Profiting from the web – 5 of the internet’s best entrepreneurs (part 1)
by James Agate
Internet entrepreneurs sometimes get a bad rep, people see them as flip-flop wearing young bucks who roll out of bed at midday and make millions selling get rich quick schemes online.
The educated amongst us know that the internet is really just another market for you to tap into, and here at WeLoveBusiness.co.uk we wanted to quash any myths that internet entrepreneurs are just hucksters and show just how powerful the internet is and the scale of business that is achievable.
We will look in-depth at 5 of the UK’s best internet entrepreneurs and their businesses and in today’s post we will be looking at 2 of the 5.
Neil McHugh
Age: 32
Estimated Wealth: His mobile phone website had a turnover of £1million last year up 1200% on the previous year
Main business: TRG Online Ltd (Rightmobilephone.co.uk)
Business Model: Affiliate Marketing
Rightmobilephone.co.uk is the UK’s largest mobile phone price comparison website. It allows consumer to compare over 600,000 mobile phone deals from all the major mobile phone networks and read 5,000 handset reviews before making a purchase and of course rightmobilephone.co.uk makes a healthy commission from the networks when a customer makes a purchase.
Background:
Neil worked for 10 years in the aerospace industry, initially as a forklift driver at aged 17 before advancing to a senior sales position. He then decided to leave in 2004 to start his first internet business, PassingTrade.com, which he built into an online marketing agency operating websites in the finance, retail, mobile and entertainment industries with an annual turnover of £3.5million working with all the major affiliate networks like Affiliate Future, Affiliate Window, Trade Doubler, Buy.at, Commission Junction and DGM.
The idea for rightmobilephone.co.uk came from how difficult purchasing a mobile phone contract was for consumers, with thousands of deals available from networks and retailers, to really compare tariff prices consumers would need to either visit 4 or 5 high street stores or visit a number of websites to research. Neil’s goal was to offer consumers a platform that offered easy comparable access to every mobile phone deal in one place from all networks and retailers, simply saving time and money.
Neil is a firm believer that the internet provides opportunity for every entrepreneur.
Analysis of revenue techniques:
Regularly updated front page
Neil optimises revenue by adjusting the offers that are given prominence. Big businesses see this as basic marketing housekeeping however many solo internet entrepreneurs forget to periodically refresh their homepage in order to keep the business proposition strong. In Neil’s case he offers customers deals on the latest ‘most desired’ handsets which increases the likelihood of converting passing trade into actual commission because the visitor can clearly see they will get a deal on the latest iPhone without having to forage around the site looking for a deal. Remember that 99% of internet users are inherently lazy so making it easy is essential!
Site design is very minimalistic
Neil has opted to keep the website extremely simple in terms of the interface; there are only minimal options across the top so as to guarantee traffic is channelled into the pages that make him money. This is again another important point to remember; rightmobilephone.co.uk is a highly-optimised site in that Neil has narrowed down exactly which pages generate the most income (or any income for that matter) and he drives visitors to those straight away, after all 90% of visitors won’t have come to the site to read the ‘about’ page! Bloggers and solo entrepreneurs can get drawn into a trap of listening to advice from numerous experts and suddenly their website becomes extremely content heavy making the customer journey a bit awkward to say the least!
Clear offers
Needless to say, Neil runs his website as a business. He knows that every business needs a clear offer or a reason for being in existence. As soon as you land on the homepage, you know why you need to get your phone from here, it spells it out in clear waffle-free language which captures the attention of internet users really quickly and draws them into the site.
Get on the side of your customer
Neil draws on a tactic used heavily at the financial price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, and that is making your business seem impartial. Obviously both of these businesses are in theory impartial but seeing as we are both internet entrepreneurs, you and I both know that Neil gets paid whichever phone deal a consumer chooses and if no commission is on offer you can say with some degree of certainty that the offer won’t appear in the comparison! That’s by no means a criticism of Neil; it is simply good business sense. The important point about all this is that Neil presents the site as almost being on the side of the consumer i.e. ‘save you time and hassle’ etc. This immediately makes the sale easier because the customer doesn’t feel like they are being ripped off (as can sometimes be the feeling had they purchased a phone in a mobile phone shop). Rightmobilephone.co.uk also incorporates customer and industry reviews heavily into its service offering which again helps to strengthen the feeling of trust between the site and the customer.
