Accountability Update (22-08-10)

Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by Aaron in Accountability

Well, that was a very productive two weeks off. Best thing was finding an utterly amazing way to build and offer a couple of web design packages which will act as some serious seed money for my paid campaigns.

I had been told on good authority a while back that offering set price packages for web design wasn’t such a good idea? Hmmm. I think not. I can see where they’re coming from but I think sold right these smaller packages can act as brilliant lead in for those either not too sure about the importance of putting their business online (believe me I’ve already had one this year) or just plain old trust issues when it comes to working with a new vendor. Or just don’t want to commit a large chunk of their start up budget to a website and want to scale it up with the business, not doing the equivalent of setting up a small bookstore and renting out a warehouse the size of an airport hanger because one day they see themselves being the next Amazon.com , They may be, but it’s all about being smart about scaling up.

Thing is I’ve already unwittingly gained one customer who’s now one of my top clients this way, build them a small 5 page website, and then a few years later after some small jobs and nurturing a pretty healthy business relationship they’re now ready and more importantly enthusiastic about scaling the online side of their business. All the issues of not getting paid and trusting a new company are non-existent which makes for a very smooth project flow.

The question you have to ask yourself is what can you offer on some low cost start up packages, which nobody else in your area can or is offering? Really stand out from the crowd, only hard part I’m finding is keeping my dirty little secret a secret from the 101 other local web design wanabees but at the same time making it blindingly obvious to the potential clients that what they’re getting is outstanding value.

This is the secret, giving outstanding value. I won’t say what I’m offering but I will point you in the right direction and say that to use this business model on one customer as a bespoke offering would cost 10x what I’m offering it for. But, to build this whole operation into an optimized system means the clients get amazing value for money and I get a nice little payoff each time I do it, this truly is a win win offer for everyone. Bit like the guys who offer software as a service, to do it once would be financial suicide for most programmers but to replicate it as a business model and optimize it means they get a nice chunk of change and the client gets something that if built as a bespoke package would cost a small fortune.

On another note I’ve been stepping up my PHP and MySQL activities, this will be another important part of my overall plan, I used to think about the hours of programming but now I’ve got Dreamweaver CS5 I’m absolutely gobsmacked at how fast I can build database driven apps, still have a way to go on this but it’s definitely an ongoing thing.

And lastly my Amazon earnings have finally taken off, I’m hoping even more once Chris Guthrie brings out his Amazon Affiliates guide and I find the time to read it, all I can say is I’ve followed this guy from time to time for about 6 months now and he does seem to be the real deal and even better the book he’s offering with all his insider tips will be a must read. I’m guessing it’ll be a more organised and comprehensive version of his legendry Warrior Forum post. Time will tell but anything to give that little extra edge to my affiliate earnings will be more than welcome and I’ll give a full review once I’ve read it, forgot to say the book will be free to his list and Facebook subscribers as part of a lead in to a paid video course.

Well, I’m typing this up in MS Word at the moment, broadband is down in my area and support have said it’ll be 4-5 hours until it’s back on so I think it’s time to catch up on a few tutorials now.

Oh, and work next week? Well this is the first holiday where I’m not just wishfully thinking sometime soon I’ll be a full time affiliate / freelancer but absolutely 100% certain of it now. So going back is isn’t going to be such a depressing affair tomorrow , I’ll be just thinking one day closer until I call the shots on the rest of my life.