Easy cheap website concept

conolan

Looking for comments on this concept.

Many small businesses (shops, cafes, tradespeople) have neither the budget or ability to create a simple brochure website. Although there are tools available, (some free) even wysiwyg tools seem too daunting - think in terms of people who won't/can't book flights.

So if there was a form with no tags, where they just type in page names, headlines and short text, then email pictures. Click a design, enter a preferred domain name.

Human intervention takes over after that. Put the website together quickly, book domain name. Job done.

Is there a market? How much would someone pay annually?

Important: This is the equivalent of poorly designed (but effective) flyers that pop in our letterboxes. It doesn't need to look wonderful, be SEO-perfect, be unique. Just plain and simple and cheap.

oeb

conolan wrote: »

Looking for comments on this concept.

Many small businesses (shops, cafes, tradespeople) have neither the budget or ability to create a simple brochure website. Although there are tools available, (some free) even wysiwyg tools seem too daunting - think in terms of people who won't/can't book flights.

So if there was a form with no tags, where they just type in page names, headlines and short text, then email pictures. Click a design, enter a preferred domain name.

Human intervention takes over after that. Put the website together quickly, book domain name. Job done.

Is there a market? How much would someone pay annually?

Important: This is the equivalent of poorly designed (but effective) flyers that pop in our letterboxes. It doesn't need to look wonderful, be SEO-perfect, be unique. Just plain and simple and cheap.

Most hosting providers offer a service like this. There is a site builder similar to this built into cpanel. I also recall coming across a very very easy to use cms some time last year. It used AJAX inline editing to change the pages/add images and I think it was around $15 per month, very very slick system. I remember there was 'box' in the title, sorry I can't remember the url and a quick google turns up nothing. If this was something you wanted to target it might be worth looking at how they do it.

The problem with these boxed solutions, is having a bad website is nearly as bad as having no website in my opinion. When someone is looking at your flyer it does not have a million and one other flyers sitting right next to it looking for their attention too.

The Corinthian

Your margins on those sites is going to be very, very tight. So that it is viable as a business, you would have to be able to produce the site with a minimum of resources and also cut customer support or contact down to a bare minimum. All while remaining competitive in a market that is already fairly full and includes players who have advantages over you (hosting companies can bundle hosting in with their offering, for example).

Much of it could be automated, using standard templates for example and limiting customer interaction to a Web frontend, but in that situation, there would be a sunk cost in setting up this automation to consider, even before you then look at the marginal profit thereafter. Importantly you need to also look at marketing too. It's not like doing big projects where a half dozen can happily keep you going all year - you would need hundreds, perhaps thousands to achieve your revenue targets and while it may be a lot cheaper to sell a site for €300 than one for €30,000, it doesn't often scale in a linear fashion.

My experience of low cost goods or services is that, on their own, they are only viable when you have significant volume and you're tight with costs. For this you realistically need to make a significant investment, and then effectively run at a loss for a while until you hit critical mass - if you ever do.

Low cost goods or services are very useful if used almost as a loss leader for another business, however - which is what I suspect hosting companies see them as.

CallieO

That is exactly what we are doing - providing simple and easy intstructions how to set up a website with screen shots and simple text. Aimed precisely at the small business or maybe the pin money craft marketer.

The Corinthian

CallieO wrote: »

That is exactly what we are doing - providing simple and easy intstructions how to set up a website with screen shots and simple text. Aimed precisely at the small business or maybe the pin money craft marketer.

How simple? The reason I ask is that many small businesses are run by people who don't know how to switch on a PC. Also, instructions have been repeatedly shown not to work - people simply don't read them, which is why modern sites are more interactive and 'spoon feed' users along each step.

I understand the market you're aiming for and consulted on a related project in that market about seven years ago (wow, I've just realized it was that long ago).

I'm not saying you're going about it the wrong way, although I'd have my reservations, however I do think you would need to do some serious market research first.

notnem

The problem with these boxed solutions, is having a bad website is nearly as bad as having no website in my opinion. When someone is looking at your flyer it does not have a million and one other flyers sitting right next to it looking for their attention too.

I don't see this working out. The people you would be targeting would be non tech people, and no matter how simple you make it I think they would think it is beyond them.

If they don't have a website already, what chance of them wanting one now? To be honest, if you went into them with a 5 page website and custom design package you would have a better chance IMHO.

CallieO

The Corinthian wrote: »

How simple? The reason I ask is that many small businesses are run by people who don't know how to switch on a PC. Also, instructions have been repeatedly shown not to work - people simply don't read them, which is why modern sites are more interactive and 'spoon feed' users along each step.

I understand the market you're aiming for and consulted on a related project in that market about seven years ago (wow, I've just realized it was that long ago).

I'm not saying you're going about it the wrong way, although I'd have my reservations, however I do think you would need to do some serious market research first.

Screenshot step by step simple - written in language that is clear. We have copies out for review at the moment - with people who have never used the internet - so far one guy has set up a website for his flyfishing shop.

We maybe wrong but it is a concept we believe in - especially in these economic times. Nor do we expect t make much money from it - more of a sideline from the core business.

Sample chapter here:
http://virtualtmarketing.wikispaces.com/Sample+Chapter

Would appreciate feedback.

The Corinthian

CallieO wrote: »

Screenshot step by step simple - written in language that is clear. We have copies out for review at the moment - with people who have never used the internet - so far one guy has set up a website for his flyfishing shop.

How much hand holding did you have to do? Did you give him access and the instructions and then never get bothered again, or did you have to do support and if so how much? If you sank any more than an hour into it, you'll have lost money is my guess.

We maybe wrong but it is a concept we believe in - especially in these economic times. Nor do we expect t make much money from it - more of a sideline from the core business.

If it proves a profitable sideline (either in itself or in the business it generates up for your core business), all well and good, as I already intimated. But you do have to be ruthless about it.