1) Turnkey Website is a product or service that is designed, supplied,
built, or installed fully complete and ready to operate. The term implies that
the end user just has to turn a key and start using the product or service.
2) In training, a turnkey is a employee who has been sent somewhere to learn a
specific skill. The turnkey is expected to return and share what they have
learned with other employees. The turnkey becomes a trainer who turns the keys
(of knowledge) over to someone else.
InvestorWords.com defines a turnkey operation as "A product or service which can
be implemented or utilized with no additional work required by the buyer (just
by 'turning the key')".
A Turnkey Website is a totally functional website with hosting and fully
installed scripts for forms, shopping carts affiliate programs etc. All the
purchaser is required to do is "turn the key" and they are in business.
Bona fide turnkey ecommerce websites of high quality can be purchased by your
clients for as little as $1499.00 or as much as $8999.00. The Average retail
price is typically $4999.00 and often includes a few additional features, for
example, web hosting for a few months.
Brand Name Turnkey Website
I released another published article about small business turnkey websites, and
not just the scams. Brand name cookie cutter websites can have a downside, so
you may want to read about the topic of brand name turnkey sites here. Here's an
excerpt.
The ideal scenario for any small business is having an original site with fresh
content added often instead of a cookie cutter clone. Integrate a blog and forum
as appropriate and you create a search engine magnet, but that traffic is
meaningless if your content is stale and only optimized for search engines. It
is more important to design content for visitors who are more likely to stay
longer and eventually buy when you provide quality information and value for
money.
In a previous article, readers were warned about scam turnkey sites, including
some featured in late night tv advertising. You may want to read how one woman
lost more than $10,000 over 2 years without one cent in profit as documented in
another article I wrote, Tips Before Buying a Turnkey Online Business.
Use due diligence before spending your hard earned money. Contact me for an
opinion before you buy, or consider joining online marketing forums to get
neutral feedback before you pay for an online turnkey site. You may find seo,
search engine optimization, very difficult with a cookie cutter website.
To appreciate the rationale for the popularity and high demand for turnkey
website opportunities, you have to look at the internet as a whole. In reality
there are levels of stress in our everyday lives and a personal need to be
happier. Therefore more people want to be their own boss, work from home and
spend more time with their families. The internet is flooded with legitimate
success stories about people who have become self-employed purely by working on
the internet.
Many of today's entrepreneurs have very little knowledge of web design, they
posses very little time to learn, perhaps are short of desire or patience to
study. Investment in the software may also factor in the decision. Hence, the
magnetism of the turnkey website business opportunity.
You require all the correct and appropriate equipment to run a turnkey web site
business. It will no justice to put the key to a website in the hands of a buyer
who has then to find his own web host, product to sell and CGI scripts before
they can open for business! Here is an example of an esteemed turnkey website
provider.
Entrepreneurs with talents such as marketing and promotion seek to purchase
turnkey website as this is not their forte. They do not want to spend time
designing their sites, they want to spend time marketing the turnkey website,
this is their proficiency
The benefits of a turnkey internet business? ROI, Return on Investment. This is
generally very high. Professional turnkey website providers (above) will in the
main offer a guarantee of ROI or your money back. They provide full training and
ongoing support for up to 90 days with this pledge.
How can they achieve this? Simple, they have a team of internet marketing
experts that follow you step by step for the given period of agreement. They
should provide seminars, tips and suggestions on how to effectively market your
turnkey website business opportunity. If You have never designed a website, but
are interested in a turnkey website business. I invite you to research the
opportunity. It is a proven method to add more money to your bank account.
Some national chains of service providers including real estate and mortgage
companies offer turnkey websites for affiliates and franchisees. From a recent
conversation with one mortgage broker, I was intrigued learning details of the
relationship and the fact that some of these cookie cutter websites used by
thousands of agents are fee based, not free.
This broker explained that for $25 USD paid monthly, or $300 a year, the agent
gets a cookie cutter website. Each takes as little as 10 minutes to setup and
then never changes. This recurring cost goes on forever which is why I question
the value aside from name association with the parent brand. Here's an
explanation of difficulties the site may experience attracting new business.
Although each site is a sub domain of the parent company and will be treated by
search engines as a separate website, the content for each agent is identical to
all others except for contact information. Low cost cookie cutter website
solutions may be practical for small business owners on a limited budget, yet
having duplicate content that is just like 1000 other sites drastically impacts
the value in seo, or search engine optimization
Search engines reward sites with fresh and original content, so the owner of a
cloned site cannot expect major search engines to drive new business traffic
their way. This may be okay if the realtor or mortgage broker is enjoying
success, but if the business is struggling to make a profit, each agent must
find new ways to market their business.
Besides the obvious methods with printed materials that include the sub domain
website address, site owners will require more direct proactive marketing.
Referrals will become extremely important, and should be utilized often. One
option may be a standalone blog offering generic advice about their niche. The
parent corporation is unlikely to allow use of their logo on an outside site, so
the best the owner can do is provide value with news, reviews, and advice, and
have links to their cloned sub domain.
This compromise in seo value by using an external blog violates my usual advice
about blog integration for small business owners. The hosting options are either
1) external which is not integrated, 2) use a sub domain for partial
integration, and 3) subfolder storage for full integration. With a fully
integrated blog the search engines connect your blog as part of the main site,
and the value for driving visitors to your site is enhanced.
