Mind-Map Business Plan

By Kevin Needham

When I start a new business online I like to try to map it out before I begin so I have a game plan and I can keep myself on track with my work.

I like to start by describing the activity or business concept.

Then I list the steps required

then I List the time I think each step will take.

A number of steps get left out, because I do not know specifically what they are or the time involved. The mind map progresses over the course of creation.

The whole idea is to have a game plan, or a step by step to begin with. I don’t spend too much time on it, about 1 hour. It gives me direction and keeps me moving forward. (If I don’t know anything in particular, I try to make note of it, but not worry just yet about describing the implementation just yet.

Without more delay, here is my Mind-Map or business plan for

Buy A Site 101

The concept ( 50 mins)

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I really like membership sites or continuity sites where you sell to your customer once, and you then go on billing and providing service to them until they cancel. Much like a hydro company, phone company or Columbia House records and CD’s will do.

I have always liked web hosting as a continuity business. Once you have the customer, they buy hosting ongoing.

How to “package” the hosting has been the unknown till now for me because so many companies sell it, and the barrier to entry is so low, you simply join a good affiliate program and re-sell the service, letting the official hosting company do all the back end customer service.

I have also always like the idea of master resell rights and private label resale rights (see the definition of all the types of ‘rights’ here). So here is my business idea to combine the two.

I have bought many private label rights products and 3/4 of them are sitting on my hard drive. I downloaded them but never got around to setting them up. It was too much hassle to find webspace and hosting, buy a domain, change the dns settings, upload all the files, set up msql database for a blog, setup an autoresponder, set up email forwarding, edit the pages and the list goes on and on, that was only 1/2 the things you need to do…

It dawned on me that giving away a private label product is only 1/2 the solution. Setting it up and making it fully functional is what most people really need.

so, I’ll give away the private label product for free, that is my hook

and I’ll offer the fully installed, ready to market version as the upsell

I’m going to develop a website buyasite101.com and on the site the user will

1st hit a squeeze page, offering them a free private label resale product of their own.

After subscription is captured, I will land them on a sales page

They are able to read the sales page, and take advantage of the offer, or proceed right to the download page and grab there product in a winzip file.

On the sales page we will promise to

a) host the new product and sales page they just received

b) allow them to purchase their own domain name

c) Set up the domain name and provide them a c-panel log in area, complete with Fantastico and wordpress options

d) set up their payment processor with paypal for them

e) code and edit page with their name and personal contact information.

f) build and include a “contact” page and a “privacy” and “Terms of service” page

g) keep the site up and running 99.9% of the time.

h) set up an autoresponder for them, loaded with 10 pre-written messages

i) Provide them with a copy of my top secret “Traffic Blueprint”, the simple but so effective step by step process I use to generate traffic to my sites.

j) provide them with our easy to follow “blueprint To buying a domain name” including what to do with it after you buy it.

k) Ongoing access to our forum with access to me and all others to discuss things like marketing and site design and affiliate marketing

l) Our report detailing “How To Start Your Own Affiliate Program”

and much more..

Full ownership belongs to the customer, this is there site. They can do with it as they please.

All this will be offered for a low fee of less than $15 a month, possibly much lower.

All free members remain on one autoresponder, while paid members are moved onto a “customer” autoresponder.

We will continue to offer and promote the paid services to the free members, along with useful tips and trips to help them get set up and running, as well as traffic generation.

We will continue to support and market to “customers” in the hopes of moving them from one hosted product to another, and educate them with traffic tips to help them make money with their sites.

That is the concept. Pricing needs to be worked out and we can test price points as we proceed and do split testing (explained here)

Revenue per subscriber (free) needs to be worked out, and multiple sales pages need to be tested.

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Lots to do, here is the start of my list

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Buy a domain name and set up hosting. Set up email accounts

This is complete, May 25, 2009. I bought buyasite101.com at godaddy.com and I set up the hosting account with an existing multi-domain account I have at Host Gator.

Develop / Design the splash page

Decide on private label rights product to give away, do I need multiple, need to test?

set up Autoresponder to capture emails. Set up reminder to confirm page, setup thank you page, design a “contact, Terms of service” and privacy page”

Write and install 4-5 emails for AR series

design sales page, hook up payment process

package resale product, sales page, put product in a .zip file and upload it for subscribers to access.

Setup a reseller hosting account, so I can host these sites.

reseller account is best, it does auto billing for us..

Set up 5 sites on hosting, so they are ready to go.

marketing to include sending traffic to landing / splash page.

I believe that is it for now. over the next couple of days I’ll knock off these tasks and make a post as to how I completed the task.

Talk soon

Kevin @ Follow My Start Ups

Kevin Needham

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Happy to be here. A whole new adventure for me

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