$1,300 in 2 hours (You can do it too!)

172 replies
Hello, folks!

I am about to tell you a story of how I made a little over $1,100 in less than 2 hours and how YOU can do the same even if you are a newbie. It does take very little technical knowledge and if I say something technical that you do not know how to do - just Google it, that's what I did.

This idea has been posted MANY times on this forum and many other IM forums, it's about taking your online business offline.

I was driving home from (I really don't remember where) about two weeks ago and I noticed this small office with a huge window, they had many led signs displayed and projecting whole bunch of different lights. I figured those were for sale, so I stopped and walked in.

The owner welcomed me and ask if he could help me with anything.

- How is business? - I asked.
- Not too well, replied the owner of the store.

He then proceeded telling me a little more about the business. They sold led displays to businesses, schools, hospitals and so on. I asked if they had a website and as we're in 2008, they did have a website just like many other businesses. The owner told me their website does not bring new customers but serves a purpose of showcasing the products to existing clients and to those who walked in at some point of time and took a business card with the website mentioned on it.

I told the guy that I could possibly help him get customers from the Internet, I proceeded by explaining the benefits of being in the top results of search engines, then I asked him how exactly those products are called and asked him to use his computer.

So I typed: WHATEVER THE PRODUCT Montreal. Then I tried Monteal WHATEVER THE PRODUCT - sure enough his website was nowhere to be found in the first 5 pages of Goolge, I didn't check any further. In fact most results were somewhat irrelevant and those that were relevant seemed to be there by pure luck.

I made an offer the owner could not refuse.

I offered him to build a brand new site that would rank at least in the top 5 results for any keyword phrase he wants. I would charge him $1,000 ONLY if this happens and he agreed. I also asked him to purchase a domain name (that I already had in mind) and a cheap hosting plan - this cost him under $10. (Since he picked a monthly payment plan for the hosting, possibility to cancel any time and the first month was only $0.01). I also asked him to write the name of the top 5 products he sold, detailed description of each product and take a photo of each product. We drafted a quick contract, signed it and I went home. All this took about 30-40 minutes.

In 2 days I received an e-mail with all the information I requested. I logged into his hosting cPanel, uploaded Wordpress, uploaded a few free WP themes that I though would match the business, I also uploaded ALL-IN-ONE-SEO-PACK plug-in for WP and the sitemap plug-in. I created 5 pages, each with the name of the product I made sure to fill out all of the All-In-One-Seo fields with relevant information - so title of the page, description and keywords/tags. In about 30 minutes the site was complete.

I left it alone for a week, hoping to have the time to work on some backlinks, but as I was trying to see if Google indexed it - it appeared on the first page of the results for all 5 keyword phrases. That's not all. Each keyword phrase was ranked as a result #1 and #2! Now, this might be surprising for some of you, but the truth is, when you are doing this for a local business you put the name of the city in the search - which makes ranking on top MUCH easier for MOST businesses.

Anyways, I went to see that guy the very next day, showed him the results which made him speechless and $1,000 poorer. Yes, folks that was it.

Now, you say - it's only $1,000 - but the title says $1,300!
Pretty simple. The hosting he purchased - it was through my affiliate link which gave me a $100 commission (Hostgator on CJ). Before leaving the office I offered him a consultation for.... $200. In 15 minutes I told him about keeping his site on #1 spot by building backlinks. I explained the theory of article marketing - this took about 20-30 minutes.

A week later I received a call from this guy, thanking me once again. In one week this brand new simple WP website (... blog, really) brought him 2 new customers and a profit of $3,000.

... Should I have charged him more for such service? Probably... but it was the first time I tried anything like this and it was so spontaneous - I though even $1,000 was too much to ask. I'll know better next time. However, It was a great experience and he already referred me to a friend of his who owns several used cars dealerships...

So, it is that simple. As you can see nothing technical in it. Or at least nothing that you can't find a video tutorial for on Youtube. I am not a good face-to-face salesman, my offer was just too good to turn down. I promised results or it was free. The only expense I asked for was under $10 for the domain name + 1 month hosting. I am sure some businesses will turn me down - and this was my fear that always kept me away from trying such thing, but for some reason I had a good feeling about these guys, so I walked in with a smile and well... made $1,300 in under 2 hours.

You can do it as well, I am sure of it.

Alex
#300 #business #hours #offline #online #seo
  • Profile picture of the author alexei_aus
    sounds like a great idea
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    • Profile picture of the author Ruth Hendrickson
      That's a great story, Alex. Thanks for sharing it here. It sounds like to me you're a better salesman than you might think.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bob Monie
    Good Post Alex. Its Amazing to see that businesses are not taking advantage of local search simply because they dont do enough homework when it comes to marketing.

    They arnt up with the times and just do what all their other competitors are doing. And thats usually paying up to $40,000 for an add in my local Yellow Pages.

    In the last few weeks I have been offering an SEO service for local businesses in my city. With some new clients, it still amazes me how hard it is to convince some people that its definitely worth it to have their business websites optimized for the search engines.

    To help with this i conducted a survey poll asking if people used the internet or Yellow Pages to search for local businesses. I was even amazed with the results. Since the poll was conducted over the internet the results may be a little bias but i think they speak for themselfs. Results can be seen at Do People Still Use the Yellow Pages? ? SouthAussies.com ?
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Bob Monie View Post

      ...
      To help with this i conducted a survey poll asking if people used the internet or Yellow Pages to search for local businesses. I was even amazed with the results. Since the poll was conducted over the internet the results may be a little bias but i think they speak for themselfs. Results can be seen at Do People Still Use the Yellow Pages? ? SouthAussies.com ?
      Do you show this poll to your potential clients?
      ... and if you do, do they just open their mouth, clueless of what to say?

      :p
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      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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      • Profile picture of the author Bob Monie
        Originally Posted by alexei_aus View Post

        Bob Monie: how much do you charge for your SEO services for local businesses?

        I am at Gold Coast
        Alexei,

        It depends what niche the business is in. Obviously some niches are harder to rank for than others, requiring more time and work. Normal SEO's charge bout $1000 or more a month but I only charge half that. Since $500 a month will only get you a Yellow Pages ad 1/8th page size. So I believe that its great value for money what i offer.

        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        Do you show this poll to your potential clients?
        ... and if you do, do they just open their mouth, clueless of what to say?

        :p
        Yes Alex, I show them the poll because its hard to convince people suck in their old ways. You can see the poll cant be manipulated or faked which is important also. You dont want to appear as a con by producing fake info. Cost me $26 wich i thought was a bit rich but was worth it in the end.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dmitry
          Originally Posted by Bob Monie View Post

          Alexei,
          Yes Alex, I show them the poll because its hard to convince people suck in their old ways. You can see the poll cant be manipulated or faked which is important also. You dont want to appear as a con by producing fake info. Cost me $26 wich i thought was a bit rich but was worth it in the end.
          Just an idea - try asking your potential clients (i.e. the local business owners) when was the last time THEY used the yellow pages to find anything as opposed to searching online and that shouldn't be limited to just a particular service.

          BTW: Where did you create/paid that poll?
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
      Hey Bob,

      What paid polling service did you use..? interested in getting one done for myself

      Mike Hill




      Originally Posted by Bob Monie View Post

      Good Post Alex. Its Amazing to see that businesses are not taking advantage of local search simply because they dont do enough homework when it comes to marketing.

      They arnt up with the times and just do what all their other competitors are doing. And thats usually paying up to $40,000 for an add in my local Yellow Pages.

      In the last few weeks I have been offering an SEO service for local businesses in my city. With some new clients, it still amazes me how hard it is to convince some people that its definitely worth it to have their business websites optimized for the search engines.

      To help with this i conducted a survey poll asking if people used the internet or Yellow Pages to search for local businesses. I was even amazed with the results. Since the poll was conducted over the internet the results may be a little bias but i think they speak for themselfs. Results can be seen at Do People Still Use the Yellow Pages? ? SouthAussies.com ?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[250996].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author alexei_aus
    Bob Monie: how much do you charge for your SEO services for local businesses?

    I am at Gold Coast
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  • Profile picture of the author dwoodward
    Great job. Are they using video? have you tried incorporating it for local searches it is huge.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allurre
    lucky you... lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author Always-A-Warrior
    Great post Alex. Surely to keep this in mind.
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    • Profile picture of the author Facebook
      Thanks for the idea
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    The thing is it was not really a couple of hours as this is where everyone gets it wrong.

    All the time you put into getting the info you were offering and so many other things went into the sale.

    Quentin
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Quentin View Post

      The thing is it was not really a couple of hours as this is where everyone gets it wrong.

      All the time you put into getting the info you were offering and so many other things went into the sale.

      Quentin
      Quentin, I am not sure what you're saying there - but it did take about 2 hours... Sure, there was some time until Google indexed and reanked the site - but it's not like I was working on it...

      Originally Posted by lakshaybehl View Post

      Alex!

      You are rockin' dude...

      Keep it up... How old did you say you are?

      -Lakshay
      {I'm 19...}
      I'm old. 22, lol



      Originally Posted by Clark View Post

      WHATEVERTHEPRODUCTMontreal.com
      MontealWHATEVERTHEPRODUCT.com

      Could it be one of these?

      Did you link back to the original URL from the blog page?

      Smart idea though... many ways to utilize and take advantage of this strategy with Local Business Owners.
      Well, let's say you are trying to promote a flower shop in Moscow, I'd get a domain along the lines: MoscowFlowerShop.com... MoscowFlowerDelivery.com...

      And what do you mean if I linked the blog back to the original URL?
      The WP theme I chose looks like a website and not a blog (although in reality it is a blog) but no one knows it So I added pages, and each page has a menu linking to home page and other page within the site.
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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      • Profile picture of the author Clark
        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        And what do you mean if I linked the blog back to the original URL?
        Thanks for the reply Alex.

        You had mentioned that the business already had a website that was nowhere to be found in the SERP's so I wondered if you made use of that website by adding a link back to it from your new site.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          Originally Posted by Clark View Post

          Thanks for the reply Alex.

          You had mentioned that the business already had a website that was nowhere to be found in the SERP's so I wondered if you made use of that website by adding a link back to it from your new site.
          No, I don't care for their site.
          It looked really amateurish, complicated and... just bad
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          Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
          The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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      • Profile picture of the author novelco
        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        Quentin, I am not sure what you're saying there - but it did take about 2 hours... Sure, there was some time until Google indexed and reanked the site - but it's not like I was working on it...
        What Quentin is saying is that you spent countless hours learning how to get sites ranked, and this can be invaluable. So yeah, it's $1,300 in two hours, but when you spent hundreds of hours learning how to get the sites ranked, it isn't quite just 2 hours of your time.
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        Justin McGill
        Founder of LeadFuze - Helping digital marketing agencies, sales people, and startup founders generate leads on autopilot.

