Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
He positions this as a way to insure that your site stays updated and a consistent way to market you.
He says it isn't a template site.
I do something similar in that I set up sites and then try and convince clients to go with a monthly maintenance fee, but I don't position my service as a set monthly fee per month like he does. The difference is really subtle, but I can see how a person might be persuaded by this. It is the same basic model the online yellow pages try and sell you on. Pay a monthly fee forever and they will set up (and own) your web site. Pay the fee you have a site, stop paying the fee an your site vanishes with all content as well.
I am not sure if that is how this guy operates, but he is certainly tapping into some of the same thoughts.
What do you guys think of this monthly business model? If you like it what exactly do you give for this fee outside of simple time for updates IF clients actually want them?
It seems to me if I want to crush him my plan must include other stuff besides just time to update, but then how do you offer such a plan and not lose your shirt and what services do you offer?
Would the monthly fee be less than normal hourly rates? So for instance if you charge $60.00 dollars per hour would you give the client a break for the monthly income say 1.5 hours of work for the same as 2 hours of work?
When I used to do pc repair we had labor blocks basically a prepaid block of time for a %10 discount. It was good for us because we had some clients that had constant trouble and we had to stop by to fix user issues all the time, they felt good because they got a discount and we got paid upfront so it was a win win for everyone.
Another service plan we offered to businesses was a monthly maintenance plan billed on a per pc basis this was much lower than our hourly but it was more like an insurance policy then an actual hands on maintenance plan. x amount per pc per month and no matter what happens we would fix it, now of course this wouldn't include rewiring of the entire new addition they built but it would cover any type of general maintenance issues that could arise.
It seems to me if I want to crush him
I want to mention a two good books that may be of interest to you. The first is
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got Jay Abraham
and
The Only Negotiating Guide You'll Ever Need
By Peter B. Stark, Jane S. Flaherty
Both are very good and although the latter is sort of out of touch with net business it still has a lot of good info in it.
Really, why would you want to do that?
Why?!? Capitalism. He has business I could also do. If my business is going to grow then I have to find customers somewhere and if I can convince his customers to work with me instead of him then my business grows. I am sure he feels the same way.
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got Jay Abraham
I have read this one, it is a good book. I am now working on his newest book called "Sticking Point" which just came out.
if there are exclusions for major overhauls, etc. this fee could be fairly low.
No reason not to compete on that costing model, yet also offer hourly rates. there are plenty of businesses out there that like that also.
