This site needs a new owner/operator. Please read this and contact me for further information.
What This Site Does
It’s a place for parents of missionaries to post their missionary’s weekly letters. And a place for their friends and extended family to read those letter when they are available. It’s a ‘blog’ for missionaries to share their mission experiences and pictures.
And it’s a way to combine all of those letters and pictures into a printed book. All of this with minimal ‘geekery’ needed by the missionary parents.
What Geekery Do You Need?
The site is built on the WordPress platform. So some basic knowledge of WordPress is needed. There are tons of resources available to learn how to manage a WordPress site, so you can learn how to do it. And I’ll help, of course.
Once people sign up for an account, you need to create that site for them. I’ve got all the docs and instructions on how to do it. It takes less than an hour of work to set up a new site; you can easily get that down to about 30 minutes. And then you send the instructions (already available) to the person that signed up.
At that point, the site runs itself. There is some initial support for the account owner, but that doesn’t take long. The site is built to make things easy for the account owner. And once they get started, there is minimal support that you need to provide. You answer questions via email to the account owner.
What Income Is Possible?
With a bit of marketing effort – mostly social media and word of mouth – the income is about $65 per site signup, paid via PayPal. I’ve not done much marketing, but the possibilities to increase participation (and income) is out there. Think of all the new missionaries starting out each month. With some marketing, you can reach them, and get them to sign up.
The signup cost is meant to be inexpensive. It’s a small expense for an easy way to share a missionary’s blog with friends and family. Friends and family sign up for the mailing list for their missionary’s blog, and an email is automatically sent out on each new blog entry. No work on your end – it’s all automated.
What Ongoing Site Costs?
The basic site costs are the domain name (about $35/year), and hosting costs (on JustHost, about $90-150/year, depending on the plan). So one or two signups will cover the yearly costs. I’ll cover the costs for the first year of your ‘takeover’.
Any Additional Income Opportunities?
The main after-signup income opportunity is a printed book after the missionary returns home. This does take a bit of time. There is an semi-automated process to get all the blog posts and pictures into a Word document. And there is a bit of editing needed to get that into a publishable book. I’ve developed some macros to do some of the work, but it’s basically adjusting pictures and page breaks to fit into an 8 1/2″ x 11″ book. And you need to create a cover image. I usually use a picture from the blog, and adjust it to the proper size for the printer.
Printing is done via Lulu.com . Printing cost of a book can vary according to the number of pages. Books are 8 1/2″ x 11″, full color inside, full color hardback cover, on premium 80# paper. They really turn out nice.
I take the printing cost from Lulu and multiply by 3 and that is the charge per copy for the account owner. For instance, a book that costs $75 to print at Lulu will cost the account holder of $225. Sounds a bit high, but the parents usually have no problem with that charge. (After all, they’ve been used to paying about $450/month to support their missionary.) I add shipping charges – usually about $30. I might discount additional copies to 2x printing costs. I usually get half ‘up front’ to ensure that they will purchase the book when it’s ready.
A Possible Side Hustle?
This can be a good side hustle for you. It is not full-time income, but you’ll spend under 7 hours total on site setup and initial support for each new account. Most of that time is spread out over the first 30 days of a new missionary site. Add some additional time for marketing (social media, etc), but not excessive. And time involved in the book editing if needed.
What I’ll Help With
I’ll give you full instructions and access to the site. You can set up a practice site if you want.
For the first year, I’ll absorb the hosting and domain name costs. After that, I’ll help you transfer everything to the hosting account that you will set up. And free help when needed.
Once you take over, it’s all yours. You keep all the income; no payments or royalties to me.
Why?
I need to reduce my ‘internet empire’ (such as it is). And I’m getting old. (No, nothing wrong that I know of.) I want this site (and some others) to survive me, plus it needs someone that can promote it better than I can. And I want an extended Hellewell family member to take it over.
Interested?
Send me an email. You can use the Contact form on this site. We’ll discuss things and make a decision.
Thanks for reading. It’s a great service that I’d like to see continue. Contact me if you are interested.
Rick Hellewell – April 2024