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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          Originally Posted by novelco View Post

          What Quentin is saying is that you spent countless hours learning how to get sites ranked, and this can be invaluable. So yeah, it's $1,300 in two hours, but when you spent hundreds of hours learning how to get the sites ranked, it isn't quite just 2 hours of your time.
          Well, i don't think it is a "fair" way to count... When mechanic charges you $50/h - he doesn't say well, it's not really $50/h - because it took me at least 5,000 hours to learn what I know... Do lawyers say that? or teachers? or bakers?... No. The time spent on education is a different matter and can't really be "added" to the count...
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          Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
          The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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          • Profile picture of the author MatthewBass
            Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

            Well, i don't think it is a "fair" way to count... When mechanic charges you $50/h - he doesn't say well, it's not really $50/h - because it took me at least 5,000 hours to learn what I know... Do lawyers say that? or teachers? or bakers?... No. The time spent on education is a different matter and can't really be "added" to the count...
            Well, maybe the lawyers!! :rolleyes:

            BTW - Great job. Have you done any more of these for local business in your area?
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        • Profile picture of the author melanied
          Originally Posted by novelco View Post

          What Quentin is saying is that you spent countless hours learning how to get sites ranked, and this can be invaluable. So yeah, it's $1,300 in two hours, but when you spent hundreds of hours learning how to get the sites ranked, it isn't quite just 2 hours of your time.
          Chances are he would have spent the time learning those skills anyway, he didn't acquire them for the specific purpose of making this shop's website. So, while he was using a specialized skill that requires time to learn, I wouldn't say he needs to declare those hours as time spent on the project!
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  • Profile picture of the author lakshaybehl
    Alex!

    You are rockin' dude...

    Keep it up... How old did you say you are?

    -Lakshay
    {I'm 19...}
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  • Profile picture of the author Clark
    I also asked him to purchase a domain name (that I already had in mind)
    WHATEVERTHEPRODUCTMontreal.com
    MontealWHATEVERTHEPRODUCT.com

    Could it be one of these?

    Did you link back to the original URL from the blog page?

    Smart idea though... many ways to utilize and take advantage of this strategy with Local Business Owners.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[250523].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author entrepenerd
    Great job Alex. There is definitely a lot of money to be made in the local business market. Many small businesses are woefully behind the times, and really have no idea how easy it is to improve their bottom line. They struggle to pay the bills not knowing they are just minutes away from having a much bigger stream of customers delivered to them by the internet.
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  • Profile picture of the author imaddict
    Great job Alex (and a suggestion). Since you already have his trust based on the results you got him, why not offer some more consulting whereby you do extensive KW research and get him ranked for more terms?

    Furthermore, how about PPC? Ongoing testing and tracking to improve conversions for $xx/month? You can even cut a deal where you get a % of the extra sales from improved conversions.

    In short, keep milking this one...

    Great job once again.
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    It's about time someone stepped up to the plate to tell it LIKE IT IS: MUST READ for ALL IMers
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  • Profile picture of the author Spike SpiegelIM
    It's threads like this the reason why being a Warrior rocks.. Great Job ALex and thanks for sharing this with us..
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  • Profile picture of the author looseleafpress
    Great story. We tend to forget that the shop down the street needs help with their SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author trippmarxx
    Good story. Just goes to show you the many different possibilities you can make money on or offline.
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  • Profile picture of the author Clark
    Smart move.

    I was in Montreal in April to see GSP destroy Matt Serra at the Bell Centre for UFC 83.

    Montreal is beautiful and now you own it.

    Well done and thank you for sharing your insight.
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  • Profile picture of the author mudmat
    Nicely done Alex!

    This means that I have to brush up on my SEO and wordpress skills..
    Hehe..
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  • Profile picture of the author matthewd
    Way to go man!
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    Excellent post Alex! -congrats-

    I've also found that getting page one ranking and usually top 5 spots is not too difficult for many local businesses. It depends a little on the specific category, but most are pretty easy to rank.

    The techniques of SEO are completely foreign to virtually every business I've spoken to. Just some decent links can shoot a site up fast.
    ______
    Bruce
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  • Profile picture of the author lvcjmac
    I'll tell you what, well done Alex. It sounds like it's so simple to pull off, but I guess I need to work a little more on my seo skills before I go down this road. There is so much opportunity out there, but sometimes it's difficult to wrap your head around where to begin.
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    • Profile picture of the author cscott5288
      thats a pretty intresting story, maybe i will try something along those lines
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by lvcjmac View Post

      I'll tell you what, well done Alex. It sounds like it's so simple to pull off, but I guess I need to work a little more on my seo skills before I go down this road. There is so much opportunity out there, but sometimes it's difficult to wrap your head around where to begin.
      Well, it is quiet simple for most cities. Sure, if your main keyword is "Bank In New York" or "Casino in Las Vegas" - it would be a little harder. In most cities companies never heard of SEO... some don't even have a website... which you can make in 20 minutes
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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  • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
    Awesome post, and well done Alex! Thanks for reminding me how simple it really is.
    PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait...wait... C: wait... SD: wait...
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  • Profile picture of the author JordanFrancis
    Nice work and thanks for sharing.

    Just goes to show there's gold in them hills..
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  • Profile picture of the author elitesalesgroup
    Man, I am so impressed. Way to go!
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Hancox
    Hey Alex

    You're a better salesperson than you think. You offered a "no lose" proposition, and presented it well.

    Nice one!
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    • Profile picture of the author DENNYBOY
      Hey..the idea is kinda the same which I have just seen in another thread. You proved that the idea works. Thanks for sharing

      I am going to give a shot on this idea for sure...

      Time to meet local business owners...

      Denny
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  • Hey way to go !! I have made as much as $3,500.00 in 2 hours online so I know it can be done. I just wish I could do that volume of sales 24 hours a day for ever. But that was just an awesome day for me.
    Keep it going buddy, I wish you the best.
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  • Profile picture of the author dianarupert
    Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

    Hello, folks!

    I am about to tell you a story of how I made a little over $1,100 in less than 2 hours and how YOU can do the same even if you are a newbie. It does take very little technical knowledge and if I say something technical that you do not know how to do - just Google it, that's what I did.

    This idea has been posted MANY times on this forum and many other IM forums, it's about taking your online business offline.

    I was driving home from (I really don't remember where) about two weeks ago and I noticed this small office with a huge window, they had many led signs displayed and projecting whole bunch of different lights. I figured those were for sale, so I stopped and walked in.

    The owner welcomed me and ask if he could help me with anything.

    - How is business? - I asked.
    - Not too well, replied the owner of the store.

    He then proceeded telling me a little more about the business. They sold led displays to businesses, schools, hospitals and so on. I asked if they had a website and as we're in 2008, they did have a website just like many other businesses. The owner told me their website does not bring new customers but serves a purpose of showcasing the products to existing clients and to those who walked in at some point of time and took a business card with the website mentioned on it.

    I told the guy that I could possibly help him get customers from the Internet, I proceeded by explaining the benefits of being in the top results of search engines, then I asked him how exactly those products are called and asked him to use his computer.

    So I typed: WHATEVER THE PRODUCT Montreal. Then I tried Monteal WHATEVER THE PRODUCT - sure enough his website was nowhere to be found in the first 5 pages of Goolge, I didn't check any further. In fact most results were somewhat irrelevant and those that were relevant seemed to be there by pure luck.

    I made an offer the owner could not refuse.

    I offered him to build a brand new site that would rank at least in the top 5 results for any keyword phrase he wants. I would charge him $1,000 ONLY if this happens and he agreed. I also asked him to purchase a domain name (that I already had in mind) and a cheap hosting plan - this cost him under $10. (Since he picked a monthly payment plan for the hosting, possibility to cancel any time and the first month was only $0.01). I also asked him to write the name of the top 5 products he sold, detailed description of each product and take a photo of each product. We drafted a quick contract, signed it and I went home. All this took about 30-40 minutes.

    In 2 days I received an e-mail with all the information I requested. I logged into his hosting cPanel, uploaded Wordpress, uploaded a few free WP themes that I though would match the business, I also uploaded ALL-IN-ONE-SEO-PACK plug-in for WP and the sitemap plug-in. I created 5 pages, each with the name of the product I made sure to fill out all of the All-In-One-Seo fields with relevant information - so title of the page, description and keywords/tags. In about 30 minutes the site was complete.

    I left it alone for a week, hoping to have the time to work on some backlinks, but as I was trying to see if Google indexed it - it appeared on the first page of the results for all 5 keyword phrases. That's not all. Each keyword phrase was ranked as a result #1 and #2! Now, this might be surprising for some of you, but the truth is, when you are doing this for a local business you put the name of the city in the search - which makes ranking on top MUCH easier for MOST businesses.

    Anyways, I went to see that guy the very next day, showed him the results which made him speechless and $1,000 poorer. Yes, folks that was it.

    Now, you say - it's only $1,000 - but the title says $1,300!
    Pretty simple. The hosting he purchased - it was through my affiliate link which gave me a $100 commission (Hostgator on CJ). Before leaving the office I offered him a consultation for.... $200. In 15 minutes I told him about keeping his site on #1 spot by building backlinks. I explained the theory of article marketing - this took about 20-30 minutes.

    A week later I received a call from this guy, thanking me once again. In one week this brand new simple WP website (... blog, really) brought him 2 new customers and a profit of $3,000.

    ... Should I have charged him more for such service? Probably... but it was the first time I tried anything like this and it was so spontaneous - I though even $1,000 was too much to ask. I'll know better next time. However, It was a great experience and he already referred me to a friend of his who owns several used cars dealerships...

    So, it is that simple. As you can see nothing technical in it. Or at least nothing that you can't find a video tutorial for on Youtube. I am not a good face-to-face salesman, my offer was just too good to turn down. I promised results or it was free. The only expense I asked for was under $10 for the domain name + 1 month hosting. I am sure some businesses will turn me down - and this was my fear that always kept me away from trying such thing, but for some reason I had a good feeling about these guys, so I walked in with a smile and well... made $1,300 in under 2 hours.

    You can do it as well, I am sure of it.

    Alex
    Thats a very unique idea Alex. How I wish I could the same technical knowledge as you have.
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  • Profile picture of the author sinboutkaska
    Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

    Hello, folks!

    I am about to tell you a story of how I made a little over $1,100 in less than 2 hours and how YOU can do the same even if you are a newbie. It does take very little technical knowledge and if I say something technical that you do not know how to do - just Google it, that's what I did.

