The recipe for a $200K per year job
- Thread starter vladi
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For those of you doing this method, how have you been marketing it? Cold calling? Emailing? Snail mail (post cards, letters, fliers)?
I'm almost at the end of my rope. I spent weeks creating a site, then figuring out how to make it rank and waiting for it to be picked up by Google, and when it finally is it's ranked pretty far down... So ok. I'll do the directory submissions, get some backlinks, etc and hopefully that'll make me rank higher.
One thing I don't understand is the OP says rank for something like [rosamond "chinese restaurant"] with chinese restaurant in quotes. Why would you do this? A lot of users searching don't use this method.
I think my approach sucks. I've tried cold calling and I don't know if it's the particular niche I'm targeting (most of them have receptionists aka gatekeepers) but a lot of them don't even talk to me, or they tell me to leave a message or email. Granted I have no sales experience either. I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I'm feeling pretty discouraged. I had so much faith in this system, and it sounds so good in theory. I think I just need a little more direction.
If someone who has been doing this method would be so kind as to share some tips or advice with me, or answer my questions, I'd appreciate it. You have no idea how much I'd appreciate it. Please don't let my spirit be crushed
I love pm's.
I'm almost at the end of my rope. I spent weeks creating a site, then figuring out how to make it rank and waiting for it to be picked up by Google, and when it finally is it's ranked pretty far down... So ok. I'll do the directory submissions, get some backlinks, etc and hopefully that'll make me rank higher.
One thing I don't understand is the OP says rank for something like [rosamond "chinese restaurant"] with chinese restaurant in quotes. Why would you do this? A lot of users searching don't use this method.
I think my approach sucks. I've tried cold calling and I don't know if it's the particular niche I'm targeting (most of them have receptionists aka gatekeepers) but a lot of them don't even talk to me, or they tell me to leave a message or email. Granted I have no sales experience either. I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I'm feeling pretty discouraged. I had so much faith in this system, and it sounds so good in theory. I think I just need a little more direction.
If someone who has been doing this method would be so kind as to share some tips or advice with me, or answer my questions, I'd appreciate it. You have no idea how much I'd appreciate it. Please don't let my spirit be crushed
I love pm's.you're not optimizing for the quotes, you search that string to find out who out there is optimized for the city "niche" or else it'll include random results for city and random results for the niche all bundled in one so it would give you a much less accurate overview of how much competition you have that is seo'd for ur city "niche"
depending on your niche cold calling may or maynot work, its hard to judge without knowing the niche, if there is a "gatekeeper" and they dont facy "telemarketing" try scraping yellow pages for your niche and creating a sales letter with excel inserts and printing it off and mailing it to them - pending your start up captial that is.
also to rank higher in ur niche make sure u try to find backlinks from city related sources as well as niche related pages.
depending on your niche cold calling may or maynot work, its hard to judge without knowing the niche, if there is a "gatekeeper" and they dont facy "telemarketing" try scraping yellow pages for your niche and creating a sales letter with excel inserts and printing it off and mailing it to them - pending your start up captial that is.
also to rank higher in ur niche make sure u try to find backlinks from city related sources as well as niche related pages.
Yes I did consider snail mailing them stuff instead of calling. And I do have a yellowpages scraper anyway so I might as well put it to good use. First I should get a copywriter to write the thing. All right. Thanks for your tips projectv3.
I'm gonna go out today and look around to see if there are other niches I could target. My focus is too narrow. Feeling more empowered today. It's so easy to get discouraged but we must plow on through.
I'm gonna go out today and look around to see if there are other niches I could target. My focus is too narrow. Feeling more empowered today. It's so easy to get discouraged but we must plow on through.
Does any of the people you speak to ask how can you prove to them that they are going to get a return on their investment?
Hello!
1. Is there a chance google could ban our sites or penalize us using this method?
2. Can we guarantee our clients in some way the good ranking for a long time (e.g. years)? WHAT can we realistically guarantee speaking in terms of building long term customer relationships?
1. Is there a chance google could ban our sites or penalize us using this method?
2. Can we guarantee our clients in some way the good ranking for a long time (e.g. years)? WHAT can we realistically guarantee speaking in terms of building long term customer relationships?
That's why I like the leasing idea. If you sell a site based on its rank on the SERPs and it drops after three or six months, you're going to have a pissed off biz owner. If you lease the pages, do it month to month with the understanding that you stop charging them if it drops too far. Plus, you get the page back to rinse and repeat when the business dies or stops paying like kimboslice talks about.
^
1. I don't see why Google would penalize you for helping local businesses get pages ranked for local terms. There's nothing shady or black hat about it, unless you're using BH methods to rank.
2. If other pages start to outrank you, you could always run a ppc ad campaign until you're back on top.
1. I don't see why Google would penalize you for helping local businesses get pages ranked for local terms. There's nothing shady or black hat about it, unless you're using BH methods to rank.
2. If other pages start to outrank you, you could always run a ppc ad campaign until you're back on top.
1. Who cares if they penalize you. if they do, register a new domain, optimize a page and simply redirect it to your directory page. Bam back on page 1.
2. You could register, optimize and redirect all day long for various longtail keywords all day long using cheap labor and you will almost never be off of the first page if you wanted too. Now... if I were to do such a thing like a page one guarantee for an extended length of time , I'd be damn sure my monthly fee would be enough to cover the cost of first page exposure..