Analysis of traffic building techniques:
Blog isn’t the business
Successful internet entrepreneurs recognise that the blog isn’t the business but rather a vehicle for promoting and developing your business or at the very least content to build a business around. Neil cleverly uses the blog element of his site as an industry news vehicle, covering the latest mobile phone releases and new gadgets etc. This ensures that posts are interesting and useful to readers but more importantly, ensures they have a viral impact and are shared around the web.
Link to us
Rightmobilephone.co.uk makes it easy for users to share the details of the website through the use of simple html code badges. This is quite an old-school technique and seemed to die out after the birth of affiliate marketing because nowadays, consumers will want to be rewarded for passing traffic to a site BUT adding this facility allows any users who own another website (and are prepared to do it for free or simply aren’t aware of affiliate marketing) to easily share the website adding to search engine optimisation and overall traffic.
Top tip:
“Research, research and research, absorb everything you possibly can before starting your business, your product, service and competitors. Talk to people, feedback is invaluable, think ahead, look at positive and negative scenarios. One piece of advice that inspired me was, if you can make £1 profit a day, it’s profit, just repeat that same formula over and over again.”
Key takeaway: Develop a relationship at the point of purchase
Rightmobilephone.co.uk is testament to the fact that anybody can start a successful internet business and achieve success almost overnight – £0-£1million in just 3 years!
That doesn’t mean to say it is easy to build a business of that size because obviously Neil is a very talented entrepreneur and he carefully researched and selected his market but it does mean two things;
1. Anybody can startup and succeed online
2. It’s never too late – some might have settled into a life in employment by the age of 27 but Neil spotted an opportunity and went for it.
Rightmobilephone.co.uk is successful partly because it interacts with consumers at the point they are actively seeking a new mobile phone. Neil could have started a mobile phone blog and attempted to monetise it that way but instead he choose to build a comparison platform because this way he gains access to consumers when they are in the later stages of the consumer buying model i.e. considering a purchase and actually making the purchase – these are obviously the crucial stages if you are looking to build a website and a business based on affiliate revenue!
We have previously interviewed Neil McHugh here at WeLoveBusiness.co.uk – read the interview
Mark Pearson
Age: 28
Estimated Wealth: Believed to be in excess of £30million. His business is expected to generate in excess of £900million in sales this year for its merchants!
Main business: Markco Media, a network which operates over 60 web properties including well-known websites such as MyVoucherCodes.co.uk and more recently the social purchasing website Groupola.com.
Business Model: Affiliate marketing and email marketing
Background: Mark started his working life as a cashier in his mum and dad’s fruit and veg shop. At the age of 21, he started his first business, a restaurant.
After his initial foray into the world of business, Mark decided running a ‘real’ business was far too much like hard-work. He was determined to find a business that was easier to scale up. Mark came up with the idea for MyVoucherCodes.co.uk (his first flagship website) when he was booking a train ticket to go back home to Liverpool, and at checkout, saw a box that said ‘enter redemption code’. Confused by what this could be, he decided to scour the internet to find out. Mark discovered the at-the-time small industry of affiliate marketing and discount codes. Mark had an idea for a one-stop-shop where online shoppers could find every discount code online, believing it to be both profitable and useful to consumers.
Mark’s business has grown from there into a burgeoning network of successful affiliate based websites. Naturally some are more successful than others but Mark has certainly opted for the multiple eggs in multiple baskets approach which means he is no longer dependant on one market area or one source of affiliate income. This diversified business model is how he has managed to prosper so quickly.
