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My original plan was to have a free six-month trial subscription. However, I wanted to wait until traffic reached an acceptable level. Thanks to Google's sandbox/lag/whatever, that took longer than anticipated.
Anyway, I started calling shops to pay a couple of weeks ago. This is the breakdown on response: out of forty shops called, sixteen gave me their credit card numbers over the phone to renew; five shops asked that I mail them an invoice; five shop owners said "no"; two owners gave me hard luck stories, and I offered to extend their trial subscription until things got better; twelve shop owners have asked that I call them back when they have more time to talk.
So, I have right now a 52.5% paid renewal rate, which will likely increase once I get to talk with the owners who asked to be called back. This is much better than I expected.
The problem with having to constantly call shops back is that it's cutting into the time I have for calling new shops for trial subscriptions. Also, the delay in reaching the point where I was comfortable in asking for payment means that money is now much tighter.
My solution has been to offer my photography services to a studio in town on a freelance basis, with a guaranteed number of days per month of work. This will enable me to continue with the phone calls while bringing in money to pay the bills.
What I need to do now is figure out how to streamline the renewal process so that I can continue to add new stores to my site.
Christopher, I hope that your site is going well. And likewise for Andrew Thomas.
As I'm sure you know, the response rate for direct mail is extremely low. I don't know the response rate for emails, but I'd suspect that's low as well.
The response rate for phone calling has been very good. When I'm actually able to get the owner's time, anywhere from 25% to 45% like the idea (depending upon the state).
On calling for paid renewals, the response has also been good. But, again, it takes anywhere from one to five phone calls to get the owners time to explain what's going on.
I only charge $10 a month ($60 for six months or $100 per year) for the stores to have a full page of information about the products and services they offer. The store owners who "get it" when it comes to the internet are quick to renew. Others need a little more hand-holding.
Some have suggested that my price is too low. However, considering that as of now a store might get 100 people or so viewing their page in a month, I find it hard to justify charging more. With time, the number of visitors and page views will increase.
Many shop owners have said that, for $10 a month, they only need one, two or even just three repeat customers a year to make the deal worthwhile. That's what I need to impress upon the other store owners. The products they sell generally range in price from $500 to $2000 or more, and their margins are anywhere from 10% to 17%. So, it only takes one or two sales to cover the cost of my service.
The telemarketing is tough, though, as you well know.
$100 for a full page sounds okay to me. How full is the portal?
25% to 45% response is very good, where as email works out to be around 5% response rate, but then again it's free so...... Developing trust takes a long time, and I don't think it should be rushed. There are a million plus companies all selling at once - I tend to view sales as a numbers game.
Other methods are adwords, but with all this click fraud about - I'm a little reluctant to spend thousands on it. Paid for inclusion seems to be the only safe option at this time. Magazines offer wide circulation and targeted readership, maybe you could do that one day. It's not cheap though at £25,000 to £40,000 for 6 or 7 issues.
I'm looking forward to it going live and seeing how much difference some content makes to visitor levels.
Right now I have just 200 stores on the site with full-page descriptions. Some are paid, others are on the free trial.
Your idea about having related content is exactly what I started out doing. I have roughly 1,000 pages of individual models of widgets on the site, with photos and descriptions from the manufacturers. That's where 90+% of the traffic comes from.
Once people are on the site, they then either search for stores that carry the "Super-duper widget," or just search in their state for widget stores on the site.
I also have how-to articles, articles on legislation and politics affecting widgets, humor articles, and other things. Those pages don't get anywhere near the number of page views that the "Super-duper Widget" pages get, but it's enough that I'll eventually put something along the lines of Adsense ads on them (Google considers the type of widgets my site focuses on as "inappropriate content").
It's going to take much, much longer than I anticipated to get revenue from this site to where I want it to be, and where I think it can be.
When your portal is finished, I hope we'll be able to take a peek at it.
I am being very selective about who I make this offer to right now. There is no mention on the site of the availability of free listings. I choose businesses that I believe will have good results with the ad, or ones that are in a specialty that I hope to break into more.
I will post back when I have some results. Thanks for convincing me to try this!
Here's where I'm at right now with the free trials ending:
I've called 74 trial subscribers. 32 have paid for a full year, nine have paid for six months, seven still have invoices outstanding, seventeen have cancelled, and the others have asked that I call them back.
