Got My Site Launched

[b61mack]

I find this threat interesting. I am web dumb. so it opens my eyes a little.

 

[Guest]

I'm still not trying to be rude Al but I will call em as I see em.

I wish I had your website to look at so that I could "call em as I see em," and, of course, not be rude.

Alas, with men like you, men who take shots from the darkness, men who post prejudicial criticism anonymously, it's impossible.

When you imply that we are ripping people off, well I can curse the darkness you post from all night, but it won't help.

Instead I prefer to light a candle... by simply saying in rebuttal that we have a thriving little business, we have good talent, we do good work, and we have happy customers. We are used to those in the insurance industry who believe as you do (see post above)... and we're fine with it.

As it is, so shall it always be.

Stalk me if you wish, but I'm done with you.

You win the round.

I wish you well.

Al
499WordPressDesign.com

 

[tins]

I wish I had your website to look at so that I could "call em as I see em," and, of course, not be rude.

Alas, with men like you, men who take shots from the darkness, men who post prejudicial criticism anonymously, it's impossible.

When you imply that we are ripping people off, well I can curse the darkness you post from all night, but it won't help.

Instead I prefer to light a candle... by simply saying in rebuttal that we have a thriving little business, we have good talent, we do good work, and we have happy customers. We are used to those in the insurance industry who believe as you do (see post above)... and we're fine with it.

I'm not quite sure how to tell you this, but, uhh, you forgot to use the word 'cloaked' a single time.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

It seems "WP Web Design" is the new snake oil being hawked to insurance agents..

 

[DreamOfGenie]

Well this thread has successfully gone off the rails. Anyway, back to the topic at hand... I actually like the look of your site, but there are a couple suggestions I have:

1.) You should definitely have more content on the homepage (that's clearly already been pointed out).

and

2.) Make better use of the content you've already provided. I checked out your Life Insurance Tips, and I thought there was some good information in there geared toward the average customer (i.e. someone who hasn't done their homework on life insurance first). You gave just enough information where it's helpful, but not too wordy or so much info that it seems overwhelming or too time-consuming to read.

My suggestion would be to use some of those tips with call-to-actions on the homepage to get the user off the homepage and deeper into your site (the longer they stay on your site, the higher your chances are of converting them into a lead/customer). For example, one of your tips has the header "Do You Need Term Life or Whole Life Insurance?" -- why not turn that into a CTA you can have on the homepage: "Term Life or Whole Life Insurance - Find out which one's best for you" and then have that link to a page with that tip on it, as well as something like "Ask The Expert" and your lead capture form.

Also, if you're going to use a quote engine to provide rates on the site, you could have another CTA on the homepage for your tip titled "Shop Smarter" -- you could use something like "Shop Smarter, Not Harder - We Make It Easy!" and then have that link to a page with your tips and a 2nd CTA like "Click Here to Compare Rates Instantly, or fill out our easy form to have us find you the best rate!"

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Guest]

It seems "WP Web Design" is the new snake oil being hawked to insurance agents..

We know that insurance agents are far too smart to be taken in by such an obvious scam.

Agents aren't going to change their 1999 sites done in Frontpage are they?

If there is one biz sector that is qualified to give expert advice on web design there is no doubt that it is insurance agents. Just look at their wonderful sites and see for yourself.

 

[BenS]

Wordpress is a bloggers platform which you can expand to a fully functioning site with the use of themes. But the main feature is the blog portion. Now wordpress is not hard to set up and install. Anyone who can spare an hour or 2 and knows how to use Google can learn how to set up their own WP on the weekend. All you are doing is installing the theme and copy pasting their content and images. Your trying to tell the OP a wordpress site is better than the site he has LOL. His site needs content and minor modifications, but its leaps and bounds better than the ones you've shown us.

You didn't answer my question earlier. Have you ever owned a business?

You are saying here that "anybody" can learn to use wordpress if they spend a few hours on google, then have a weekend to spare. Although I don't agree with you, for the sake of this discussion lets just say this is true.

You are insinuating that basically any business that provides a service for somebody is a rip off? I had my whole house painted last year. Could I have spent a whole weekend doing it myself? Of course. Instead I paid somebody to do it for me. I had other things to do that weekend.

