I talk to quite a lot of people I’ve ‘met’ online daily… nearly every single thing I’ve learned about making money online and online business for that matter has been through someone else, as I started off a complete newbie – yes, some of it I found out by myself, but a lot of it I didn’t – a few months ago I didn’t even know what GoDaddy or Hostgator was and people had to explain it to me. I have learned a lot from people online in my daily chats and I hope those I speak with can say the same :)

Today I met a new guy in person who also is a bit of an online entrepreneur… I spoke to him a bit and he filled me in on how he was making money by combining offline activities with online business – I didn’t listen much in the beginning, as to me working offline sounds a bit too much like your regular day job, but as he filled me in I got more and more interested. My buddy that I spoke with was pulling in around $1000 a week – that’s a small sum for some of you, but for the rest of us… well, that’s more than I make and I certainly wouldn’t mind increasing what I was – the best thing about this is that he spent maybe one hour startup and then fifteen minutes a day after that. By combining online business with offline marketing, he was making a killing, and I’m going to try this out – you can too if you find it interesting :)

This is by no means rocket science, but listen anyways :razz: . In the modern world, most large companies have their own website…  there are however quite a few smaller companies, aiming solely at the local market that don’t. These businesses also tend not to really know much about dealing online – all they rely on is word of mouth, advertising through posters/newspapers and getting customers from people that live nearby. This is where you come in. Essentially, here’s how it goes:

1) Set up a website of your own offering web design and logo design. Make sure the domain clearly states what you do (xyzdesign.com) If you can’t design or code, get someone else to do it for you – make sure it looks spectacular, and maybe throw in a bit of CSS/Ajax to awe visitors. Concentrate on the functionality of the website – you don’t have to do rubbish like SEO on it.

2) Get a killer logo done for your website – make sure it relates to design and is memorable. An example of one can be seen below – that’s the logo of the guys that did my header.

3) Once you get the logo done, have flyers made – if you can’t design, again… get someone else to do it. All in all, it should cost you less than $100 USD for the website, around $20 USD for the logo design and maybe $50 USD for a flyer to be created. Say $20 USD in misc fees for a domain and hosting, and you’re looking at around $200 startup.

4) Print those flyers. I took a look at a local printing store and then go at around $0.1 per printout, meaning 100 flyers for $10. Make around 500 of those – $250.00 startup.

5) Open up your local Yellow Pages (or whatever is similar) for business. There should be thousands, if not more companies listed – take a look at them. The ones that have websites will have them prominently displayed; you can safely assume all those without websites listed don’t have them. When you have a list of say 500 companies without websites, you’ll need to write up a small text – this can be done in Microsoft Word.

On this text (you can use a basic outline, and then edit it slightly every time to suit each company) you will need to explain the benefits of having a website, point out competitor websites and list a few facts (stating the $x billion amount of online business that is conducted every year is a good example of one of those). Print these out and attach them to your flyers.

Also mention your pricing… around $500.00 USD per website should be fine.

6) Mail copies of your flyers + email text to each organization. Say you get just a 1% conversion rate – that’s five websites done, and $2500.00 earned. My friend didn’t know how to design or code for nuts (like me :) ) so outsourced the work – he started off paying $100/website and eventually worked his way down to $50/website (including the company logo).

Not bad at all, eh? It’s a pretty interesting idea, and it’s definitely working as he’s a live example; anyone know any decent designers or coders? :)

7) Extra – he isn’t doing this, but you could, if you decide to make a go of this; obviously companies without a website won’t have hosting. What you can do is get your own high powered dedicated server and offer hosting at $20/month… something that will net you some nice residual income.

I’m thinking of doing this, but rather that contact 500+ companies maybe just take out an ad in the newspaper… it would be slightly more expensive perhaps, but would hit up a larger range of people, quite a few of which may just even want personal websites. What about you?

