The recipe for a $200K per year job
- Thread starter vladi
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People spend most of their lives walking around, umbilical cord in hand, looking for someplace to plug it back in. Be the voice of reason, and lead them to the salvation they are looking for.
In other words, people look to be led, especially in "this kind of economy." If your story is the most convincing, they will give their money to you.
Budgets are shrinking for unmeasurable expensive advertising methods.
They throw money at you if you can show them that you can add to their bottom lines.
If you can do that, you will bank.
Damnit, this thread is a year old. But my opportune time is now. A year ago I was still in college, but I graduated last May and found full-time employment for 6-months. Due to job cuts (25% workforce reduction - at a Fortune 1000 company), I was terminated.
I've ran/run a couple successful website (mainly due to great ranks in Google SERPS from my SEO techniques), but I was looking into starting AM. But now I see this, didn't quite understand it at first, but as I read on this is a good idea. I need to register a business license first though, to sound more legit to the potential clients.
Although I obtained a business degree, marketing wasn't my strongest. But as whats been said, if the concept is strong, it shouldn't fail. Thanks guys, I'll do more research tomorrow.
If anyone is from the South Wisconsin/North Illinois and is looking for a partner, hit me up. We don't need to be business partners, but it wouldn't hurt to know someone else who is willing to try it out as well.
I've ran/run a couple successful website (mainly due to great ranks in Google SERPS from my SEO techniques), but I was looking into starting AM. But now I see this, didn't quite understand it at first, but as I read on this is a good idea. I need to register a business license first though, to sound more legit to the potential clients.
Although I obtained a business degree, marketing wasn't my strongest. But as whats been said, if the concept is strong, it shouldn't fail. Thanks guys, I'll do more research tomorrow.
If anyone is from the South Wisconsin/North Illinois and is looking for a partner, hit me up. We don't need to be business partners, but it wouldn't hurt to know someone else who is willing to try it out as well.
I have read the entire thread and would like to thank everyone, especially Kimbo, for all of the information they have shared.
I have a lot of reading to do on all of the advice given here, from SEO to sales calling, etc. which will take me at least 2-3 months to do.
I do have a question:
Once the business starts to take off and you have 100-1,000 + customers which you lease the page 1, rank 1-10 positions, how do you keep the SEO from not dropping to 2nd page, rank 2-20?
From everything I read it's not possible to just do some SEO, get page 1 rank, and then forget it. If you do that the page rank will drop to 2,3,4th, page.
I would imagine with 10 or so customers you could do it yourself, but once you have 1,000+ customers how do you handle this?
Do you have a person who's only job is to do SEO on 1,000 different keywords?
How often do you have to do SEO work just to keep the company on page 1?
Thanks!
I have a lot of reading to do on all of the advice given here, from SEO to sales calling, etc. which will take me at least 2-3 months to do.
I do have a question:
Once the business starts to take off and you have 100-1,000 + customers which you lease the page 1, rank 1-10 positions, how do you keep the SEO from not dropping to 2nd page, rank 2-20?
From everything I read it's not possible to just do some SEO, get page 1 rank, and then forget it. If you do that the page rank will drop to 2,3,4th, page.
I would imagine with 10 or so customers you could do it yourself, but once you have 1,000+ customers how do you handle this?
Do you have a person who's only job is to do SEO on 1,000 different keywords?
How often do you have to do SEO work just to keep the company on page 1?
Thanks!
Two things you need to efficiently manage rank for a localized directory are:
1. Rank checking tools. These do periodic (daily, weekly, bi-weekly) checks for how your site ranks for certain keywords. Make sure you get one with historical tracking. These are easy to custom write to your needs, or you can find commercial tools to do the same.
2. Linkbuilding tools. 45,000 entries in your directory? No worries. If you spend 30-40 hours each month dropping links to specific pages in your site, especially pages that are paid-for, you'll find it a lot easier to keep those rankings long term.
Bottom line is rank is relative, susceptible to change by Goog, and gonna take a shitton of work to keep once you have it done right. No magic program, no magic formula. Just one common theme that's shared among those who run directories with 10-50% of the pages ranking #1 for the right keywords: Time and effort.
Thanks for the advice!
