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Dear Fellow Designer/Architect,

My name is Steve Nyhof, CEO of Steve Nyhof Enterprises, Inc. I am a home designer and builder from Michigan. I have also developed powerful websites and systems, and I am heavily involved with marketing on the Internet.

I am in the process of developing this social networking free house plan resource site that could grow to become the largest system of it's kind on the Internet. But for this to happen, designers, architects and home builders need to join myself and others to become a major resource of information for perspective home/plan buyers.

For years individual house plan company's have competed on their own to sell production house plans. Then as large sites like houseplans.com came along, the smaller company's got left in the dust. While houseplans.com and other large production house plan sites dominate the Internet, they do nothing to promote the company's that support them. There are thousands of people looking at your plans and getting ideas, and non of those people know who you are.

For years I believed that a large group of company's networking together was the way to increase overall recognition as a group. While there are thousands of designers and architects across America, a group compiled of a hundred or so would rise above as a leading entity and resource that would make more money as a team, than as individuals.

This idea goes against the very foundation that we have been taught. For years it has been in our trade secrets and creative differences that gave us the edge to what we offer. But if you are going to display your house plans on the Internet anyway on one or more major production house plan websites and/or on your own website, are you not already giving away your secrets? Of course you are! But that is what everyone else is doing, so that is what we all follow.

Why are we willing to display our plans? Because we know that others are doing it and getting connected to people searching for what they have to offer. I think the pioneers of this endeavor were hoping that they really would sell their house plans and make millions. Maybe some did. But not anymore.

Join us by uploading your plans, and get your name and information
in front of thousands of prospects

Are you given any credit for your secrets?

I'm saying that the cat is already out of the bag. People are already searching the Internet, finding your plans and gathering ideas for themselves. And are you even being recognized or credited for your talent from the big production house plan sites? No!

You could always go against the flow and turn your personal website into a small about us page where people interested can call you? Right. Why not? Because you know they will hit their back button and go find a home designer that offers more information and house plan images.

So what is the answer?

I think you need to decide if you want to compete on the Internet first. If so, then you need to be absolutely honest about how to compete by asking all the questions and answering them with workable solutions.

Are people searching the Internet for house plan ideas?
Yes. In July, over 1,220,000 (million) searches are done in one month by people searching for house plans. Currently, "house plans" is a keyword phrase that I cannot compete with. But together and in time I believe we can. People are on the Internet gathering ideas, site after site.

Do you think all of these people are finding the plan they like on the first site they come across?
No. Housing starts jumped 17.2% in May from April to a 532,000 annual rate, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, boosted by an increase in multifamily units.
Again, people are on the Internet gathering ideas, site after site.

Are you benefiting from all the gathering that is taking place right now?
No. Unless these people are on your personal site and contacting you. Most of these people are on the big websites gathering ideas, and you don't know a thing about it.

Are people really buying your house plans?
Maybe a few. But there is very little money to be made today from your production house plans. That is why you need to put them to work for another purpose, getting your plans in front of people, building relationships through your house plans records and the community, and picking up custom design work.

What are you doing to build a relationship with them?
If you offer a newsletter, this is good start. There has to be some form of communication and relationship building. That is where the social networking comes in. Millions of people are on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and others to connect socially and build relationships, and it's working.

How can I get in front of these people?
By being a part of a social network of like minded people interested in house plans and the American dream of home ownership. In March I looked up "Free House Plans" in google tools. There were 48,000 searches for free house plans. By July it had gone up to 74,000 searches.

Ok, lets say I give my plans away for free, but charge a small processing fee of only $19.95 to add the customers name and email them the pdf files. Lets say I only get 1/2 of 1 percent of 74,000 searches, 370 sales. That would be about $7381.00 per month. Not bad if it worked.

I ran a number of tests on Press Releases and Article writing on the Internet. The result was that I am number one on Google.com for the keyword phrase, "free house plans". In June I had about 1500 unique visitors to my site. By July I had 2600 unique visitors. Ok, I am heading in the right direction. I only sold a few plans, but my traffic was increasing. However, that is when I realized that the free house plans website needs a network of designers and architects, and it also needs a social element, so I added the community.

How does linking and networking help?
One of the biggest ways to raise the ranking of everyone's websites is to network with as many designers, architects and builders across America as possible. Google will recognize this network of sites as a major resource for people looking for house plans, custom home design and home building. The forum will create the continual informational updates google also likes and the website will rise.

How will this system benefit Steve Nyhof Enterprises, Inc?
I have been drawing house plans for over 28 years now and have drawn more than 5000 house plans. I do still draw custom homes now and then, but went into home building and now mostly into Internet marketing and promoting my home builder websites. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on building this system and will continue. (Go to http://websidebuilder.com to learn more about our builder websites and systems.) I am not charging anything - that's right, this is a free service. Upload 50 of your house plans for free. No credit card needed. If you want to upload more than 50 plans, we charge a monthly fee of only $39.95 . Like I said before, if this grows into a large network with thousands of house plans, everyone will benefit from a lot more traffic to your company website. Moreover, you gain the following benefits to promote yourself and your company...


