We got off on the wrong foot. Let's try again. (Hosting Affiliate Journey)

[Yildiz]

You make a lot more money in the long run if you setup your own reseller account. If you need quick money stick with the affiliate sales but if you're planning on creating a legitimate business then you need to get a reseller account and charge a monthly/annual fee. This way you'll have income every month and you won't have to worry about constantly finding new clients. Even if you charge $10 per client that's $120 a year which is already more than the affiliate commission. Plus, you'll have all of these clients for years to come as they are all business owners.

 

[jasgrey]

Your misunderstanding reseller hosting...

1. You set up a reseller hosting package with for example Hostgator.
2. You say to your clients you provide design service for them and say they have to host with yourhostname.com to get it free.
3. You say they have to pay annually upfront for the hosting to get the free design.
4. You host their site with Hostgator reseller package - your hosting service will then just be the same as Hostgator as it is actually using their servers just with your domain.
5. You set up free design on yourhostname.com.
6. After they have paid for the hosting and had free design you offer them paid extras.
7. Even if they buy no extras in 12 months time they pay you annual hosting again.

No, I completely understand reselling hosting. I understand all of this. But I am trying to shy away from big ticket sales. (Ex: Requesting that they pay $100+ up front for hosting to get my free design.) That being said, I could do reseller, but I wouldn't be able to compete with other hosting companies because I would have to charge $30+ per month for it to be worth my time. Even trying to sell them on $30 or so a month hosting will be a tough one for me. But I think it could work out.

You make a lot more money in the long run if you setup your own reseller account. If you need quick money stick with the affiliate sales but if you're planning on creating a legitimate business then you need to get a reseller account and charge a monthly/annual fee. This way you'll have income every month and you won't have to worry about constantly finding new clients. Even if you charge $10 per client that's $120 a year which is already more than the affiliate commission. Plus, you'll have all of these clients for years to come as they are all business owners.

Yeah, I see what you're getting at. I am just terrible at sales and hate to ask people to dish out a lump sum. I'm thinking at this point to offer them the free design if they sign with my host at $35/month for the first 6-9 months, then after that get a reduced price. This will not be hard to sell, I don't think. I will use the fact that other companies start you out cheap and charge hundreds for the following years, whereas I start at a medium price range and it gets cheaper. Maybe I'll do $35 a month or $14.59/mo if they prepay for a year. ($175.)


I've begun contacting businesses. I learned yesterday that my father is doing kind of the same thing: Offering free sites (built on WP) to local businesses there in Florida. He uses reseller hosting. So maybe I'll just use his reseller account as to save me the monthly fees!

 

[travanx]

8-14 hours to make $75 before taxes sounds like a lot of work for very little reward.

As a small business owner myself who does check out whatever we get through emails, I offer a little advice. Your about us page shouldn't say trashiest little town. Use positive words. Also no one cares that you were fiddling around with computers since you were 14. Just say you have been in web design for over a decade. Sound more professional, since that's who you are catering to. The site looks nice to me.

Do business owners really fall for the fuzzy dice thing? My old job used to send out small 1 sheet calendars that didn't suck with their contact info on the bottom. I always saw it hanging at various places I went to.

 

[jasgrey]

Haha, thanks for your advice. I just kind of worded it like I would talk, try to keep it personalized. But I will take your advice.

And honestly, $75 makes all the difference for my family. If I worked 8 hours at minimum wage I would only make $58 before taxes. After taxes, about $48 or so.

 

[jasgrey]

I've contacted 16 businesses so far via Facebook. Only 84 more before the day is done to reach my goal of 100/day.

I am using Chamber of Commerce member directories to find businesses and their websites. Then, I find their Facebook if their site is in need of a revamp. I put their business name, URL, Facebook URL, and email into a spreadsheet and move on to the next one.

 

[jasgrey]

Any suggestions on how to use Craigslist to my advantage?

 

[nicknax]

You've mentioned your father and what he does a couple of times. Could you work alongside him for a bit - helping out, maybe. You'd see things that work and things that don't work. For your own stuff, maybe he could help you with the sales while you do some of the stuff you're stronger at.

I'm just wondering whether you've got a free mentor there who could really help make a difference.

Also, I can see why you're comparing with minimum wage, and maybe outdoing that in the say you say is not a bad first target. But is that all you really want?

 

[jasgrey]

You've mentioned your father and what he does a couple of times. Could you work alongside him for a bit - helping out, maybe. You'd see things that work and things that don't work. For your own stuff, maybe he could help you with the sales while you do some of the stuff you're stronger at.

I'm just wondering whether you've got a free mentor there who could really help make a difference.

Also, I can see why you're comparing with minimum wage, and maybe outdoing that in the say you say is not a bad first target. But is that all you really want?

My father resides in Florida. He doesn't have much help to offer, and it's extremely hard to get a hold of him! His client base is small, he's as terrible at sales as I am. His SEO success lasted about two years, then Panda took him out and he's been trying to make it back to the top ever since.

I'm comparing to minimum wage, because if all else fails, I have to go get a minimum wage job to try to make all the money we can. Realistically, if we really cut expenses, we could make it on $1,500 per month. Ideally would be around $2,000.

