Mailing Lists Beverly Hills
How I Created a $900/month Site in Two Days
In this paper, I will give you a step by step outline on how I created one website that now generates around $900/month with very little maintenance. This is just from ONE site, it’s 100% legal, and can be scaled, meaning your profits can only increase. I won’t say it’s ‘easy’ but the idea is certainly simple, and anyone can do it. But first a little history about me…
I hated my 9 to 5 and desperately searched for a way out. I first followed the hype and began blogging for money. I had some mild success, but the irony was that blogging for a living is far more work than going to a traditional job, making this option for income unappealing to me.
I moved on to PPC/promoting Clickbank products. This was an OK source of income, but very dynamic, sometimes I made a lot, sometimes I lost a lot, and the stress was enormous. I always had to be on the look out for keywords, niches and so forth, and these sites died down within weeks, so I was always at the PC; Again, not a long-term solution.
With the money I collected from these endeavors, I decided to open up an Ebay store (I sold shoes and sports apparel because I had good connections to get these for cheap). The initial investment was hefty, but the store was setup and all was well. Like most businesses, I invested a percentage of my profit every month into advertising.
I searched for directories, social media sites, and offline classifieds I can advertise my store on. My business was growing, but something struck me one day while submitting my site to a directory.
READ: ALL BUSINESSES WANT PROMOTION! They look for it, and they are willing to pay for it!
They are willing to pay to be listed on sites, magazines, etc. I certainly paid a lot to be listed on big name sports-related magazines and directories, and at the same time I saw hundreds of businesses doing the same.
As a business, why would I pay for advertising? because we see it as an asset, not a liability. For example, I might pay $100/month to have my banner ad on some directory, which sounds like a lot, but that directory is getting me impressions (hits), some of which turn into sales. So I might make $300/mo in sales from that $100/month ad. That’s a $200 profit.
A niche business directory sounded like a good idea. All I had to do was drive targeted traffic to the directory, and businesses would come to me for advertising.
Here’s a basic idea of how this works: You setup a directory for a particular business (say, Chinese restaurants, pet supply stores, or bicycle shops) and then you populate your directory with 90% of businesses in a particular area in that niche.
For example, you find the name and address of every bicycle shop in Beverly Hills, CA (I’ll tell you how in a bit), and put them in your directory. But you don’t put ALL of them, you only put in about 90%. Then you contact the remaining 10% of bicycle shops by mail, sending them a letter (details on how below) telling them “place your shop on our bicycle directory for only $xxx/month. Get targetted traffic! Get a page on our directory with a map, your location and pictures!” etc. You basically sell space on your directory to the remaining 10%.
These 10% will visit your directory and see that their competition is on the site (that’s why it’s good to go local), and sign up right away.
It’s a win-win, because you aren’t ripping off the business. You will actually be taking some of the earnings from your customers (bicycle shops) and using it to send targetted traffic to the directory.
So if 6 bicycle shops sign up at $70/month, you’re earning $420/month. You take half of that and use it to pay AdSense for advertising, choosing targetted keywords. Your directory grows bigger, and businesses will begin coming to you to get listed.
I began work right away. As my niche, I chose ‘restaurants’ in Bristol, VA (where I reside) – you can choose pretty much any local business (pharmacies, grocers, etc).
I used YetAnotherScraper (YetAnotherScraper.com) – a tool that lets you download results from yellowpages.com automatically – to get a CSV file with about 200 restaurant and restaurant-related businesses (restaurant supply shops, etc) in Bristol, VA.
Then I used PHPMyDirectory, this is an excellent directory software which lets you import CSV files, automatically populating your directory with all the businesses you’ve collected.
(Alternatives to PHPMyDirectory include eSyndiCat or search Google for free directory software, lots of open source solutions are available).
I imported 180 of the 200 businesses I had into my directory, chose a domain name and was up and running. This entire process so far only took a few hours.
I then began drafting a sales letter that I was to send to the 20 businesses I excluded from my directory. This letter basically talked about how today, many people hit the Internet to find a restaurant, and about the importance of having a web presence, as well as throwing in charts and statistics about how the Internet (Citysearch, etc) drives traffic to local businesses.
You can write whatever you want, but make it persuasive without lying. You’re looking for longterm members for your directory. Lying will result in the business canceling their account after a month.
I went to Kinkos, and had the letters professionally done (nice frame, pretty colors, etc) and then mailed them out. That’s it. Two days worth of work..
About a week later, I had 8 replies, each choosing a different ‘plan’ from the ones I provided in my sales letter (monthly, yearly, a little extra money for being listed under ‘featured listings’, etc.., be creative with your plans, or just have one if you wish).
I put all that money into driving traffic to the site (YPN and Adsense) and every month, I would slowly exclude some businesses that I initially put automatically in my site, before I proceeded to mail about my directory. It sounds shady, but I provided them with traffic initially, so I don’t see it as hurting them or ‘lying’ to them in any way.
This is a simplified version of the story. It required work, and in some cases I went to the restaurants personally and presented my directory, sold ad space and so forth. This is optional but if you’re social, it REALLY helps!
After about six months, my directories grew and now businesses contact me to be listed. I now maintain about 12+ niche business directories and do all my contact via snail mail and/or phone (and periodically I visit a place personally if it’s a big sale I really want).
You can put a spin on the idea, but that’s basically it. You can use YetAnotherScraper to gather a list of businesses in one area, and then mail or call them asking them if they would like a web presence, and offer to make them a website for cheap. Ask them to send pics and information, then put the information into a free template you find online – bam! a few hundred bucks each.
Be creative. There’s lots you can do to make money from home, but be weary of anyone trying to sell you an ebook on how to get rich without doing any work. There’s no legal way this is possible! In my opinion, as far as being feasible, with a low startup cost and high payout, this niche directory idea is perfect, at least for my needs. It requires a few days’ worth of work, with a very high payout.
About the Author
Adrian White is a former insurance broker turned Internet entrepreneur and freelance graphic designer. He maintains several home businesses and is writing a book on helping others get started working from home.
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