Terrific Business Idea: No Investment!

Chaya Braun

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 9:20 am

I've been toying with this idea in my mind for several weeks, and recently decided that I am running way too many websites without starting something new... so I want to give you this idea, as I believe it can make a lot of money without any investment other than some time!!

I'll outline my specific idea, but you can adjust it in many ways. You can choose a city where you do NOT live. You can do this idea for your city at large, not just the frum community of your city. You can do this idea for a specific sect of people (I.e. people who love to knit, who are not limited to a specific locale. This idea will only work where many people have Facebook accounts, so it probably won't be a good fit for Beitar or Kiryas Yoel.

This was my idea:

I wanted to create a Facebook page called Baltimore-Community-Sales.

I would search around for local sales online, via the community ad publications, etc.

I would post several sales per day.

I would invite all my local FB friends to 'like' the page, and ask them to do the same.

I might make a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to a local store to everyone who likes the page prior to the end of this month. (Okay, that would take a $25 investment, but is totally optional.)

Once I have 1,000 local people who like the page, I would offer several stores an ad at a discounted rate. The ad must be specific to my FB page, so that the store can track the results they are getting from it. For example, a specific coupon code that the store did not advertise elsewhere.

I would stay on top of the FB page daily. (This is why I decided not to pursue this idea, even though I think it's great. I am only starting new businesses that would not stagnate if I took a few months off of work!)

I would be very helpful in answering comments. If someone were to post "Can I stack 2 coupons at this merchant?" I would pick up the phone, call the merchant, and find out the answer, and post it. This would give me authority within the FB page that my posts are helpful and reliable.

I would participate in all local FB pages. For example, I would comment on BaltimoreJewishLife's FB posts to get more exposure. Additionally, the more people with whom you interact on FB, the more often FB shows your posts in peoples' news feeds- it's based on a popularity algorithm; they don't show all your friends' posts in your news feed.

After 2-4 months, I would set up rates that I would charge advertisers.

For example, if a local store wanted me to post about their sale, I would charge $150 per post.

I would explain to stores the social aspect of their post on my page, which can get conversation around the Internet about their sale and spread virally, versus a stagnant ad on a printed page in a local printed publication.

I would offer significant discounts to stores that would pay me for ads on a monthly or weekly basis. For example, one post would cost $150, but if a store subscribes to my Paypal account (which is free to set up!), and commits to paying monthly, I woulld only charge that store $90 a month for the same ad.

Obviously stores can can cancel their monthly subscription at any time, however, once you have a significant number of stores subscribing, you can predict your monthly income with some degree of accuracy.

Schedule a handful of hours per week to call or visit stores that haven't yet advertised with you, and offer them an introductory rate that they can't refuse. Again, be sure that their ad is something that can be tracked to your FB page, like a coupon code they never advertised elsewhere. In this way, they can quickly see the benefit of advertising with you, and then upgrade to your normal rates.

Don't try to compete with retailmenot.com or any such national discount site. Be very sure to keep your FB page very specific to your topic, in this example, local Baltimore sales. Your success will depend on delivering precisely what these people - a very specific niche - want, not on being all things to all people.

You are simply competing with printed pulications, in Baltimore that would be the Advertiser and Where What When. HOWEVER, you don't have any costs such as printing or mailing, so you can charge much less than those publications charge!!

You can do all this on your own website minus Facebook, but going the FB route for this idea is going to be 100x easier.

Have a specific rate for non-profits, so you don't need to re-think this every time a school or concert for charity asks you for an ad. Say, your non-profit rate is 30 or 50% off the regular rate.

Be funny: Ask questions and post amusing anecdotes about your community. Humor spreads very quickly on FB, and will get you more interaction and more people liking your page.

If you want to reinvest some of your profits back into the business, offer prizes to people who participate in your FB page. For example, I might write: A rabbi, a priest, and a lawyer walked into 7 Mile Market. Fiinish the joke. Best answer gets a $50 gift certificate to 7 Mile!

Or post local photos like the friendly worker who loads your bags into your car at 7 Mile, and ask people to write a caption about the photo. The person who posts the best caption wins a week of free coffee at Cocachinos!

Upload a coloring book page whose content has something to do with the topic of your FB page or holiday at hand. (Accents here in Baltimore does something like this every Chanukah.) Have parents print the page, have their kids color it, and tag your FB page when they post it to FB. The 3 winners of the best colored page get a prize!

I have more ideas, but that's enough for now!