Local Business SEO Journal

phoenixrising said:
Alright.

Got a project set up this weekend - purchased some websites that should be making me a decent amount, enough to cover my monthly expenses.

Now that that's set up, I can focus on gaining more and more leads. Gonna see if I can write up a Ubot yellowpages scraper to scrape categories and save the names, phones, emails and urls into a .csv for me to check later. I'll use this for my lead generation, then test different email formats for the lead qualification.
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A quick google search should find plenty of programs out there to scrape Yahoo, Google Places, Yellowpages, etc.
 


I'm digging this journal, man. Keep hustling.

Also, a standing desk? That's so Donald-fucking-Rumsfeld! I love it.
 
Just an FYI - UBot 4 will be out soon and the interface is slightly easier, and the program is just way cooler. So if you've been holding off on working on a UBot project, it might pay to wait a few days :)
 
Good to see everything going reasonably well for you, a nice lesson in perseverance!

I remember from earlier you had decided small businesses were the easiest to work with. Its an easy trap to fall into - small businesses seem easier because you get easy access to the decision maker, but believe me in the end they are a pain in the arse, not the least because that same business owner is used to making all the decisions and probably doing 90% of the work him/herself, thus becoming an interfering SOB who micromanages every dam thing you do.

Also, especially in the current climate, money is tight.

Now owners of larger businesses are used to PAYING people to do things they need done, and though money may also be tight, its relative, so your fee is much less significant.
You need to learn to get past the gatekeepers - pitching the fucking secretary is a waste of time, but once you get that down and start dealing with larger business owners, you will really find it much more enjoyable.

Also, these businesses have a lot more weight in a portfolio than hakeems kebabs.

If the current job market is anything like over here, there are probably loads of low level sales jobs going atm, if you have a bit of time, apply for any B2B based one, if its %com pay only, then you have a very high chance of getting into an induction day and trial week. You really dont want the job, but even a few days of proper sales training in a busy B2B office will do you wonders, and really help get over the rejection block after being told to fuck off 10 times in your first hour of cold calling!

Also, looks like your online stuff is taking off as well, without being too specific, what are you doing for this, im guesssing not the amazon of FB stuff you started earlier?
 
Good luck with these projects.

> Total revenue from content project: $1140

You changed from stating profit to revenue.
How much of that was profit?
 
Quick question(and I might have missed the answer): Do you call your leads on weekends? If so, what percentage of them complain about it?

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to call my leads on weekends.
 
Great journal! I wish you would keep updating it. Very inspirational as I am looking to start my own web design firm right now. I've avoided doing it since my affiliate income has been great, but lately due to Google's updates my earnings are really down. I avoided doing it since I sometimes hate dealing with people. I have to bite the bullet now though.

I was thinking of running a special to get some clients initially. How about running some Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Craigslist Ad, and Kijiji Ad for something like this:

Web Design - $599 Small Business Special!
Includes custom website, logo, email address and Facebook page!

What do you guys think? You think $599 is too cheap?
 
phoenixrising said:
. . . I can't seem to get him to deliver me any blog posts, or fill out any of his social media. Granted, I haven't been as attentive as I should be, but he's definitely the one dropping the ball out of the two of us. . .
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Good to here things are going well and you have others financing additional skill sets.

Like to weigh in on the attorney situation quoted above. In my experience this rarely ends well. Even though you may have had an agreement on what each of you were responsible for if they drop the ball it hurts their perception of YOU. For some reason the client conscientious or sub-conscientious does not give weight to the fact they are at fault. What they will remember is that I paid phoenix $x for x months and the expected results did not happen. If long term revenue from this client is the objective vs. a hit and run you may want to consider having a heart to heart talk with the client.

In my experience when I was able to upsale from the original agreement with my side handling more of their responsibilities we both won with longer relation$. Since you are not at the core of their business you cannot always cover what they were responsible for 100%. Often though you can do a large part of it and submit it to them as draft for approval. This additional $ervice can save them time and the end result is edited for approval vs. never getting done.

Other times because of the nature of the business you cannot help out with this aspect and there is little you can do to be proactive. I guess my main point is don't be surprised if the clients perception of your performance drops because they did not follow through with their part.
 
Missed this post somehow. 295 words @ 4mins = 73 wpm. Cool. Did this time include any clean up? This post was weeks ago. Are you still using Dragon and if so how has it evolved for you?

Great that the attorney outsourced with the college student. Wonder if you got the recipe right with this client if you could cook up the same meal with other attorneys but you sourced the student like results as an up sell?

Would love an update on the Dragon.
 
blackjack

Thank's for some knowledge and good information about local business seo journal.:love-smiley-085:
blackjackjeu.com
 
Hmmm I have heard a lot of people have trouble with dragon. Some have even gone so far as to return it. A couple of quick questions?

What Mic do you use?
How accurate is dragon? (I know it depends on the mic and accent but sill i would like your experience)
Do you use it for anything other than content generation?

Also awesome journal. I was a fan of the other journal you started way back when but I am liking this one just as much
 
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