This is a field test that could make you large amounts of money if you are up to it. Do you know someone who owns a business? If so then all you have to do is ask them if they have a website and if it makes them a profit or not. The reason is that 95% of business websites do not turn profits and in fact they lose money. There are clients of ours that have a thriving, growing business helping small to medium businesses make sense from the Internet regardless of whether those businesses have a website our not.

We have discovered businesses for which a website is not necessary; let me explain. I remember one case of a small dry cleaner in a small town where I get my dry cleaning done. I was speaking to the owner. He asked what I do and I said, "Internet marketing". There was a blank look on his face and he mentioned that he did not even own a computer. He then wondered if he should have a website for his business since it seemed like everyone else had one.

I told him there are other ways to get customers without the use of a website and explained autoresponders to him. I told him he should start asking his customers for their email addresses so he could build a very valuable email list.

He asked what good is it to have a list. I explained that he could send out discounts to the list and the importance of giving useful information such as how to take care of their clothing or how to remove spots. He was very excited about the information I gave him. I was shocked when he told me how much money he spent on Yellow pages. However he kept saying he wanted a website. This started me to thinking about how many more businesses out there need help.

When we met for our meeting I had a proper proposal made out that included website, autoresponders, blog, search engine optimization and more. The cost would be one time charge of $5000 plus $250.00 a month for updates and maintenance. I also started a blog for him with the responsibility for content being his. The dry cleaner gave me a 50% deposit with the remainder due upon when the website was approved and functioning. I also requested referrals, which he was happy to give. We have set up complete outsource so we are not tied down to doing the actual work. The cost for these services is pennies on the dollars and all outsourcing is reliable. Oh, by the way, the dry cleaner had a 30% increase in business with in six months. They cancelled their yellow pages and now have 5% of email addresses in a city of 40 thousand. When ever they have a slow period we send out a 10% cleaning discount and they are busy for a week. We started a program of asking their customers to bring in their friends and families email addresses and rewarded them. We also have a great form that is called "Free website evaluation report" Where we ask business if we can do an evaluation report for free. It works great and once everything is working we are asking for referrals after referrals. I have been in many businesses for thirty-five years and on-line since 1994 which was really the beginning of e-commerce. It is our observation that helping businesses make their websites profitable is an up and coming service that will make an excellent business opportunity.

To your success, Mark Ellis

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Ellis