I don't see how I could sell this to somebody without being able to prove to them how my services are bringing them traffic, or a return on investment. I know people are making money with this, I'm just not sure how I would be confident in my sales pitch if they ask for that kind of information.
If your ranking for long tail keywords that easily then they are probably not getting much traffic?
If you have a directory of restaurants, do that many people go online to check for a restaurant in their area? I usually go to the yellow pages online. Even then how could you explain to them that they are benefiting from your services?
Are you just calling business after business trying to find a person/company that is just excited to hear about being on Google and doesn't really care about their return?
If your ranking for long tail keywords that easily then they are probably not getting much traffic?
If you have a directory of restaurants, do that many people go online to check for a restaurant in their area? I usually go to the yellow pages online. Even then how could you explain to them that they are benefiting from your services?
Are you just calling business after business trying to find a person/company that is just excited to hear about being on Google and doesn't really care about their return?
kimbo: a few questions for you.
#1) what is this "addition" or "twist" that you mention that makes you customers salivate?
#2) you register a new domain for every new potential customer? what if you get sandboxed for months?
#3) you said a few months ago that you made 2 sales in one day worth $4K... what is your payment structure that you're able to get $2k / client?
#4) how is your progress coming along? love hearing success stories like yours btw, thanks for sharing and appreciate the feedback!
#1) what is this "addition" or "twist" that you mention that makes you customers salivate?
#2) you register a new domain for every new potential customer? what if you get sandboxed for months?
#3) you said a few months ago that you made 2 sales in one day worth $4K... what is your payment structure that you're able to get $2k / client?
#4) how is your progress coming along? love hearing success stories like yours btw, thanks for sharing and appreciate the feedback!
Most of these directories work well with folks in highly competitive markets. You should identify a vertical or industry that is always scraping for an edge. Price your package so the first 2 or 3 sales the customer makes will pay for the ad. They'll stick with you.
The traffic and 1st ranking is only part of the product you are trying to sell. The real product is the small business' (SMB) existance on the web. Basically giving them a web presence. That is how I am approaching this. I am trying to sell them a multitude of services just not a #1 ranking on google for long tail of Bob's Deli in Boise Idaho. The services include:
*web presence hosting <-Note it is not a website that has a unique domain name
*custom look and feel
*tools to measure traffic
*unique window display to track traffic
*be on my top 100 list
*rank #1 for certain key words or locations
Here is a bonus tip: Want to know how to find new businesses to contact? Well in most cases your local newspaper or business registration department puts that information out. That could be you snail mail or cold call list for the day.
*web presence hosting <-Note it is not a website that has a unique domain name
*custom look and feel
*tools to measure traffic
*unique window display to track traffic
*be on my top 100 list
*rank #1 for certain key words or locations
Here is a bonus tip: Want to know how to find new businesses to contact? Well in most cases your local newspaper or business registration department puts that information out. That could be you snail mail or cold call list for the day.
That's a good tip, is that what it's called "business registration department", I'd like to be able to find out how to get in contact with all the new local businesses in my area.
A great way to increase the perceived value is to add
1. a Video introduction of the business
2. Reviews by happy and a few unhappy clients
3. Highly specific howto articles on how to get things done at that particular business
For Example: Call John at 868 555 5555 ( extension 452) and say you saw their ad on YP.BZ. He will give you a 10% discount on all your orders.
1. a Video introduction of the business
2. Reviews by happy and a few unhappy clients
3. Highly specific howto articles on how to get things done at that particular business
For Example: Call John at 868 555 5555 ( extension 452) and say you saw their ad on YP.BZ. He will give you a 10% discount on all your orders.
wansoonge...
#1) what is this "addition" or "twist" that you mention that makes you customers salivate?
That.. unfortunately, I won't disclose...
#2) you register a new domain for every new potential customer? what if you get sandboxed for months?
Not everytime. If i need to throw it in when trying to upsell a client I register something like RedRockChineseFood.com and redirect it to mysite.com/RedRockChineseFood .
#3) you said a few months ago that you made 2 sales in one day worth $4K... what is your payment structure that you're able to get $2k / client?
If you say you can't make the payments I offer a 20% discount if you can scrape it together in one weeks time. If you need to split up the payments, we have a 3 month payment program.
#4) how is your progress coming along? love hearing success stories like yours btw, thanks for sharing and appreciate the feedback!
This thing is going exceedingly well. Really, the sky's the limit with this. You really gotta think about how you can add value for your client.
#1) what is this "addition" or "twist" that you mention that makes you customers salivate?
That.. unfortunately, I won't disclose...
#2) you register a new domain for every new potential customer? what if you get sandboxed for months?
Not everytime. If i need to throw it in when trying to upsell a client I register something like RedRockChineseFood.com and redirect it to mysite.com/RedRockChineseFood .
#3) you said a few months ago that you made 2 sales in one day worth $4K... what is your payment structure that you're able to get $2k / client?
If you say you can't make the payments I offer a 20% discount if you can scrape it together in one weeks time. If you need to split up the payments, we have a 3 month payment program.
#4) how is your progress coming along? love hearing success stories like yours btw, thanks for sharing and appreciate the feedback!
This thing is going exceedingly well. Really, the sky's the limit with this. You really gotta think about how you can add value for your client.
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