Website Arbitrage

I've thought from time to time about services arbitrage. For example, you could offer website creation for 700, turn around and outsource it for 500, and that's 200 in your pocket for just one transaction. Alot of people talk about doing this type of stuff, and I know it's nothing new.

BUT, I've always figured there would be a number of problems with doing that. Is there anyone here who's done this, and if so, what can you tell me about things that might get in the way? One problem I realized I might have is that it's likely that customers would want to see some examples of sites. I could give them links to sites my "source" already designed, but it would probably say "designed by ______", so it seems like that would be a major concern.

Anyways, there's other high cost services I've thought about outsourcing too, like sales letter creation. But the main problem with that is that I'd have to have a killer sales letter in the first place to solicit business, and my skills are only so-so.

But I'm most interested in the website idea, unless there's something simpler. If this is something I could get started quickly with, that'd be great.

This is what most web dev companies do. I've done it before and it works, just make sure you have the right people for the job.

Solution for your first problem: It's called a mockup.

Solution to second problem: Buy a sales letter, use it as a mockup.

OP, open up your business and marketing textbooks.

btw, it isn't a sin to put in a little bit of your own work, you know.

Yes a whole load of people do this...the company you would pay to actually do the web design is essentially already doing what you are thinking of doing, because they will be hiring workers to complete the work. It is basically how all business works...you don't have an individual running a company doing all the work required for a service/product.

Like someone else said though, with things like web design and content creation you usually offer revisions to customers. This means you would have to take the revision requests from customers and then pass it onto whatever suppliers you are using. This would work perfectly fine, however it will take twice as long as you have to pass on all requests and information onto someone else after you receive it.

You sort of need a little cash to get started so you can have examples of previous work or an actual sales letter to get sales for writing sales letters. This is only if you want to start right away getting as many customers as you possibly can though, because you could start off very small with little investment where you just try and get the initial sales without previous work to show clients and so on. It takes much longer and much more effort to get clients but eventually when you do you can then take their work and show it to new clients and it will get easier.

The idea is not new or revolutionary but if you want to do it at a larger scale ( bigger than fiverr I mean) you need to have some solid experience in order not to offer shitty work. That work is definetely not for newbies.

Thanks to everyone who commented.

You've helped me to see that offering website creation and anything that would likely have a lot of revisions would just be too much work. I think it's best to stick to something alot simpler!

Right now I'm considering providing article writing services and/or design services (separately, of course). I actually have some experience writing articles, so maybe that's where I should start. There's probably hardly and room to make money in that area though, because it's such a race to the bottom market. Still, I've seen a lot of writers selling their services for much less than what they're worth.

Now, I'd like to ask about where people have generally had success offering these services. I'd love to be able to get customers via Craigslist and Backpage, but I don't know if many people would visit the Services section on those sites.