I’m not expecting any of them to go viral, it’s really just a big of fun and something different.

What do you think?

There’s more over at my Edinburgh Taxi Youtube Channel.

At this point I should mention I shelled out a lot to buy a card printer and consumables but people have been snapping the cards up so it has been a worthwhile task. The credit card was used but I know I can pay it back. No risk = no reward.

I’ve avoided posting about the success of my taxi partnerships as I’ve been focusing on making them work, but I’m happy to announce things are going well. If I could sum it up without getting into specifics, the money earned on a monthly basis from Edinburgh alone is in the low four figure range. This is a great achievement on a geo domain name and some offline marketing but it hasn’t been easy. Whatever I earn, and more, goes back into the business to generate more custom.

People often think that I sit behind a desk and the money rolls in; try saying that to me at 5am after standing all night in the cold with a couple of pr staff! I work day and night on my projects and radio advertising is still on the “to do” list but I’ll need to hammer the telephone number into people’s heads and get a few more thousand calls before I ask for that invoice!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

But, what if the money in the bank isn’t enough? Do you save then spend, or do you take the risk and borrow money? For many startups the latter is often the case, but that’s not without its difficulties. I recently asked Santander for a £1,000 overdraft to help with cash flow in the event more money came out that went in, and I was refused. Yet, Barclays were more than happy to give a £6,500 credit card with all the bells, whistles and offers without even asking what the money was being used for. You can do some serious damage with £6,500 – you just need to remember the money isn’t yours and needs to be paid back!

Right now I’m promoting Edinburgh Taxi mainly, and things are going well, but every penny that comes in goes back out into marketing…and whatever else I have in my accounts! The money isn’t wasted, call volumes are rising month on month, but there’s only so much “cheap marketing” you can do. By that I mean low volume offline work and now I’ve come to a crossroads…

Do I…

a) patiently wait and save and stop marketing for a few months then do something big like a radio campaign?

or

b) pay for the big radio campaign on credit and pay it back over a few months?

Different people will have different views, and ultimately the decision is mine, but like any business decision there’s risk involved and it’s a choice. There’s alternatives sure, but with the increasing competition and rising costs of variables such as printing, man power, fuel etc, it needs to be done properly or not done at all and the costs come out the same.

The radio is simply an example of a big campaign I could do, there are others, but you need to alter your marketing to capture different markets and that’s where the difficulty lies.

So my question to you is; would you charge your credit card or would you play it safe and save?

Having recently launched a UK airport transfers website I was only too keen to try to get in touch with someone at Thomas Cook to see if I could discuss a commercial partnership whereby they used my infrastructure and sold transport to their customers. Whilst the commission per transaction may be low, the sheer volume of customers who need transport to and from their home to the airport is huge, and Thomson has access to a large proportion of them.

However, like many websites, I failed to find the contact of someone who could point me the direction of the person I needed to speak too. And this led me to try other firms, all with the same result. Now I appreciate large firms don’t want to be pestered by all types wanting a piece of their cake, but what about people wanting to offer something valuable?

The Easy Group have the right idea, as does Go Compare to name a few, so why don’t others follow suit?

Let me know your thoughts,

Khalid.

I have agreements setup with companies in both cities to accept and complete work that come through the telephone numbers on the sites in return for a referall fee, a new kind of affiliate marketing. I am fortunate enough to have Mark Boyd working as an affiliate for me and promoting a companies on his Aberdeen Taxi site.

Things are progessing well with us racking up in excess of 1,000 calls per month. Mark and I are constantly competing between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, however he has a sub-affiliate promoting his number so qudos to him!

I’ve been trialling new marketing methods, including pairing up with local companies to co-promote each other’s services. I’ve also paid for adverts on student radio and Spotify, which I hope will spread the word about the number. I’ll let you know how that goes at the end of the month!

Like Rob, who is pushing some promotional items for his Claims site, I’ve got a giveaway in the pipeline that my friend Frank and a few others voted as a great idea.

I’m cautious about publishing every step I am taking as the taxi trade is particularly competative and it is difficult to comment on what worked and what didn’t as promoting a taxi number does not guarantee instant results – people may not use one for months to come and there’s no cookies tracking the booking!

Expansion online is one thing I’m focusing on as I’m fortunate enough to benefit from good positions within the SERPs and I’ve built up a small yet growing fan base on Facebook and Twitter.

Things are going well so my head is down and I’m working this idea until those 1,000 calls turn into 10,000!

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

CrossTrainers.co.uk is now sold. Thank you for all the interest. I apologise if I did not reply to your e-mail, the site was sold extremely quickly.

Thanks,

Khalid.

At least 80% of the names have ranking websites, however I’ve never approached anyone to advertise on them. So, I got off my arse and made a few contacts with people I know, and as they believe in what I do, I’ve got some deals setup. There’s nothing life changing in these partnerships, however money is money!

I know the likes of Yell and uFindus have bought up a large proportion of keyword and geo names, and the money they charge to rent the minisites on them is extortionate! They have the infrastructure to do this on a massive scale and the sales staff to ensure it is profitable. If you run a business chances are they’ll have phoned you offering it for just £xx per week…I would charge that for a month!

So my little geo-jaunt has me working on partnerships for Edinburgh Taxi, Edinburgh Nightclubs and Edinburgh Hairdresser mainly, as well as continuing my day job in the double glazing market.

Happy days, we’ll see how it goes. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Just a quickie today. I’ve setup a system called Keyword Exchange where webmasters/affiliates are given keyword ideas with free to register domain names.

You view a listing, make a site and in return for the freebie I get a backlink (specified in the listing).

Once you’ve submitted a backlink (can be from any url within reason) then I review it and once accepted you can view another listing!

Sign up today, only ten users will be initially accepted. www.KeywordExchange.co.uk

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Since the launch work has been coming in daily, initially with people trialling it by making a small order then returning for more content in larger amounts.

I’m pleased with the way things are going and hope, as time progresses and word spreads, we’ll be able to compete on the same level as other providers. Bear in mind I’ve done no real advertising aside from one Sitepoint listing and a few forum posts.

I expanded into offering a minisite creation service that has a few pending orders and keeping me busy, as well as topping up the company funds for future investments!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Complete Minisites, a new service I have offering minisite development, is getting weekly orders which is great and keeping the cash flowing so I can pay for my own project outsourcing. Continually setting up WordPress blogs can be a bit mind numbing but it is worth it!

I recently invested £x,xxx in a generic domain name that I have an NDA on as I am partnering with someone. Things are going well and sales are becoming a daily occurance which is exciting! I’m just waiting on things to calm down before SEO will commence and hopefully sales will rise.

Working hard at my employers is paying off, with their websites doing well and the future looking bright, so bright in fact that competitors are beginning to copy our tactics! I guess it is a compliment but it doesn’t make my life any easier, especially when I’m a one man band here and battling departments!

Competing for the main generic term is an unusual battle as the rankings are changing daily, so I’m working on a few new strategies to help and will monitor the results.

I’m still building my own little affiliate sites like Football Beanbag, Claiming Bankruptcy and Vibrating Rings (NSFW) as they bring in revenue and are assets I can sell should I need to raise cash.

That’s all for now, good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.