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Fee Based Awards: Part 3
(continued)
How Much Will It Cost?
How much will all this cost you? Like some, you could opt
for free services for just about all of it, but you'll never
convince me that they are the answer to running a successful
online business. If you want to throw your site to the wolves,
then free hosting is one way to start. You simply will not
get the functionality and performance needed for scalable
solutions.
What kind of functionality and performance do you need and
what are they going to cost?
Domain Registration
These days you can register a domain for about $10-20 per
year with an ICANN approved registrar.
Domain Hosting
There are many hosting services out there — most are
crap. They use the loss leaders, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited
storage space, to suck in clients who don't know any better.
Unlimited bandwidth simply does not exist.
Translated into simple English it means, "We'll give
you all the bandwidth you need, but we will throttle the living
crap out of it." In other words, "We'll give you
a 300 HP engine but we'll only let you use 10 HP during critical
peak times." Can you really afford to present your potential
clients with garbage Web hosting?
I know Web hosting all too well and have had many very frightening
experiences. Once my server was down for 8 days because the
hosting company decided to turn off the phones and email services
while they went off and hid somewhere. Just for the sake of
embarrassing the idiots, I uploaded 3GB of information (mostly
database files) and hosted a search engine called the Search
Tower. It received 100,000 page views a day from 10,000 uniques,
and it only took them about a week to shut me down. So much
for unlimited disk space and bandwidth.
For the past two years I have had my own server. I now have
two. I bought the most recent one last January and it runs
like a dream.
You can expect to pay about $25-30 a month for decent Web
hosting services.
Order Processing System
See above. Ongoing fees of about $50 a month.
Accounting Services
About $1000 annually.
Trademark Registrations
About $500.
Software
You'll probably need a links or portal script in MySQL with
PHP or Perl. The cost varies but I would allow about $500.
Once again, you can get portal services free on the Net. Personally,
I prefer having my own software. For one reason, I really
do not want any third party having access to the names of
my clients. Would you?
Some sort of automated or partially automated CRM is a good
idea. I use a ticket system that costs me $200.
I also have automated article submission software and a newsletter
delivery system. The latter costs about $150 and the former
was a free OSS. If you are going to use Open Source, then
you definitely need Perl, PHP and MySQL skills. Otherwise,
buy scripts and have them installed for you.
In the next 12 months I plan to spend some $10,000 to provide
new services that I feel are a must to take my site to the
next level.
Search Engine Marketing
These days you can't count on getting on the major portals
and search engines free of charge. You can expect to pay about
$300 or so for Yahoo and Looksmart. The latter gets you into
a host of other search sites. Including other important search
sites, expect to pay a minimum of $600-1000.
Other Marketing
You can, of course, try all the free link exchanges out there
but don't hold your breath waiting for results. Most of them
are of the "free begets free" variety and really
don't work. Go ahead and try though. I did and I know what
the likely result will be. But hey, who knows, maybe you'll
be the one to break all the records.
What's worked for me is email ads. I spend about $100 a month
placing announcements in small but good publications.
Many of my hits come from either Yahoo or Google (about 40%).
Another 40% or so come from external links to my site and
the balance from other sources. All of them are important
and add up to about 800-1000 uniques a day on the average.
Far from where it should be, but not too bad.
Other Considerations
You need to attract visitors and there are methods that have
proven successful for me in the past, besides the ones mentioned
above. Surveys have also provided me with some invaluable
information about the habits, thoughts and expectations of
my visitors.
Contests usually draw new visitors but not necessarily those
who are looking for the services you provide. It's the "free
begets free" thing again. Although low on the pecking
order, contests are probably worth a try for they can produce
some positive results. They will cost you time and money though.
Site Sponsors
This is the mainstay (or at least I believe it is) of the
very powerful Webby Awards site. Let's face it and give them
credit. They really are miles ahead of just about all the
other award sites out there.
Getting site sponsors is hard, and I don't mean the kind
that rotates banners at $2 CPM. I mean those that provide
funding for your site in return for various forms of exposure.
Probably not something you should even attempt to accomplish
for several years, unless you have some powerful contacts
in this arena.
Newsletter
If you are a capable writer and can produce some interesting
content, then a newsletter can be a great vehicle to both
market your site and earn income, if you can sell impressions
in it.
This will require some software that does a good job of handling
subscribe and unsubscribe requests, double opt-in, and both
HTML and text versions of the newsletter. Whatever you do,
do not send out emails to a list with each one showing all
the other recipients in the CC field! This looks terrible
and just might upset some of your subscribers. Do it right,
or don't do it at all.
Is Your Head Spinning?
If your head isn't spinning by now and if you aren't saying,
"Mmmm, thanks anyway, but I think I'll stick to my little
ol' free award site and leave all this hassle to someone else,"
then maybe, just maybe, you're a candidate for the next great
fee based award site.
I don't know whether these three articles have encouraged
you, helped in any way, or just made you think I'm a big putz.
I can only hope that somehow you're a little better for it.
I know how hard you work to please those who are looking
for awards on the Net. I'm not sure you get the thanks and
gratitude you deserve from those who benefit from what you
do, but I know and I thank you for all your efforts.
All Is Not Lost
The Internet Awards Community (if indeed there is such an
entity) is very fragmented. At least that's how I see it.
Yes, there are many fine efforts underway that in different
ways help to unify the Awards Community, but I have not seen
any that answer the needs of award givers who want to turn
their sites into a business.
There are hundreds of small award sites out that are operated
by those who have fine motivations, but only a few have a
business model that one could study.
The Webby Awards is, at least in my opinion, the far-and-away
leader in fee based Internet Awards. They have set themselves
apart from most other sites and have developed an excellent
business model. The site is a collection of people working
together and getting results. For most of us emulating them
would be impossible simply based on finances.
If your goal is to turn your award site into a business,
then you probably can't do it without substantial funds and
a good amount of people power. For those of you who are willing
to release some individual control, but really don't have
the money to start a fee based program, then I may be able
to help.
Setting Sail for New Horizons
To provide services that site owners are willing to part
with a few dollars to receive, you must show them a convincing
reason. This includes more than one item, but I think at the
head of the list is sending visitors to them. Long after the
thrill of the award is gone, site owners want to know that
hits are coming their way for the fee they paid.
What's needed is a Yahoo-like site where visitors can find
top quality Web sites all under one user interface. They don't
want to make endless mouse clicks going from one award site
to the next seeking information.
This site will also allow award applicants to submit one
form and apply for several top awards. So the result is that
the successful applicant gets several top awards, a presence
at the individual award site, and a presence at the main searchable
directory. Simple, but effective, I believe.
To provide this service, I have registered a domain called
"awardreviews.com." By the time you read this it
should be online and available for anyone who wants to investigate
the terms of membership. It will, of course, be a fee based
system with all members sharing collectively in the income
produced.
This is a new horizon of sorts for those with high quality
award sites who want to convert to a fee based model. It will
not cost you thousands of dollars to start, and the directory
will provide one interface for visitors to find awards and
content. This offer will expire 25 January 2002 and will not
be re-issued.
What the Future Holds
I will be adding many features to Surfers Choice in the near
future. Perhaps the most notable will be the opportunity for
Webmasters to host their own country specific or regional
site. This will be done through a new site called "surferschoiceglobal.com."
I suppose only the future will provide the answers to how
it will all work out.
Best of the New Year to all. To each of you may the New Year
bring you love, joy, good health and peace. I'll be praying
for each and every one of you.
A special thanks to Don (the real Don of the Awards Community)
for hosting this great site.
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