# I Give Local Businesses a Free Website. Then They Pay Me $297/Mo

Channel: Adam Erhart
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ8sQIBEwRk
Duration: 18 min
Language: English
Words: 3919
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/EJ8sQIBEwRk

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[0:00] Giving away free websites has made me more money than trying to sell them ever has. And if you're still trying to land your first client or your next one, there's a really simple reason for that. Most people try to convince a business owner to trust them before they've actually done anything for them. I'd rather do the opposite. I build the thing first, my hand it over for free, and then if they want to keep it running, it's $297 a month. Now, I know how that sounds. Give away free websites? That's the plan? But, stick with me because I've made millions doing this, and the free part is doing a very

[0:30] specific job here. You see, here's what nobody tells you. Doing it this way, giving them the site for free, takes the price decision right off the table. And it's that price decision that's causing you to get ignored or deleted or ghosted. I know this because I used to do this the exact opposite way. Years ago, I was sending business owners these long, detailed messages. Here's what I do. Here's everything you get. Here's my pricing. Want to hop on a call? I sent thousands of these, like literally thousands. It didn't work, and it wasn't fun, which makes it a very tough thing to recommend here. And the reason it

[1:01] didn't work was simple. I was asking for a lot before I'd given them anything. Now, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but a stranger asking a business owner for time and money gets ignored because that's what everyone does with strangers who ask them for time and money. In any other context outside of business, we would call this begging, but in business, we call it prospecting and expect people to be cool with it. Now, since then, I've built three seven-figure agencies, worked with over 1,500 small businesses, and run thousands of campaigns. And today, I do it all as a one-person agency with zero employees. So, this isn't something that

[1:33] I just read about somewhere. This is what I actually do every single day. So, here's what I'm going to give you today. I'm going to share with you five different messages you can copy, paste, and send. You'll get the post that gets business owners raising their hand. You'll get the message you send when you deliver the website, the exact offer, the close, and a backup outreach message for finding businesses yourself. And on top of that, you're going to watch me, and by me, I mean AI, build one of these websites live from start to finish in just a few minutes. And the way you turn this into a paying client is pretty

[2:02] simple. It's just three steps. First, you post one simple offer in a place where local business owners already hang out. Second, when somebody says yes, you build them the site using AI and a simple prompt. And third, you make the offer. That's it. Post it, build it, offer it. So, let's start with step one, the post. Open up Facebook and search for the community groups for your town or your area. Almost every town and city has at least one. Something like Life in Boise or Everything Colona or that kind of thing. Now, typically, you're going to find thousands of locals in these groups. And mixed in with the lost cat

[2:36] posts and the road construction complaints, there's going to be business owners. Plumbers, roofers, salon owners, landscapers, they're already in there. And half the posts in these groups are people asking for recommendations anyway. You can run the same idea on Nextdoor as well. Now, one thing before you post anything. You want to check the group's rules first. Some groups don't allow service posts. And if an admin deletes yours, that's not this method failing, that's just the wrong group for this strategy. So, just move on to the next one. So, here's the post. You might want to write this down or screenshot it because this is what gets business

[3:09] owners raising their hands. I'm looking for two local type of business owners to build a free website for this week. I'm putting together a few local examples and would love some honest feedback in return. If you like what I build, you'll have the option to keep it. Comment below or DM me if you're interested. Now, of course, swap in whatever type of

[3:26] business you want to work with. Plumbers, roofers, dentists, cleaners. And if you're sitting there trying to decide, just pick the one that you'd feel most comfortable talking to and go with that to start. Now, when I say that you're building the website for free, I mean it. You're not charging them for the build. There's no setup fee and there's no bill coming later for the website itself. But if they like what you build and they want to keep it, what they pay for is the system that keeps the site live and running behind the

[3:51] scenes, which I'll show you in a minute. If they don't want it on the other hand, no problem. The preview just comes down at the end of the week. So, let's say the comments start coming in. Somebody tags their brother-in-law, the roofer, a salon owner says, "Me, please." A contractor says, "How much?" on the post offering a free website. Trust me, it happens. And now, you're not chasing strangers anymore. You've got people that are actively raising their hands and coming to you. So, when somebody raises their hand, you want to message