So, I have a 55% renewal rate with the shops that have already paid, and a 65% rate if I count the outstanding invoices.
That's much higher than I had expected when I started this.
The big problem is still the "call me back's." The time consumed by them takes away from getting new shops on the site.
Also, I'm pushing heavily for the store owners to pay via credit card on the phone. The time required to type an invoice, mail it, and keep calling back for payment is just too great.
I received an email on Friday that really excites me. A sales rep for a volume distributor contacted me, saying that he thought that his company's member stores, of which there are 5,000, would benefit from being on my site.
If I can work out a deal with this company, it could mean tens of thousands of dollars, even if only 10% of their member stores sign on.
I've been doing that successfully for quite some time with a high success rate, no typing, printing, mailing, nothing. They click the link in the email and pay online.
I get a good number of requests for freebies and I try to sell them on paying, but most aren't willing to buy. They want a free listing or nothing.
My sales tend to begin with the buyer understanding that paying is the only way to gain entry and the subject of a freebie doesn't come up with them.
I recall that you give your free listings a time limit of 6 months. Are you and your clients happy with that length of time, or if you had it to do over again would you lengthen or shorten the free trial period?
Does your free listing come with identical features to a paid one? Would it help conversions if they knew that they would get something new and better when they convert to paying?
I welcome ideas from everyone lurking out there.
I know what you mean about people wanting something for nothing. When I started calling shops last year, I was telling them that it was free to be listed on the site. And, of course, many store owners said they'd take the basic free listing: store name, city, phone number.
After awhile, I realized that those listings were just cluttering up my pages. So, it was either a full-page listing or nothing.
I'm still offering shops a free six-month trial. I figure it's easier to get someone on the site that way, and then it's easier to get them to go from free to $10 a month. And I think six months is a good length of time, and for a couple of reasons.
It gives them time to get some phone calls from the site, and it also gives me time to be cultivating new stores for the site. The process of calling for renewals is as time-consuming as getting new subscribers.
I'll probably continue the free trials until the site is well-known enough that it's not necessary. That would probably be the point at which more shops are contacting me to be on the site than I'm calling to get on the site.
Your idea of additional features for paying is an interesting one. I'll have to noodle on that.
One thing I'm doing that I hadn't planned on is calling shops with new customers. Many visitors mistake the Contact link on my site for a contact link for the store whose page they're viewing. And many of these people are looking for a specific widget. If there's a store I know that carries that specific widget, and it's a store I definitely want to keep on the site, I'll call and ask the owner if he has one in stock. If so, I'll tell him I just got him a new customer. The owners seem to appreciate that.
All in all, this is a much tougher job than I anticipated. But if the store owners renew almost automatically, without me having to do a hard sell, in time the site will be generating a very good income.
The site hit the 100,000 visitor a month mark not too long ago. Once traffic is up from that to maybe 150,000 to 200,000 a month, I plan on approaching the manufacturers whose products I feature on my site about advertising on the site.
Nearly all of them have their own online stores with clothing, accessories and so on. It would be a natural fit to have an ad for the Acme Online Store on one of the Acme widget pages.
I'm always wondering how your site is doing, so please keep posting news about it.
If I could spend more time on the phone, it would be better.
More time on the phone has been a real winner for me. I've been getting some good leads by following up on people who click on the info for advertising link in my newsletter. They don't realize that I know who they are when they click.
After awhile, I realized that those listings were just cluttering up my pages. So, it was either a full-page listing or nothing.
Aren't you concerned that by removing listings your directory will lose ranking in search engine results?
Many visitors mistake the Contact link on my site for a contact link for the store whose page they're viewing. And many of these people are looking for a specific widget. If there's a store I know that carries that specific widget, and it's a store I definitely want to keep on the site, I'll call and ask the owner if he has one in stock. If so, I'll tell him I just got him a new customer. The owners seem to appreciate that.
I also get calls from people that think that I'm the businesses in the directory that they were looking at. Maybe they think that that directory is just a website for that one business. I have tried to make it very obvious that the phone number on my contact page is mine.
People seem to surf the web with only one eye open and in a huge hurry too. I just tell them to go back to the directory and explain how to find the phone number of the business. Sometimes I lookup the number for them, but it's usually easy for them to go back and find it themselves.
