My business plan

I have just finished the process of getting an ABN(Australian Business Number), and I want to start an online business. I have been doing web design and web development for a few years now, -primarily as a hobby – and I’ve made a few hundred dollars doing odd jobs here and there. I am quite proficient with in that area – I hand code everything and I design everything myself – and I am well aware of how time consuming it can be. This is why I don’t want my business to be just related to web design / development.

Edit: Removed stuff that where in great detail because of the advice from Warner.
Less detailed version:

Is taking the time to learn ActionScript 3 worth it?
How long should take someone who is very good at ActionScript 2 to learn ActionScript 3?
How much could / should I sell a 220 page ebook, that comes with a ton of "extras", for?
Can someone give me advice on the education niche?
Can someone give me advice on the adult niche?

 

Hi! It was interesting to get acquainted with your business plan,but at your place I wouldn't share it in such details, because there is a risk that your successful plan will be brought into life by somebody else.

 

Well, at least someone had a good read. To be honest, there isn't much you could "steal" but I guess I might as well turn it down and get to the point. Now that I've done that I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum. Is it?

 

Well for selling the ebook, it would depend on what the subject is about, check out on clickbank if there are similar product.. If you do have a lot of content, then I would suggest giving away parts for free on your website in return for someone giving you their email address. This way you can start to build up a targeted list which you can up sell you ebook to.

Me personally I would say that the adult niche is very competitive, and that the education niche requires you to have very good connections if you are marketing directly at the education sector. If you have an educational product then you could try marketing directly at students.

 

The only ebook I could find that related to what my ebook is about, is being sold for $47 and from what I can see, that book is no more than 20 pages long and comes with little to no extras.

After writing the first post I came up with a few more ideas, one being quite similar to the one you just suggested.

Ahh, could you give examples of "good connections"? I have a few people in my family that are teachers and I guess that would help(?). The beauty of what I have in mind can be marketed to teachers and students alike.

I somewhat guessed that the Adult niche would be very competitive. How competitive is the dating niche(technically it's adult, but less pr0n)? Oh and thank you for your post
afd13.

 

I think it's much harder to make money at web design now than it was, your in a weaker position being in Australia when trying to find work online. Anyone from India and Pakistan will be able to under cut you on anything 3 to 1 easy. So unless you like it so much you fancy working for nothing because trust me if you pick up work online you will be working for nothing I'd have a serious re-think on your plans. If I was you I'd go and take a look around the BST section of this forum and see what the going rate is for design and programming work, you'll notice it's not very much and it's the same everywhere that includes freelancing sites too.

I personally just handed over 3 months of development work for $1,000 that's one guy working solid on one project for $1,000 for 3 months.

Sorry to sound harsh but I'm not going to BS you what so ever, if I can save you wasting your time and money I feel like I'm being a respectable person.

 

That is another reason as to why I don't want "offer" that as my main service. To be honest, I don't know why people would want to work for so little. I saw a job on oDesk the other day, where the provider was only paying 45 cents an hour, and the job was going to take a week(of 12 hour days). That's just outrageous!

Either way, I'm in a sense lucky, because most of the businesses in my area either don't have a website or want better website - I'm aware that won't last forever but I should be able to make a decent amount to help get business going. (my preference is for work online but if I don't have a chose, I'll make do with what I have access to)

 

Well in some countries the cost of living is significantly lower, so this may be a decent salary for someone, also someone may be doing it to build up their portfolio.

Actually I think that doing local web design you are at a huge advantage as you can visit the clients, and you have the benefit that you can do offline marketing.

I don't know about the dating niche much but I suspect it is a niche where you definitely need a unique spin to get ahead.

That is the sort of connections I was talking about, your family members who are teacher are perfect to test out your idea on before you invest too much time in it, and to find the head of procurement.