Mark recently launched Groupola.com which bills itself as being the UK’s largest social purchasing website. Mark believes social purchasing to be the next big thing which is why he intends to capitalise on it in the same way as he cashed in on the boom in discount vouchers a few years back.
Analysis of revenue techniques:
Monitor your tactics
Mark initially generated revenue purely through advertising income alone but he did the research (and the maths) and realised he could watch his income skyrocket by taking a commission on every sale therefore affiliate marketing became his main focus. The lesson to be learned from this is that if what you are doing isn’t working (or isn’t working as well as it could) then you need to change your tactics. Monitor your revenue like a hawk because Mark, despite his website was generating £1million per year from advertising, realised the potential of commissions, most entrepreneurs would have been happy with a £1million per year revenue business but Mark recognised the bigger picture. His business now has a turnover of £9million per year – £8million is a huge amount of revenue to result from making one small change to the business model!
Build trust
Mark displays prominently on all of his sites, the name and or logo of well-established brands that they work with (or that have talked about them). This immediately helps to bolster the confidence of the consumer who perhaps might be a little sceptical about the validity of the discounts being offered. These little touches aren’t just for peace of mind of the customer, they have been known to massively increase conversion. Associate your website with as many well-known brands as you can – legitimately of course!
Choose your niche
Some of Mark’s websites appear to be rather odd for example a website to compare bird tables but in reality this tactic is a very shrewd move because it is a relatively uncompetitive marketplace (making search engine traffic penetration easier) and the value of each order is high (making the risk and investment lower and the rewards greater!). Mark is testament to the fact that you don’t have to be passionate about a subject to create a business around it (not a hard and fast rule, particularly if you are attempting to build a content based business).
Promote your email list
Mark’s colossal email list is discussed in detail later on but on Mark’s flagship website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, users are encouraged to sign up via email 4 different times (explaining how Mark is building his email list at an average rate of 750 new sign-ups per day!) Mark also heavily promotes the Facebook and Twitter profiles of his website. This helps to capture as many leads as possible because you will get those users who want to receive offers by email and so are happy to offer up their email and Mark still captures those other individuals, who are less inclined to subscribe or giveaway their email, the friendlier and easier option of subscribing via Twitter and Facebook. Mark is successfully building an open and closed email list which is obviously proving great for business.
Analysis of traffic building techniques:
Cross promotion
Mark adjusts the offers across his network in order to promote any particular focus he has so for example his Groupola.com website is being heavily promoted across the network. This has helped him to achieve monthly page views of over 10 million!
Spot your viral opportunities
Every business needs to capitalise on the viral opportunities that are out there. Mark is particularly wise to this and has created websites in niches which have a fantastically high rate of engagement and shareability. For example, users can’t help but share a 50% off voucher with their friends, which means Mark’s users do his work for him.
Utilise social media
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter are useful in business because they easily facilitate the sharing of content between users. This kind of interaction requires little investment or effort on your part and can turn your website into an overnight success. Mark’s flagship website; MyVoucherCodes.co.uk has over 20,000 Facebook fans which act as his ‘open email list’ for promoting exclusive discount offers to.
Top tip:
“Have a plan and use your time wisely. The opportunities have never been greater. The internet has opened up so much scope for businesses with low cost and huge growth potential and you can learn so much from it. Everything I did I taught myself by reading forums and blogs.”
Key Takeaway: Build your list
Mark could easily be considered the king of email lists. Every internet entrepreneur knows the value of capturing and nurturing an email list; Mark has managed to build a colossal list of over 1,000,000 email addresses.
The key to building a profitable email list is by offering subscribers real value, not only enough to sign up but also enough value to continue the relationship and not simply hit ‘unsubscribe’. His website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk helps consumers to save over £50million each year so that’s the value! You need to be asking yourself, “What’s in it for my subscribers?”, if you can’t confidently say why they should be a subscriber then chances are you need to rethink your offer and your business model.
We have previously interviewed Mark Pearson here at WeLoveBusiness.co.uk – read the interview