I would like to send out automatic emails once a month to my customers telling them exactly how much money they have made from being listed in my directory in that particular month.
I want this to be fully automatic.
1) What program should I use?
2) How exactly do I find out how much money they made from me that month?
I understand you take the number of visitors X the average pricing of their product (say a $10 pizza), but just because someone visits their webpage directory 10 times a day x 30 days = 300 visitors but this does not have to equal 300 sales!
So my question is how exactly do I find the number of people that went to my site, then went to the restaurant?
I'm thinking offering coupons on my site with the restaurant's name on it and also my company name on it so that the restaurant owner will see where their business is coming from?
Any thoughts on this idea? Any ways to improve it?
Thanks!
I would like to send out automatic emails once a month to my customers telling them exactly how much money they have made from being listed in my directory in that particular month.
I want this to be fully automatic.
1) What program should I use?
2) How exactly do I find out how much money they made from me that month?
I understand you take the number of visitors X the average pricing of their product (say a $10 pizza), but just because someone visits their webpage directory 10 times a day x 30 days = 300 visitors but this does not have to equal 300 sales!
So my question is how exactly do I find the number of people that went to my site, then went to the restaurant?
I'm thinking offering coupons on my site with the restaurant's name on it and also my company name on it so that the restaurant owner will see where their business is coming from?
Any thoughts on this idea? Any ways to improve it?
Thanks!
Ideally, when you first sold them, you got their traffic stats, so you have that to compare to.
Also, yes, coupons can work really well. It would be even better if you used special coupon offers as an incentive to build an email list too - an add-on service you can sell to the business later once it's big enough. And use for your own purposes.
For restaurants, one idea to consider is setting up an online reservation request system. OpenTable is not that cheap and not popular in smaller cities anyway, so you could probably get away with just a form->email setup in a lot of cases. At that point you would basically be sending them a super-qualified lead.
As for other types of business, just think about how you can send them qualified leads. Casual website views is one thing, but leads with buying intent are even more valuable.
A lot of times, you have to coach them through the discussion of understanding how valuable those leads are, but if you can get them to the point of understanding customer lifetime value, how it can be applied to their business and understood using their existing customer base, you will have built a serious and lasting business relationship.
This also opens the door to performance-based pricing, which can be much more lucrative, especially in higher dollar categories.
(this is one of the few topics where shoemoney has had something very valuable to say)
http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/11/04/making-money-with-local-affiliate-programs/
Also, yes, coupons can work really well. It would be even better if you used special coupon offers as an incentive to build an email list too - an add-on service you can sell to the business later once it's big enough. And use for your own purposes.
For restaurants, one idea to consider is setting up an online reservation request system. OpenTable is not that cheap and not popular in smaller cities anyway, so you could probably get away with just a form->email setup in a lot of cases. At that point you would basically be sending them a super-qualified lead.
As for other types of business, just think about how you can send them qualified leads. Casual website views is one thing, but leads with buying intent are even more valuable.
A lot of times, you have to coach them through the discussion of understanding how valuable those leads are, but if you can get them to the point of understanding customer lifetime value, how it can be applied to their business and understood using their existing customer base, you will have built a serious and lasting business relationship.
This also opens the door to performance-based pricing, which can be much more lucrative, especially in higher dollar categories.
(this is one of the few topics where shoemoney has had something very valuable to say)
http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/11/04/making-money-with-local-affiliate-programs/
How the fuck do you plan to do that?
"Hello Mr. Papa Johns, just calling to say you made $5,400 off of sales in my directory. How do I know that??? Uhhh, I see your point, there really is no way for me to fully know how much you made off my referral to a brick and mortar business... What? You're not going to list with a dumb fucker like me again? Are you kidding, why? ME? A DOUCHE? Mr. Papa Johns, please, I need the money. No, you don't have to get a restraining order. I'm sorry"
I have a question.
Let's say I'm targeting Miami Dentists. I've built up a website, MiamiDentists.com and ranked it on the first page of Google. Now I'm not restricted to just the city of Miami, as their are many suburban cities of Miami. Is it smart to just stick to the city you are working on and sell to a dentist in that city? Or should I outreach to the suburban dentists for MiamiDentist.com?