[4:17] them back and ask two quick things. Number one, the name of their business, and number two, whether or not they've already got a website, even an old one. That's it. You're not pitching anything. Most of what you need, the services, the phone number, the hours, those are already public on their Google listing and their old website if they've got one, which brings us to step two, building it. Now, technically, you can build the website itself with whatever website builder you want, Wix, Squarespace, whatever. I use HighLevel, though, because it lets me build the site and run the entire system behind it from the exact same place. And the tool

[4:50] I use to build the site is called AI Studio. So, here's what I'm doing. I take the business name and details, I write one prompt that I'll make sure to put a link to in the description below, so you can just copy and paste it, and then I let it run. And while it works behind the scenes, I want you to notice what you're not doing, because that's the important part here. You're not designing anything from a blank page, and you're not writing a single word of copy. The AI does the whole first version for you. And [clears throat] if something looks off, you just tell it

[5:17] and it'll change it for you. The whole process takes about three to five minutes per website, so we're going to fast forward until it's done rather than making you watch it beep and boop and do all those things behind the scenes. Okay? So, here it is, a complete website, real pages, real copy, their actual services in their actual town, and this website is published to a temporary preview link, not their domain. So, what this means is that this preview is going to sit in your account under your control. Remember that part, because the fact that it's in your control under your account is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you

[5:48] here. Now, an important note here, before this goes anywhere near the business owner, you want to quickly read through the site from top to bottom. And if there's anything weird in there, then just fix it or cut it. Also, if you want to build these exact same websites yourself, here's the fastest way to get set up. I've got a link in the description below this video where you can grab an extended 30-day free trial of HighLevel. And when you start through my link, you'll also unlock my complete agency OS, which has over $10,000 in pre-built funnels and follow-up automations and client outreach scripts and sales scripts and a 90-day launch

[6:18] road map, all installed in your account with just one click. There's private community access as well and a whole lot more. And the link's in the description below. Okay, the site's built and now it's ready to show off. Now comes the part where most people mess it up, the delivery. So, rather than fumbling over what to say and how to present this, let me give you the exact message to send, word for word. And just like before, feel free to screenshot this or write it down as might come in handy later. Hey, name, I finished the site. Here's the preview. It's on a temporary link for

[6:47] now and I'll take that down in 7 days. Take a look when you get a chance. If you like it and want to keep it live, just let me know and I'll show you what the next steps look like. Now, just like before, what's more important here is what's not in that message because there's no prices, there's no packages, there's no By the way, I also offer to None of that. There's just one link, one honest heads-up about the page coming down in 7 days and then one soft question. And then, once that message is sent, you do the hardest thing in this entire video, which is nothing. You just

[7:17] wait. And here's the deal with that 7 days, it's real because you make it real. This is not a fake countdown timer. The site is sitting on a preview link in your account. You published it and when that week's up, you unpublish it. You can even tell AI Studio to just add the countdown timer for you and then, when the week's up, it'll automatically unpublish it. So, you're not pressuring anybody. You're just telling them the truth about how long the preview lasts. See, when the deadline is real, you don't need to push because the clock does that for you. And if they like what they see, this is

[7:48] usually where things get interesting. Usually what happens is that they open the link and they're expecting some cookie-cutter template with their name just slapped on it. But instead, what they're looking at is a real website. A real website that's got their business, their services, their town. And so, they send back some version of the same message every time. Something like,

[8:07] "Wow, this looks great. Okay, what now?" Well, this, my friend, is the question that you've been waiting for because this is the moment they're basically asking you how to get started, which is business owner talk for, "How can I give you money?" So, here's exactly what you say. "Glad you like it. The website itself is free. If you want to keep it, I can make any changes you'd like and put it on your domain. The real value, though, is what happens once I switch on the system behind it. New leads get a text right away, customers automatically get asked for Google reviews, and the site can answer questions and book

