Advice for Internet Businesses and Premium Numbers

Zebedee69

Hi,

I just read the thread on starting a clothing website and I decided to start a thread with some advice.

I currently run https://www.whytravellite.com - Im an agent for Holiday Extras selling their Airport Parking. Currently having a little shake up of the site to keep it competitive so have a look!

Anyway - Enough of the plugs! I wanted to give some advice so here it is. All this info is based on my own experiences on the Internet and of course I made some mistakes too.

1. The Early Days

Even before you buy your domain name - The name your website is going to be called you need to do some research. The internet is a huge place, some sectors of industry are overcrowded and thus you will never comptete on Google or any other search engine. A great example of this is the Travel sector - I found out at an early stage that Why Travel Lite.com could never compete with the likes of Travel City or Experdia, so I decided to become a big fish in a medium sized pond (UK Airport Parking).

Its better to make a small website that serves a niche market than a large website that has to compete with the big boys. You'll never earn money that way.

Best way to research is to use Googles Keyword Tool and the Overture Keyword Tool. If you search for these on Google you'll find them. Just search for a few keywords. You'll soon see the difference between "Gatwick Airport Parking" and the far less searched for but easily ranked for "Pink Lady Parking Near Gatwick North Terminal" dont be fooled.... Your still gonna get 100 hits per month from this. And if you devited one page to this and another page to "Air Parks Parking At Gatwick Airport" to obtain another easy 100 hits per month. You can add these up to make a pretty sum.

Dont even bother getting a business account yet - your money and time is better spent building your site and registering on smaller local web directories like https://www.splut.com who will send you a couple of hits per day to give you something to build on!!! By the way iv shut down my Lloyds TSB Business Account. I found out that Personal Account holders who have business accounts get treated very differently!!! And not often in a good way as banks often view you as a bad risk! Instead have your money wired into your personal account and mums the word to the Tax Man!!!

So heres what I would do in the first few months if I was setting up a website today.

- Buy the domain and some cheap hosting (Dont spend cash on this, maybe next year you can get some extra bells and whistles but you dont need it yet!!!)

- Build the complete site you think you will need. Be sure to build 1 page for each Keyword you think someone might search for you in Google with. For example "Builders Merchants Near Pembroke Dock" if your site needs to rank for this then build 1 webpage devoted to the subject. Run a search for SEO in Google to find out how to tailor your Website for a particular Keyword.

- Content Content Content, dont just have the sales pitch on your site. Have a news section, reviews, blogs, forums etc etc. This is my next project for Why Travel Lite. Constantly changing content excites the Internet and gets you noticed. Stop updating your newsite and Google will assume your out of business and their Computer system will treat your site accordingly ie:Stop sending you traffic. This can happen so quickly as the internet is such a quick moving place. Update every few days to keep everyone interested! Start publishing PR Material and have a small PR and news section that your constantly updating. Even down to the fact its was the bosses birthday yesterday and you bought him a custard pie lol!!! It sounds daft but it would if your not used to the way the Internet Works. See this in action by visiting You Tube or even by visiting the Money Saving Website. Forums, Blogs the list goes on and all creates a buzz.

Your basically aiming for what Why Travel Lite has only just done, have Google, MSN and Yahoo visiting everyday to find out whats going on. Dont believe people who say this is a waste of time and bandwidth. Excite the Search Engines, give them plenty to shout about and they will send you lots of yummy free customers.

- Register for Google Sitemaps.

- Start a link building structure, run a search on this in Google and spend time finding out the best structure to use. It takes time but its worth it believe me. I got this wrong and got booted off Google. I had to beg to be let back on!!!

- Register for PPC (Pay Per Click) With

https://www.google.com/adwords
https://www.yahoo.com/searchmarketting
https://www.miva.co.uk
https://www.mirago.co.uk
https://www.splut.com

This gives you roughly 90% of the market. Be sure to never pay more than about 15 pence a click. It a mugs game paying £1 per click with these schemes - They will make money - you'll lose a fortune within a few minutes. I lost £400 on Google Adwords in 2 hours and made £75 as a direct result of the traffic. Lower your Price Per Click and you might not make loads of money but its constant and dependable.

Running a small Call Centre

Iv got to right a few wrongs with Call Centers. Particularly the prices.

0800 = Free Call ie: The Business pays the cost of the call not the consumer

0845 = Flat Rate Local Calls ie: A small part of the call is paid for by the consumer. The lions share is paid for by the business.

0870 = An equal amount is paid by the consumer and business (Normally 20p Per Minute) THESE ARE NOT PREMIUM RATE CALLS!!! IN THE BUSINESS THEY ARE CALLED SPLIT RATE CALLS!!!

090..... Premium rate numbers where the consumer pays the fast rate (Typically 20 pence a minute) to the Phone company and the rest to the business. These are normally used for Sex/Chat lines, Ringtones or anything where an actual service is being conducted other than Customer Service/Support.

Premium Rate Numbers are split up as follows:-

35p Minute
50p Minute
75p Minute
100p Minute
150p Minute

In all cases the same 20p flat rate to the Phone Company applies. The rest of the money is passed to the company. It doesnt matter what number your dialling once it starts with 090 you could be charged upto 150p per minute so make sure your aware which tarriff is applicable.

Interesting enough Premium number are a novel way to make money - Iv run a few over the years and they realy do offer a great way to make some cash. Iv never attempted a Ringtone Website and Premium Rate Call/Text Line but perhaps you could try and devise one???

Anything else.......

There are loads of things iv not covered such as Google Pagerank, Alexa, Keyword optimization and lots more. Just Google these to find out more!

Oh...... one more thing, dont give your money to anyone who promises to make your website rank high in Google. Bring you customers. Or any other get rich scam, because 99% of the time thats all these are....... Scams! Most Affiliate Programs are only too happy to have a decent business person team up with them. I know Holiday Extras where only too happy to offer support and guidance after all - When your business makes the big time so does theirs.... You should have to pay for anything - if someone asks for an upfront fee then smell something fishy and walk away!

save-a-lot

Best advice is to attempt a listing on dmoz (very difficult to get in for many) because it is syndicated on many 1000's of websites (I used to run it on one of mine), in other directories and as feeds for many of the search engines. See http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm - if you can get into dmoz you effectively get many thousands of backlinks due to the syndication... best of all this is free if your submission is successful.