Marketing a site with no money.

[janeth]

This was a hard post for me to make, I knew once I started I couldn't stop.

Against my better judgment I posted it here and will continue to make daily post to keep up with what I do to make money with the site.

thejenn did something similar to this last year with another site but she was trying to get a site to make money in 30 days and it was not a competitive industry.

This is a competitive industry and I don't want to make the site make money but want it to be able to support a family. It needs to be making around $6,000.00 a month to be a success

In another thread Andilinks and I were talking about what it takes to get a business going. I had made the statement that a business could be started with no money (I started my first business with no money) and she was saying it would take a lot of money to start a business.

It just so happens that for the last month I’ve had some friends coming here and wanting me to help them meet American men. I put a one page site online a week or two ago but have done nothing with it.

I did ask some questions a week ago as well to find out a little about the industry and I found that it is a very, very competitive industry and companies are coming and going every day.

Now to prove my point I’m going to get into the very competitive mail order bride industry with out spending the first penney out of my own pocket.

To make it more fun I’m going to pretend this is my only source of income, so I’ll need to be producing $4,000.00 a month with the site in the next 3 months.

I told my girlfriends what I’m going to do and that they need to call their friends that want to meet guys from around the world today and get them here ASAP. We will charge them 40,000 pesos to sign up which is about $20.00 a person but if they bring a friend its half price for them full price for the friend unless she brings a friend.

This money will be spent on finding more girls and want be counted as income for the site.

I have hosting and the name already but If I had to I could have gone with a free hosting service or asked someone from the forum to help me out with a month or two of free hosting.

I’ve found several problems out so far which include the fact that

1. Very few people have ever herd of Armenia.

2. Colombia has a bad reputation for drugs and kidnapping.

3. I know nothing about the mail order bride industry.

4. Armenia is too small to be of interest to anyone.

5. Big cities like Cali, Cartagena and Barranquilla are well known for these types of businesses. To compare the cites Armenia has 300,000 people and Cali has 2.5 million.

6. I’d bought the name CoffeeGirls.biz because this is the main area in Colombia for growing coffee. No one likes the name.

7. Because of all the crooks the industry has a very bad name.

8. The US has placed new laws that will affect my business even though I’m not in the US.

9. I need at lest 100 girls just to get started.

10. My desire to do the business is not very strong.

Now I need to figure out what makes me better then the rest, get a desire for the business, over come all the negatives, and start marketing the business.
I think its fare to say this is not going to be an easy business to turn a profit with.

[janeth]

I'm about a week ahead of you already. I bought the name about a month ago and let it sit until about 10 days ago when I built a one page site and stuck on there.

Then on Monday we found some free dating software and stuck on the site but are fixing some small problems with it now.

I also started a post on a mail order forum last week asking some questions about the industry and thats how I found out about all the disadvantages.

[janeth]

The first thing is to figure out how you can be different.

Here are some of the prices others are charging for different things.

"translation of your letter to a lady $15.00 for one page"

"1 address $25.00"

Telephone translation:
"Only $5.99 minute"

"Airfare from Miami, nine nights and three socials $2,495."

"1 full day with agent 5 personal indivoductions $595.00 covers "


I’m going to include all this in one package at $20.00 a month.

If I can get 1,000 members I would be looking at $20,000.00 a month.

1. I’m the only person doing this on a monthly charge that I’ve been able to find.
2. Armenia is untouched making it nicer for Americans. Dating and or marring an American will mean more to girls here then in areas where Americans are coming and going every day.

I’ve also started taking pictures of girls about 2 days ago so I can start adding those once the site is ready. We are still having some code problems.

Along with everything else I’m also going to offer webcam chats with the girls and give each girl a blog where she can write every day if she wants.

I haven’t found anyone else doing either of those.

I guess I'll be ready to start marketing by Monday.

The only hold up right now is getting the site working and getting enough girls to make it worth while on the site.

[PumaSpirit]

Originally Posted by janeth

The only hold up right now is getting the site working and getting enough girls to make it worth while on the site.

Don't worry, you'll get enough girls with sob stories, looking for a green card and/or money then dumping the guy as soon as they are securely in the US.

How do I know? I was on dating sites and I also know of friends of friends that happened to. Quite a few that contacted me where people who would do anything to come to the US. One guy already bought a ticket to move in with me WITHOUT asking me, after we chatted a few times! Every other sentence out of him was "I have been dreaming, since I was 16, to come to America"

I started talking to other American men who said the same, but their stories are worse. The also get hit for money, with sob stories in addition to "green card sharks".

