When London-born web publisher Peter Mackeonis's astrology website ran out of venture capital in May of 2001, he could have just ‘flicked off the lights" and looked for another way to make money - like a lot of California web-site operators - but he didn't. He believed, and still does, that the internet is the distribution system pas excellence – if you have the right environment, that is. "I just knew that the problem was not in what we were doing, just in the way we were doing it", Mackeonis said, and continued, "Millions of internet visitors have paid hard cash to purchase horoscopes and compatibility reports at other astrology sites – so why not ours." It was time to revise the business from A to Z. It took about a year and $50,000 of his own money.

365astrology owned $20k worth of top-of-the-line servers, employed both HTML and C++ programmers and programming consultants, leased a $1,000. a month T1 internet connection and ran the operation out of a leased office in Eugene, Oregon. Mackeonis let the programmers go after paying one of them with the hardware to move the site ‘over the phone lines' to a leased $220 a month server in Florida, turned in the T1 to Quest, and moved the day-to-day web-site operations to the Mackeonis family home in Watsonville, CA.. Mackeonis himself learned HTML. Net monthly savings approached $12k.

Horoscope web sites were, and still are, two a penny, but they all do the same thing with no imagination. They give away ‘general' information, but when it comes to information specific to a visitor, it is all very one dimensional: buy a chart, or a horoscope, and have it delivered on screen. Mackeonis considered this "very flat and very boring" and recognizing that often a person would be more likely to run more than one horoscope or chart if they felt more ‘at home' on the site, he set out, and succeeded, in creating a personal ‘environment' for visitors. "Every new visitor fills in registration form that includes a birth date and ‘where they live now' and the 365astrology computer uses that data to create a totally ‘personal' site for that individual alone. Personal data is used in the creation of a personal horoscope calendar, on site and email horoscopes, which includes sports and business, a reminder service and compatibility reports. "And, my favorite feature is that every member's personal ‘output' is stored in their personal filing cabinet," he concluded.

Mackeonis observed that two main types of horoscope sites were thriving: the ‘deep pocketed', such as astroCenter, who purchased 1.3 billion banner impressions from YAHOO! in 2000, and the ‘uniquely corporate' mega astrology site owned by Women.com, which is just used as a conduit for advertisers. Both generate income from sales of reports and email horoscopes, so Mackeonis knew that the market existed, he just had to tap it!.

"The large astrology sites all sell the same thing: birth and compatibility charts." According to Mackeonis, and continuing: "and they're automated, so they cost less than a tenth of a penny to both produce and deliver, but retail for $15 to $40 each. A major feature for repeat revenues is their ‘daily horoscopes by email service': they charge between $3 and $5 a month. For them, it's like printing dollar bills. But in this economy, I don't think that it'll last much longer."

A combination of altruistic concern for his members' personal economy, and a perceived marketing opportunity, led Mackeonis to decide on a plan which all but gives his personalized content away. The resultant policy is a single ‘donation' of between $5 and $20 a year (the individual chooses) to 365astrology.com, which entitles a member to unlimited reports, daily email horoscopes and their personal online horoscope calendar. Mackeonis's logic was, "How can a company survive, let alone grow, with overpriced products, when the economy has tanked. Also, when the economy comes back, we will have a substantial membership ‘community' we can interest in other products."

Having used only $50k of the initial venture capital raised back in 2000 on marketing, spent on a combination of buying banners and giving away celebrity-based content, 365astrology still finds itself with a reasonable presence on many of the major search engines and a database of 30,000, albeit free, members. Those early search engine listings and the database generate about 4,000 page views a day for 365astrology, and, combined with viral marketing, Mackeonis seems to have produced a ‘perpetual' marketing machine.

Revisiting his business and product line with a totally fresh eye has resulted in changes of fortune for Mackeonis: 365astrology.com is now totally automated, including sales and receipts, which are automatically deposited into the company's Silicon Valley Bank account in San Jose from members in over 200 countries. January 2003 ‘donations' are already up 200% on December 2002 and expected to grow at least 100% per month for the foreseeable future. With overheads reduced to less than 10% of what they were a year ago, 365astrology.com profits have grown 200% each month for the last three months and net profits are 95% of sales. 365astrology .com plans to gross $500,000 in 2003.

Peter Mackeonis can be contacted on 1.831.768 7931 or emailed at peter@yascorp. Visit his website at www.365astrology.com.

This article courtesy of http://donationlocations.com.
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