[8:39] appointments. To keep everything live and running, it's $297 a month. No contract, cancel anytime. If you want to go ahead, I'll send you the link and get everything connected this week. And just so we're clear on the domain name because this comes up a lot. So, here's the deal. The domain name is theirs, registered in their business. If they already have one, you just connect it to the new site. If they don't, they register one. It's usually around 15 bucks a year and you can help them connect it. You never want to own or hold a client's domain. Now, I appreciate it might sound like a good

[9:09] idea to have their domain because then you've got the power and the control, but I promise you, after having done this for over a decade now, it is a complete and utter nightmare. Owning the website and all of the content, totally fine. But owning the actual domain name, total disaster. Now, you might be wondering how a website is somehow texting new leads and asking customers for Google reviews and answering questions and booking appointments. And the answer is, it isn't. The website is really just the front end. HighLevel is the system sitting behind it. So, when somebody fills out a form or starts a chat or books an appointment, that

[9:43] information goes into High Level and you can trigger whatever you've set up next. You can send them a text, you can notify the business owner, you can follow up if they don't respond, you can ask for a Google review after each job, you can book something directly into their calendar. The website collects the lead and then the system handles everything that happens after that. Okay, so what does this actually take to set all of this up for a client? Well, the website itself might take 5 minutes, but getting the rest of the system running takes a little more work. You'll need to access their Google Business Profile and their

[10:12] calendar and you'll spend a few minutes helping them get the High Level app on their phone. Then, inside High Level, you connect the calendar, turn on the lead follow up and review automations and add the chat to the site. Your first one will take a little longer because you're figuring everything out, but after that, you're basically repeating the same setup for each new client instead of having to rebuild the entire thing from scratch. Plus, you don't have

[10:33] to build the system itself from scratch. I've used High Level to build every one of my million-dollar agencies and I've already packaged the entire thing into my Agency OS, so you can just copy it straight into your account and then customize it for each client. So, when they come back and say, "Yep, let's do it." you're basically done. There's no sales call, there's no big proposal, you just send them the payment link and get everything connected. So, here's the last message. "Perfect. I'll send over the payment link now. Once that's done, I'll get the site onto your domain and everything switched on this week." And that's really the whole process. You get

[11:04] somebody interested, you build the site, you show them what you made, you make the offer and if they want it, you get paid. Now, maybe you're thinking, "But my town's Facebook group is dead." or maybe your town doesn't even have one at all. Well, no problem because there's a second way to find these businesses and honestly, might be my favorite part of this whole thing. A little while ago, I built a tool for my agency that searches a type of business and a city and then hands me back a list of local businesses that have no website at all. Let me show you what that looks like. We'll start

[11:32] with electricians in Madison, Wisconsin, and there they are. Now, don't just take my word for it. We're going to go check one out. So, here's that business on Google Maps, and you can see there's no website linked here. [snorts] We can do that with another one as well. Another one here, and that's just one example of one kind of business in one city. I spent the last couple weeks though really battle testing this and ran 692 local businesses across 22 different combinations of business types and cities. 92 of them had no website at all, which works out to about one in eight or somewhere around 13%. Now, it's

[12:05] not going to hit every single time. For example, if I search for plumbers in Nanaimo, then nothing comes back. Now, that doesn't mean there's nobody to help there. It just means this particular search didn't turn up any no website businesses. So, we change the type of business or change the city, run it again. Now, it saves some time, but you don't need my tool for this. You can open Google Maps, search for your type of business and your city, and scroll through the listings one at a time. The website field is either there or it isn't. That method, totally free, and you could do it tonight. The tool just

[12:37] saves you the afternoon, and it's sitting in that agency OS I already mentioned, so it's yours free anyway when you start the trial. Now, when you find a business without a website, here's the exact message to send, word for word. And again, just like before, feel free to screenshot this one or write it down. Hey, name. I was trying to find your website when searching for niche in city, but couldn't find one. I know this is a bit out of nowhere, but I went ahead and built you one. Would it be okay to send you the link to check it out? And if they say yes, everything

