Monday, July 4, 2011

“How to Run Your Business Online for $10 and a Google Account”… works!

“How to Run Your Business Online for $10 and a Google Account”… works!


Matt Silverman posted this terrific guide on the American Express OPEN Forum, then re-posted to Mashable in September of 2010. 

HOW TO: Run Your Business Online with $10 and a Google Account

The instructions were very clear, and with the addition of a few paragraphs of content, and a dozen photographs, Gelsey Kennels was up and running. The puppies were born on April 16th and traffic ramped up in May and June.

Gelsey Dashboard

Gelsey Kennels placed print and online advertisements in Austin, Waco and Houston. The Stats module shows exactly which ads were effective and which were not. In 60 days the site collected 1600 page views, and seven of eight puppies were placed, including two puppies that went to Syracuse New York.

Gelsey Dashboard 2


The Austin American Statesman advertisement cost about $80, but the $10 website filled a key role:

  1. It was up and running 24 hours a day so potential customers could check in whenever they wanted to -- we got email with a 2:00am time stamp, which is much better than a 2:00am phone call!
  2. The content covered 95% of the basic questions, reducing a lot of unnecessary contacts. The most common request was for additional photos of specific puppies.
  3. Using email as a means to communicate, also allowed Gelsey Kennels to do some research on the buyers via signature blocks, domain names and Google search on their names.

It was interesting that several scammers tried to make contact with Gelsey Kennels. Blocking email addresses was very effective at ending the scam noise.

~Xolo

1 comment:

  1. That's great. I didn't know that it's possible to run a business with that amount of money. I should really consider it. Thanks for the idea.

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    ReplyDelete