This is a great example of someone taking their real world "offline" business onto the internet. It also highlights some possible opportunities to think about.

A Mesmerizing Example (Pun Intended)

You have probably seen clips of a hypnosis show on t.v. or maybe have been to one yourself.

These are usually pretty funny to watch.

Volunteers from the audience are hypnotized and then act out various skits. While under hypnosis, they could be squacking like a chicken, made to walk around like a runway model or perhaps sing an opera like Pavarotti.

As a professional hypnotist, Alex performs about 150 hypnosis shows a year for crowds of up to 600 people a night. He recognized the potential to carry over this interest online and set about to do just that.

Bringing Offline Content Online

Alex normally videotapes each show. He had been selling videos of shows as he goes along and amassed a good collection of videos clips. Feeling that these videos would be of interest to other people, he set about using the internet to promote them further.

Dual Websites

Alex set up www.hypnotized.tv. It is a subscription website set up so that people can pay to watch the highlight videos online. He has over 100 video clips online of some of the more hilarious moments he has taped over the years.

For $29.95, a subscriber has access to all 120 videos for 1 year. His subscription site was very basic to set up.

He uses the Mollyguard.com subscription web site script. This allows him to use Paypal as his subscription fee processor. Doing so let's him collect money without having a merchant account.

People subscribe via paypal and Mollyguard controls access to the site.

Marketing

Alex markets his websites at his shows and also through the search engines.

People attending his shows are exposed to the sites and he has the web address on the videos he sells also.

On his sites he has pictures from some of the videos on the site, along with several small samples of videos. These "teasers" help convince people to subscribe to have access to them all.

Targeted Market

Alex is reporting a phenomenal "open rate" of about 80% for his email list. This means that 80% of the people on his list actually open up his emails he sends out. This is a very good rate.

The main reason for this high open rate is because it is an extremely targeted list. They are people who have already seen how much fun his show was or they came to his site because they are interested in hypnosis.

Either way, he has their attention and they read what he sends out.

This holds very good profit potential for him because a well targeted list usually equates to a responsive list.

Lessons To Apply

Forget about the topic of Alex's site (hypnosis) for a moment. There are a few things for other site owners to pay attention to.

• Niche Video Footage - Anyone with access to niche video footage has the potential for setting up a subscription site to view them.

If you didn't have the footage yourself, an arrangement could be made to access someone elses footage. Perhaps for a split of the subscription income...

Any footage that would be of special interest to a group of people is likely fair game. You could even purchase someone else's footage outright, royalty free from a place like ebay. Assuming there are no restrictions on rebroadcast, you can set them up on a webpage.

• Taking Advantage Of Everyday Interactions - Alex has an opportunity several times a week to perform in front of hundreds of people.

Instead of letting this opportunity slip by, he realizes it is an excellent chance to not only sell merchandise, but also get the word out about his site. If he just converts a few of these a week to a subscription, he can do quite well as a side income.

Anyone being exposed to large groups would be wise to think about similar opportunities. Give them a reason to go to your site. Have them signup for a free (useful) newsletter and then convert them into paying customers.

• Ease of Setup - Alex found a very easy solution to get his site up and running. The Mollyguard software script works hand in hand with paypal.

If you take a look at Alex's sites, they aren't fancy. In fact they are pretty basic but manage to work for him. Once its up and running he doesn't have to worry too much about the maintenance of it. It is generating a nice stream of income in addition to his offline work.

There are a few things to be learned by taking a look at these sites. They are really fairly basic to look at but have some good marketing concepts which are worth noting.