The website development thing I think there is potential in. I also do a few websites for small businesses. Do door to door and sell your services.
Hi, I am Shauntir and I design websites. Take your laptop or ipad with you, and be prepared to show people websites you have done.
Have a few standard websites prices. Like say, 5 pages, including this this and this R1000, 10 pages R2000, etc. Then custom stuff more out of the ordinary, charge extra.
Dont take on work you cant do. I had a cash loan business call me once who wanted a slider type thing on their site similar to what wonga has on their site. I checked out Wonga and seen This would be too advanced for my skill-set. So I declined their work. Besides, the time you will spend on learning and experimenting on doing it, if the finished product looks sloppy, you are risking your reputation if you present the client with this. Do what you know, and what you are good at, and never do a job that you think is untidy. You should be proud of your work.
Dont be greedy. Adding an extra page to a website doesnt cost R500, it cost 2 minutes of your time, rather just add it for free. If a guy wants 50 other pages, then charge extra, but dont have individual prices for small things that you know wont take you long to do.
Determine pricing correctly, if you know that an average website of say 5 pages takes you 5 hours to do, and you are happy with say a rate of R200/hour, then charge R1000. But also, if the market price of a website is say R800, then you will be outpriced at your R1000. If the market price is R2000, then you will be underpriced.
Charge extra for things like if you have to develop content for say the about us or contact us pages. Otherwise have the client supply with this.
Dont try to pull the wool over peoples eyes and tell them you will develop say a contact page for them for free. Because when they meet somebody at a braai one day and they are singing your praises about how you developed for them a fancy contact page for free, and that person knows about wordpress, they will lose respect for you when they find out how easy a contact page is to develop.
Maybe go see small professional businesses like accountants or lawyers or architects. 0-20 employees small. I say small because they will have clients that are small and want a website but something that wont cost an arm and a leg to develop. Come to an agreement with them something like you will give them a kickback if they refer clients to you.
Learn a bit about designing logos and headers, corporate image type of thing. Small businesses a lot of the time dont have these corporate image things in order. And perhaps offer then to develop these logos and stuff for the website at an additional fee. Offer also then to set up their email signatures with the correct corporate image in the correct size. Cover and profile photos for their fb page you can also develop for an additional fee.
If possible, set up a yearly fee structure instead of a once off dev fee and a separate monthly hosting fee structure.Its just easier for small businesses not to worry about a monthly payment.
Years ago (Before I learnt about web design), for a guest house, I used to pay a guy R700 per year for the site. It was a simple website, and the price included hosting, dom reg, and small changes in terms of pictures and contact details. I was just to happy to have an internet presence, and to pay this guy his yearly fee. No effort from my side. At the time, I didnt know what hosting or domain reg is, I just knew I needed a website, and that is how a lot of small business owners are.
But then I realised I needed more out of the site, and so decided to learn how to develop basic sites. Most people wouldnt go learn about it, they would just tell you to revamp the site, and then you will charge them additionally.
The other benefit of a fixed fee structure is that, you can do budgeting better. You will know that every year, on a certain date, you will have a certain amount of cash inflow. If you can get guys to sign like a three year contract with you, then these contracts can serve as collateral for you when you need funding for expansion or loans for the business.
Also, small business owners will contact you for small issues they need help with now and then. Things like, changing contact details, or help with how to post new posts. If you are charging them a fixed yearly fee, then you would also feel better helping them with these things. You wont feel like you working for free. Work it in your agreement, that you will offer them say free support for 2 hours a year, and thereafter you can charge them per hour. Something like that.
About adwords, check this same mybb forum for my experience with adwords.
Also, try cold calling. Check olx and gumtree for business like ads, and call people and offer to develop a website for them. Be honest with them, tell them you seen their ad on olx and you calling to find out if they are interested in having you develop a website for them. Though you can contact potential clients countrywide, try calling people locally first until you get the hang of it. I say this because with all the scamsters around, people will feel more comfortable if they can come see you, or you can go see them physically.
And good luck.
