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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!