Just over a year ago I came up with an idea. Here’s what I posted on the Warrior Forum on 12th June 2009…

This is the plan…

I’m going to create a niche portal for a specific retail industry. Then I figured there are several sub niches for this particular industry. So now I’m going to create 3 or 4 niche sites for these retailers, each one targeting a different audience. The idea being that the retailers can advertise on one, or if they advertise on 2 they get the others for free – something like that. I’ll prob have one main site for the general niche then a few smaller, mini niche sites too.

I’ve come up with my own usp, and as this industry is one that I’m passionate about – it makes it easy to talk to business owners. PLUS I don’t have to tone down my hot pink hair LOL!

(You can see the original post here if you like… Offline Cash Cow Variation – The Plan…)

So here’s what I did…

The Idea:

You can see above what the intention was, but over the 5 days that followed I modified, tweaked, brainstormed, tugged and pulled at the concept until I had it where I wanted it.

The Niche:

I haven’t finished with this niche so wont reveal it yet, though some of you may know, I’d rather you not share just at the moment – ta.

What I can tell you is that it’s a hobby niche, one that people can be incredibly passionate about – “It’s not a hobby… it’s an obsession!”. There are only around 700 bricks and mortar businesses in this niche across Australia and they are really struggling against the internet and the chain stores. They aren’t necessarily web savvy, but they know they should have a website – they just don’t know where to start.

The Launch:

When I started a year ago I had no website, I had a domain registered (I changed the name so ditched that domain within a week), an idea, a list of shops in my city, and sites that I’d built that I could show prospective clients.

I made 6 appointments and collected 4 cheques in 2 days.

That was $2400 in 2 days – WITH NO WEBSITE!

Basically I’d done a pre-launch special to make sure the businesses actually did want what I THOUGHT they wanted – and luckily they did!

The Site:

I run WPMU on the site. It’s a paid membership site. My members pay a year up front and for that I do everything for them. As it’s WPMU it takes 30 seconds to create the new blog for them, and I have a standard theme installed that has been edited to include an optin for the site’s email newsletter.

What do they get:

* A blog – which I call a ‘Web Portal’ – if I mention blog they instantly shut down, thinking they have to talk about their personal lives and their cats!
* Access to the email database – each time they update their blog it gets added to the weekly newsletter
* A professional premium theme
* Custom Header created by me
* Image gallery
* unlimited pages, images and content
* Analytics installed
* Free hosting of their site if they have one
* A link to their site from the contact page
* Their updates featured on the main site in several places
* All initial content created by me – home page, about, contact and gallery
* Google Map on their contact page
* Inclusion in a neat piece of software that helps their customers create a shopping excursion
* Inclusion in a website… www. Best[niche]Shops .com
* All pages are keyword targetted and SEO’d

Specials used to encourage shop owners to join straight away…

* 25% Discount
* Lifetime Discount
* Membership & Discount transferable on sale of business
* All updates done for them – they just email to me what they want uploaded including pics
* I register a domain name for them
* Host the domain for them
* Divert the domain to the new blog

The Membership:

For this first site I went with $799 for the year, less the discount is $599 payable upfront. I have over 100 members at the moment, and still have half the businesses to contact. I’m expecting to have around 200 shops – giving me a nice $120k a year.

Now you can charge what you like, depending on the niche – some niches you can multiply this by 10 or more and maybe offer less. I prefer to target niches that are desperate for help cause they are more ready to join on the spot – but they can’t quite afford a higher price tag – but that’s fine cause this niche is a passion of mine. I make the offer a no brainer.

Stats:

Today I have over 100 members at the moment, and still have half the businesses across the country to contact. When I finish, I’m expecting to have around 200 shops – giving me a nice $120k a year at the discount rate.

My conversion rate is incredibly high – I mean if I visit 2 shops today I know they are both joining.

I get over 4700 visits a month – with absolutely no traffic generation methods used.

1300 email subscribers – and 8 – 14 new subscribers a day

I started seriously adding members at the beginning of September 09 and had over 100 members by the end of April 2010

The Future:

While talking to these shop owners, drinking coffee with them, listening to their problems, needs, dramas… I’ve discovered there are 2 more areas they need help with that currently isn’t being addresses. This gives me the opportunity for 2 more sites – AND I already have a list of customers who are champing at the bit for one of the sites to launch! I’ve been telling the shops about this new site, how much I think it will cost and what it will do for them – they can’t wait! Plus this site isn’t limited to just the shops in this niche – but all the businesses on every level.

Site 1 currently: 110 members at $50/month = $5,500 / month
Site 1 to add another: 90 members at $50/month = $4,500 / month
Site 2 estimation: over 1000 members at $25/month = $25,000 / month
Site 3 estimation: over 5000 members at $10/month = $50,000 / month

Total: $85,000 per month

Even if I fail and only get an eighth of the projections it’s still a sizeable chunk of cash! Geez if I do nothing else – I already have over $1200 a week!!

Other opportunities:

The beauty of doing something like this is that it opens your eyes to the endless opportunities that are available – the secret to finding them is to genuinely want to help people!

I could have chosen a niche that had more than 700 business – hell that would be just about any niche – but I LOVE this niche and am trying to help these shops stay viable and open. Because I’m genuinely passionate about helping them – that shows and more often than not – that clinches the sale.

On my whiteboard right now there are 6 new membership sites planned – which should all be launched within the next few 6 months. All in different niches and all things I’m passionate about.

Next year I’ll be driving my hot pink hummer! (please don’t tell me it’s no good for our environment – I’m allowed to dream!)

Stef Rigby