[thelist] Online Marketing Resource

[Fred Jones]

> Why would you start over with a new site?

Not start over--just expand to a second site. The reason is that his
business is based on a specialized market. Let's say, for example,
that there's an open source software package designed for small
doctor's and dentist's offices to do online scheduling and other
things. So he is connected to that package somewhat, and hangs out on
the forums and is listed on the "Hosting for Dentist Software" page
etc. So he gets clients from there. He now wants to expand to a
broader market and/or try to increase his conversion of Dentist
Software hosting visitors to his site.

Your comments about profit are valid--that was my mistake. This is a
sideline job and when I said "profit" I really should have said "gross
sales." I point this out to make myself look less stupid. I still look
a bit stupid, heh heh. Business isn't my strong point.

Anyhow, he takes in around $10K or $20K a year gross. He is willing to
share a percentage of that from the new site, so it would be (I
believe) directly related to success on the new site. And yes, there
is a lag, but using a longer period like a year, I would think, would
make that lag would not an issue.

> Your friend has stated that he believes that the KEY (your words) to
> taking his business to the next level is marketing. Really? Because
> this contraction arrangement sounds like he isn't too confident. Why
> is he hedging like crazy against something he believes is the KEY to
> growing his business? Very odd.

Well I think the problem here is that hiring a marketer is akin to
hiring an SEO person. It's hard to tell if what they did was effective
and how effective. Even if we did have a good way to determine the
efficacy, that's only after the fact. So now we're talking about
"$2-3k/month" for 2 or 3 months (there is a ramp up time obviously) on
a company or individual which is, in a sense, all a gamble, because
the determinations of success will only be possible after he invested
the money. In my business, for example, if you are a nervous client, I
can show you at least *something* that I built in PHP after a few
days. :)

I agree with your point about looking at "more requests for
information, more interest, more traffic" as opposed to just sales,
but the issue (as far as I can tell) is a concern for ROI. He's a very
conservative guy and also cynical. He's thus very concerned to spend
his money on a company where he's unsure as to what success, if any,
he will really have from them.

@Martin - Why would you suggest "offline direct marketeers?"

Thanks all for the rest of the comments. I will forward them to him.

Fred