Nearly every Australian has, at some point or another, wondered where his or her family’s ancestors came from. Even recent transplants to Australia are curious about where their relatives were a few generations ago and those who have information on one small branch of their family tree are usually wildly curious about the rest of their roots. In recent years many of the records that are necessary to trace family histories have been digitized so that they are available online to anyone with an Internet connection.
However, most Australians do not have the time that it takes to piece together their family histories despite the availability of this data. Offering ancestral research services can be both fascinating as well as a profitable home based business. Read on for how you can get started in this exciting field.
Offer A Genealogical Research Service To Other Australians
There are a number of different research services that you can provide to your clients. Many Australians simply need a basic consultation with a family history research professional, such as yourself, in order to get started in their endeavour. Consider whether you are interested in putting together a basic kit for do-it-yourself family researchers. Provide simple instructions on getting started, such as gathering existing family history documentation like birth and death certificates, marriage certificates and even photographs, copies of deeds or other papers that can tell your clients where their ancestors lived and what their names were. Selling this kit as a pdf file download or e-book over a website can be very profitable since it does not incur any overhead costs.
Some Australians will need more hands on assistance from you as they delve into their family histories. You can provide your research services to them. Some online family history researchers charge by the hour for their genealogical work while others sell a package of a set number of hours, such as 15 or 25 hours, which can help to ensure that your work on a client proves to be profitable.
Ways To Make Money From Online Family History Research
You do not have to research other people’s family trees in order to make money in this lucrative area. Consider starting a website that lists family history online research resources and tips. While Australians searching for information on their families would be able to access such a website for free you could sell advertising space on it in order to generate income. Your income level will correlate directly with the amount of traffic that your website generates so it is essential that you make your website easy to use.
Keeping your links up to date so that your visitors never click on one, only to find that it does not lead anywhere, is also important. Without quality resources you will not receive a high volume of traffic and, as a direct result, you will not make any money. Keeping your website easy to navigate is also very important since your visitors have only to click the “back” button on their browsers in order to look for another website. This means having a sidebar with a menu of categories, such as genealogy books, online databases, tips for new online family history research and recommended software programs. Remember to keep your website easy to read with a dark print on a light coloured background so that even older Australians visiting your website will find it natural to keep clicking to the different sections.
How To Find Customers For Your Family Research Business
Working from home means that you will be relying upon both the Internet as well as word of mouth reputation to grow your new business as a family history researcher. You can take out advertisements online, such as those wherein you only pay top search engines per click that your website receives from the keywords that you decide to advertise with. Many smaller websites, such as family history blogs, will sell you advertising space, such as a banner advertisement, right on their blog’s main page by the month.
You can spur word of mouth advertising by giving your current clients an inducement to tell their friends and family members about your services. Give a discount to them when you contract with a new client based upon their referral or offer a free gift, such as a copy of a top family history research workbook or even access to a family history research database, such as one that contains demographic data. Do not be too pushy with your current clients, though, since they want you to be focused on finding out their family history, not on getting the next client for your home based business.