    This idea has been posted MANY times on this forum and many other IM forums, it's about taking your online business offline.

    I was driving home from (I really don't remember where) about two weeks ago and I noticed this small office with a huge window, they had many led signs displayed and projecting whole bunch of different lights. I figured those were for sale, so I stopped and walked in.

    The owner welcomed me and ask if he could help me with anything.

    - How is business? - I asked.
    - Not too well, replied the owner of the store.

    He then proceeded telling me a little more about the business. They sold led displays to businesses, schools, hospitals and so on. I asked if they had a website and as we're in 2008, they did have a website just like many other businesses. The owner told me their website does not bring new customers but serves a purpose of showcasing the products to existing clients and to those who walked in at some point of time and took a business card with the website mentioned on it.

    I told the guy that I could possibly help him get customers from the Internet, I proceeded by explaining the benefits of being in the top results of search engines, then I asked him how exactly those products are called and asked him to use his computer.

    So I typed: WHATEVER THE PRODUCT Montreal. Then I tried Monteal WHATEVER THE PRODUCT - sure enough his website was nowhere to be found in the first 5 pages of Goolge, I didn't check any further. In fact most results were somewhat irrelevant and those that were relevant seemed to be there by pure luck.

    I made an offer the owner could not refuse.

    I offered him to build a brand new site that would rank at least in the top 5 results for any keyword phrase he wants. I would charge him $1,000 ONLY if this happens and he agreed. I also asked him to purchase a domain name (that I already had in mind) and a cheap hosting plan - this cost him under $10. (Since he picked a monthly payment plan for the hosting, possibility to cancel any time and the first month was only $0.01). I also asked him to write the name of the top 5 products he sold, detailed description of each product and take a photo of each product. We drafted a quick contract, signed it and I went home. All this took about 30-40 minutes.

    In 2 days I received an e-mail with all the information I requested. I logged into his hosting cPanel, uploaded Wordpress, uploaded a few free WP themes that I though would match the business, I also uploaded ALL-IN-ONE-SEO-PACK plug-in for WP and the sitemap plug-in. I created 5 pages, each with the name of the product I made sure to fill out all of the All-In-One-Seo fields with relevant information - so title of the page, description and keywords/tags. In about 30 minutes the site was complete.

    I left it alone for a week, hoping to have the time to work on some backlinks, but as I was trying to see if Google indexed it - it appeared on the first page of the results for all 5 keyword phrases. That's not all. Each keyword phrase was ranked as a result #1 and #2! Now, this might be surprising for some of you, but the truth is, when you are doing this for a local business you put the name of the city in the search - which makes ranking on top MUCH easier for MOST businesses.

    Anyways, I went to see that guy the very next day, showed him the results which made him speechless and $1,000 poorer. Yes, folks that was it.

    Now, you say - it's only $1,000 - but the title says $1,300!
    Pretty simple. The hosting he purchased - it was through my affiliate link which gave me a $100 commission (Hostgator on CJ). Before leaving the office I offered him a consultation for.... $200. In 15 minutes I told him about keeping his site on #1 spot by building backlinks. I explained the theory of article marketing - this took about 20-30 minutes.

    A week later I received a call from this guy, thanking me once again. In one week this brand new simple WP website (... blog, really) brought him 2 new customers and a profit of $3,000.

    ... Should I have charged him more for such service? Probably... but it was the first time I tried anything like this and it was so spontaneous - I though even $1,000 was too much to ask. I'll know better next time. However, It was a great experience and he already referred me to a friend of his who owns several used cars dealerships...

    So, it is that simple. As you can see nothing technical in it. Or at least nothing that you can't find a video tutorial for on Youtube. I am not a good face-to-face salesman, my offer was just too good to turn down. I promised results or it was free. The only expense I asked for was under $10 for the domain name + 1 month hosting. I am sure some businesses will turn me down - and this was my fear that always kept me away from trying such thing, but for some reason I had a good feeling about these guys, so I walked in with a smile and well... made $1,300 in under 2 hours.

    You can do it as well, I am sure of it.

    Alex
    Alex,

    Great story and you sound like a great entrepreneur! I have been doing this type of consulting for many businesses here in Sydney as well and yes you can make lots of money and have some fun too. You are adding value and putting back into helping the community which isn't a bad thing at all. Just don't be afraid to ask for what you are worth because to some business owners it is valuable information and a big leap for them to use the power of the internet - which I am sure most of us here have mastered. You may want to engage with him for recurring business on a monthly basis - as recurring business is essential. The more customers you have on recurring business the better obviously! Work out a plan where you can engage wit him on how to improve what you have already done on a monthly cost!

    And soon before you know the 'word of mouth' will drive you loads of business!

    Keep going and good to see you thinking outside the square!

    Cheers
    Sin Boutkaska
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  • Profile picture of the author jhongren
    Hi Alex,

    Congratulations!

    There are much more commissions to be made such as:

    1. other commissions from Autoresponder such as Getresponse and Aweber

    2. other profit maximising methods such as list building

    3. refer a customer and offer commission too (it is easy for him to refer a customer to you because he sees the result)

    Congrats again!

    Cheers,
    John
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  • Profile picture of the author Gilby
    Great idea! How about charging a certain amount of the gross revenue from all the new internet sales. It would dwarf the one-time-payment and give you a nice residual income.
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  • Profile picture of the author Traffic101
    Wow. Way to think outside the box and take such a big risk like that. How do you know so much about wordpress products? That really helped you! I would be interested in learning more about that.

    Congrats! I guess you found yourself a nice little business!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Gilby View Post

      Great idea! How about charging a certain amount of the gross revenue from all the new internet sales. It would dwarf the one-time-payment and give you a nice residual income.
      It'd be very hard to track the sales, since many people would find the site, call the number and come pick up the product... Even the owner would not know where the customer came from...

      Originally Posted by Traffic101 View Post

      Wow. Way to think outside the box and take such a big risk like that. How do you know so much about wordpress products? That really helped you! I would be interested in learning more about that.

      Congrats! I guess you found yourself a nice little business!
      I don't really know much about wordpress.
      A few weeks ago someone posted a thread here "What's Your Favorite WP Plug-in" or something along these lines... so I looked at all the recommended plug-ins and tried a few... no secret there
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      • Profile picture of the author Cali16
        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        It'd be very hard to track the sales, since many people would find the site, call the number and come pick up the product... Even the owner would not know where the customer came from...
        Alex, first of all, GREAT JOB!!!

        As for tracking the sales from the internet, just a thought but there are a couple ways you could do this (if the owner is willing). First, would be for him to have a second phone number for his business that he uses only for the website, or an extension for his regular number, so when they call, he knows how they found out about him. Also, he could offer a discount or something on the site that the person needs to say or ask for when they call or come in (eg, "be sure to ask about our special discount or offer") that will be compelling enough for people to be sure to remember....but they would only know about it if they saw the website. (These are just off the top of my head but you get the idea...).

        Also, be sure his website has an email opt-in with a call to action on the site (if you didn't do that already) so that he can start building his customer list and monetize that list in the future with email marketing, back-end sales, etc. You'll be his hero!
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      • Profile picture of the author jan roos
        I just did the same thing today with the local butchery. The owner is very excited and I charged $2500 he said thats fine with him. Just got one more meeting to do with his wife and the deal might be done.

        Cheers
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      • Profile picture of the author prayzgod
        I would like to know how many people responded.
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      • Profile picture of the author singh321654
        Great information Alex.
        Many of us will take advantage of it.
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      • Profile picture of the author KevinDasilva
        Great Job Dude...

        Here's a suggestion for anyone thinking of implementing this or any technique that involves "offline" businesses...

        Bring along your "flip" camera or any camera and ask for video testimonials...

        And do a "before & after"...

        First record them being suspicious of the whole thing (that will for sure be original) and then record them a couple days later when you got them the results you promised.

        This will be perfect to "fight major objections" by showing them "3rd parties" who were proved DEAD WRONG.

        Either way, this was a GREAT POST, GREAT JOB & GREAT "INSPIRING" STORY FOR US ALL SHOWING HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO BE ABLE TO DO WHAT WE DO!

        Kevin D
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      • Profile picture of the author uyanna
        Thank you Alex for this really great post.

        But i wanna ask you a favour. Please could you mention the
        free WP themes you used?

        Thanks in anticipation of your reply.

        Uyanna
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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          Originally Posted by uyanna View Post

          Thank you Alex for this really great post.

          But i wanna ask you a favour. Please could you mention the
          free WP themes you used?

          Thanks in anticipation of your reply.

          Uyanna
          I've actually did this for 7 clients since I posted this thread. Every time I used a different template, sometimes free sometimes a paid one There are 1,000,000's to chose from.
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          Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeWords
      Traffic 101, there's a ton of free documentation all over the net to help you get started with WordPress (tried to post a link but my post count is too low). Google it or message me for a good place to start.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marcus Paul
    Alex,

    Great job. That is a great business model right now. I know because that is what I do when I'm not online!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by youTribunedotcom View Post

      Alex,

      Great job. That is a great business model right now. I know because that is what I do when I'm not online!
      I am glad to hear that a lot of people are doing this!
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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  • Profile picture of the author whyu76
    Wow.. what a smart guy using his internet knowledge turn into revenue.... Congrat!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Bob Monie
      Originally Posted by Dmitry View Post

      Just an idea - try asking your potential clients (i.e. the local business owners) when was the last time THEY used the yellow pages to find anything as opposed to searching online and that shouldn't be limited to just a particular service.

      BTW: Where did you create/paid that poll?
      Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post

      Hey Bob,

      What paid polling service did you use..? interested in getting one done for myself

      Mike Hill
      I used Facebook for my poll. I was very surprised to find it there.

      I have just gone to Facebook to get you guys a link but they seem to have shut it down now. I can view my old poll but cant create a new one. It was in the business and advertising section.

      Do a Google search for facebook polls and you may be able to find some more info about it.
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      It really IS this easy to get hired by small business owners.

      A few suggestions:

      # 1: If you don't get a substantial fee upfront it can be VERY difficult to get paid.

      My guideline is to charge at least 50% upfront before you do any work for a client.


      # 2: Getting this guy indexed and ranked on Google is just the beginning.

      You can go back to the same client and offer service after service (more SEO, email marketing etc etc.).


      # 3: When a client is thanking you for your help that's the best time to ask for referrals.

      I talk about how to do this in detail in the report Offline Gold For The Online Marketer.

      Bottom line...each client and even business owners who don't hire you...can send you to even BETTER prospects.

      Referrals in this business are golden.


