On September 10th my Mentor, Terry Dean, sent out his Monthly Mentor Club newsletter.
This month issue was of special value to me since I have just started a web page design company in the country of Mexico where I live. It is called Chiapas Net. We build web pages using the wordpress blog platform and offer different themes that can be customized to fit our customers needs.
This month’s issue is all about making money as an internet consultant to local businesses in your area.
In this month’s issue Terry covered:
- How to Become a Rainmaker for Local Businesses
- How to Know If You’re Qualified
- What to Charge
- Where to Get Started On Your First Few Clients
- Business Card Strategies
- Marketing Strategies
- Simple Website Design for Local Business
- Search Engine Optimization
All focused on earning a quick income from the internet skills you’ve already built through this blog and any of your other internet research. It’s shocking just how little the average business person knows about marketing online. This issue can be your key to a fantastic business opportunity.
Here’s an excerpt from the September issue which was sent out at 9 AM on the 10th. You’ll notice that it is of special value to me as in my website design business.
What types of services do local business owners need?
Obviously they need websites designed to generate leads. This may consist of getting people on a list or getting them to call/visit the place of business. Having a blog section even if you don’t call it a blog is very useful because it allows them to post new content, specials, etc. without technical skills.
From the business owners I’ve dealt with, being “held hostage” by their previous website designer has been a major problem. They can’t modify the pages themselves, and they find it hard to contact the designer when they need changes.
Search engine optimization is another key element of what they’re looking for. While competing for top positions in the worldwide market can often be tough, getting top positions locally is still pretty easy in the majority of markets.
Of course included in this is submitting to Google Local and a few of the other local search engines:
http://local.google.com
http://local.yahoo.com
http://cityguides.msn.com
http://www.superpages.com
http://truelocal.com
You can also submit to some additional city portals such as:
http://www.citysearch.com
http://www.judysbook.com
http://www.insiderpages.com
We’ll cover the basics of getting good search engine positions locally a little later on in the newsletter.
You could also work on PPC advertising for the local business. Charge them a monthly management fee in addition to the per click charges from Google. Or of course we could move back to charging them per lead produced this way. Getting them to understand the payment per lead is much easier than understanding the per click value.
The pay per click model of course works best with high transaction businesses. If you’re working with a real estate agent, mortgage broker, roofing contractor, landscaper, RV dealer, they can afford much higher per expenses for each of their qualified leads.
Those are often the businesses local lead generators specifically target…those who have high transaction value and can easily afford $50+ per high quality lead.
In addition to the above, you’ll also find many local business owners need better sales pitches written for them. This includes the website text along with creating a sequential autoresponder series for them.
Keep in mind that you will often need to modify their sales pitch when putting together a lead generation page or an autoresponder series for them. They often don’t know what in the world they’re doing when it comes to selling in print.
Quick Tip: If they have a great sales person, get the opportunity to interview them. They’ll provide all
the material you need to put together good pages and messages. The same presentation a great sales person would do in person is going to be very similar to what works on their website.
I highly reccomend this valuble Monthly Newsletter. Subscribe to the Monthly Mentor Club to receive the next issue before the 10th.
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