Your idea seems pretty logical to me Shaun - but with some of the comments like educating a "potential" end user customer - huge task, climbing Everest may be easier.
The first thing is to find an interested end user whether for a domain name or a functional website, that person has to have a need (desire, want) - if you find one then it would suggest that they recognize they have a need otherwise they would not be interested. So if they know they have a need why would you (anyone) even think about getting off the main railway track of "selling" (whether that be a name, a site, a lease, a half eaten banana) and go into a siding? That is just where the prospect will take you if you are not in control - you have the fish on the hook, bring it into the boat then decide how you want to cook it.
If the prospect is in fact interested before you convert him from being a dumbass then why bother turning him into an educated interested prospect - turn him into an interested "customer" - i.e. after the sale. A lease is a conditional sale - so put conditions on it, detailed conditions legally binding, regarding ranking etc to protect your asset not to satisfy the lessee - try leasing anything else, a factory, an office, furniture etc and have the agreement favoring the lessee, not likely. A website is internet "property" - read a business property lease and see how much the landlord offers the lessee, nothing more than to send an invoice on time and fix what is broken (in their own good time after they have argued that it is your fault that it got broken in the first place). You built the site, it is in a prime position and attracts lots of lookers - I want that site so I can get some extra customers on the back of your work. I take it based on what is on offer today, not yesterday and not 12 months time but today - if someone else builds (or renovates) another shop up the road and starts to eat into my traffic I can't go to the landlord and blame him, so if websites ranking falls I cannot go to the owner and blame him unless he hasn't maintained
what I paid for ..... if I want extra, like a big neon sign out the front, an extra level or a mezzanine floor etc like the shop down the road now has then I have to negotiate that with the landlord. So
maintaining PR1 is the prime responsibility of the lessee and he needs to ensure that it is done, either doing it himself or by paying for it, if not he has broken the lease and either pays a penalty, buys the site or is now out on the street.
Take this as experience from someone who has been down the "educating the prospective customer track" - not with domains or websites, in hi tech industrial selling - if they do not ask to be educated then do not offer !!! as soon as you offer, they begin to learn, then they get smarter - not good Jan - often case they end up being someone elses customer because you made them smarter
After they are
your customer, after they have parted with their cash, then by all means educate them, either to nurture repeat business or to make ongoing revenue by charging a fee, sell one razor to sell bunches of razor blades.
et domine et filea sanctus espritu - there endeth the lesson - go in peace.
cheers,
(arch bishop) Mike