In my conversation with the mortgage broker mentioned earlier, they stated
revenue was sufficient to support their work as a full time job. Once they
understood the downside, they agreed to consider the external blog for indirect
promotion to help drive traffic to the cookie cutter site. Now that they
understand their situation, the importance of direct marketing will receive
additional focus with an emphasis on networking and referrals.
This is an important lesson in expectations. Once an owner has a realistic
perspective of site performance, there's nothing wrong with having a site that
simply contains more than could ever fit on a business card. Having a www domain
printed on your business card and stationery shows evidence of sophistication.
It could make the difference between you and a competitor who still hasn't gone
online.
The ideal scenario for any small business is having an original site with fresh
content added often instead of a cookie cutter clone. Integrate a blog and forum
as appropriate and you create a search engine magnet, but that traffic is
meaningless if your content is stale and only optimized for search engines. It
is more important to design content for visitors who are more likely to stay
longer and eventually buy when you provide quality information and value for
money.
Finally, avoid the mistake made by some new small business website owners who
buy turnkey websites based on late night television ads. You don't get rich
buying a clone site and then sitting back waiting for the armored truck to show
up each day with bags of money. Sub domains from well known brand names like
mortgages or real estate are no different. Hard work and promotional methods
whether online or by direct marketing are still the keys to success.
You need to be careful browsing through online turnkey offers to avoid serious
financial loss. Everyone has at least one horror story involving online scams,
and some are more personal because they were a victim. Once I receive my check
for $14,000,000 from Nairobi I can retire from writing advice for small business
owners and designing web sites. Wish me luck!
Consider the line from the movie "Field of Dreams" saying "If you build it, they
will come". This does not apply to websites. Online, the P.T. Barnum adage
"There's a sucker born every minute" is too often the case when it comes to
purchasing a turnkey online business. Think before you hand off your hard earned
cash. You could become victim of an online scam.
In the real world, individuals with novice internet skills are becoming victims
every day. An honest person is more apt to believe what they read online because
it's in their character to trust things in writing. Stories of instant wealth
with turnkey websites help perpetuate the elusive dream, especially when the
reader has little or no business experience. Let's examine a true case involving
one of my clients, and the extreme nature of what can happen.
Imagine this single Mom, struggling to make ends meet while living off the
proceeds of a real estate sale, and she encounters a variety of online ads
filled with exaggeration and promising the opportunity of a lifetime. Over time,
and before meeting me, she purchased 7 prepackaged web sites for a variety of
online products and services thinking that money would roll in automatically. To
put her online marketing in perspective, only recently she grew more comfortable
sending and receiving email.
Her total cost for 7 sites exceeded $10,000 two years ago with zero profit to
date. Most of the sites were cookie cutter turnkey subdomains with insignificant
search engine ranking. In general, the top level domains were poorly coded with
grade school level graphics, so each of her sites had serious problems with
credibility.
When questioned about the lack of sales, most of her sources replied blaming her
for the poor performance because she wasn't promoting and marketing the site.
Any person with bare email skills, no previous online marketing, and ruthless
predators taking advantage of novice online entrepreneurs, all adds up to
disaster. The ones selling advice about how to make money are often the only
ones making money. Read on about how truly outrageous this situation became.
To get started, one company required payment of $2500 by EFT to transfer funds
immediately from her bank account to theirs. One year later, they renewed her
site without any prior notice, and withdrew $2500 again. Believe it. I know
because by this time I was contacted to create a super site as a portal page to
introduce the other 7, and she asked for advice on how to handle the $2500
withdrawal.
Here are some tips to help you avoid online scams when considering an online
turnkey website.
1. Look at the web site and reflect on your first impression objectively. Your
visitors will decide within 5 seconds if your product or service is credible and
worthwhile. If your reaction viewing the parent site is not favorable, move on.
2. If you decide to review their web site further, look for signs of
exaggeration. Pages overloaded with adjectives claiming or exclaiming success
may be overselling in an attempt to convince you that you'll be the next
millionaire.
3. Next, do the owners or managers of the online opportunity give their real
names, physical address, and phone numbers? If all you find is a postal box
address and nothing to identify who's taking your money, don't do it.
4. Never consider buying an online business unless you personally have the
experience to market and grow the product or service. Very few people make it
rich quickly without effort and a considerable commitment of time and energy.
5. Don't believe ads that offer something too good to be true. Avoid the
pressure to act now. There is no urgency handing over your life savings until
you perform some basic research.
6. Check for comments from satisfied customers. Testimonials from unhappy buyers
are never published, so save your energy and skip over those unless you're in
the mood for some entertainment, and enjoy reading fiction.
7. Join a forum to get advice and feedback from other honest people like you.
Search Google for "online business marketing forums" and visit several to see
reviews of online opportunities from other users.
8. If you are going to distribute a product, think twice if the site requires
you to pay in advance for inventory, offers a bonus if you sign up more
distributors, or has ANY advance fee requirements.
Keep an open mind as you review different concepts, and think twice before you
believe what you read online. Another downside to a turnkey website is you own a
site that is most likely a clone to 100's or perhaps 1000's of pages covering
the same product or service. Making a positive first impression includes being
unique. In most cases the turnkey site is a fixed design, so you probably have
zero influence on the look, and no chance of revising the content.
In summary, caution and research will be the key to avoid being victimized.
Shortcuts to wealth are rare. Real success in any online business requires long
hours and hard work. The turnkey website for an online business may look too
good to be true. It probably is. Your success depends on having a popular
product or service that people need, presenting your offers on a credible and
attractive site, and finally getting traffic to your web pages to make the sale.
It is not easy. It can be done.
