the most sense to have one or two writers working for you before you start really upping the volume that your business handles.

Profit Margins and Acceptable Pricing:

In this particular business your pricing is going to need to be competitive, yet it is going to need to be high enough to justify performing the work. The key to initial personal success is going to be generating many clients that pay you a decent amount of money every month for a relatively small amount of work, or generating a few clients that are your “heavy hitters” and pay you a substantial amount of money every month.

Since your primary expenses are under $20 a month, anything over $20 is considered profit. This changes if you have employees, but it is easy to figure out as it is an arithmatic equation:

(primary expenses) + (number of employees x their daily wage) = expenses every month

If you had three employees that you paid $80 a day and had $9.99 a month in web hosting fees as your only primary expense, your equation would look like this:

$9.99 + $4,800 = $4,809.99

Now, we’ve determined that your expenses are $4,809.99 a month. You will need to generate at least that amount in order to break even (and that’s not even paying yourself). This is where selling comes into play. Your profit margin should be at least 20%, as this is a service that you are providing. If this were an offline business I would say that your profit margin should be at least 50%, but alas it is online where your expenses are much lower.

Alright, so now you need to offer product packages and pricing based on a few factors:

• The amount of time you estimate it will take to complete each package - If you feel that you can write three packages a week at $200 per package you are making roughly half of what you need to in order to break even. If this is the only volume that you can handle you will either need to charge more for your packages, or you will have to find a way to complete the packages faster.
• Pricing should be based on market prices - If the market pricing is $200 for 15 blog posts you should price within 15% of that figure, either above or below it, in order to remain competitive. If you have a solid reputation for quality and reliability, you could easily charge a 15% premium on the market pricing and receive it.

Now, these expenses are an example and not necessarily reflective of what you will actually be able to charge. As well, if you have no employees your expenses drop down to whatever your primary expenses are.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!

A Great Business Idea: Outsourced Blog Updating

Author Cameron Martel | 10.09.2007 | Category Business Overviews, Online Business Ideas

Part One: Business Overview

Blogging is big business. In fact, I can list over over 50 people that I know personally that are making six figures or more per year from their network of blogs, and almost all of them started from nothing. The beauty of the internet is that it doesn’t always take money to make money, and that’s why this business idea is laser-targeted towards the online market: you can start up for no cost and keep all revenue that you bring in.

The Business Overview:

As the blogging community continues to expand there are going to be a core group of people - probably around 1% or so - who are going to become moderately to significantly successful at developing an income from their blog. Websites such as AffiliateWeb (www.affiliateweb.org), Shoemoney (www.shoemoney.com), and John Chow (www.johnchow.com) are all examples of blogs that are making money.

You can take advantage of this in a couple of different ways:

1. Make money with your own blog - This seems to be the most obvious route to take, but it’s also the most difficult. Unless you have SEO experience you will probably never be able to generate any income that’s worth mentioning.
2. Market a product to successful blog owners - Those that can’t do teach, remember? If you are unable to make your own blog make money that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. Start marketing a product to blog owners who are making money and in turn reap the rewards of their success.The only product that I can see maintaining any value to a blog owner is an updating service.

The Product:

An updating service does exactly what the name implies: you update the blog according to a predetermined schedule. If you have negotiated daily updates, for example, you will go in and update the blog once daily. The actual specifics of the updates would also be determined between you and the client.

This product is feasible so long as you have half-decent grammatical sense and are able to write fluently in whatever language the blog is being written in. Writing the updates yourself also provides an immediate income as you simply pay yourself whatever you negotiated with the client, and it has the ability to be scaled up by the inclusion of a third-party content provider (such as www.communicatebetter.org).

Advertising and Promotion:

The first few clients would likely have to be self-generated, meaning that you’re going to have to hard-sell a few successful bloggers into trying out your new service. You are going to have to market yourself in order to generate these clients. Inexpensive and effective marketing can be done via:

• Forum postings - On related forums that allow advertising you will be able to promote your services. A quality introduction and sales copy, along with low initial prices, will bring a few clients your way.
• Website - You will need a website (if you don’t have one now, spend the $10.99 a month at Crucial Web Hosting (affiliate link) and get all the hosting you’ll ever need). Having a website set up that displays your products, prices, and a bit of well-written content will surely convert prospective clients into paid clients. If you sign up for Crucial Web Hosting under my affiliate link I’ll even offer my assistance with the website design and content*.
• PPC/Paid traffic - This will only work if you have a website set up. Sending targeted traffic to your website is like sending people looking to buy a car into a car dealership- it just makes money. You’d be surprised at how many successful people there are out there trying to find reliable outsourced solutions.
• Kijiji/Craigslist - There’s nothing better for immediate profits than free advertising, and both Kijiji (www.kijiji.com) and Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) are free classified ad websites that receive tons of traffic. Offer your services in the appropriate section and you’re sure to pick up a few clients.

Revenue/Profit Potential:

Ahh, this is what you’ve been waiting for isn’t it? The potential revenue for this type of business is actually quite high, and since your operating costs are effectively zero you’re really setting yourself up to score big on the profit side of things.

Revenue is dependent entirely on how much you charge, and there’s no set pricing in place for this kind of business as of yet. Experience has shown that charging around $200 for 20 updates a month (one every business day) seems to be the most appealing to bloggers from both a price and function perspective. 10 clients like this equates to $2,000 a month, and every cent of that is profit.

Your income simply lies on your ability to generate clients at higher prices and your ability to scale. If things go well enough you may need to hire an employee or two of your own.

Doing some basic number math:

• 10 clients at $200 a month - $2,000 in total revenue. The price is probably low enough that many people will be attracted to it, yet it is high enough that there is value for you to attract clients.
• 10 clients at $300 a month - $3,000 in total revenue. Offering the same package but being able to charge more will offer an immediate increase in income without increasing your workload.
• 25 clients at $200 a month - $5,000 in total revenue. This sounds like a very reasonable and achievable goal, and it’s only around 6-7 hours a day of work (assuming you don’t mess around).

*please e-mail me at cmartel@greatbizideas.org with the date/time that you signed up for a new web hosting account so I may verify it’s legitimacy.

Have something to say about this idea? Leave a comment- we’d love to hear it!