The WebPartners Business Model

As your WebPartner, we will invest our knowledge, skills and money in the web infrastructure necessary to launch your online sales effort in return for a percentage of sales or increased sales that are attributable to our efforts. There is no upfront risk and we manage the entire process. This unique approach overcomes all of the objections typically associated with Internet Marketing: We take control of all your Web Marketing initiatives We take care of the headaches We will analyze the online potential for your business and only proceed if the economics make sense We will pay for all the development costs and a proportionate share of the marketing costs We take the majority of the risk We have over 25 years of successful Internet experience. We understand the Black Box.
What are my up-front costs? In most cases, there are no up-front costs for our services.
What are my ongoing costs? Well, this depends on how effective we are. If we don't get you any new sales, you pay nothing. When we bring in new sales, we are paid a percentage of these sales. It's kind of like hiring a salesperson who is totally paid by commission.
How can we offer risk-free services? First of all, let's be clear that there is no such thing as a risk-free venture. There is always a risk that things won't go according to plan. The key difference in our approach is that we are confident enough in our capabilities and have the financial backing to assume this risk. Nevertheless, risk mitigation is a key part of our implementation methodology.
What are your commission rates? This varies from business to business based on a number of factors including average sale size and margin, the number of competitors, the size of the market and the technology that we need to develop. The key challenge is coming up with a win-win formula with our partners. If our percentage is too low, we may not be able to commit the resources necessary to ensure continued success. If our percentage is too high, the relationship will not be worthwhile for our partner. At the same time, since we are assuming all up-front costs, our partners understand that the commission rates should reflect the risks we are bearing.
Who are your competitors? In many ways, our WebPartners model makes so much sense that it is hard to imagine conducting business any other way. Yet, we stand alone as an Internet company prepared to make our fees contingent on your success.
With most services, payment and results go hand-in-hand. Would you pay your plumber for a leak he could not fix? Would you pay for a fill-up when all you got was a half a tank? Of course not. Yet every day companies pay for web services that are completely ineffectual.
I would like to do a direct mail campaign, will you pay for that too? We share the cost of certain types of direct marketing with our partners. Since we receive a relatively small percentage of sales, it does not make sense for us to pay all of the direct costs associated with increasing these sales. Similarly, if our partner pays all of the cost of a direct marketing campaign we should not reap the benefit from this. What works best is a cost sharing arrangement that is commensurate with the benefits that each side stands to gain from the increased sales that result from the campaign.
It should be noted that we do all of the work in preparing the marketing pieces at no extra cost. The cost sharing is generally for the printing and mailing costs.
I have a lot of existing clients, do you take a commission on these as well? Generally, existing clients are excluded from our commission arrangement.
Aren't I better off just paying to have a website built rather than paying ongoing commissions? The short answer is "No". Unfortunately, in our experience, too many website consultants fall into one or more of these categories: they do not have the knowledge to drive traffic to your website and convert that traffic into sales they have no motivation or incentive to improve the performance of your website they are mainly concerned about creating an artistic masterpiece (what good is painting the "Mona Lisa" and storing it in a closet?) they are mainly concerned about pumping out websites as quickly as possible they recommend unnecessarily complex solutions to increase their billable hours they engage in "black-hat" SEO strategies that improve your site's rankings in the short run but will ultimately be penalized by the search engines they charge significant fees when you require minor changes to your website Your website is doomed to failure if it is built by a developer who is not engaged in its continuous improvement. The Internet is a moving target - there are millions of new websites being added every day. Even if you find someone who knows a lot about Search Engine Optimization, ongoing effort is needed to ensure that your site continues to get traffic year after year. We continuously improve the websites of our partners since we are highly motivated to grow their sales (and our commissions) on an ongoing basis.
Why don't I just hire my own webmaster? First of all, the cost of our services is generally much less than the cost of a full-time person. Secondly, you would be very hard pressed to find one individual that knows a lot about all of these things:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Web and Graphics Design Web Hosting E-Commerce Managing Pay-Per-Click Ad Campaigns Managing Direct Marketing campaigns Competitive Analysis How to Convert Leads into Sales Workflow Management Programming
My business does not allow for online sales, can I still use your services? Absolutely, the online sales model makes it easier to determine a contingency based fee structure but we can still provide web marketing services without this. Other partnership arrangements that we offer include: Free service in exchange for equity positions Free websites with monthly payment plans Fees based on measurable metrics such as email contacts or phone calls Of course, we also offer traditional fee for service arrangements