 

[arganrecords]

Some updates? I not having a lot of luck and in 3 days I make only 1 site! How is going for you?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Any suggestions on how to use Craigslist to my advantage?

Use this site to search for people wanting a site on CL: http://www.adhuntr.com/

 

[jasgrey]

Some updates? I not having a lot of luck and in 3 days I make only 1 site! How is going for you?

If you've already got one buyer, then you're doing good. If you're using hosting affiliates, you made $100. If you're reselling hosting and using my prices, you could have made $175 or $35+monthly payments.

Use this site to search for people wanting a site on CL: http://www.adhuntr.com/

All I find is people offering web design.


-- I have sent out a total of 138 messages now. I have only had one person reply, and they just wanted to tell me that they would keep me in mind, but they are already in the process of redesigning their website.

I haven't been able to keep my goal of 100 messages a day, but I'm doing about 50 or so. No luck yet. I'll keep trying.

 

[arganrecords]

If you've already got one buyer, then you're doing good. If you're using hosting affiliates, you made $100. If you're reselling hosting and using my prices, you could have made $175 or $35+monthly payments.

I'm using BlueHost, so 65$ every affiliate and for me it's the same yours situation. One buyer for my goal of 16K a month it's really nothing.

So reading your journey I decided to message people and hope tomorrow I can work. If not I begin to hard spam my affiliates link :lol:

 

[Ming the Merciless]

If you've already got one buyer, then you're doing good. If you're using hosting affiliates, you made $100. If you're reselling hosting and using my prices, you could have made $175 or $35+monthly payments.



All I find is people offering web design.


-- I have sent out a total of 138 messages now. I have only had one person reply, and they just wanted to tell me that they would keep me in mind, but they are already in the process of redesigning their website.

I haven't been able to keep my goal of 100 messages a day, but I'm doing about 50 or so. No luck yet. I'll keep trying.

Try different keywords to search then. I found MANY people looking for site design AND logos through that site.

 

[jasgrey]

I'm using BlueHost, so 65$ every affiliate and for me it's the same yours situation. One buyer for my goal of 16K a month it's really nothing.

So reading your journey I decided to message people and hope tomorrow I can work. If not I begin to hard spam my affiliates link :lol:

To make $16,000 in a month you'll have to get 246 clients in a month, or 8/9 per day. If you get a good response of 3%, that means you'll need to send 300 messages a day, and sell every one of them​. Make sure they are well written and make you sound good at what you do. You've got a big goal, friend, but there's no goal too large if you apply yourself.

Try different keywords to search then. I found MANY people looking for site design AND logos through that site.

Right on. My mistake. I just did a quick search for "web design".

 

[arganrecords]

To make $16,000 in a month you'll have to get 246 clients in a month, or 8/9 per day. If you get a good response of 3%, that means you'll need to send 300 messages a day, and sell every one of them​. Make sure they are well written and make you sound good at what you do. You've got a big goal, friend, but there's no goal too large if you apply yourself.

Yes I know, this because this stupid HostGator is giving errors on few domains and I can't earn 125$. Did you know something about the unpayed affiliates? I read a lot from people who don't receive their money from HostGator.

 

[jasgrey]

Yes I know, this because this stupid HostGator is giving errors on few domains and I can't earn 125$. Did you know something about the unpayed affiliates? I read a lot from people who don't receive their money from HostGator.

First, your best bet would be to sign up for Commission Junction and use the affiliate program through there. I think the pay is $100 each, but it doesn't go up to $125. A lot of of people complain about the direct HostGator affiliate program, but usually I would assume that if it is through CJ and active, they are paying and doing everything legit.

You'll find bad reviews about any hosting affiliate program. Sometimes, you'll get unlucky and a customer you refer will have been a former customer of your host, or had signed up under one of the child-companies (the same company, re-branded or a hosting reseller) and you won't get paid a penny.

This is another reason it's better to go with reseller hosting. You'll get paid for every customer. None of them will be rejected as sales. If you stand to make $100 from HostGator, offer your web design services for $100 for the first year (includes the design) and you'll get paid that same $100, you won't have to wait 60 days for payment, and then after the year is up, you'll have recurring income from each one.

 

[jasgrey]

321 messages sent. No bites.

 

[arganrecords]

321 messages sent. No bites.

WTF? Not worth it mate

 

[jasgrey]

I disagree. Sending messages is easy.

 

[ja3000]

Some advice... You either need to step up your sales game immensely or niche down and charge high prices for "custom" sites. The problem with offering free or cheap sites is that your competing with wix, wordpress, weebly, shopify, etc. These sites are high in trust factor with big marketing budgets. And they have business owners believing they can cut the middle man out (you, the web designer). The only way your going to compete with them is to be really good at sales.

IMO you're better off finding customers that have already paid for a website 5+ years ago or tried the free website route and are now looking for something better. Find legit businesses using a wix page or an old school html site from the 90's. Chances are they've been thinking about updating their site to include all the new bells and whistles their competitors are using. With a premium theme, a little proficiency in CSS, and some photoshop skills you can provide them with a "custom" site that they'll love and are willing to pay good money for.

Don't sell yourself short by trying to hustle free sites. You're going to have to make the sale either way. And really you'll spend about as much time closing a free site client as you will a $1500 site client.