What if I rent a website out, to a dentist in Hialeah (HialeahDentists.com) by using the keyword "Hialeah dentists". Hialeah is a suburb of Miami. And the dentist would also like to top rank for the keyword "miami dentists", since they have customers coming in all around the general Miami area.
What's the best route to cope with a situation like this?
Let's say I'm targeting Miami Dentists. I've built up a website, MiamiDentists.com and ranked it on the first page of Google. Now I'm not restricted to just the city of Miami, as their are many suburban cities of Miami. Is it smart to just stick to the city you are working on and sell to a dentist in that city? Or should I outreach to the suburban dentists for MiamiDentist.com?
What if I rent a website out, to a dentist in Hialeah (HialeahDentists.com) by using the keyword "Hialeah dentists". Hialeah is a suburb of Miami. And the dentist would also like to top rank for the keyword "miami dentists", since they have customers coming in all around the general Miami area.
What's the best route to cope with a situation like this?
Good thinking Vladi. I imagine you would have done twice as well a few years ago. So, whats next, how do you expand on this? $200k/yr isn't bad, but how about taking it to $2M/year? You could setup an outsourced call center and do lead gen in local markets. Once they're in the door and have paid the initial up front for the listing, upsell them on hosting, PCI compliance, everything under the moon.
Question about how you guys are setting up your angle with this business.
Are you offering just ONE spot in your directory/advertising page per business or several?
For example, Liberty City Chinese Restaurant --> just ONE chinese restaurant or more?
If you tell the business owner that you have an online directory/advertising website that will list just him if someone types in "Liberty City Chinese Restaurant" that might be really exciting to him and will make him sign up. The bad: only one niche per city.
On the other hand, if you go to 5 different chinese restaurants in a city and you tell them all that when someone types in their name they will appear on the first page, well, that's more money made.
So which way are you going with this?
I was thinking of offering just one spot per city but now I'm thinking of offering several since there's more money in that.
Are you offering just ONE spot in your directory/advertising page per business or several?
For example, Liberty City Chinese Restaurant --> just ONE chinese restaurant or more?
If you tell the business owner that you have an online directory/advertising website that will list just him if someone types in "Liberty City Chinese Restaurant" that might be really exciting to him and will make him sign up. The bad: only one niche per city.
On the other hand, if you go to 5 different chinese restaurants in a city and you tell them all that when someone types in their name they will appear on the first page, well, that's more money made.
So which way are you going with this?
I was thinking of offering just one spot per city but now I'm thinking of offering several since there's more money in that.
Pick a way and do it. If it does not work, figure out something that does.
Everything you need to make money is in this thread.
No way to know without trying.
Submerge, I live in BFE, we don't even have suburbs up here but for one of the non local large market "local niches" I'm going after, I'm going to build a separate site for each burb. Or a master city site with subdomains for each burb. I haven't really decided. Too many projects on the plate, not enough hours in the day.
Maybe I should work more than 1.7 serious hours.
Truth. Just do something. Something that works half assed is better than thinking about doing something. And then you can tweak it better for next time. This shit is so easy, I'm making money at it and I don't really know shit about AM, just web design and SEO.
There's more than enough answers in this thread, there shouldn't be any more questions, just tales of success. Get after it.
this is a good thread - some great points; kudos to the OP and Kimbo
for those that are concerned about selling... just get the results yourself - not the rankings - the results...
in reality these business owners could care less about all this internet mumbo jumbo - they'd rather stay busy working in their business - in other words they just want the fish - so give it to them (i.e leads) - that's a much better offer and you'll have no problem finding who will take you up on it - and more importantly... you can charge a lot more
for those that are concerned about selling... just get the results yourself - not the rankings - the results...
in reality these business owners could care less about all this internet mumbo jumbo - they'd rather stay busy working in their business - in other words they just want the fish - so give it to them (i.e leads) - that's a much better offer and you'll have no problem finding who will take you up on it - and more importantly... you can charge a lot more
heard about this site: http://www.qmania.com/default.aspx
this has to be some sort of script but I can't figure out which one it is. Anyone?
this has to be some sort of script but I can't figure out which one it is. Anyone?
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