Since loading my commercial property portal onto my server this week, I’ve been concentrating on ironing out the inevitable bugs and putting some finishing touches to the site.

One of the things that I’ve probably overlooked in the past, is the user experience and engaging them in the site.

This time, things are different.

My weekend has been spent putting together instruction videos for my advertisers and incorporating them into auto-responder emails that will be going out once everything is up and running properly.

Here’s an example – I can’t claim that it’s perfect, but it’s still better than any other of the competitor sites at the moment.

The site offers free advertising, so I wanted to create something that wasn’t available on similar sites that charge for advertising, so that users feel that they are being supported.

Each element of the site will have its own instruction video eventually, plus I intend to add more that are to do with promoting advertisers’ own sites, providing them with information that they won’t find elsewhere.

My hope is that it will create a loyalty to the site and add considerable value to their own businesses, which in turn, I hope, will bring more clients to me wanting complex (or simple) web sites building.

I’ve done the same thing with my corporate site (Hollywood Internet Ltd) and have begun loading video tutorials to a private client area, which will give people a better understanding of Wordpress, search engines and other relevant subjects – the things I don’t have time to teach them one on one.

If you can build a web site, or know anything at all about computers, the Internet, search engines etc., then you must have already experienced the friends, family and associates of friends who always seem to want a favour, but don’t seem to place any value on the knowledge you have.

It happens a lot in my world and it’s entirely my own fault, because I love demonstrating what can be done with a web site, especially in terms of business task automation.

Since developing my new business model for the commercial property site and the one that’s upcoming for the tribute act site, I’ve had something of an epiphany.

Part of my new model is to get some web site clients on board and make them some pretty nice sites using Wordpress, or have sites custom-made using the developers I’ve been involved with lately.

I’ve always had difficulty pricing web sites, since they generally don’t take me long and I quite like making them. That’s the problem. Friends and family don’t think I work!

So, I changed how I approach those who ask me for their favours and it’s starting to work.

I now tell them that it takes me several hours to get a Wordpress site up and running, with a unique design (theme) and that this is time I could be using to earn money elsewhere, so it has to be paid for.

I then explain that Wordpress and associated plugins are updated constantly, so there’s time involved each month in maintaining the site and making sure that everything works properly.

Then of course, there’s the hosting etc.

But, my favours extends to doing the build and setting everything up, like email addresses, templates etc., for “mates rates” starting at £99 + VAT (17.5%) and then the maintenance, hosting and updating the software is costed from £19.99 + VAT per month payable on a credit card via a recurring payment, with a minimum term of 18 months, because as they know, you can’t really get a custom made web site for £99.

I’ll change my prices according to the complexity of the site of course, but the model is one I am carrying through to Hollywood Internet, my limited company which isn’t really a company, as there’s only me. But who’s to know that?

The upside for them is that they become a client and get their site supported.

They get to learn how to add, edit and remove content from their sites too, because the client area of my own site has instruction videos that I make myself – and they only explain what I want them to know.

The upside for me is that £19.99 minimum monthly recurring fee across dozens, if not hundreds of sites.

Online, nothing beats monthly recurring revenue.

I’m not a charity and I’ve stopped being an idiot, even for family.

… it’s done!

A few years planning, 9 months development and many thousands of Pounds later and I now have a commercial property portal loaded on my server with some dummy data for final testing.

This is the free advertising model I have wanted to implement for so long, it’s now in my blood.

This is where the real works starts though.

I’m offering free advertising to UK commercial property estate agents, that makes the sales job harder, not easier.

People are suspicious of free. They think they’ll have to pay commissions, or that the free advertising is simply a trial offer and then they’ll get sucked into a monthly payment routine.

It needs explaining. The two most frequently asked questions are, “where do you make your money”?  and “What’s the catch”? It’s to be expected and the answer is gloriously simple – I promote my surveying and Internet services on the site.

But that’s only one part of the promotion. The site still needs to generate visitors to the free property listings.

That’s what I’m working on now. Exciting times.