      # 4: The money is made simply by talking to business owners as you found, asking intelligent questions and listening.

      The work is relatively easy and it can pay very well.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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      • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
        Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh View Post

        It really IS this easy to get hired by small business owners.

        A few suggestions:

        # 1: If you don't get a substantial fee upfront it can be VERY difficult to get paid.

        My guideline is to charge at least 50% upfront before you do any work for a client.


        # 2: Getting this guy indexed and ranked on Google is just the beginning.

        You can go back to the same client and offer service after service (more SEO, email marketing etc etc.).


        # 3: When a client is thanking you for your help that's the best time to ask for referrals.

        I talk about how to do this in detail in the report Offline Gold For The Online Marketer.

        Bottom line...each client and even business owners who don't hire you...can send you to even BETTER prospects.

        Referrals in this business are golden.


        # 4: The money is made simply by talking to business owners as you found, asking intelligent questions and listening.

        The work is relatively easy and it can pay very well.

        Kindest regards,
        Andrew Cavanagh
        Hey, Andrew! Thanks for a great reply.
        Charging a decent upfront fee is a good idea, however I think it might scare off some prospects... I guess this is why I didn't ask for it on my first "deal".
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      • Profile picture of the author adambrad
        Hi,

        Can someone please clarify something for me please.

        I just went to google and typed in:

        chartered accountant Wollongong

        (Wollongong is my local city - in NSW, Australia)

        The results in the attachment came up. (Please open the attachment).

        Notice the 'Local Business Results...' bit at the top. With the strategy outlined
        in this thread about getting the top ranking, am I trying to rank above this
        block of 'Local Business Results...' or is this not possible?

        How does one otherwise get listed in this 'Local Business Results...' section?

        I'm just trying to get my head around this.....will the 'Local Business Results....'
        section always outrank the normal listings? And if so, isn't it possible that a
        business owner who I am trying to rank high for question this?

        Thanks

        Adam
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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          Originally Posted by adambrad View Post

          Hi,

          Can someone please clarify something for me please.

          I just went to google and typed in:

          chartered accountant Wollongong

          (Wollongong is my local city - in NSW, Australia)

          The results in the attachment came up. (Please open the attachment).

          Notice the 'Local Business Results...' bit at the top. With the strategy outlined
          in this thread about getting the top ranking, am I trying to rank above this
          block of 'Local Business Results...' or is this not possible?

          How does one otherwise get listed in this 'Local Business Results...' section?

          I'm just trying to get my head around this.....will the 'Local Business Results....'
          section always outrank the normal listings? And if so, isn't it possible that a
          business owner who I am trying to rank high for question this?

          Thanks

          Adam
          In order to get listed in the Local Business results you will have to use Google's service called "Local Business Center".

          Personally when I search for a business I never click on "Local Business Results"... unless I already know the business and am trying to find their phone # or their address.

          Mostly I do not click on these results because most of these businesses do not have a website - and that's what I am trying to find.

          Hope this helps,

          Alex
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          • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
            Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

            In order to get listed in the Local Business results you will have to use Google's service called "Local Business Center".

            Personally when I search for a business I never click on "Local Business Results"... unless I already know the business and am trying to find their phone # or their address.

            Mostly I do not click on these results because most of these businesses do not have a website - and that's what I am trying to find.

            Hope this helps,

            Alex
            Maybe you don't click them, but I bet ordinary web surfers would. Bear in mind they are probably looking for someone to solve their problem, they're not looking for web sites to optimise! If I were searching for a local business, I would be very interested in those listed there.

            I had wondered the same thing about ranking above them, but I'm not sure if it's possible. If someone knows how, I'd love to hear about it.

            Ta ra
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            • Profile picture of the author adambrad
              Originally Posted by MrYossu View Post

              Maybe you don't click them, but I bet ordinary web surfers would. Bear in mind they are probably looking for someone to solve their problem, they're not looking for web sites to optimise! If I were searching for a local business, I would be very interested in those listed there.

              I had wondered the same thing about ranking above them, but I'm not sure if it's possible. If someone knows how, I'd love to hear about it.

              Ta ra
              Precisely what I was thinking. If it's not possible to rank above them then I'd at least be interested to know whether anyone who is actually doing this optimiszation stuff:

              a) Has ever had a business owner (who they are trying to rank for) question them about it

              b) How they have responded to the to the business owner

              For instance, if a business owner said to me "Hey, wait a minute...what are these local business results things and why can't I just be listed in that?", what is a good response?

              Thanks

              Adam
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              • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
                Originally Posted by adambrad View Post

                Precisely what I was thinking. If it's not possible to rank above them then I'd at least be interested to know whether anyone who is actually doing this optimiszation stuff:

                a) Has ever had a business owner (who they are trying to rank for) question them about it

                b) How they have responded to the to the business owner

                For instance, if a business owner said to me "Hey, wait a minute...what are these local business results things and why can't I just be listed in that?", what is a good response?

                Thanks

                Adam
                Now if a business owner asks: "Can I be listed above those?" - just be honest, say that Google has set up their page in such way that the map stays on top...

                Here is what I would do:

                Offer your client a service of adding them to Google Local Business Center (I checked it out yesterday, it's easy and straight forward). However, these listing results seem to work in a similar way to organic results - where a business can rank high or... very low. If you make the business rank in the top 5 for the Local Business Listing - once again, your client will get more exposure and traffic.

                How do you make a listing rank higher?

                - If possible, add the keyword in/as a Business Name
                - Make sure to fill out all of the fields (yes, even the optional ones)
                - Add a keyword rich description of the business
                - Add as many photos of the company (their products)
                - Make a simple Youtube video - add it to the listing as well.
                - Add a coupon if possible
                - Build backlinks to the listing
                - Link to the listing from the site you built for the client...

                BOOM BABY! With this you can make even MORE money!

                I think you can easily charge another $500 for this service + $100 monthly recurring fee for keeping the listing visible (the first 5 or 10) depending on how many results are displayed.

                Come on guys, be more positive and look for opportunities

                As my grandpa used to say "Every negative has a positive part"

                Alex

                p.s. Thank you for bringing this up, as now I see the full potential for my future clients. Just imagine a local business ranked in the top 5 in the Local Business Google Map, then it is ranked #1 as an organic result, and if you feel comfortable with PPC, you can surely rank your client's site #1 in Sponsored Results (which will most likely show up right above the MAP, highlighted in Yellow)

                Just imagine what the business owner would think of this, AND the potential client. If they see the same site listed 3 times on top of the Google page - they will most likely click.
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                • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
                  Originally Posted by adambrad View Post

                  For instance, if a business owner said to me "Hey, wait a minute...what are these local business results things and why can't I just be listed in that?", what is a good response?
                  A good response would be "Sure, I can get you listed in there... for a fee!"

                  Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

                  Come on guys, be more positive and look for opportunities
                  I don't think anyone was being negative here, we're exploring possibilities. Since the subject of the local business listings came up, we're trying to see if you can get listed in, or above them. That's a positive attitude.

                  C'mon Alex, don't be hard on us

                  Ta ra
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                • Profile picture of the author adambrad
                  Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

                  Now if a business owner asks: "Can I be listed above those?" - just be honest, say that Google has set up their page in such way that the map stays on top...

                  Here is what I would do:

                  Offer your client a service of adding them to Google Local Business Center (I checked it out yesterday, it's easy and straight forward). However, these listing results seem to work in a similar way to organic results - where a business can rank high or... very low. If you make the business rank in the top 5 for the Local Business Listing - once again, your client will get more exposure and traffic.

                  How do you make a listing rank higher?

                  - If possible, add the keyword in/as a Business Name
                  - Make sure to fill out all of the fields (yes, even the optional ones)
                  - Add a keyword rich description of the business
                  - Add as many photos of the company (their products)
                  - Make a simple Youtube video - add it to the listing as well.
                  - Add a coupon if possible
                  - Build backlinks to the listing
                  - Link to the listing from the site you built for the client...

                  BOOM BABY! With this you can make even MORE money!

                  I think you can easily charge another $500 for this service + $100 monthly recurring fee for keeping the listing visible (the first 5 or 10) depending on how many results are displayed.

                  Come on guys, be more positive and look for opportunities

                  As my grandpa used to say "Every negative has a positive part"

                  Alex

                  p.s. Thank you for bringing this up, as now I see the full potential for my future clients. Just imagine a local business ranked in the top 5 in the Local Business Google Map, then it is ranked #1 as an organic result, and if you feel comfortable with PPC, you can surely rank your client's site #1 in Sponsored Results (which will most likely show up right above the MAP, highlighted in Yellow)

                  Just imagine what the business owner would think of this, AND the potential client. If they see the same site listed 3 times on top of the Google page - they will most likely click.
                  Hey Alex,

                  I hope I didn't come across as being negative as that certainly wasn't my intention; these were just things I'd thought of and was curious as to what others had to say based on their experiences.

                  Like you, after I posted originally, I had a bit more of a look at the 'Local Business Results....' via Google local business centre and I came to the same conclusion that this could indeed be used as an extra value added service that I could provide for the business owner.

                  I actually showed a friend of mine today - his mother owns a local hair salon - and he was very excited...."wow, how can I get that listed in there", and so I showed him.

                  Incidently, I have found examples where organic listings do actually rank above the 'Local Business results...' section, so it seems to be possible. I'm guessing that this might be the case where the organic listing has really strong SEO factors. ie. on page factors and off page factors such as lots of backlinks etc. I'm going to try and research this a bit more myself as I think it would be an even more powerful to demonstrate to the business owner that I can rank his/her site above that. (as well as listing them in the local business results too of course).

                  Thanks

                  Adam
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                • Profile picture of the author jay68
                  Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post


                  How do you make a listing rank higher?

                  - If possible, add the keyword in/as a Business Name
                  - Make sure to fill out all of the fields (yes, even the optional ones)
                  - Add a keyword rich description of the business
                  - Add as many photos of the company (their products)
                  - Make a simple Youtube video - add it to the listing as well.
                  - Add a coupon if possible
                  - Build backlinks to the listing
                  - Link to the listing from the site you built for the client...

                  BOOM BABY! With this you can make even MORE money!
                  How do you go through the verification process when it's asking for that business's phone number to complete the process? If you are going to use your phone number, that's the number that will show up on the ad and you don't want that happened. How do you work around submitting more than one businesses to the local business search listing when verifying with a phone number?
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                  • Profile picture of the author mfurlong
                    Seems like this might be a good place to partner up too. If you're not comfortable with the techno-nerd aspects, but you can make the sales call and discuss the service, you could join up with a geek (meant in the flattering sense, of course) who could whip out the website. Or you could outsource via the usual suspects such elance, guru, etc.) Split the revenue, but you know, 1/2 of $1300 is better than 1/2 of $0 right?

