Make Money This Week From This Ridiculously Simple Method

This is an idea I saw posted in a forum not so long ago and absolutely loved it. It’s a great way for people who are new to making money online to try their hand at something very simple yet very rewarding, dependent on how much work they put in. All the time on blogs and forums I see posts like ‘Want to make $1,000 in the next 3 days? Follow my method!’ which inevitably turn out to cost $47 and end up being whatever SEO technique is popular at the time or even worse a simple ‘Do what I did, sell this information on to others’. Well, the best things in life are free so here is a good and instantly available technique for you to go out and try and make a few thousand dollars this week. I’m not very good at jazzing things up and getting people into a false state of excitement, so I’ll just explain.

First up what you need to do is find 20 to 30 businesses in your local area. This is incredibly easy and if you’re stuck simply skim through the business section of your phone book and write down half a dozen business names. It doesn’t matter what they sell or do at this stage. Alternatively you could walk around your town and take note of names as you see them. It really doesn’t matter how you compile a list.

Next you need to search for them on the internet and see if they have a website. If you can’t find them or their name is quite general (i.e. Auto Parts LTD) then put in your town or region as well (i.e. Auto Parts LTD, Saint Hill). If any businesses don’t have a website then you can take them off your list. If you do this for more than a few times you’ll begin to get a feel for which businesses are likely to have websites and which aren’t.

You should now have a list of about 15-20 or so businesses with their website URLs. The next step is to go to each website and see if they have any form of customer capture. The standard method for this is simply a free autoresponder script which new users must sign up to receive. You can get this service for free and for businesses it’s invaluable. It enables the business owner to stay in touch with his or her customers, send them offers, discount codes, or simply information on new and existing products. Virtually all sites which sell online have began using these in the past few years because they increase sales and help to keep customers loyal. Despite all this most small businesses do not use them, out of ignorance or false assumption perhaps. Who knows, the point is after you whittle out those with autoresponders (which usually turns out to be surprisingly few) you will end up with a list of 10-15 businesses with websites who you have something to sell to in return for some quick and easy cash.

So what are you selling? Simple: your expertise and knowledge and a way for them to increase their business sales and customer base using an asset which they’ve already paid for: their website. The third step is to send out an email to each business and ask them to contact you. Here is a sample email you could use:

***************************************************
Mr./Ms. XXX

My name is XXX and I am a local business consultant experienced in online sales and e-commerce.

I know your time is valuable, as is mine so let me get right to the point. If I could show you a way to increase your customer base and online sales almost immediately using a business asset which you already have, potentially earning you thousands of dollars, would you be willing to lend me half an hour of your time?

This free consultation can increase your sales by as much as 50% while bringing you new customers at the same time. Furthermore it can keep your existing customers coming back. All of this is possible using an asset which your business already uses and so the cost for you to implement it immediately would be absolutely free.

Please email me at XXX or call me at XXX at your earliest convenience to schedule a free consultation and to learn about how to begin growing your customer base immediately.

Yours in business,
XXX
Contact info
***************************************************

If you send this out to 10-15 businesses you’re almost guaranteed to get a call. An even better way to do this is by sending them a letter instead of an email. The bonus of this is that it is almost certain to be read, while emails are often seen as spam. Both ways are highly successful however.

When you receive your first call all you need to do is set up an appointment. So long as you’re professional and courteous it should be a sinch. The less you can give away at this stage the better however, it’s best to save it for when you’re face to face.

The final step is to actually have the appointment. What you want to do here is again, be professional and courteous and honest. Explain to them the asset they already have (their website) but aren’t using. Explain how auto responders work, how they’re being used internationally to drive up sales, stay in touch with customers and save on advertising bills (emails are free). At this stage a couple of things could happen.

• A. They will be ignorant of the online market or not understand for some other reason and shoot you down as some scam artist.
• B. They’ll understand but be reluctant or unconvinced and for whatever reason push you away.
• C. They will understand and see the advantages but will chose to implement your idea themselves, cutting you out. Note – This never happens.
• D. They will get it. They’ll understand that they can save shed-loads on advertising and standard mail and stay in touch with their valuable customer base while simultaneously expanding it. You’ll make a friend for life and they’ll be more than happy to have you back to oversee or install a system.

The vast majority of meetings you will have will fall under category A or D, but since it only takes a half hour of your time, what have you got to lose? Once you have an agreement or contract for your chosen sum of money to carry out the work all you need to do is edit their website and install an autoresponder system of your choice. You can find hundreds on the web, a good place to check is Hotscripts.com (http://www.hotscripts.com/search?q=autoresponder) where, in-case you’re on a budget, you can pick a good one up for free. Buy one of the commercial packages as soon as you make your first payment though, they have a lot more features and are far better tested for bugs and errors.

Another option which is much quicker and easier to set up and saves you a lot of time is hosted autoresponders. These are websites set up solely to send out emails to people who have signed up at your website. They are good because it means you can sometimes update your clients website in less than half an hour, but bad because the business owner will have less direct control and may even have to put up with an advertisement on the footer of their emails.

Personally I offer and explain both of these options and let the business owner chose. If they chose a hosted auto responder, great, I’ve just saved a half hours work. If not then it’s no big deal, but I also charge a little more.

The most common question people have after hearing this idea is “How much should I charge?” and this really depends on a few things including the type and size of the business, their website, their existing customer base, etc. Keep in mind that many businesses still send out all their mail by post and the only way they can maintain an idea of their customer base is by hiring people to do it and physically send out the post. So they’re spending money on wages, envelopes, stamps, printer supplies, and more. The other advantage of emails is that you can send as many as you want with as much information as you want and you have infinite flexibility. You can keep track of what your customers have bought and offer discounts to long term customers or customers who have spent more than $300 on your products.

As you explain this concept and these ideas to the business owner 9 times out of 10 you’ll see a light bulb switch on above their head and their eyes will light up. They’ll suddenly understand what all the fuss is about and have a plethora of ideas for other things they want. Which, if you wish, can lead you on to other things and sometimes get you job offers within the business too. A common request is for customer satisfaction surveys or questionaries which are equally as simple to set up and can earn you a few more bucks.

Whatever the outcome, you’re loosing, at most, an hour of your time and the cost of a letter. After the first few you’ll start to get a feel for it and be able to target businesses you think will respond well to the concept. The reason this works is because you are genuinely providing something of great value to the business and you’re able to do it quickly for very little cost. So long as you’re honest and professional you’ll see nothing but success.

Notes: This method is universal, it works with just about any business in existence because all businesses want to know who their customers are and keep in touch with them. The only exception is web design firms and things like this where most of them already have an auto responder. But the playing field is still huge, your local area included.

If you don’t have any experience with auto responders you should set one up on your own site and understand how they work and what they’re capable of. If you still struggle afterwards then you can always outsource the work and just ask the client for an extra day or two to set things up.

You’ll have far more calls and response if you send a letter than if you send an email. Additionally if you find out a bit of information about the business before you send the letter, like the type of company and name of the owner, you can include their name on the envelope and make the letter more specific to them. This will have a great affect and you’ll get a much better response. Usually you can find all this for free from their website, but if not you could even just call and ask.

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