All in all, this is a much tougher job than I anticipated. But if the store owners renew almost automatically, without me having to do a hard sell, in time the site will be generating a very good income.
Automatic renewal is a great goal, but I haven't got that one entirely worked out. Paypal subscriptions are a great vehicle for renewals, but even they fall short. Sooner or later the credit card expires or is lost, and then the customer must transfer the subscription to a new card. That's the point at which I was losing some customers, because they were unable (busy, forgot their password, or couldn't figure it out) to move the subscription to a new card. Now I have Payquake to do credit card charges when Paypal is not an option. They cost me more, but I don't lose the business, so it's worth it.
I'm always wondering how your site is doing, so please keep posting news about it.
Thanks. My traffic is equal to yours and growing steadily. I continue to look for new areas to make money. I've managed to get a little affiliate income through commission junction, but nothing spectacular.
"Aren't you concerned that by removing listings your directory will lose ranking in search engine results? "
No. My site ranks for "California widget stores," or "Acme widgets."
It also ranks for "Bob's widget store Costa Mesa California."
The single line listings--shop name, city, and phone number--are almost impossible to find in the SE's.
And, as I said, they clutter up the stores-by-state pages. I want people to click on the links to the stores that are either trying my service on the trial basis, or the ones who have already paid to renew.
I don't owe anything to the store owners who just say, "yeah, gimme a free listing, but don't ever call me for money."
Two weeks ago I received an email from the Contact link on my site. The person was looking for a very collectible widget, and was very specific about what he wanted.
I queried my database for the term "pre-1964 widget," and found just two stores that specialize in those types of collectibles. I called the first, and he didn't have that particular type of widget in stock, although he could get one.
I then called a second store, one that I already needed to call, since their free trial period had expired. Moreover, I'd already called them three or four times prior, only to get the runaround.
At any rate, I called the owner, told him who I was (as if he didn't know) and said that I had a customer with cash in hand looking for a pre-1964 widget, and asked if he had one in stock. He did. His price was $1250. Knowing the business as I do, his cost for that widget was between $600 and $850.
I then asked him about paying to renew. He said he'd still need to think about it.
Obviously, patience only goes so far. I told him that I was immediately removing his store from my site, and that he was not getting that sale. I also told him that, within a couple of months, I would have his biggest competitor in his town on my site. And that I was referring that sale to another store in another state.
That was an emotional decision, but not entirely. The owner never had any intention of paying. And, frankly, if an owner like that will treat me poorly, he's more than likely to treat his customers poorly.
I made the decision several months ago to ask members of online widget forums what their favorite widget stores were, and why. And now I'm only contacting those stores whose own customers recommend them because the service and selection are top-notch.
And I'm using those "testimonials" when I call other stores. Essentially, I'm telling the owners that my site is only for the best stores. It really seems to make a difference. Often, I'll quote from one of the posts on the online forums, which of course strokes the owner's ego.
The widget store market within my niche has become cut-throat. The mega-marts and discount stores have moved in and are undercutting the invididually-owned stores.
The only way the individually-owned stores can survive is by giving better service, offering products the mega-marts do not, and by being more internet-savvy.
Those owners who don't realize this are going belly up, one after another. If they don't recognize that my service is the only one like it on the internet, and one of their few tools that they can use to keep from being driven out of business by the big chains, then I can't help them.
Obviously, I'd like to have as many shops on my site as possible. But, if it boils down to a question of quantity over quality, I'll go for quality. If visitor A finds that one of the shops he finds on my site is top-notch, he's going to assume that other shops he finds are top-notch as well.
If every store on my site is top-notch, then my site will be viewed in the same light. It's the same reason that the manufacturers whose products I feature on my site are only the best.
For all of my professional career, in whatever type of business I've run, I've always focused on quality first. It's been my downfall before, and could well be my downfall this time.
Anyway, that's my long-winded answer to your very short question. ;)
I don't owe anything to the store owners who just say, "yeah, gimme a free listing, but don't ever call me for money."
Agreed, but since I give everyone, even the freebies, their own page, then the freebies work to my advantage by helping my ranking. I have also been very surprised by people that I thought would never order and then did. I have people hang up the phone on me in the middle of a sentence and then order from me a couple of months later! I was turned down a few times by one outfit, but my fourth pitch resulted in an order.
