I have been self-employed since around 92, I have more failed startups under my belt than some you have had sex. My current business is 13 years old but it still makes me just a living,

I grew it from me and one bloke to 13 employees. Now here is the thing, when I had all those employees I earned less than I did when it was just 2 of us.

I didn’t get to do much except sales, admin and fixing stuff those 13 Guys fucked up. After doing some sums I let attrition do the job and reduced back to a solo outfit.

Now I am tired before I start my day, my back hurts and lifting stuff that just two years ago was a breeze is no longer as easy. This is an age thing, I realised the other day that my pension plan is good for just about 3 hours. https://dustfactory.co.za You can look at my website here and until about 3 years ago it was supplying too many leads for me to reply to. COVID broke that., but I am tired more than not getting enough work. .

I ran a web dev company before this one in a small town in Africa and clients were limited, too much competition, people offering work at stupid low prices and I got tired of counting cents, so I went back to my trade.

I used my skills developed during that period to out perform all my opposition on the web for the woodworking business. The most important thing that I learned in the business was saying no, or even fuck off. You cannot offer value and quality if you are too cheap.

I have moved to a big city, reduced overheads and can now retire about 3 hours before I kick the bucket. I really don’t want to get back in the death spiral competing with people charging too little for their service, mainly because I am convinced that a website that doesn’t bring results is not an investment for any business.

I have started updating my skills again, updating the CMS that I built and have been using. also have registered a few domains to build sites on as test beds.

The numbers below are based on exchange rates and are in no way accurate, they are just an example. My question is as follows, let’s say the cheap blokes are selling web sites for $100 and they place them, charge for hosting about $7 a month, but are doing no SEO, no forward planning, just put it up and forget it, How much should I be charging a month for full service?

Would you be willing to pay $250 a month for a site that includes all the SEO stuff like semantics, includes me sorting out your local SEO stuff, creating content regularly or would that seem like too much of a difference. I am assuming small businesses as clients.

Next check out my website and tell me if it creates confidence. Note not all the content is complete yet, but check out these pages please.

https://centuriondesign.co.za/

https://centuriondesign.co.za/pages/SEO.html

https://centuriondesign.co.za/pages/web-design.html

Tell me how I could improve them, What could I do that would help you make a decision?

  • marcelDanz@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Hi, I hear your pain and struggle. You seem to be in a very tough position financially and mentally. First of all, get a big hug from you (I’m a hugger). Can I ask you what you’re passionate about in the jobs and businesses that you run? I believe that having a passion for what you do is one of the most important things when running a business. Your customers will smell when you’re not passionate about it and will run away.

    To your questions:

    1. The pricing. I don’t even know yet what you’re selling me. You seem to be selling a product (the website) instead of results that I get from paying you (e.g. ease of mind, constant influx of customers, etc.). So if you’re not clear about your value proposition, sit down and figure this out first. Before that, you don’t need to do anything else because they will only waste your time and money.
    2. On the websites: My honest answer is that I wouldn’t hire you if that is your best work.
      1. The design is completely outdated. My eyes are offended, and I don’t know where to look. Things are hard to read, and images are in a bad resolution so everything is pixelated on my screen.
      2. Spacing and wireframe aid in my confusion, as they don’t lead me through the page. I recommend learning the basics of UI/UX design before offering this as a product. Start with things like the Gestalt Principles, and the 60/30/10 rule of color palettes.
      3. Way too much text. Why do I need to read so much to understand what you’re offering? Be clear, precise, and concise in your copywriting. “If you confuse you lose.” Make it as easy for me as you can to say yes to whatever you’re offering.
      4. No clear CTAs (call to action): you got a button in the hero section…that is not recognizable as such. Follow the design principle of affordance. Something needs to look like I can do the action with it that I want to do (e.g. a button looks like you can press it).