Membership website

Gaah, my lack of technical prowess is hitting me again – I’ve compiled most of the stuff for the membership website, including five custom written reports that I’ll be giving out with resale rights to everyone that signs up, but I’m having problems with the membership script – it’s giving me errors again and again. If anyone’s good at installing scripts (databases and cron jobs) let me know – I’ll give you free lifetime access if you help me out :)

Skype/Google talk

I’m thinking of getting either or, mainly so that I’ll be able to communicate with all the people that are too lazy to type… need to buy a microphone though. I’m thinking of offering limited live support via the two programs for my new membership website (whenever I manage to get it up) as that’s something I haven’t really seen out there. Granted, I’m not subscribed to dozens of membership sites but it is an interesting prospect.

That’s all for today. Hope you found the post about marketing offline somewhat useful :)

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39 Responses to “Offline Marketing… An Interesting Way Of Making Money”

  1. Chris (49 comments) Says:

    I can help get that membership script installed for you, just send me an email. I also have the Siggl script ready too, I’ve just been way to busy and preoccupied with other stuff.

    [Reply]

  2. Jason (702 comments) Says:

    Will talk to you on instant messenger mate. Ah, Siggl… I’d forgotten about that too :razz:

    [Reply]

  3. Ty Brown (13 comments) Says:

    I think this is a great idea. I’m not sure you are going to get a great response from newspaper ads, I would think that targeted flyers would get you a bigger conversion rate.

    Ty Brown’s last blog post..Further insight into submissive urination

    [Reply]

  4. ChiQ Montes (44 comments) Says:

    Well, this isn’t a bad idea at all.. I’m sure a lot of businesses would need this kind of service. Then you just have to scout for the best designers and coders on the web who will work for you.. gluck for your new ventures!

    [Reply]

  5. DJ (39 comments) Says:

    This is a interesting way to make money. I can definitely see myself doing this in the near future. I need to find designers and coders as well. Good luck with the venture if you are going to start it soon.

    [Reply]

  6. Geoff (10 comments) Says:

    Not a bad idea. I made a couple of craigslist ads for this, we’ll see how it goes.

    Geoff’s last blog post..ReviewU: Gaming Chronicle

    [Reply]

  7. Ava (20 comments) Says:

    Nice post. There’s all kinds of things like this that you can do by thinking outside of the box. It’s inspiring, really. I’ve thought a lot of times that there are probably zillions of jobs that I could do that aren’t being advertised. This is a great way to pursue those things.

    Check out my new digs when you get a chance….I moved to WordPress. Thanks for the great info.

    Ava’s last blog post..WaxingPoetic75’s Friday Five: Volume 1 Issue 5

    [Reply]

  8. egk (293 comments) Says:

    That is an awesome money making idea! I think the toughest part will be finding good honest “affordable” coders and designers. I would like to get into this as I have already had a few businesses ask me if I could do sites for them. If anyone knows of any good designers and coders please do share!

    egk’s last blog post..Diesel :: RE: 81 300 d vs 87 300d

    [Reply]

  9. austinloid (4 comments) Says:

    Actually, this exact same method was posted by someone on digital point. It was some girl that made a blog post about this, the EXACT same thing. She then posted it on digital point. Cant remember her name or her blog site. She was claiming that she was making something like 100k+ a year from this method.

    austinloid’s last blog post..Boot Daily – Boot-up your tech! – ASUS 3870 vs. Gigabyte 3870

    [Reply]

  10. Jason (702 comments) Says:

    @ Ty, I guess I’ll try both. :)

    @ ChiQ, finding a talented, affordable designer + coder seems to be the biggest problem :)

    @ DJ, good luck w/ it mate :)

    @ Geoff, I’m not sure how well Craigslist would work, since people on Craigslist would already know something about the internet. Update if it goes well :razz:

    @ Ava, aye… uniqueness pwns. I will take a look at your blog now, glad to see you moved :)

