Let's look again at the Digital New Era.

A bit about the branding, again. Obviously being a fan of the retro vibe, I'm generally pretty nostalgic. Obviously, the website and the whole brand have that feel to them.

It's interesting that one of the trends in 2023 for overall digital design (graphic, web, print, etc) is just that - pixels, bright colors, retro, squares, dots, and commas.

On the other hand, I had this idea before the trends were announced, which means I DICTATE THE FASHION OF GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGN IN THE WORLD!!!

So, again, I want you to feel a touch of "Thinking outside the box", for real, for real. Yes, that's right. Let all the UX gurus judge me - I don't do tests, I don't imagine fantasy characters who "hate slow sites and complicated checkouts", I haven't done a hundred and seventy interviews and I don't drink gluten-free milk.

I'm betting on the wow effect, grabbing the interest of each user and therefore a real enjoyment in using the site, after all, if the user wants to give it a go they'll figure out how.

I am aware that the brand is quite limited in relation to the target audience, but then again I have no interest in doing business with your Aunt Ginchi, so we are ok. 🙂

Back to the mega cool mentoring program (sounds like they paid me to write it, but they didn't) Mentor the Young and my mega fresh mentor - Todor Madzharov.

What did we talk about during our third chat?

1. Since there were periods when we didn't hear from each other for 7-10 days (after all, we have lives and commitments and it's not possible to scratch our tongues every day) the beginning of more meetings (from now on) started with updates on what I managed to achieve during that period. Quite often the meeting was not enough to just comment on the updates, what was left for the new issues.

2. We did a summary and prioritization of our goals:

- I definitely should not waste time on low-priority tasks

- Since we don't rely on organic traffic and ads we need to prepare for various direct customer contact and selling techniques (something like teleshopping and selling a unique fryer)

- Okay, okay the serious work - to prepare a business plan suitable for INVESTORS. That alone is enough for an individual post (which probably won't happen, but who knows)

- And the top goal of the program - to make one sale by the end of the three month period (this never happened, but keep in mind I had a few freelance/illegal projects before and during the program, so that was met)

3. We commented on different business scenarios - who would buy services, how clearly, describe what the client would get for the amount and specify why it was worth it. (I'm still not sure this is the case)

4. Interesting case study, quite interesting. Somewhat related to the point above. Going back to the very beginning, the original idea was to create something like a SAAS product - the customer buys a web solution with certain segments included, paying for it on a monthly subscription basis.

That's okay if you're a corporation with large resources, your own systems and employees. For me it's a bit more complicated, because the prices would be as much as 100-150/month for maintenance, which is not bad, but why do it when I can sell a site for 700 000 BGN EX VAT and then offer maintenance in the form of a subscription.

Why don't I offer hosting?

- Extra work for my already ruined body
- Additional responsibilities (databases, information, client security, etc.)
- Low profit (if you use a third party for the purpose, like I do for example)

So, why should I charge a maintenance fee when the hosting is not with me? Well for additional designs, changes, content, pages and more, and more. And we'll get there.

Good luck!