What do Architects/Designers want?

[Miroslav]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post, so perhaps a bit of introduction is in place, before I get to my question...

My name is Miroslav Chodak and I am NOT an architect myself. Rather, I am a marketing and business develoment specialist (with experience both online and off). My niche is home-based business: I help people start profitable home-based businesses and grow them beyond their wildest expectations.

What am I doing on an architecture forum? Glad you asked!

Although I have no formal background, nor any real-world experience in architecture, you can say that it's one one of my passions. As a part-time hobby, I run a bunch of web sites, one of them related to house plans and I have to say it is doing pretty well (5,000+ unique visitors per month and growing at a rate of >20% per month).

The success of my website got to a stage where I would need to enlist the help of professional architects/designers. You see... the main purpose of the site is to help its visitors find the best stock house plan for their needs and budget, in the shortest period of time possible (quite an accomplishment in today's world of 1,000's of stock house plans for sale). So far, I have been meeting this goal mostly by offering links to other, carefully pre-selected web sites that sell stock house plans.

However, I have always felt that more authoritative advice would better serve my visitors. Therefore, I am now looking to put together an editorial board, consisting of architects and/or designers, who would offer their advice and actually recommend particular stock house plans in a large number of categories (based on what people search for in the search engines).

I am confident that this kind of authoritative advice, combined with my expertise in internet and search engine marketing, would within 6 months create one of the most visited house plans sites on the Internet.

However --- and here's where it gets interesting --- I am not in a position to pay the members of my editorial board. Instead, I am looking for a host-beneficiary type of relationship, where no money would change hands, but both sides would benefit handsomely.

And, here comes my question...

I am hoping you would be able to help me to understand what is it that architects/designers are looking for in business relationships... what is it that I can offer them (YOU) that would make working with me worth their (YOUR) time??? (I estimate that the editorial responsibilities would take about 1 hour per week.)

I figure that the most valuable asset I can offer is the access to my visitors (currently about 5,000 per month, and growing fast). All of them are potential customers... if not now, than later. Building a reputation as a knowledgeable architect/designer in front of thousands of qualified prospects can go a long way once the person will need to make modifications to his/her stock house plan, or need a custom design.

Am I on the right track here? Do you actually see the value in getting in front of so many potential customers? If so, what would be the best way to structure this relationship? What would you want in return for spending 1 hour of your time per week offering free advice on my website? (Link back to your website/contacts; a page "about me" describing your expertise and services; your name on each of your posts; something else?)

If I am completely off the track, what would be the way to approach this? (For example, if you have a website, I can offer you free consultation to improve your search engine rankings, or to restructure your marketing strategy --- whether you have a website, or not.)

If you've read all the way down here, I want you to know that I am extremely grateful for your time and advice in this matter.

As a small token of gratitude (if you are interested) I would like to gift you a free copy of Paul Lemberg's latest book "Earn Twice as Much With Half the Stress". Paul is one of the best real-world business strategists alive and his book offers solid advice for any business owner who is serious about taking their business to the next level. If you want this book, just send me a short note at mc AT mikino DOT com and I will send you the download link in reply.

I look forward to hear from you! Thank you VERY much for your advice!

Best wishes,
Miroslav

[milstanyu]

Search engine specialist - this is no more the profession. Google and the rest are so good that all you need for good ranking is quality content.

5000 visitors isn't 5000 potential customers. There is only 1 or 2 out of 5000. I have a web site with 10000 visitors per month and know that.

[Miroslav]

Hi milstanyu,

Thank you for your input, although I was hoping you would help me answer my question...

I am not sure other members would appreciate it if we started debating search engine optimization on a forum devoted to architecture. However, please feel free to PM me and we can take it 1-on-1.

For those interested in search engine optimization, I recommend the following resources:

http://searchenginewatch.com/ (for pros)
http://www.highrankings.com/ (for beginners)

---

Regarding the number of potential customers, you are absolutely right. Not all of the 5,000 visitors will end up as customers, of course, and there are many factors that determine the actual number. From experience I know that the number is different for every industry and, in fact, for every business.

I don't know your site so I cannot comment on it...

As far as my site is concerned, there are basically 3 types of visitors:

Type 1 (estimated 5% of total visitors) - Professional architects/designers who are there to research their competition.

Type 2 (~40%) - People looking to build their next house. They own (or consider buying) a land and are looking into the option of getting a stock house plan (sometimes comparing it to the option of getting a custom-made design).

Type 3 (~55%) - Surfers and accidental visitors who are just looking around or who got there by chance and are not likely to buy now or in the near future.

So, strictly speaking, about 40% of total visitors (Type 2; currently ~2,000 per month) are potential customers. Out of these, only a small portion (my estimate is 10%-25%, or 200-500 --- but I don't have any exact data to support this) eventually end up hiring an architect to do modifications to their stock house plans, or to do a custom-made design.

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I hope the above clarification helps!

Please let me know if you have any further comments or questions.

Best wishes,
Miroslav

[milstanyu]

My site is www.architribe.com
When I publish some material on my site if there is no better resources on the net, this page would be 1. Google rank in next few days.
Today SE is smarter and there is no way to "cheat" popular SE's (like Google).