You may succeed for a while, but I fear you may end up with a site full of women who are golddiggers, with a few exceptions and a few men who don't mind being taken advantage of.

Needless to say, I quit the dating sites to let destiny take its own course.

[janeth]

Hi PumaSpirit,

If I find one girl doing that I'll ban her from the site.

I'll let you join for free once it's set up, I don't think you'll find any of these girls doing that but if you do I know you want see them there the next time you visit the site.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by janeth

Against my better judgment I posted it here and will continue to make daily post to keep up with what I do to make money with the site.


This is a competitive industry and I don't want to make the site make money but want it to be able to support a family. It needs to be making around $6,000.00 a month to be a success


It just so happens that for the last month I’ve had some friends coming here and wanting me to help them meet American men. I put a one page site online a week or two ago but have done nothing with it.

I did ask some questions a week ago as well to find out a little about the industry and I found that it is a very, very competitive industry and companies are coming and going every day.

Now to prove my point I’m going to get into the very competitive mail order bride industry with out spending the first penney out of my own pocket.

To make it more fun I’m going to pretend this is my only source of income, so I’ll need to be producing $4,000.00 a month with the site in the next 3 months.

I told my girlfriends what I’m going to do and that they need to call their friends that want to meet guys from around the world today and get them here ASAP. We will charge them 40,000 pesos to sign up which is about $20.00 a person but if they bring a friend its half price for them full price for the friend unless she brings a friend.

This money will be spent on finding more girls and want be counted as income for the site.

I have hosting and the name already but If I had to I could have gone with a free hosting service or asked someone from the forum to help me out with a month or two of free hosting.

Now I need to figure out what makes me better then the rest, get a desire for the business, over come all the negatives, and start marketing the business.
I think its fare to say this is not going to be an easy business to turn a profit with.

What is wrong with that industry? Now we are competitiors Janeth or I may give you AdSpace if your rate is good enough and your site serious enough.

Go on.

Run Janeth. Make it more serious than the rest out there. Hope you succeed. You are unique.

Remember to put AdSense on the site with:
Section targeting.
Stop words.
RSS for AdSense if it is available.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by kgun

What is wrong with that industry? Now we are competitiors Janeth or I may give you AdSpace if your rate is good enough and your site serious enough.

I'll put an ad on the site for you for free, how is that rate?

Originally Posted by kgun

Run Janeth. Make it more serious than the rest out there. Hope you succeed. You are unique.

Remember to put AdSense on the site with:
Section targeting.
Stop words.
RSS for AdSense if it is available.

lol, I may end up using AdSense on the site but it will be more like a 2nd or 3rd income and not the main and only income for the site. (-;

[kgun]

Then I link to your site for free. You can decide on a banner link and a text link with your anchor text.

Think 10 years ahead. Have the goal to make one of the best dating sites in the world.

100 000, 1 000 000, 10 000 000 visitors / month.

You may have two sections of the site.
- Section where background is checked by personal interviews or call.
- Another section where background is not checked.

[countryjoe]

I wouldn't worry about Janeth, I've read many of her posts on different forums and she's a pretty smart girl. And not afraid to try things or sit back and wait for someone else to give something a shot. She's a go getter.

See yas, Country Joe

[janeth]

Originally Posted by countryjoe

I wouldn't worry about Janeth, I've read many of her posts on different forums and she's a pretty smart girl. And not afraid to try things or sit back and wait for someone else to give something a shot. She's a go getter.

See yas, Country Joe

Thank you very much Joe.

[PumaSpirit]

Originally Posted by janeth

Hi PumaSpirit,

If I find one girl doing that I'll ban her from the site.

I'll let you join for free once it's set up, I don't think you'll find any of these girls doing that but if you do I know you want see them there the next time you visit the site.

First, thanks Janeth, you are sweet. I may consider it, if you can make a site where old-fashioned people meet.

Secondly, if you can find a way to prevent scams for money and green cards you'd be the first. Good luck : )

On another subject relating to dating sites....

The other thing I have experienced is that looking for easy cyber sex, and easy sex if a date is accomplished is also the norm. For some it is just another playing field, unfortunately.

Then there is the cheat factor, Janeth. First of all, few will hand over their money before they have a chance to check out the site. So I have seen where they insert their contact email in the profile in such a way, that it often escapes moderator detection.