                    >>> Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author tiger325
      I would assume it takes a little bit longer than 2 hours however it sounds like an awesome plan expecially this time of the year when business owners are looking for sales
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      • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
        Originally Posted by tiger325 View Post

        I would assume it takes a little bit longer than 2 hours however it sounds like an awesome plan expecially this time of the year when business owners are looking for sales
        As I wrote in a post above:

        Once again, the actual amount of work, including the driving to the client's office actually did take me 2 hours at MAX.
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    • Profile picture of the author AdrianaJordan
      This is absolutely correct! I went into a business and did this, only I asked for a deposit up front of 300.00

      I build a website with about 5 pages, the client sent me the pictures and the content..I didn't even use a blog...just a static website. I had the keywords he chose double listed number one and two in google within about 3-4 days.

      It absolutely works! People are blown away with your presentation, no matter how little/much you know.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
        Originally Posted by AdrianaJordan View Post

        This is absolutely correct! I went into a business and did this, only I asked for a deposit up front of 300.00

        I build a website with about 5 pages, the client sent me the pictures and the content..I didn't even use a blog...just a static website. I had the keywords he chose double listed number one and two in google within about 3-4 days.

        It absolutely works! People are blown away with your presentation, no matter how little/much you know.
        That is why I love this method.

        - It requires little work and great results are almost guaranteed
        - It requires very little time but the reward is great
        - You only need to know the basics. Most newbies can do it.

        Present yourself well, be confident - that's all
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      • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
        Originally Posted by AdrianaJordan View Post

        This is absolutely correct! I went into a business and did this, only I asked for a deposit up front of 300.00

        I build a website with about 5 pages, the client sent me the pictures and the content..I didn't even use a blog...just a static website. I had the keywords he chose double listed number one and two in google within about 3-4 days.

        It absolutely works! People are blown away with your presentation, no matter how little/much you know.

        Actually it's not a well known fact but a single page on a static website will usually rank higher on Google than a single post page on a blog all other things being equal.

        Blogs are just easier to do, easier to create interlinking, easier to get indexed (pinging) etc etc etc.

        But don't think for a second that blogs have some magical Google SEO power over static websites.

        They're just naturally easier to do SEO for because most of the SEO functions are inbuilt.

        Kindest regards,
        Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author jayden.fellze
    Nice to hear you made a good amount in a short time. Proper tactics and marketing put the products on top and one can easily make money this way also. There could be many such people who want to increase their sales but do not know the means and still hesitant to ask anybody. At least after reading this, I hope such persons would come forward and take the help of those who are willing to do these things for them at a nominal cost. Good luck in your future endeavors also.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by jayden.fellze View Post

      Nice to hear you made a good amount in a short time. Proper tactics and marketing put the products on top and one can easily make money this way also. There could be many such people who want to increase their sales but do not know the means and still hesitant to ask anybody. At least after reading this, I hope such persons would come forward and take the help of those who are willing to do these things for them at a nominal cost. Good luck in your future endeavors also.
      Yep, I hope so as well!
      I think these kinds of thread give "no excuse" to people to cry how it is impossible to make money online
      Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author JackTheLad
    Great use of initiative, plus being in the right place at the right time.
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  • Profile picture of the author shahonpra-g
    Hello Alex,
    Your idea is quite fantastic and I think I should give it a try as this same opportunity abounds everywhere around us. We only need to seize some useful opportunities in life. Keep it up, Alex
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by shahonpra-g View Post

      Hello Alex,
      Your idea is quite fantastic and I think I should give it a try as this same opportunity abounds everywhere around us. We only need to seize some useful opportunities in life. Keep it up, Alex
      You should give it a try.
      Once you close the first deal - you'll see how simple it is
      Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author jsward
      Good work there, think I will have to give that a try. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author wlcked
    very nice story, but its not really simple to make and i think that you got lucky also to make a contract and get 1000$ from a stranger after a few words :}
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by wlcked View Post

      very nice story, but its not really simple to make and i think that you got lucky also to make a contract and get 1000$ from a stranger after a few words :}
      Well, it's all about how you present the opportunity
      And once again, I offered him the service for free, in a way. I asked him to pay ONLY after the result, so he really didn't have anything to lose.
      Signature
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    • Originally Posted by wlcked View Post

      very nice story, but its not really simple to make and i think that you got lucky also to make a contract and get 1000$ from a stranger after a few words :}
      I feel sure it would be a matter of luck if YOU were to be as successful as the OP, doing the same thing. After all, Alex knows what he's doing. You, apparently, do not.

      For example, that affiliate link you have in your sig line -- that's a no-no...
      Signature
      "The will to prepare to win is more important than the will to win." -- misquoting Coach Vince Lombardi
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  • Profile picture of the author Wade_Louis
    Alex,

    I really feel inspired by your thread. Thank you for all the offline tips.... it kind of works a different angle of the cash cow thread .... I was wondering if you would mind sharing with us the wordpress blog you set up.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Wade_Louis View Post

      Alex,

      I really feel inspired by your thread. Thank you for all the offline tips.... it kind of works a different angle of the cash cow thread .... I was wondering if you would mind sharing with us the wordpress blog you set up.
      Hey

      Just sent you a pm, I don't want to make the URL public for obvious reasons
      Signature
      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Taylor
        Excellent risk reversal, Alex!

        Here's something that might bump it up even more and may even increase the odds you'll get paid in future replays of this tactic...

        Buy the domain name and hosting yourself.

        This completely eliminates the business owner's upfront risk and makes your offer shine even brighter.

        Leverage

        It also gives you the keys to the kingdom...let's say you get the results you promise, but Mr. Owner decides not to pay. You can now go to his nearest competitor and offer the same deal, but with a ready-made and ranking site. You control the site, so you can change phone numbers, etc.

        The contract should clearly state that transfer of ownership is contingent upon payment. And of course, you wouldn't want the domain name to include a particular business name...that would remove any leverage offered by this tactic.

        Portfolio

        If you can't find a competitor to step in for Mr. Owner, keep the site for yourself and use it as a portfolio piece. Build it out and make it rank for even more terms for that kind of business. At that point, you could lease the site or sell it outright for even more than a thousand bucks.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          Originally Posted by Michael Taylor View Post

          Excellent risk reversal, Alex!

          Here's something that might bump it up even more and may even increase the odds you'll get paid in future replays of this tactic...

          Buy the domain name and hosting yourself.

          This completely eliminates the business owner's upfront risk and makes your offer shine even brighter.

          Leverage

          It also gives you the keys to the kingdom...let's say you get the results you promise, but Mr. Owner decides not to pay. You can now go to his nearest competitor and offer the same deal, but with a ready-made and ranking site. You control the site, so you can change phone numbers, etc.

          The contract should clearly state that transfer of ownership is contingent upon payment. And of course, you wouldn't want the domain name to include a particular business name...that would remove any leverage offered by this tactic.

          Portfolio

          If you can't find a competitor to step in for Mr. Owner, keep the site for yourself and use it as a portfolio piece. Build it out and make it rank for even more terms for that kind of business. At that point, you could lease the site or sell it outright for even more than a thousand bucks.
          Some great stuff! I already thought of selling (renting) the sites to the competition in case one business owner decides to not pay

          And as you said, it could always be used as an example in my portfolio.
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  • Profile picture of the author cupbucket
    Banned
    To be honest I cant be bothered to read all of that, but well done!
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

      Hey, Andrew! Thanks for a great reply.
      Charging a decent upfront fee is a good idea, however I think it might scare off some prospects... I guess this is why I didn't ask for it on my first "deal".
      There are more businesses in most modest sized cities and towns than you could ever get to in a lifetime.

      Believe me if you continue to do this you want to get an upfront fee or you will get burned more often than not.

      One of the biggest reasons is because the business owner has absolutely nothing invested in the outcome.

      It is a great way to get your FIRST couple of clients though.

      But once you get rolling charge upfront.

      If they don't want to pay just move on.


      Originally Posted by Michael Taylor View Post

      Excellent risk reversal, Alex!

      Here's something that might bump it up even more and may even increase the odds you'll get paid in future replays of this tactic...

      Buy the domain name and hosting yourself.

      This completely eliminates the business owner's upfront risk and makes your offer shine even brighter.



      This is a good idea but not due to risk reversal. If a business owner isn't willing to shell out $20 for hosting what do you think your chances are of geting paid $1,000...first page of google results or not.


      Leverage

      It also gives you the keys to the kingdom...let's say you get the results you promise, but Mr. Owner decides not to pay. You can now go to his nearest competitor and offer the same deal, but with a ready-made and ranking site. You control the site, so you can change phone numbers, etc.

      The contract should clearly state that transfer of ownership is contingent upon payment. And of course, you wouldn't want the domain name to include a particular business name...that would remove any leverage offered by this tactic.



      That's why it's a good idea. It gives you some control if the business owner tries to screw you at ANY point.

      Your chances of getting paid any substantial fee without charging something substantial up front are not good no matter what you do...as you'll discover if you do this a few times.

      Charge upfront.

      This is a great example of making some money and building credibility by just getting out there and DOING something.

      Great stuff.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidSaaf
    Okay, let's be clear here.. it is not really "in 2 hours", there is some work involved, already. But, the point is that you took the action! And that is great. Congrat mate!!

    Back links are amazing! I myself hit the PR 3, for JUST a squeeze page, nothing else.. And the first result in google for 3 keywords, 5th, 7th... and so on.. for 2 keywords, in a very competitive niche!! No money spent, just put the time into building the back links, in about 2 months period.

    Congrats again, and do NOT forget, rinse and repeat.. helping other's businesses, OR, better building your own business and grow it!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by DavidSaaf View Post

      Okay, let's be clear here.. it is not really "in 2 hours", there is some work involved, already. But, the point is that you took the action! And that is great. Congrat mate!!

      Back links are amazing! I myself hit the PR 3, for JUST a squeeze page, nothing else.. And the first result in google for 3 keywords, 5th, 7th... and so on.. for 2 keywords, in a very competitive niche!! No money spent, just put the time into building the back links, in about 2 months period.

      Congrats again, and do NOT forget, rinse and repeat.. helping other's businesses, OR, better building your own business and grow it!
      Once again, the actual amount of work, including the driving to the client's office actually did take me 2 hours at MAX. I did not build any backlinks, I did not do ANYTHING but talking to the client, setting up a WP blog (site) with the content the client provided me... that's all.