Program Benefits:

• Company name recognition on every house plan you upload
  
• Show your house plan designs to a lot of people who will know who you are
  
• Interact with people interested in designing a home from your house plan records
  
• Connect your house plans to home builder websites
  
• Directly connect your house plan records to your company website
• Your company profile and website are connected to every house plan you upload
• Every house plan you upload is indexed by search engines
• We market the Free House Plans website using Web 2.0 strategies
• Currently 74,000 monthly searches for the keyword phrase: Free House Plans
  
• Networking your company website with a growing networking site
  
• Access to customers for custom design work all across America
  
• Access to home builders and their clients all across America
• Community network to interact with prospects, builders and others
• Make $10.00 on each of your personal plan sales (see below)

Lets look at that bottom item again in detail. Are you really interested in making $10.00 on a house plan? No. But this allows you to recuperate a little money while at the same time gaining a client that you can further a very direct relationship with. You just sold them a plan. A free house plan does not come with any support, the purchaser knows this. If they want any changes done to the plans they will contact you and you will pick up either some modification work or a new custom design job. The ball is in your court. Site visitors will actually pay you to allow them to connect with you by purchasing one of your plans.

System Features:

• Control panel to administrate all your house plans
• Drag and Drop photo gallery
• House floor plan editor
• Allow builders to add your plans to their websites
• Customizable Description Wizard
• Add your own builder accounts
• Contact lists and email groups
• Setup your own modification, mirror plan, etc. pricing
• Optional - Builder/Sub/Client login to their own account
• Optional - Document sharing
• Optional - Personal website with search-able plan library
  
• Much more

Join us by uploading your plans, and get your name and information
in front of thousands of prospects

Copyright Issues

People gather ideas from plans from all over the Internet, by law this is illegal. However, it is only illegal if the designer has determined that their plans have a copyright.
Read more information about copyrights

Remember that earlier I talked about being honest? Now is the time to be honest and look at this issue for what it really is. Now you are not going to like what I have to say, but do you think there is a single designer or architect who does not in some way or some time, either verbally or visual use the ideas of other designers and architects, or even home owners?

• Example: A customer comes into your office to have a plan drawn up. You ask, what are you looking for? You realize that just by asking that question, that what the customer shares with you, in any form could and most likely will be a copyright infringement on someone else's ideas? Do you know what I would say to the designer or architect who has a real problem with this, close up shop. Certainly stop showing your house plans on the Internet.
  

We live in an information saturated world. If you have your information on your website, should you really be upset if people are using the ideas for themselves? Can people even help themselves? How long does it take to look at something and get it in your mind? I gave up on it years ago and realized that I just need to be a good designer and help as many people as I can design their homes, and at times build them a home.

Everyone who joins will understand and agree that their ideas can and will be used to benefit other designers or architects. We will ask that everyone involved respect the designs of the designer/architect and contact the owner of that plan if modifications are needed. If however, a person wants to have a custom designed home, they should have the right to do what ever they want, and have who ever they want design it for them.

There will be no duplicate house plans allowed. If another designer draws a plans that closely resembles another designer, the designer that had his or her plan indexed first remains and the other designer is not allowed to upload the plan. If you find a duplicate plan, let the admin of the site know and we will have it removed.

Currently the reason you do not mind that your plans are displayed on your website, is because most people do not know it exists. They will now. If you are not willing to display your house plans, then you should not join this team.

Remember that every plan on the site has a link that will take people to your site. If you do not wish to display your best plans for free, use the ones that you don't care as much about. On the other hand, people might not be interested in simple plans or the designer who drew them.

Join us by uploading your plans, and get your name and information
in front of thousands of prospects

Final Thoughts

If there were 20,000 free house plans from designers and architects from all over the US, home/plan buyers could find the same plans that are available on the big production plan sites. How long do you think people will spend $500 to $2000 for a plan? I believe once this grows to that size, there will be no need for any of the big sites to exist. With the Free House Plans system, you will get your name and contact info in front of people searching for house plans. Currently most production plan services do not allow your contact information out.

You will no longer get paid $2000 to $5000 a year getting orders, that's true. But I do think that out of thousands of designers and architects throughout the US, and only about hundred designers and architects promoting themselves on the Free House Plans site, that you will be getting a lot more custom work, which will far surpass a few production sales.

Instead of people searching hundreds of production house plan websites, they will come to the Free House Plan site to get their house plan ideas because they know their are friendly people willing to share their ideas without the fear of prosecution, purchase plans and contact the designers and architects they have come to know through the system.

Currently we are working on using xml to store and access all database information on individual websites. This means two things, the data is accessed and displayed much faster, but more importantly, every house plan that is entered is now indexed by search engines. Every record (house plan) you have will have your contact information on it, and if you have a website, a live link that can take the visitor to your personal company website.

I have been designing the site to match the likeness of twitter.com, one of the largest social networks on the Internet. People like things that are familiar and easy to use.

As we move forward, we will add profile pages for designers and architects so prospective home/plan buyers can connect and learn more about you and your company. I am also going to connect other company links if you have a blog, twitter, facebook and other accounts/sites on the Internet for greater networking.

As the support and funding come in to support this network of designers, we will continue to make improvements to better promote all the designers and architects involved.

Thank you,
Steve Nyhof

Join us by uploading your plans, and get your name and information
in front of thousands of prospects