    @ EGK, true… I’ve been ripped off by a couple in past weeks, gotta find someone trusty eh <_ <

    @ Austinloid, cool… do you have a link to the blog post? He told me about it yesterday, and I thought it was pretty unique, having never heard about it before. $100k a year definitely beats $1000 a week though :)

    [Reply]

  11. Desirée Ha (8 comments) Says:

    Love the flyer ideas. :D

    [Reply]

  12. trevomanut (56 comments) Says:

    I can’t wait to see this membership site.It will be awesome :D

    [Reply]

  13. chenzen (62 comments) Says:

    Nice idea for a membership site Jason. Personal support should be the
    selling point I think.
    Offline marketing should bring good money but you have to invest
    quite a bit.
    There is also another variant of it I read somewhere.
    Put up a website, list your local companies addresses and charge them
    to be listed for premium spots, industry wise classifications etc.,

    [Reply]

  14. Aleks (227 comments) Says:

    Submit another idea. This one is already seen. Use your teenage imagination.

    Aleks’s last blog post..Hello world!

    [Reply]

  15. The Sleepy Surfer (3 comments) Says:

    having a business card also help. just put the URL/Domain name on the card. or put the graphic that you’ve just design. it’ll improve the branding

    [Reply]

  16. Jim (102 comments) Says:

    Thats a pretty good article Jason. Being a middleman is something that a lot of people really don’t consider. But if you don’t have the physical skills… sometimes the business skills are all that you need.

    I am planning on launching a web hosting/design service myself and possibly recruiting a slew of outsourced workers looking for hire. Thanks for the tips

    Jim’s last blog post..GPT Reviews: GetAFreeAppleiPhone.com

    [Reply]

  17. Erica DeWolf (14 comments) Says:

    Great suggestions. Using direct mail to lead your way into some online cash making activities is obvious, but worth a mention.

    Erica DeWolf’s last blog post..February Introduces an Interview with Google Founders

    [Reply]

  18. Stop Reading… Start Doing! | TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey Says:

    [...] hope that you will start putting the ideas you have read into action immediately… here’s one to get you started. Good [...]

  19. Tom Ross (9 comments) Says:

    I can’t imagine anyone designing a website for $100 unless it’s terrible… And being the middleman can work, but in this case your costs seem somewhat unrealistic. Generally people will go straight to the designer because the middle man will have higher costs.

    Tom Ross’s last blog post..How to Showcase Your Work Beautifully!

    [Reply]

  20. Mike (39 comments) Says:

    Uuuu, great great contest. I took me like 10 minutes just to read all the prizes. ;) I’ve subscribed to your RSS too and i think ill blog about this later today, as it would be good to let others now about your little thing here. Cheers

    Mike’s last blog post..Internet Explorer 8. Good day paps!

    [Reply]

  21. meethere (25 comments) Says:

    I read an artice on offline marketing online for the first time. :mrgreen:
    nice read.

    meethere’s last blog post..Steps For a Successful Web Conference

    [Reply]

  22. Mike (39 comments) Says:

    This definitely works. I did it on a very small scale and ended up spending nothing and making a few hundred dollars just on word of mouth and only spent a few hours of my time doing it.

    Mike’s last blog post..Tip: Synchronize Your Office Docs With Google

    [Reply]

  23. Tech blog (23 comments) Says:

    lol. You should on online marketing more than offile. :D

    Tech blog’s last blog post..Technology and Travel

    [Reply]

  24. Stop This Fluffy Sh!t | Time To Make Money | The University Kid Says:

    [...] talking about marketing offline. A few of you may remember the post I put up – when I did so, I had lots of enthusiasm. I do think the idea could work, but things just came in [...]

  25. Ryan McLean (95 comments) Says:

    That is a great way to make money. However it sounds like a lot of work and I am not really passionate about it so I don’t think I will implement this strategy

    Ryan McLean’s last blog post..5 Great Ways To Get Money Fast

    [Reply]

  26. Data Recovery (56 comments) Says:

    i tried this and am happy to inform you that i got orders which got me high xxx$ even though people in my country are not that net savvy.anyway guys just thought wud let you all know that this works.