      Sure it took a one week wait for the site to get indexed and ranked - but I did not work on that...
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  • Profile picture of the author Noel2010
    Thanks for the information.
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  • Profile picture of the author manjit129
    Hi Alex,

    Great post! Your post has really really inspired me and I have decided to do the exact same thing with businesses in my own area. If you don't mind, would you mind sharing that web page blog that you setup for the company? That would be a great help for me to get started.

    Cheers mate!
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  • Profile picture of the author Clayton
    Hey,

    Thanks for a great post - where did you get your "non blog" WP theme from? I am currently looking for a theme for a site at the moment and do not want it to be a date related page.

    Thanks

    Clayton
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  • Profile picture of the author jazzyjeff
    Hey Alex,
    Congratulations on your success in turning around the small business! So you made $1300 in two hours? What was the total time that it took you to put together the word press website? How long did you spend on back links?
    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by jazzyjeff View Post

      Hey Alex,
      Congratulations on your success in turning around the small business! So you made $1300 in two hours? What was the total time that it took you to put together the word press website? How long did you spend on back links?
      Jeff
      It took me 2 hours to:
      - Speak to the cleint
      - Build the WP blog (site) using content provided by the client
      - I did not build ANY backlinks

      ...total time = 2 hours.
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  • Nice job bro!

    I live in dayon, ohio.

    This is the only local consulting competition that I currently have

    I don't think they really know what they are doing. This is so easy it's a joke!
    Signature
    "The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do"
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Zachary R. Skinner View Post

      Nice job bro!

      I live in dayon, ohio.

      This is the only local consulting competition that I currently have

      I don't think they really know what they are doing. This is so easy it's a joke!
      It does look pretty bad for an Internet Marketing firm.
      I am sure they never went anywhere with that business - this is why they never updated the site and left it in the 90's
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      • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
        What I am about to tell you is pretty insane!

        A while ago I posted a video on youtube, there was even a thread about it here on Warriors: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...page-free.html

        So this guy from Houston, TX saw my video, went to my blog... I figured he read through most of it because he found a post which talks about one of my info products... he then went to my product's page, found my phone number and called me... He needs my service! (which are described in this thread).

        This evening I will be talking to him about optimizing the website of his local small business!

        This is simply amazing. I am gettong a client who is in another country, 2,000 miles away... all because of a Youtube video. :p
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        • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
          I posted this 2 days ago:

          Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

          What I am about to tell you is pretty insane!

          A while ago I posted a video on youtube, there was even a thread about it here on Warriors: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...page-free.html

          So this guy from Houston, TX saw my video, went to my blog... I figured he read through most of it because he found a post which talks about one of my info products... he then went to my product's page, found my phone number and called me... He needs my service! (which are described in this thread).

          This evening I will be talking to him about optimizing the website of his local small business!

          This is simply amazing. I am gettong a client who is in another country, 2,000 miles away... all because of a Youtube video. :p
          ... and well, here is an update.

          I spoke to that person on the phone, looked at their website, keywords and main competitors and 20 minutes later I just made another $1,000 plus a recurring $100/month! I already got paid the initial fee.

          That's not all. Once the website is up there on the top results, I will also offer the OPT-IN service, for an extra fee.

          I thinking I will spend less time on affiliate marketing and switch to this

          Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author Gene Pimentel
    That's so cool Alex!
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  • Profile picture of the author writergirlk
    I thought of doing this, too. Thanks for sharing your story. I keep getting held back - not sure why. I love working from home - if I start doing this I compromise that - my schedule is so crazy as it is... But your experience has definitely given me food for thought!
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  • Profile picture of the author Melanie Bremner
    Well I see you have been thanked many times already here, so I will just throw in a Congrats. I am glad you mentioned that plugin. I think I will go look for it right now, I know I could benefit from it.

    I guess one of the reasons some offline businesses don't really think about website traffic, high Google rankings or being more "out there" in cyber world, is because they think the majority of their income will most likely come from local sources. For example, why would a car company think they would benefit from some in Australia seeing their website. Not like they will come buy something.
    This is the misconception of alot of offline businesses, thinking the internet is only good for reaching the other side of the world, and therefore no use for their own business.

    Montreal is full of business you can go help. I am here near Toronto, and seeing that now maybe I could be of help to some of these mom and pop shops we have here in town.

    Here's to more $1300 days!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Melanie Bremner View Post

      Well I see you have been thanked many times already here, so I will just throw in a Congrats. I am glad you mentioned that plugin. I think I will go look for it right now, I know I could benefit from it.

      I guess one of the reasons some offline businesses don't really think about website traffic, high Google rankings or being more "out there" in cyber world, is because they think the majority of their income will most likely come from local sources. For example, why would a car company think they would benefit from some in Australia seeing their website. Not like they will come buy something.
      This is the misconception of alot of offline businesses, thinking the internet is only good for reaching the other side of the world, and therefore no use for their own business.

      Montreal is full of business you can go help. I am here near Toronto, and seeing that now maybe I could be of help to some of these mom and pop shops we have here in town.

      Here's to more $1300 days!!!
      I actually chose TO in one of my videos as an example, since it's the 5th biggest city in North America. I was surprised to find out how many businesses in Toronto do not have a website (do not rank anywhere near the first page)! So you better take over before I move there
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  • Profile picture of the author Franck Silvestre
    Awesome. Offline consulting rocks.

    Franck
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Ambrose
    Great post. Very similar to an idea I have had before, which I will post soon.

    Thanks Alex.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
    Alex,

    Thanks for posting this. Just a couple of questions for you...

    Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

    In 2 days I received an e-mail with all the information I requested. I logged into his hosting cPanel, uploaded Wordpress, uploaded a few free WP themes that I though would match the business, I also uploaded ALL-IN-ONE-SEO-PACK plug-in for WP and the sitemap plug-in. I created 5 pages, each with the name of the product I made sure to fill out all of the All-In-One-Seo fields with relevant information - so title of the page, description and keywords/tags. In about 30 minutes the site was complete.
    Were his descriptions any good? I just have this feeling that most people would produce rubbish. Did you edit it, or post it up just as he wrote it?

    Also, which themes did you use? Or, if you don't want to reveal the exact ones, how did you decide which were good?

    Finally on this bit, why did you do it as a WP blog if you wanted it to look like a standard web site? Why not just write plain old HTML files? Seems much easier. Was there a good reason you picked WP?

    Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

    I left it alone for a week, hoping to have the time to work on some backlinks, but as I was trying to see if Google indexed it - it appeared on the first page of the results for all 5 keyword phrases. That's not all. Each keyword phrase was ranked as a result #1 and #2! Now, this might be surprising for some of you, but the truth is, when you are doing this for a local business you put the name of the city in the search - which makes ranking on top MUCH easier for MOST businesses.
    So how did it get so well ranked if you didn't do anything? First off, how did Google even find it without backlinks? Second, even if ranking is easy, the copy must have been pretty good to rank that highly without any marketing or backlinks.

    Please explain a bit more as I'm really intrigued by this superb idea.

    Thanks,
    Alan
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by MrYossu View Post

      Alex,

      Thanks for posting this. Just a couple of questions for you...


      Were his descriptions any good? I just have this feeling that most people would produce rubbish. Did you edit it, or post it up just as he wrote it?

      Also, which themes did you use? Or, if you don't want to reveal the exact ones, how did you decide which were good?

      Finally on this bit, why did you do it as a WP blog if you wanted it to look like a standard web site? Why not just write plain old HTML files? Seems much easier. Was there a good reason you picked WP?


      So how did it get so well ranked if you didn't do anything? First off, how did Google even find it without backlinks? Second, even if ranking is easy, the copy must have been pretty good to rank that highly without any marketing or backlinks.

      Please explain a bit more as I'm really intrigued by this superb idea.

      Thanks,
      Alan
      Alan, I used WP simply because I cannot write in html... fair enough?
      Also because by using tags and some plugins (such as ALL-IN-ONE-SEO) you achieve the same results as you would with html - only it is much faster and easier to use.

      It's a known fact that Google loves WP style - and they tend to rank it rather high, if it is well optimized.

      I changed the client's copy just a little bit (for the sake of keywords) but once again, looking at the SE results seems like everything was ranked the way it was because of the plugins and tags.

      Once the site (blog) was completed, I used PINGOAT and PINGOMATIC - this helped to get it indexed... and ranked.
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      • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        Alan, I used WP simply because I cannot write in html... fair enough?
        Excellent reason!

        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        Also because by using tags and some plugins (such as ALL-IN-ONE-SEO) you achieve the same results as you would with html - only it is much faster and easier to use.
        OK, given that I have more experience with HTML than I do with WP, it might be the opposite for me, but I guess I'd need to know what the plug-in did to the page to make it so well optimised.

        I presume you were just targeting "businesstype city" for SEO? If so, did you just take his product descriptions and use them as a vehicle for optimising for those keywords?

        Originally Posted by Alex Sol View Post

        Once the site (blog) was completed, I used PINGOAT and PINGOMATIC - this helped to get it indexed... and ranked.
        Thanks for the tip there, I never thought of that.

        Thanks for the reply. Are you willing to divulge more info about the WP theme you used? I just looked around, and there are loads of themes available. How did you know which one to use? You said you picked one that didn't look like a blog, how did you find it?

        Thanks again,
        Alan
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben_Curtis
    Great Job! and an idea many of us could use.
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  • Profile picture of the author warriorsellingebooks
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author melanied
      You know, a while ago I saw a post on another board (so I take no credit for the idea ) that laid out a plan, somewhat similar to this, where you chose a vulnerable local keyword (for example, "Italian Food Burbank") and then you dominate it. You own all of top ten listings if you can, but as many as you can if you can't. You do this with a combination of your own sites as well as pages on Web 2.0 properties you control. Squidoo, Blogger, YouTube...you get the idea.

      Once you own the listings, you set a price and start making the rounds. If one place says no, move on to the next.

      This is a great tactic because what you're selling really isn't the listing themselves - it's the opportunity to keep their competitor from having the listings. It's the ultimate in scarcity tactics - only ONE business can have it. First one to jump on wins.

      Personally, this idea appeals to me more than another one that's been bandied about on forums a lot, which is creating a local directory and selling ad space on it to local businesses. I like the scarcity and I like the cleanness (if that's a word!) of having a few valuable contracts with less businesses as opposed to lots of small-time deals with many businesses.
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      • Originally Posted by melanied View Post

        You know, a while ago I saw a post on another board (so I take no credit for the idea ) that laid out a plan, somewhat similar to this, where you chose a vulnerable local keyword (for example, "Italian Food Burbank") and then you dominate it. You own all of top ten listings if you can, but as many as you can if you can't. You do this with a combination of your own sites as well as pages on Web 2.0 properties you control. Squidoo, Blogger, YouTube...you get the idea.