That was an emotional decision, but not entirely. The owner never had any intention of paying. And, frankly, if an owner like that will treat me poorly, he's more than likely to treat his customers poorly.
I've learned that I can't tell who my paying customers are going to be or what peoples' real intentions are. That said I do dump clients from time to time, in fact I just turned down an order yesterday, and kicked someone else with a freebie off my site. Both were engaged in questionable activities that I wanted no connection to.
I made the decision several months ago to ask members of online widget forums what their favorite widget stores were, and why. And now I'm only contacting those stores whose own customers recommend them because the service and selection are top-notch.
I like your idea. Did you let on who you were or were you sneaky about it? Did you have trouble getting a response?
For all of my professional career, in whatever type of business I've run, I've always focused on quality first. It's been my downfall before, and could well be my downfall this time.
That sounds like a formula for success, not downfall. How did it turn out to lead to your downfall? (hope you don't mind me asking, but that's a very interesting comment that you made)
I just finished my weekly emailing of news headlines with story links. I really enjoy watching people pile onto my site, clicking to read the stories, using the link to email a story to a friend, and visiting my information for advertisers page (which I recently rewrote as a very toned-down FAQ style page). This is my payoff for a long, hard week of work. Now it's time for my bike ride along the beach.
Cheers!
As for the online widget forums, I'm very upfront about why I'm asking for their recommendations. And people are more than happy to help. Of course, I've been a member of many of these forums for years, and people also know me for my work in widget politics.
My downfall was in advertising photography. The market shifted to one that cared more about price and less about quality. I just can't bring myself to produce less than my best. And, of course, that costs more. I was also reluctant until just recently to shoot digitally, because the quality isn't there (still isn't, really). But everybody wants to shoot digital.
I still shoot a few days a month for a local studio, but that's only to give me a base income until the site reaches my revenue target. I want to get out of photography completely. After 27 years in the business, it's time for a change.
Without violating the terms of service here, can you explain what your email news headlines are? Do they go to your subscribers only, or do you have a larger list?
Without violating the terms of service here, can you explain what your email news headlines are? Do they go to your subscribers only, or do you have a larger list?
No problem to explain without violating the TOS. I wanted content on my site that would get people to keep coming back. I have a photo gallery, being something of a photographer myself, but that wasn't enough to grow the traffic I wanted.
I have experience writing, but writing news stories is very time consuming. I decided to go with the model used by the Drudge Report. I find news stories on the Internet and post links to them on my site's news page. I put new stories up every morning, and sometimes during the day. I now have a local TV station that sends me stories when they apply to my industry, because they appreciate the traffic that I send them.
People can visit my news page whenever they like. Some people are too busy to do that regularly and they appreciate a weekly email that I send out with a list of headlines for the week. Each headline is accompanied by a link to my story page that links to the actual news story on another site. I write my own headlines so that there's no copyright issue. If I were to "steal" the headline I think I could run into copyright problems, so I avoid the issue.
I draw people to my news page by listing the top 16 headlines on all of my directory's major pages. You can click each headline to go to the for that story. I do these links in javascript so that search engines can't "see" them, and won't confuse them with the topic of the page that they appear on. It's funny hiding text from search engines to help them, as opposed to trying to manipulate them. I hope that they appreciate my efforts on their behalf. I do show the headlines "uncloaked" on certain general pages, such as the home page. They make good keyword-loaded material for attracting search engines, and I write my headlines with that in mind.
I have special focus pages on the site that zero in on specific areas of my industry. I have a system for filtering news stories, so that the focus pages only show news related to the focus topic.
I also use my news page to run press releases for my clients, and non-clients when their stories are what I consider "news-worthy". I added this as an enticement for new clients. It works, but it's hard to get most businesses to write their own releases, even though I publish them at no charge. People are very busy. I've recently started issuing press releases myself on behalf of clients. I republish the content of their listing as "news".
It would be nice to be able to charge for my news service, but I haven't explored that. I'm not sure I could be paid unless I created my own content. I'm more interested in building traffic at this point, so charging is something to revisit in the future.
Almost every page on my site, including the news stories, has a link to email a link to that page to a friend. News stories definitely benefit from that feature.
