Hey guys,
Ok… so this is a not so quick story about a business model I “resurrected” a while back…
If you are a niche blogger or at least know how to create a wordpress blog, then this post my resonate with you. And if you’re an offline marketer, then you may want to pay attention to this as well.
While this email is related to offline marketing type of stuff, let me get this off my chest:
I HATE offline marketing!
Why?
Because I had to constantly deal with customers who wanted results YESTERDAY…
they call and/or email me at all hours of the day asking me when they’ll be NUMBER ONE ON GOOGLE!
Let me just give you a quick little background to how I got to this conclusion…
I started doing “offline marketing” years ago by advertising SEO review services on Craigslist, with many of these people turning into on-going customers who paid me every month for SEO / link building campaigns etc.
And honestly, it was a nightmare…
Mostly because people just didn’t understand how the web works and constantly nagged me about results or lack thereof even though they had been my customer for only a week or two. (It didn’t help that I was running this SEO business AND a regular “brick and mortar” business at the same time either…)
I later sold that business to a friend of mine for a decent chunk of money, and he proceeded to run it straight into the ground… :-/ (but that’s a whole another story…)
Anyway…
About a year ago, I resurrected a business model based on something I wrote about in one of my “immediate income” reports on lead generation.
In a nutshell, this report outlined a method where I generated and sold local leads for various service based businesses (like dentists, chiropractors etc.) using geo-targeted PPC traffic.
However, this time around I decided to use ORGANIC traffic to my sites.
I crafted a pretty standard looking blog, used localized domain names and put up some basic content. Then I created a simple opt-in form asking people to opt-in for a “free something related to a service”. (something like this: “Get free teeth cleaning in Santa Monica? Sign up today!”)
You get the idea.
And it worked pretty good.
I started getting traffic from Google relatively easily and I was able to generate some decent leads pretty quickly.
The thing is, when I approached some of the businesses about buying leads… I got…
NOTHING.
ZIP, ZILCH… NADA!
Ok… I haven’t been in sales in a few years… but seriously, I must have been out of practice or something.
I FELT COMPLETELY DEFEATED…
Especially because I had such good success with a similar model a few years earlier.
So, I decided to change the site up a bit.
I changed the blog to a super basic blog theme (in other words, the site was really UGLY), and added a couple of blog posts. I used my typical linking methods, and rose it to the top of the search engines.
When I say “top of the search engines”, I’m talking at least an ‘above the fold” ranking in Google, if not the #1 spot.
The idea was to “rent” advertising on the site for a couple of hundred bucks a month.
But something really weird happened.
The first person I approached, wanted to BUY the site…
So, being the opportunist that I am I sold the site for $1500.00. I didn’t even flinch about it…
JACKPOT! :)
And the even cooler thing was that I got him on a maintenance program of $195 a month to maintain the rankings!
Honestly…
I thought it was a fluke.
So, I figured I’d try it again.
A couple of weeks later I was having a conversation with a friend of mine in the construction business who mentioned that a specific segment of his industry was doing quite well (considering most construction related business is in the dumps here in Southern California).
Based on this conversation, I built a couple of more blogs in the same vain and got it ranked on the first page of Google in short order. I’m talking within a couple of weeks! (this is actually really easy to do when dealing with most localized keywords).
I told my friend about it, who then called a couple of his buddies in the industry… and I had both of these sold as well within 2 weeks of setting them up.
Obviously I was on to something… and I ended up selling many of these types of sites over the past year (and I honestly don’t focus on this at all…)
Here’s some proof:
I don’t have the habit of taking pictures of checks I get from people, but here’s a check I got for $1,995.00 from one of my clients using the methods I described:
While most of my clients originally pay me by checks I do get some Paypal payments on occasion as well. Here’s one for over $1,400.00 from another client:
…one of my members here, Andrew, pointed me to a PDF report that was released a while back that sums up what I did pretty nicely.
I picked it up (it was only like ten bucks) and it’s pretty similar to what I do… so if you want more details than the steps I outline below, it’s definitely worthwhile picking up:
http://warriorwso.com/pro/localseoblogs
In any event, here are the steps I now take to build these little localized blogs:
1. Look for a local service based industry
2. Pick one – stuff like exterminators, xyz repairs, xyz installation, etc. has done well for me. If you have friends in a service based industry, ask them what type of work they like getting or have proved profitable.
3. Buy a localized domain name (example: getridofcockroacheslosangeles.com)
4. Write 2 – 5 blog posts. These need to be about 500 words each and of good quality (no spun content, duplicate content or crappy illegible articles please!).
5. Create a “contact me”, “privacy policy” and a “disclaimer page”.
6. Post one of your articles every few days (or once a week).
Tip: Make sure you bold and italicize your primary keyword phrase at least once in each post.
7. Once you’ve posted the first bit of content, ping your blog (using something like Pingler.com).
8. Do some basic backlinking. Do what I recommend in Super Simple Blogging… or Step 8 on this page: http://stealthblogger.com/stealth-blogger/176/
(don’t mind the rest of the page over there… while it works, it’s not totally current and may serve as a distraction).
9. Approach some businesses and tell them you have a site on the first page of Google in their industry that you are looking to sell.
(they will be interested because most businesses want more exposure and leads – I have yet to meet a business person who wants less exposure and leads).
If you don’t have the sales chops, I’m sure you have a friend or family member who is a sales person… offer them 20% commission if they help you sell the site (easy couple of hundred bucks for them).
9. If they buy, simply tell them that you can also maintain the first page ranking for them for a small fee.
(I charge anywhere from $150 – $250… this involves very little work, just some basic link building and/or adding a page of content now and again).
10. Add their advertisement to the blog. I use Max Banner Ads and create a simple ad. I also use the header graphic as an advertisement as well.
That’s really it… in a nutshell.
I have recently created a new PDF report where I’ve included some additional elements to this blog posts. You can download at the end of this post.
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Tip: If the business say they are interested but have no money to buy the site, tell them you can also put their advertising on the site for $200 per month. (charge them what you think the market can bear… make sure it’s worthwhile for you, and that the customer feels it’s a good deal).
All the best,
Steven
PS – I outsource the article creation for these sites. I DON’T generally use services that charge $5 per article because you generally get what you pay for (although I’ve found a couple of decent writers on Fiverr).
I often use the “Warriors for Hire” section on the Warrior Forum to find native North American English speaking writers (because my audience is generally located in the US). And I often pay $10 – $20 per article for these articles.
FYI, if the articles are of low quality, you will have a harder time selling these sites.
PPS – And while this is not a primary business model of mine I still continue to build, flip and maintain sites like these.
Even if offline marketing isn’t your cup of tea, this is definitely something you may want to look at doing (because it’s relatively easy to do).
PPPS – If you want more details, follow the steps in the report I mentioned above: http://warriorwso.com/pro/localseoblogs It’s pretty similar to the methods I used, but I disagree with the author about the focus on real estate / mortgage based niches (I found these to be more challenging to deal with).
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