Rent-a-site

[Ste Hughes]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I had no idea where to put it and this seemed as good a place as any.

So I'm a web designer, a freelancer. I'm good at what I do but I want a more stable income. I have times where I am very comfortable and I have times where I am on my arse! I'm not the greatest with money either which does not help but we all have flaws. :redface:

Rather than take each job as it comes I am considering build websites on a 'rent a site' model. The website remains mine, you pay say £20 a month for a 2 year contract. The content is yours and it can be changed at any time you like and I provide video training on how to do this.

Depending on what tarrif you are on you get a certain amount of support time where you can get me to change anything you like, if you need more support time you can buy more credits for any particular month.

If you want extras such as SEO, PPC advice, social media artwork or other graphic design you can use the credits to sort this. Things like SEO will be added into the different packages and tarrifs.

The websites are mine which means they are looked after and maintained by me and will not go down. This keeps clients from playing with databases and the such or changing URL's and wondering why things no longer work.

Cost wise for me it's no different to what I do now just the money I get is spread over 2 years rather than I get it now. £20 a month is what I want to try and keep it around with a 2 year deal and that would total £480 for a website, hosting, domain, 1 hour support a month and the knowledge that someone is there looking down on you like a guardian angel.

The websites are custom designed like I do now and at the end of the 2 years I redesign again and we carry on (hopefully! )

I'm wondering is this sort of model going to work for businesses? Would you be more likely to get a website or redesign your website if you knew you could pay it off over 2 years rather than pay the money in 1 lump?

Is there an ultimate flaw in the plan I have overlooked?

I would love some feedback on this!

Thanks

Steve

 

[alasdair1982]

Hello

It's a good idea that alot of businesses will like , I currently have my website on such a deal with another board member who dies everything to it seo, changes, updates etc and it is very well placed on search engines and I pay £25 a month with no contract. And going by his words if it falls off google or I am Not happy I simply stop paying.
For me it's a no brainer and it works out better and probably cheaper than me paying for a designer to build a site then paying someone to keep it up to date .

Alasdair

 

[webgeek]

If it were e-commerce, you could offer it for free, and only charge a commission on total order value or number of items sold during the month.

Be eliminating the fixed cost and only having a variable cost, sellers would have no downside to using the service, as many who sell on eBay and Amazon are used to commissions anyway.

With regard to your primary model, I'm not seeing much advantage of rent-a-site vs traditional site. You still have to develop a site, which you're now not being paid for... Since many design agencies include monthly hosting, for a fee, as part of the ongoing maintenance agreement, they already have recurring revenue anyway.

 

[fisicx]

It's a business plan that is already used by 99% of all hosting companies and a whole raft of franchisers. The big difference is that I own those sites, have full access to the cpanel, FTP and everything else. With your model I own nothing.

So while it might be a good idea on paper, there are lots of cheaper competitors out there.

 

[businessfunding]

I would say it is a good model to pitch to start-ups and to those who are still unsure about the value of a website (a lot of small businesses!)

The competition is irrelevant as long as your offering makes commercial sense.

From your point of view, short term cashflow will be terrible as you are basically giving credit for work done, so it important to balance this against 'paid work'

Also consider a modular element which will allow rolling clients to 'grow' with the contract.

 

[heddwyn]

It's a business plan that is already used by 99% of all hosting companies and a whole raft of franchisers. The big difference is that I own those sites, have full access to the cpanel, FTP and everything else. With your model I own nothing.

So while it might be a good idea on paper, there are lots of cheaper competitors out there.

You have a point. You could also offer them an option to buy-out for a certain amount of money.

 

[Ste Hughes]

It's a business plan that is already used by 99% of all hosting companies and a whole raft of franchisers. The big difference is that I own those sites, have full access to the cpanel, FTP and everything else. With your model I own nothing.

So while it might be a good idea on paper, there are lots of cheaper competitors out there.

You own the content.

If I have the client owning the site then why would they pay for something they already own...

At the end of the 2 year period they own everything.

 

[Deleted member 27344]

So you spend a few months setting everything up (initially) and the result is that for £20 a month I get a site that I can add/ edit content.

OK, I pay you £20 ... but I've got a problem, I call/ email, you spend time sorting it.
A few days/ weeks later I need to ask another question - you dedicate time to it ... and again and again - it'll take more than an hour a month to sort out my issues.

3 months later I'm annoyed because my site is not 'google number 1' and you still haven't answered my email that I sent at 3am Sunday morning and it's now 7.30am Monday.

I stop paying. You either then spend a load of time/ money trying to get me to pay up or just accept the £60 i've paid you for the last 3 months work.

The kind of people you will attract are those that want everything for nothing.
You will never make any money out of the deal let along an actual living.

Don't belittle your talents.
Spend your time building up the business not giving it away for nothing.

 

[Ste Hughes]

You have outlined nothing that I haven't though of.

In these packages you have a set number of hours for support. If you run out of hours you need to buy more credits.

The sites take 3 working days to build on average from scratch. With my framework I have developed I can get 4 done in a week.

Unless the site is broken or down they will be allocated hours.

If they want extras such as SEO then they will be paying for it on top.

The control panel I am thinking of putting together will not allow the user to do anything serious that could break anything. (it will be customised WordPress)

This is nothing I don't do now, the only thing I can see being a pain is chasing up none payers (no experience in this)

But thinking into it now I could just do what I am doing now but finance the cost for start ups or anyone that wants it and add 5% on top for finance deals...

 

[businessfunding]

I agree with Mr PaS's comments about undervaluing yourself, so you really need to ensure that the nature of what you do ultimately rewards you to capacity; also that you have means to support yourself in the meantime.

That being said, the concept of monthly 'drip payment is well established and accepted and can pay back handsomely over time.

The poiners for success still are:

- Having good collection procedures in place (look to get DD if possible)
- Looking for upgrade opportunities
- Looking for renewal / upgrade or similar just before the end of the agreement - you have a good paying customer, find a way to keep them!

 

[Deleted member 27344]

But thinking into it now I could just do what I am doing now but finance the cost for start ups or anyone that wants it and add 5% on top for finance deals...

So you're now running a credit agency?
I'm presuming you're getting a license to operate as such then?

Seriously, why go through all the hassle of financing someone else's website - if they've done their market research and finances and are 100% sure it's a winner they can find the money somehow - f and f, company credit card, loans etc.

Obviously it's not for me to tell you not to bother, but, please do prove me wrong.
In 12 months time when you've more than enough clients to live off through this system, email me directly and I'll buy you a drink.