        Once you own the listings, you set a price and start making the rounds. If one place says no, move on to the next.

        This is a great tactic because what you're selling really isn't the listing themselves - it's the opportunity to keep their competitor from having the listings. It's the ultimate in scarcity tactics - only ONE business can have it. First one to jump on wins.

        Personally, this idea appeals to me more than another one that's been bandied about on forums a lot, which is creating a local directory and selling ad space on it to local businesses. I like the scarcity and I like the cleanness (if that's a word!) of having a few valuable contracts with less businesses as opposed to lots of small-time deals with many businesses.
        Gee, what a brilliant idea! :p

        Seriously, I'd rather have a handful of clients paying thousands per month than a thousand clients paying a few bucks per month. In fact, it's better not to set a price. Instead, ask the prospect, "What would this be worth to you?"

        The first person to mention a figure loses...
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        • Profile picture of the author melanied
          Or wins, depending on how you look at it. It's not meant to scam them, it's meant to provide them a valuable service.

          Originally Posted by Vince Runza Online View Post

          Gee, what a brilliant idea! :p

          Seriously, I'd rather have a handful of clients paying thousands per month than a thousand clients paying a few bucks per month. In fact, it's better not to set a price. Instead, ask the prospect, "What would this be worth to you?"

          The first person to mention a figure loses...
          Signature
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        • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
          Originally Posted by Vince Runza Online View Post

          Gee, what a brilliant idea! :p

          Seriously, I'd rather have a handful of clients paying thousands per month than a thousand clients paying a few bucks per month.
          Well, I have many "clients" paying just a few bucks a month. The only real reason for that is because I wanted to provide a highly valuable service that just about anyone can participate in. I was a new marketer at one time who didn't have much disposable income. I want give people the tools they need to be successful, even if they don't have much to spend now. As a firm believer in the concept of "Karma", doing this is fulfilling for me as well.

          However, one thing that is an advantage to charging many people just a few bucks a month is that if someone decides they don't need or can't afford your service anymore (and people have various good reasons for this; we don't know what other people's financial pictures are) it is not a huge loss if one person leaves. But if one person who is paying you thousands of dollars a month leaves, that can really hurt.
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          • Profile picture of the author melanied
            Angela, I think part of the perspective about what constitutes a little or a lot of money is whether the clients are businesses or individuals.

            You have a product that you price EXTREMELY reasonably so that any marketer, regardless of circumstance, can participate (as many do, including me, very happily ).

            But businesses pay upwards of $20,000 a year for full page yellow page ads, they pay hundreds of dollars per edition for newspaper advertising. The estimated average CPC for the term "Los Angeles Locksmith" (as an example) is $16. PER CLICK!

            So, if I charge a business an amount for leasing the first page of Google listings for a term they are interested in dominating (or keeping their competition from dominating, whatever their motivation might be) - even if that amount constitutes a considerable sale for me as an individual, it is still very likely only a minimal portion of their overall advertising budget - and depending on the traffic of the term, it could provide them with significant ROI.
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            • Profile picture of the author Angela V. Edwards
              Originally Posted by melanied View Post

              Angela, I think part of the perspective about what constitutes a little or a lot of money is whether the clients are businesses or individuals.

              You have a product that you price EXTREMELY reasonably so that any marketer, regardless of circumstance, can participate (as many do, including me, very happily ).

              But businesses pay upwards of $20,000 a year for full page yellow page ads, they pay hundreds of dollars per edition for newspaper advertising. The estimated average CPC for the term "Los Angeles Locksmith" (as an example) is $16. PER CLICK!

              So, if I charge a business an amount for leasing the first page of Google listings for a term they are interested in dominating (or keeping their competition from dominating, whatever their motivation might be) - even if that amount constitutes a considerable sale for me as an individual, it is still very likely only a minimal portion of their overall advertising budget - and depending on the traffic of the term, it could provide them with significant ROI.
              I completely agree, Melanie, and you're right. Those businesses that are paying for radio spots or TV ads are paying even more than that. Businesses pay big money to get new customers in their doors.

              I posted what I did because Vince's post was referring to "clients", which could be either a business or a marketer. In my case, I deal with individual marketers and I want to make my service available to pretty much anyone. However, like you say, in the case of a business, bigger amounts of money is usually involved for successful marketing techniques.
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              • Profile picture of the author melanied
                It does make me think that starting local blogs with adsense on them might not be a bad idea, as well, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan6
    You have a critic.

    I don't believe that you can start up a website from scratch and rank in the top 5 for keyphrases/keywords for atleast a few months! What about the Sandbox? With zero backlinks, you'll also be behind hundreds of developed sites and will no doubt have a page rank of zero!

    I don't believe that most people can be business savvy enough to engage these methods, on any such business owner. I'd imagine that most owners would simply seek a full/professional job, especially with such issues as privacy/taxes/VAT and so on.

    Confused that no one else has brought up these points yet, on a webmaster forum like this.
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    • Profile picture of the author melanied
      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      You have a critic.

      I don't believe that you can start up a website from scratch and rank in the top 5 for keyphrases/keywords for atleast a few months! What about the Sandbox? With zero backlinks, you'll also be behind hundreds of developed sites and will no doubt have a page rank of zero!

      I don't believe that most people can be business savvy enough to engage these methods, on any such business owner. I'd imagine that most owners would simply seek a full/professional job, especially with such issues as privacy/taxes/VAT and so on.

      Confused that no one else has brought up these points yet, on a webmaster forum like this.
      Ryan - it's absolutely possible when the keywords are long-tail enough, which it sounds like these were - relatively uncommon product name combined with a city name.

      Also, while he didn't get backlinks, he did state that he pinged. Depending on the vulnerability of the terms, that can be enough.
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    • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      I don't believe that you can start up a website from scratch and rank in the top 5 for keyphrases/keywords for atleast a few months! What about the Sandbox?
      You don't necessarily go into the sandbox, sites can go straight into the main index.

      I created three sites about a year ago, and within a few weeks they were each in the top three positions for their keywords, with only ONE backlink each (from my main site, so Google would find them). They stayed there as long as I owned the sites (which I sold six months later for a serious amount of money!), and as far as I know, they're still there.

      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      With zero backlinks, you'll also be behind hundreds of developed sites and will no doubt have a page rank of zero!
      No, the whole point is that you choose keywords where you AREN'T fighting with hundreds of developed sites. You're adding a local element to a competitive keyword, which is often enough to knock out most of the competition.

      The one point that did make me wonder was how well this would work for more run-of-the-mill businesses. The OP went into a fairly specialised business, where I imagine the number of competing web sites is lower anyway. I would be interested to know if anyone has achieved good rankings for more common local services, such as a florist, italian restaurant, etc.

      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      Confused that no one else has brought up these points yet, on a webmaster forum like this.
      Even though there are many web savvy people here, this isn't a webmaster forum, it's an Internet Marketing forum.

      Ta ra
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      You have a critic.

      I don't believe that you can start up a website from scratch and rank in the top 5 for keyphrases/keywords for atleast a few months!
      Actually I've done it in under 48 hours.

      The competition is VERY low for local geographical based search terms.

      In most cases it's just a matter of getting a page indexed that's themed around that keyword phrase.

      Since many blogs automatically ping which result in your page geting indexed that can often be enough to get you a top listing.


      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      What about the Sandbox? With zero backlinks, you'll also be behind hundreds of developed sites and will no doubt have a page rank of zero!
      As I said with many long tail geographical keyword phrases you might be the only person who is optimizing for that phrase so there will be NO developed sites you'll be competing with.

      If there are one or 2 developed sites optimizing for that keyword phrase (highly unlikely) you'll still make the top 3 or 4 rankings very easily.


      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      I don't believe that most people can be business savvy enough to engage these methods, on any such business owner. I'd imagine that most owners would simply seek a full/professional job, especially with such issues as privacy/taxes/VAT and so on.
      No they'll hire the first person they think they can trust who shows them a good idea.

      Most small business owners...quite intelligently...base most of their buying decisions on the trust they have in the person they're buying from.

      It's a personal process.

      If you're willing to talk one one one with business owners you can get hired and the conversion rate is exceptionally high.

      If you're still skeptical take a trip over to OfflineBiz.com and check out the forum and testimonials there...there's no shortage of people getting hired by small business owners to help them with their internet marketing services.

      Keep in mind also that you can get hired providing nearly any internet marketing service that will create more sales and profits for a business.

      It is an amazing way to make money from your skills.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author PRandContent
    Hmm, in my experience, it's possible to land on the top spots especially if you have a unique domain name. One of my recent websites, for instance, landed on the #1 position in just a matter of days. If I'm not mistaken, I think that happened in about 5 days' time. And that without any extra plugins yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan6
    Ok, do you have an answer for the tax/VAT issues then? Business owners are gonna want receipts for everything you know. I am just a little sceptical about Google rankings being so instantanious, can take months for the search engines to index/rank/sort a new site with no previous history.

    Anyway, I do think it is savvy how the OP managed to offer the consultancy to the chap, especially sending the hosting through a CJ program on a CPA; that's impressive.
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    • Profile picture of the author MrYossu
      Originally Posted by Ryan6 View Post

      Ok, do you have an answer for the tax/VAT issues then? Business owners are gonna want receipts for everything you know.
      So give them a receipt! You don't have to have a registered business to give receipts. I worked for a long time as a sole trader (not registered as a business) and never found it an impediment. I receipt is merely a piece of paper that states they paid you. It only needs your name and address at the top, and a description of the goods or service, the amount paid and the date. I think Word even comes with a template for one. If not, just make one up, they're very simple.

      As for tax, you deal with it like you'd deal with any other income. This is coming direct to you, rather than into your business and then to you, but all the tax man cares about is how much ends up in your pocket. Again, I worked like that before I registered, and never had a problem.

      As for VAT, if you aren't registered, then you ignore VAT. You don't charge it, the business doesn't claim it back, and the VAT man doesn't need to be involved. Perfectly legal and honest, as long as your turnover stays below the VAT threshold.

      Hope this clears up your worries. Bear in mind that a very large number of people work for themselves and don't have registered businesses. Many (probably not all though!) of these are 100% honest and legal operations, even though they are not registered.

      Ta ra
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  • Profile picture of the author haych
    Great work Alex
    GEO Marketing is the way to go if your targeting local businesses
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan6
    Cheers Andrew, cleared a few things up there.
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  • Profile picture of the author sashagilberg
    that's awesome Alex, well done!
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  • Profile picture of the author georgeslater
    Hi Alex

    Well done, I think the piont here is that you took action and that however you work out the money you made you would have made nil if you did not take action. I think websites are easy to sell once you have a clients ear.

