Part Time Business Opportunity:Marketing Offline Companies Online [Extra Income]

An excellent opportunity for setting up a part-time or full-time business rests in marketing local offline businesses on the Internet. Most local businesses have not yet realized the many changes that have occurred in the world of Internet in the last 5 years and how much easier marketing for local businesses has become. You can help fill the gap by providing the requisite marketing capability and driving additional business to those local outfits.

Not on the 'Net!

It goes without saying that having a presence on the Internet has become a requirement for virtually all types of businesses, large and small. However, there continue to be a large number of small businesses that have not yet discovered the power of the Internet in marketing themselves.

Take a look around your neighborhood or downtown area and note all the local businesses that exist and that do not have an Internet presence. You will come up with a pretty decent sized list. Additionally, look through the Yellow Pages and you will notice many service providers (lawyers, accountants, plumbers, technicians) who would benefit from having a presence on the Internet.

There are a few reasons often cited for this:

It is expensive to have an online presence
Do not see how it would benefit them by having an online presence
Do not want the extra work involved in maintaining an online presence

All these businesses are an opportunity for you! You can:

Create an online presence for these businesses
Initiate online marketing campaigns
Seamlessly tie in their offline and online presence
And in some advanced cases, even take Orders online!

Also, you can offer support contracts to maintain the site at a low price, especially if Orders are not being taken online.

Argument for an Online Presence
You can use some of the following arguments to help businesses get over their Internet inertia:

There are web-hosting services available at rates as low as $10/day.
Creating a simple static website with the business's contact information can be prepared for under $100 using ready to use templates and some good copy.
There are methods to market for free on the web that will produce some results and traffic to the site.

Guidelines to creating an Online Presence
Once a business decides it wishes to go online:

Decide if the business wishes to have static pages (information does not change), or a dynamic page (uses changing information - like inventory, catalog etc.)
Does the business wish to show its catalog? Make sure you recommend this option strongly - as being able to see the products and services online improves credibility and allows more time for customers to browse the business's services.
Does the business wish to have a real marketing campaign online, or simply a web-presence? Recommend an online marketing campaign as that will ultimately deliver the customers the business seeks.
Does the business wish to actually take Orders over the Internet? For a very small business, this may not be a good option, though providing a phone number and an email contact is a must. For a larger operation, this will be a very good option!

Guidelines to an Online Marketing campaign for a local business

Use the free Internet classified advertisement sites, like http://www.inetgiant.com/. Make sure that you submit periodically so that your advertisement does not vanish into the bottom of the list
Submit to sites that specialize in finding specific services (for example http://www.lawyer.com for legal services)
Submit to the major Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN)
Submit to open directories such as http://dmoz.org/ (you may choose to submit to Yahoo! Directory as well, for a fees)
Create Press Releases for the local company and release it online for FREE using services such as http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
Submit to the Yahoo! Local Directory (also for a fees)
On the website, make sure you collect email addresses in exchange for the promise of sending coupons and information on any specials being run at the business. These people will be your special customers, so treat them that way!
If the company is willing to spend a little extra, use the Yahoo! Enhanced Local Listings as well as Pay-per-click Search Listings for local markets to further increase exposure.

At the Store/Office

Advertise the online site
Collect emails here as well, if possible to do so non-intrusively, indicating that coupons and specials will be sent to them via e-mail

These are just some of the specific techniques to apply when bringing a local offline business online. You can apply business specific variations where applicable, and even set the business up for taking actual Orders at the site if the company likes the idea.

You can take on a project on a fixed contract basis, or on a per-hour basis (only for very small projects). Later, as your confidence improves, you can take your payments strictly on a commission basis (based on visitors to sites, emails collected, or customers visiting the store who have a particular online only coupon).

Providing an online presence to local companies can be an excellent and potentially highly lucrative full-time or part-time business for you!