Site like this?

[jelian]

We are 4 guys from Bulgaria - all with some qualifications in computers. One of us is CISCO certified, the other one is .NET programmer. a MCSA professional...
We were thinking of making some money by offering our services to people, who have none or very little knowledge of PCs and thus saving them money too, because they often got overcharged simply for their lack of experience.
The site will be very simple for use, probably consisting of just one request form and a bit of explanation wording.
We know there are many sites providing help for home users, many of them are free and with a bit of digging everyone will come up with a solution.
But why not make such site and that way push these eventual clients to do the repair themselves. Educate them
The procedure would be:
1.The user submits the problem >>>>the enquiry is examined >>>>the answer email is send back, containing either a step-by-step how-to or just a file/path,.reg file etc./
Waiting for your opinions

 

[Techy]

not a bad idea.

but in my experience if people are paying for help they usually want it done for them.

What you could do is offer a remote control service, where they report the problem, then using an RC tool like tight VNC, remote in and sort it for them.

J

 

[ChristopherP]

Well said James

 

[jelian]

Well - yes, we also thought about this Remote service in fact. Using the built in Remote assistance or tools like Remote administrator.
But imagine the pain to explain to someone with 0 knowledge ho to set it up...

 

[Techy]

Though you said you had a .NET programmer?

Write a client application to support to remote connection. (available to download from your website, maybe)

 

[jelian]

No point. There are many solutions already. - Radmin, Net Support Manager, Real VNC ....
But the question was - will it be of any good for the normal, non-technical user?

 

[Cache-man]

Now that sounds a great idea Techy!
Write a small pice of software, that is easy as possible to download, and a full auto installation.

 

[ChristopherP]

If you write some bespoke software specically for what you want, then it may boost your reputation higher than if you were to use availiable tools.

 

[Techy]

No point. There are many solutions already. - Radmin, Net Support Manager, Real VNC ....
But the question was - will it be of any good for the normal, non-technical user?

what do you mean by that?

 

[Techy]

ok, in answer to your original question,

no, people won't pay for something that they can search for on google or technet. because lets be honest thats all your going to be doing.

Plus if someone wants to pay for help surely they will pay for a local IT engineer to come round and sort it rather than pay for a "how to" from some random persons off the internet,

think about it.

 

[jelian]

Why not?

hm..
if someone wants to pay for help and he can get it over the internet either via a remote tool or if the problem is simpler - email or whatsoever... - i think he will be glad to do it, rather than calling an engineer.
And as I said - the site will be targeting people, who got panicked when the monitor changes its resolution or when My Documents disappears from the desktop.
Don't believe it? Let me quote one of my friends, who is also our eventual customer:

...I don't know if it is the fault of AOL but it has been giving a problem all day.
I have lost a toolbar at the top and one at the bottom. The one remaining from the bottom is now on the right hand side.
It is also freezing and I have to switch-off and then restart. Presently I am only able to 4/5 words and then I have until it is possible to type again.

Another one:

..There are problems with My Pictures. I save them but they do not appear in Full Pictures, which means I am unable to resize them or crop them I have to copy them and insert the pictures, This wastes space and doesn't look as good.

You see.. There are people, who really DON'T know what are they doing. Maybe not many, but they are. I am not relying on this site to feed me - I just thought it might help and give some income as well.
But maybe you are right.

 

[ChristopherP]

And those people will want the job done for them, they will pay to have someone do it, not pay to do it themselves. Serious.

 

[jelian]

But we will do the job for them.
It is up to them.
A question of choice.
Pay to DIY or pay someone to do it.
The question was - does it make any sense to do a site like this.
The details are not that important.
Thank you all guys for spending your time on that one.

 

[ChristopherP]

If you think theres a market where money can be made - exploit it - i'm sure this has got to be a niche market to an extent... Not sure...

 

[silver]

to be honest there's no doubt people who will pay for stuff like that,.. the thing is how do you get them to find / contact you?

remember that places like this forum do what you are suggesting and don't charge a penny

Sil

 

[floppybootstomp]

Silver said it right, anybody can get all the help they want for bugger-all here. And if nobody here knows for sure, somebody usually goes out of their way to find out for whoever's got the problem.

And failing that, there are dozens, nay, hundreds of similar sites to this Worldwide.

Not a bad idea lads, why not just give it shot and see how it goes?

It's one thing having the knowledge, quite another to attract customers.

Remember - sales is all. Good luck.

 

[Avalanche]

...The question was - does it make any sense to do a site like this.
The details are not that important...

IMO, NO it doesn't. Reason; your site will appeal to people that don't know the first thing about computers. I wouldn't use the service because I know I can find the answers to my questions on the net. If the person needs your service they obviously can't use a search engine to find you, because if they could they would search for the answer to their problem, not for your service.

Hope my opinion helps,

Av

 

[jelian]

Well,
We tried.
And it works
People are happy, we are busy
Not much money, though, but it was worth trying
Thank you all

www.letez.com
www.jelian.com

 

[BaseLine9]

Well,
We tried.
And it works
People are happy, we are busy
Not much money, though, but it was worth trying
Thank you all

www.letez.com
www.jelian.com

Good plan, and it seems to be working

I guess it’s the Marketing that needs the time and money, see about getting some Google ads up; when people pose there problems in the google search engine, they see an advert to the left offering remote assistance and online help, just an idea?

Cheers

Mikey

 

[itsme]

Read this after you have think about it? NO CHARGE TODAY.



From bobillydylan

To
Ian cunningham
itsme
psd99
crazylegs
cache-man
sexy bex
dat 789
floppybootstomp
Alf
and last but not least!
gabriella

Thanks to you all for taking the time out to welcome me, i am honoured never on a forum before have so many come out to say hi, a heart felt thanks to you all

PS. itsme thankyou for your time with the start up problem i was having and because of you the problem is solved, cheers


https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1885128-2.php