    My recommendations in general are:

    • Figure out what your vision for your life is.
    • If you know that, think of ways how to achieve this vision.
    • Then create an action plan in detail that leads you towards your vision and execute it.
    • Find someone who did what you want to do and learn from them. u/General-Lobster-4837 recommended Alex Hormozi for example. If your goal is to build businesses with the sole purpose of returning more money and getting very rich, this is a great spot to start. If your vision is another one find someone that aligns with your vision.
    • Learn everything you can about the path you chose and that can help you reach your goal faster. Learning is a thing you do for your whole life not just when you’re young. It is awesome that you reach out to this community to improve on what you’re doing. You’re doing great!

    I’m open to chatting more if you’d like to get more input. :)

    • dopamineTHErapper@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I agree. Maybe you’re a marketing guy, an SEO? I think you should hire a designer. One who und erstands basic design

      • marcelDanz@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Outsourcing is one way, but as the main issue here seems to be increasing profits that would take from this goal again. Additionally creates a dependency that is not really necessary in the beginning.
        The basic design can be learned within one week and there are a lot of great free resources out there to learn. So my recommendation is to start there. And if you figure out after that week that it is something that you can’t wrap your head around or you right out despise it, you can still outsource it. :)

        • dopamineTHErapper@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          He’s not just starting out though. He’s been in the web development space for a long time it sounds like. Also doesn’t seem to have a natural artistic flare. You’d be surprised how affordable some white label services are, and for how much profit. You can resell them for, depending on your target leads. And this also solves the problem of scalability going forward

    • brianl047@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      On the websites: My honest answer is that I wouldn’t hire you if that is your best work.

      Yeah I’m not a designer just an end user but it seems… off to me. I can’t put a finger on it maybe the heading being off padding or too little spacing between the top and the words but I would agree, I personally would not buy it. Potentially a lot of people wouldn’t.

      • saito200@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Well the reason is that there is no design whatsoever in the page

        It’s a bunch of haphazardly chosen and put together styles that don’t match and don’t establish any kind of visual hierarchy

        Visually it makes no sense

        The page without css would look better and be more readable than it is now, likely

      • UnironicallyWatchSAO@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Just be honest with him and say it’s completely terrible, sugarcoating won’t help here. I thought I went back to 1990 there for a second.

        • FondantOverall4332@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Well…maybe try to be a little more compassionate - and diplomatic - rather than say, “it’s completely terrible.”

          Constructive criticism can be a lot more helpful than being too blunt.

    • guymclarenza@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      a) Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

      OK I get that, Selling websites bad idea, selling results good idea.

      Explain what you mean by outdated, may point me at a couple of sites that are not outdated.

      From an SEO perspective text gets results, It has done so for me for a few years. My wood working site has given me results because I supplied better information than any other local woodworking business. I am moving on from that purely because my body is no longer as co operative with the heavy lifting and stuff.

      I will make changes to that get started button tomorrow, that is a must obviously.

      I will look for some UX training and see what the latest ideas are, I have always felt that

      • Nuocho@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        SEO gets people on your website but it doesn’t get you orders if the website is not good.

          • Nuocho@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            There are like 30 people telling you that your website is not good. You come here telling that there is nothing wrong and we just don’t understand ignoring all legitimate critisism.

            Meanwhile you say that you have founded countless startups which for some reason all failed and you have trouble making money.

            I feel like there might be a connection here…

        • dopamineTHErapper@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Also, did you design around the mobile site? Or is the site just automatically adjusting? Things for mobile makes a big difference

      • dopamineTHErapper@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Optimization these days isn’t the same thing as some old brochure labeled " what is SEO?’ keyword packing has long been considered black hat, , it hasn’t really been effective since the days to ask Jeeves.com … new relevant high quality content or copy is important. But the key is consistently publishing new high quality content through the various platforms that are available on social media and otherwise. I should probably know, you can have chati PT right? Most of the content for you and have it programmed ahead of time schedule to match peak traffic hours, or at least to match the hours that are appropriate to your market demographic. Anyways, let me know if you’re interested in talking

      • marcelDanz@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I prefer to cut the bullshit and I seem to have the ability to call people out on all the fake excuses they make to themselves. Zero tolerance for those here. :D It’s kind of the “bandaid rip-off” method. Might not be the most comfortable, but it will bring you to your goal a lot faster.