Al is building websites for people at a cost of $500. I've built 3-4 sites using wordpress and know it takes around 4-5 hours of total work to have it done. Remember, he needs to make a sale, gather content, point nameservers, do some graphic editing, etc. This is all on top of having to market his business in the first place.

Have you ever had a plumber at your house for 4-5 hours? An electrician? Roofer? Geek Squad? If so do you think they're leaving with less than $500? Doubtful.

I know many people on this forum have unrelated issues with Al, but attacking over selling custom websites for $500 seems absurd. That is more than a fair price. There are many other web design outfits that will charge 10x more than that for a similar site. It really makes me wonder how many of you have ever run a business.

 

[pcbinsurance]

Hey Al:

Your insurance website has a picture of an old(er) white guy on it!!!

 

[Josh]

It seems "WP Web Design" is the new snake oil being hawked to insurance agents..

I think some folks may have missed context of this comment and I think it should have more attention drawn to it. Al likes to say that SEO is snake oil and has used the argument that the brains at google are smarter than the folks doing SEO (Al, please elaborate if you'd like).

 

[Guest]

It really makes me wonder how many of you have ever run a business.

That is the crux of the matter. As I pointed out in a previous post, being an insurance agent is sort of like running a business, but it is more like being an employee.

I'm the managing parter in charge of making rain (although Maya brings in a bunch of authors from her book design biz.)

Our goal is to bring enough design biz into the shop to keep both Maya and Virginia doing 4 sites each a week. My quota is 2 sites. That is 10, which is doable. That is a gross of (rounded) $5,000 a week times 45 weeks a year resulting in a gross of $225,000 split 3 ways comes to $75,000 each. So obviously no one is getting rich right now. Many agents here make twice that a year.

We believe that we can build the biz to where we are doing 100 sites a week with a staff of 20 or so people, where we pay them $300 per site. Our sites take about 5 hours door to door and our contractors don't have to do the graphics... we do that for them.

$300 for five hours work is still good money in America when you can work from home in your short-shorts and t-shirt (many of our web mavins are young moms although the 3 of us are in our 60s.) We do not use off-shore talent... all our web people are right here in the USA and always will be.

We're a long way from the 100 sites a week, but the paradigm has been proven and all it takes is for us to execute well.

We've worked hard the past year to refine our procedures so that we can be profitable at the $499 price-point. However, we started at $129 and have moved up from there after learning how much work is actually involved. (I want to move to $599 but my partner will not agree.)

The beauty of the biz is that we know what we are doing, we all bring different skill sets to the table, and as such this biz is not very difficult for us to do. I still have time to sell a Medicare Supp or two each month (I and all my friends are turning 65,) but as things pick up I will probably refer all of that out... and give up my license... and take a lot of grief for it as did someone else recently.)

This web biz is no different from being a plumber or an electrician or an auto mechanic. There is no glamor here. We offer a basic service at an affordable price where there is a demand. No magic here. It's work... kind of fun work... but still work.

One thing I'm putting together is a course book to train people how to do websites "our way" so that we can "grow our own." As Rap said, WP is not all that difficult... probably as difficult as putting in a new toilet or painting an apartment or filing divorce papers. It's a skill, not that hard to learn... and at this point in time the biz is not all that difficult to market.

For those who think that the $499 price point is too high for what we do, well then I suggest that they use the site posted earlier for $60.

Let us know how that works out.

(Honestly, if we could do sites for $60 or $99 and be profitable, don't you think we would... and basically OWN the market? C'mon. We're not stupid business people here... we're in our 60s and we've all been self-employed for 30+ years. We can read P&Ls and balance sheets and we can write biz plans. If YOU can do a web biz at the $60 price point, please teach us how! Oh. Wait. I forgot... it's way easier to be like Rap and criticize... from the shadows.)

We're open and honest about what we do and what me earn. We run an honest house. No one pays unless they are satisfied with the service... it's right there on the first slide of the website. Why Rap has a problem with us simply makes no sense to me, but as I said, insurance agents don't seem to like our work and don't think it it worth what we charge. That's about the sum of it. It is what it is, as the kids say.


Al
499WordPressDesign