    [Reply]

  27. Free PayPal Money (13 comments) Says:

    So true, offline marketing is so often overlooked in the industry today, not only is it guaranteed it can never really get over-saturated!

    [Reply]

  28. Driveway Sealing (4 comments) Says:

    That is pretty interesting, I do some offline marketing but nothing on that scale. It’s been working out fairly well but the online stuff is so much easier and a quicker turn around time, I’ve found anyway.

    Driveway Sealing’s last blog post..The Best Time To Seal Your Driveway

    [Reply]

  29. How To Make Money (6 comments) Says:

    There is still plenty of time to get in on this one to, as there are a ton of business trying to go online. You can then offer them other marketing services and management and hosting for your backend. This business idea has tons of potential when you consider the backend too.

    Hosting and domain name renewal (under your affiliate id) is residual.

    [Reply]

  30. Busby SEO (16 comments) Says:

    Well, this isn’t a bad idea at all, however it sounds like a lot of work. But, I’ll try it

    Busby SEO’s last blog post..Busby SEO Test

    [Reply]

  31. Oliveiros (1 comments) Says:

    This is a good idea… but you will be trading time for money.
    But what about making a job once and get paid every month…
    If you know, someone in your area, wanting to make money on-line or off-line, you can help them make residual income… and when they make money, you will be make money too.
    The people you know, and are wanting to make extra money, will eventualy appreciate this idea of making residual income, but they only could say so if you show them the opportunity.
    Then they could start a business in a part time basis and make money, just for recommending services and products that people already uses and pay for it every month.

    I agree with you, that when we started the beter thing to do is recognize us as a complete newbie… because if we want make residual income we must be prepared to learn how to do it and teach others to do the same.
    If you know people wanting to make more money, doing business in a part time basis, just for referring services and products, with lower prices that everyone already pay for it… You can make money too. Because i am looking for people to help them make money.
    And they will be grateful to you too…

    If you know some one… Then, I can help you to make money doing it, if you want.
    I meet a fantastic opportunity and i recommend that you check it out to see if this is good for you too… or just ask me more info!

    Kind Regards From Portugal
    Oliveiros Costa

    [Reply]

  32. The Monetizer (7 comments) Says:

    Another excellent idea for making money..you are surely an “outside the box” thinker and many can profit from these gems..Looking forward to more posts!

    The Monetizer’s last blog post..eBay Frustrations List & Policing

    [Reply]

  33. TutorialCompiler (9 comments) Says:

    Great idea, but again the investment put in breaks my back

    TutorialCompiler’s last blog post..Color Overlay

    [Reply]

  34. Birthday Bonus Club (1 comments) Says:

    I have probably gotten more business off line then I have online. its as simple as placing a classified add or posting fliers on bilboards. My favorite way is to lable my vehicle where everyone can see the linke to my products.

    Birthday Bonus Club´s last blog post..Why no PayPal

    [Reply]

  35. venkat (3 comments) Says:

    Good one dude,
    I’ll planning to try it out here in India,
    Definately wil notify you of the results!!

    [Reply]

  36. venkat (3 comments) Says:

    On second thoughts.,
    Every other business here has a website man!,

    [Reply]

  37. Free PayPal Money (13 comments) Says:

    I’ve really never looked into offline marketing before. I might just give it a try now after reading your post. Thanks!

    [Reply]

  38. Marlin Casciano from Free Stuff (1 comments) Says:

    My keyword is lovin the KeywordLuv, Thanks!

    [Reply]

  39. John from buy tent (3 comments) Says:

    Hi great article thanks for sharing. The way the econemy is today is it safe to invest into money marketing accounts or stocks and bonds?
    John

    [Reply]

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