[13:04] from there is exactly the same. Build the site, send them the preview, make the offer, and if they want it, send the payment link. Now, you might have noticed something about that message. It says that I already built the site, and at the moment you hit send, you haven't. So, let me explain why I'm totally fine

[13:20] with that and why you should be, too. The build itself takes 5 minutes. The second they say, "Sure, send it over." you run the prompt, and the site exists before they finish their coffee. So, you're not promising something that you can't deliver. You're just delivering it about 5 minutes after you said you would. And the reason we want it this way really matters. You see, "Want me to build you a website?" Well, that's an offer, and business owners get offers from strangers every single day, which

[13:45] is exactly why they ignore them. "I built you one. Want to see it?" On the other hand, well, that's a gift, and people open gifts. But, if the idea still bugs you, there is an easy fix. Just build the site first before you send the message. Costs you 5 minutes, and then every word in there is literally true. Either way works. I just want you to send the message. Now, I want you to see how this grows, because one client at $297 a month is just the starting point. 10 clients on this exact same system is nearly $3,000 a month run from your laptop. And once

[14:15] [clears throat] a client trusts you with their website, you can add more services to that same client one at a time. And that's how a 297 client becomes a higher value client over time. And that's how one small service grows into a real one-person agency, one that pays you every single month and gives you control over your own schedule. But, don't worry about selling any of that today. Today is just about one business and one free website. Okay, so what does this actually cost you to run? Well, everything I've shown you runs inside HighLevel, and the plan I'd recommend is the $297 a month unlimited plan, which

[14:45] gives you unlimited client accounts. That means your first 297 client pays for HighLevel. Client number two, three, four, and everyone after that stacks on top without another 297 software bill. There's some small usage costs for things like texts and calls and AI, but those are easy to build into the price. And you only have to set this up once. After that, you can copy the same system from my Agency OS into each new client account and make a few small changes for their business. Now, quick tip for when you're signing up for your free trial, and this is just me looking out for you here, you're going to see a few

[15:17] different plan options, and I'd just go with the 297 unlimited plan. That's the one that gives you unlimited client accounts, which is everything you need to run exactly what I've been showing you. You really don't need the 497 plan to start. The 297 plan is more than enough, and I hate to see you paying for

[15:31] something you're just not going to use. And just so it's clear, you get full access to my Agency OS and all of the bonuses, no matter which plan you pick. So, there's no wrong answer here. Plus, it's a free trial anyway, and you can always upgrade or downgrade later, so don't overthink this one. Now, before you go try this, I've got three things to watch out for because these are the little details that can completely wreck

[15:49] an otherwise really good strategy. Warning number one, don't spend 3 hours building a free website. The whole reason this works is because AI lets you get something genuinely impressive in front of a business owner really fast. So, build the first version, clean up anything weird, and then send it. If you start obsessing over fonts and moving buttons around 6 pixels at a time for somebody who hasn't paid you anything

[16:11] yet, the math falls apart pretty quick. Warning number two, take a quick look over everything that AI put on that site before you send it. Phone number, services, location, reviews, guarantees, all of that stuff. AI is going to occasionally get creative in ways that nobody asked it to. And the fastest way to lose trust showing a roofer a beautiful new website is having it say that it's been family-owned since 1987, when just started it last week. And warning number three, keep the website on that preview link until they actually say yes. Don't connect their domain, don't start moving things around, don't do the full setup before they've agreed to the

[16:45] 297 a month and actually paid. The preview is there so they can see exactly what you built without you doing a bunch of unpaid onboarding first. Once they say yes and they pay, then you connect everything and turn the full system on. So, here's exactly what I do right now. Grab the extended free trial of HighLevel with the link in the description below. Open up AI Studio and build one practice website tonight, even for a business you just made up, just so you can see how fast this really is and what it looks like. Then, go find your town's Facebook group and put up the post. Now, landing your first client is

[17:17] one problem, but building the actual business around that client is the next one. So, if you want to see how I pick a niche and price the services and put the whole one-person agency together, I've got a free masterclass that I've linked up right here that's going to walk you through it step by step. So, feel free to tap or click that now. I'll see you

[17:33] in there in just a second.

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