Such as: "getting together is as easy as bob bing for apples, as long as you remember that mail is always hot from you." ;) that would be bob@hotmail for ya, lol. ETC.

Again, good luck Janeth. Send me the URL when you are ready :)

A hint: I believe in covering my (_Y_) legally at all times and have always written my own legal stuff. Here is an idea that may curb some of that fraud.

Have a policy in place people must sign, saying that you will not tolerate such behavior, that it is illegal (quote US immigration laws, scam/fraud laws, international laws, etc) and that you will procecute and/or turn in anyone who is found doing so. Also, give people an avenue to report such behavior. If you also put in a clause for a heavy fine (paid to your business) for damages and costs involved, you may not get as much as other sites in that respect.

The word "federal crime", "penitentiary" and "deportation" still have effect on some people, lol.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by kgun

Then I link to your site for free. You can decide on a banner link and a text link with your anchor text.

Think 10 years ahead. Have the goal to make one of the best dating sites in the world.

100 000, 1 000 000, 10 000 000 visitors / month.

You may have two sections of the site.
- Section where background is checked by personal interviews or call.
- Another section where background is not checked.

I'll get with you next week on the link, ours will be more of a mail order bride site and by law we have to do background checks on any of the guys that come here and want to meet the girls.

It's a US law.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

First, thanks Janeth, you are sweet. I may consider it, if you can make a site where old-fashioned people meet.

I already have some old-fashioned girls, but keep in mind that most of the girls don't speak English we do translate any emails you want to send but we have some erally great girls that showed up yesterday and will have more coming today.

I'll also let you know if you like a girl that I don't think is a good girl.

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

Secondly, if you can find a way to prevent scams for money and green cards you'd be the first. Good luck : )

I personally meet and talk to all the girls that sign up. I don't think it will be a problem.

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

On another subject relating to dating sites....

The other thing I have experienced is that looking for easy cyber sex, and easy sex if a date is accomplished is also the norm. For some it is just another playing field, unfortunately.

Men will have to come from the US to meet these girls but I've also told the girls to be very carful about what the man is looking for.

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

Then there is the cheat factor, Janeth. First of all, few will hand over their money before they have a chance to check out the site. So I have seen where they insert their contact email in the profile in such a way, that it often escapes moderator detection.

Such as: "getting together is as easy as bob bing for apples, as long as you remember that mail is always hot from you." ;) that would be bob@hotmail for ya, lol. ETC.

Most of the girls we have signed up so far do not know anything about the internet, as a matter of fact I'm teaching some girls how to use the computer this weekend.

SO this should not effect us either.

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

Again, good luck Janeth. Send me the URL when you are ready :)

http://www.coffeegirls.biz

Originally Posted by PumaSpirit

A hint: I believe in covering my (_Y_) legally at all times and have always written my own legal stuff. Here is an idea that may curb some of that fraud.

Have a policy in place people must sign, saying that you will not tolerate such behavior, that it is illegal (quote US immigration laws, scam/fraud laws, international laws, etc) and that you will procecute and/or turn in anyone who is found doing so. Also, give people an avenue to report such behavior. If you also put in a clause for a heavy fine (paid to your business) for damages and costs involved, you may not get as much as other sites in that respect.

The word "federal crime", "penitentiary" and "deportation" still have effect on some people, lol.

I'll get this done also. (-:

[janeth]

Thanks Andi,

I'll get the legal stuff done this week. (-;

And start marketing the site on Monday.

[Andilinks]

slightly off-topic.

Originally Posted by janeth

"translation of your letter to a lady $15.00 for one page"

I'll pay $15/page to have my website translated into Spanish, $20/page if it's entered into my database format (MS Access).

I have one page translated into Spanish:
http://www.andilinks.com/es-prom.shtm

It does about 10% of the AdSense revenue as the same version in English so there is a good market for translation out there: all the AdSense pages online in English could increase their income by 10% just by adding a Spanish version.

The woman who translated that one page turned out to be unreliable. I live 40 miles from the Mexico border so finding another translator should be easy but in fact this does not need to be done locally and $20/page is a bargain if I were to hire in the US.

[lourdes]

What I have to say is she is not the only one in that kind of business...normally is a guy business especially in the Pacific area...

[janeth]

Originally Posted by lourdes

What I have to say is she is not the only one in that kind of business...normally is a guy business especially in the Pacific area...

I wanted to find a competitive business and see if I could make it start making money before Christmas. Since I already had some people wanting me to do this I figured might as well give it a try.