    I have a client who bought a Web Directory from me, he has 5 commission only sales guys selling for him, currently doing low thousands a day. Prior to getting those guys hired, trained and working he was make zero, nothing nada.

    As far as I am concerned the local electrian earns $80 because that is how much he charges, no calculation of college time in there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Melody
    I spent 20+ years in outside sales and the last thing I wanted to do was get back into the offline market....BUT...once out there, you will find that most of what you know as the 'basics' is just about considered 'magic' to the average business owner.

    We launched our mobile marketing service in Cincinnati 2 weeks ago - we actually have 3 'brands' for 3 totally different market niches - and my husband, 64, on his second day 'outside', met with the media buyer of a 75 location fast food group - and was told that they KNEW they needed to get into this but were clueless as to how to do it...and this guy handles in excess of 100 million annually in ad buy! Guess what? We have the deal!

    Further - their locations are NOT listed in Google Business Center - and this is a VERY important place to be - because the number one reason people look up a local business is NOT for looking at the website - it's to check the address and location. And it is VERY easy to get in - and get ranked!

    The beauty is that a business is added almost immediately, and there is still such low competition that it is easy to rank quickly. My brand new local mobile marketing business is number 1 for several terms - and number 2 behind the local phone company in one! It actually took less than an hour to show up in local search!

    As to blogs vs static web site - a strong selling point is that you can train the owner to update the blog for a small fee, and then add a monthly or annual maintenance fee, to make sure the software is kept updated, and if they don't want to update the blog - you can update it for a monthly fee with info sent by email.

    In the long run, I prefer blogs for local businesses because it is easier for them to keep their rankings if the content is updated regularly - makes the task of keeping those keywords in the local market much easier.

    All in all - the offline market is ripe right now!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Melody View Post

      I spent 20+ years in outside sales and the last thing I wanted to do was get back into the offline market....BUT...once out there, you will find that most of what you know as the 'basics' is just about considered 'magic' to the average business owner.

      We launched our mobile marketing service in Cincinnati 2 weeks ago - we actually have 3 'brands' for 3 totally different market niches - and my husband, 64, on his second day 'outside', met with the media buyer of a 75 location fast food group - and was told that they KNEW they needed to get into this but were clueless as to how to do it...and this guy handles in excess of 100 million annually in ad buy! Guess what? We have the deal!

      Further - their locations are NOT listed in Google Business Center - and this is a VERY important place to be - because the number one reason people look up a local business is NOT for looking at the website - it's to check the address and location. And it is VERY easy to get in - and get ranked!

      The beauty is that a business is added almost immediately, and there is still such low competition that it is easy to rank quickly. My brand new local mobile marketing business is number 1 for several terms - and number 2 behind the local phone company in one! It actually took less than an hour to show up in local search!

      As to blogs vs static web site - a strong selling point is that you can train the owner to update the blog for a small fee, and then add a monthly or annual maintenance fee, to make sure the software is kept updated, and if they don't want to update the blog - you can update it for a monthly fee with info sent by email.

      In the long run, I prefer blogs for local businesses because it is easier for them to keep their rankings if the content is updated regularly - makes the task of keeping those keywords in the local market much easier.

      All in all - the offline market is ripe right now!
      It does make sense.
      And as I mentioned above - the local listings could be another service offered to the client for an extra fee
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
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  • Profile picture of the author Blaz Banic
    Awesome story! Congrats.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashkim
    Great Post Alex and congrats. Im 22 also and just got into the whole concept of internet marketing. Reading your post emphasises that there are so many opportunities to make money online. cant wait to get started!

    cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author prayzgod
    Love to see people getting ahead by using the old noggin. This is a great example of sharing too. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mayse Ardahan
    Thats nice Alex
    thanks really was a great story!
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  • Profile picture of the author AbbyP
    Wow Alex. I'm pretty much a complete noob but I think even I could do this. Thanks for sharing this idea. There are lots of businesses hurting right now in my area that I'm sure could use this kind of help (especially with an irresistible offer like you used).
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by AbbyP View Post

      Wow Alex. I'm pretty much a complete noob but I think even I could do this. Thanks for sharing this idea. There are lots of businesses hurting right now in my area that I'm sure could use this kind of help (especially with an irresistible offer like you used).
      Hey, Abby!
      That's why I believe this is a great way to generate some emergency cash - even newbies can do it
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetM39482
    I must say this is a commendable idea and has a lot of potential. Doing a bit of homework can make large difference.

    Making a bridge between offline and online opportunities can untap many possibilities.
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  • This is becoming a more popular way to earn some pretty good income. Glad you've discovered it as well.

    I've seen quite a few folks here "wish they had your technical skills" to pull this off. Here's a quick suggestion for them:

    Outsource this puppy! Sites like elance.com, guru.com, (etc., etc.), and of course, the Warrior Forum all have folks that will put a Wordpress site or any other site up for a few bucks. So if you charge $1,000.00, pay someone $200.00 to install and configure a WordPress site, you still made $800 - and more importantly, with basically no work at all.

    Think of it this way - if you could get 5 customers/week using this method, you'd make $5,000 for that week, but you would have to do the work (which takes more time).

    What if you outsourced the work to 2 people - 1 to do the SEO research (keywords, blah, blah) and one to install/configure the WP site?

    Pay the SEO person, say, $100/customer and the WP person $200/site.
    Charge your customer $1000.00 and you've made $700 per customer w/ no work at all (besides the initial visit). Now you're free to more customers with less work. So let say you get 10 customers for the first week. Now you've made $7,000 and didn't have to do any of the grunt work. You've made $2,000 more with less work.

    Charge $1,300.00 and you've made $10,000 that week with no grunt work.

    So - main point: if you can't do something, pay someone else to do it for you!

    Great job Alex, and hope the posts helps a few folks.

    P.S. That was a subliminal message for the rest of you to go out and do it!

    The Crazy Internet Dude
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by crazyinternetdude View Post

      This is becoming a more popular way to earn some pretty good income. Glad you've discovered it as well.

      I've seen quite a few folks here "wish they had your technical skills" to pull this off. Here's a quick suggestion for them:

      Outsource this puppy! Sites like elance.com, guru.com, (etc., etc.), and of course, the Warrior Forum all have folks that will put a Wordpress site or any other site up for a few bucks. So if you charge $1,000.00, pay someone $200.00 to install and configure a WordPress site, you still made $800 - and more importantly, with basically no work at all.

      Think of it this way - if you could get 5 customers/week using this method, you'd make $5,000 for that week, but you would have to do the work (which takes more time).

      What if you outsourced the work to 2 people - 1 to do the SEO research (keywords, blah, blah) and one to install/configure the WP site?

      Pay the SEO person, say, $100/customer and the WP person $200/site.
      Charge your customer $1000.00 and you've made $700 per customer w/ no work at all (besides the initial visit). Now you're free to more customers with less work. So let say you get 10 customers for the first week. Now you've made $7,000 and didn't have to do any of the grunt work. You've made $2,000 more with less work.

      Charge $1,300.00 and you've made $10,000 that week with no grunt work.

      So - main point: if you can't do something, pay someone else to do it for you!

      Great job Alex, and hope the posts helps a few folks.

      P.S. That was a subliminal message for the rest of you to go out and do it!

      The Crazy Internet Dude
      I always say this as well - if you think you can't do something, you can always outsource. Even if you have the craziest idea for a software or some script - it could be outsourced for pennies.

      But the point here was, I have no technical skills really. When I was setting up the Wordpress, I googled "How to Install Wordpress" and found a detailed video... free of course. Google is our best friend (or other search engine of your choice).

      Alex
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    • Profile picture of the author jay68
      Great Job Alex. This is a great thread and have learned a lot already.

      Originally Posted by crazyinternetdude View Post


      Pay the SEO person, say, $100/customer and the WP person $200/site.
      Charge your customer $1000.00 and you've made $700 per customer w/ no work at all (besides the initial visit). Now you're free to more customers with less work. So let say you get 10 customers for the first week. Now you've made $7,000 and didn't have to do any of the grunt work. You've made $2,000 more with less work.

      Charge $1,300.00 and you've made $10,000 that week with no grunt work.

      So - main point: if you can't do something, pay someone else to do it for you!
      Along the same lines here, if you are going to charge a customer $1,000 for everything that you 'll be doing, is this amount just for the 1st year? How much more will you charge the owner for the upcoming years? He will not want to let go of the site if it's bringing him in good business. This is something that just came to mind now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis-White
    great post and thanks for sharing, I commend you
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  • Profile picture of the author sonia431
    Great post Alex. Out-of-the-box thinking!!
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  • Profile picture of the author crystalq
    Anyways, I went to see that guy the very next day, showed him the results which made him speechless and $1,000 poorer. Yes, folks that was it.
    LOL great work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    You said it - it's been said time and time again, but for some reason people seem to think it's amazing. I got $10k for one client for setting up their SEM last week. No website building for them involved at all - I hate that stuff. It was just SEM for their existing site and they have a webmaster to make the changes I recommended to it. They approached me from a recommendation and practically threw the money at me.

    If you're actually able to produce results - there are plenty of businesses that will pay you good money.

    There's no secret to it.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      You said it - it's been said time and time again, but for some reason people seem to think it's amazing. I got $10k for one client for setting up their SEM last week. No website building for them involved at all - I hate that stuff. It was just SEM for their existing site and they have a webmaster to make the changes I recommended to it. They approached me from a recommendation and practically threw the money at me.

      If you're actually able to produce results - there are plenty of businesses that will pay you good money.

      There's no secret to it.

      Andy
      That's exactly the point
      Business want to make MORE money and if you can help them do so - they will be more than happy to treat you well with a few bills Online marketing for offline businesses is an investment. The big secret here is to make the business owner realize how much this will help them (Website, SEO, list building...) once they see the potential - they are hooked!
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  • Brilliant! Very Nicely Done!
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  • Profile picture of the author thebrokenbox
    That's a really great story! Living in a small town might actually have it's benefits now, maybe I should go find some potential clients to do some work for, gives me some ideas, but I should probably make sure my own sites are settled first before I go do someone else's. The possibility is there, just need to take advantage of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author themessenger
    thats a pretty good story.. I have a similar way of making money, yet different. Pick a method, and if you do it right you can make money! Good Job! I'm happy for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author tomcam
    True guerilla marketing. I LOVE the pay to play concept. I still earn 7 figures on such a business (an ebay sniping site) and have since 2002. You have to turn that one into, at the very least, a PDF free report. Also get a testimonial.
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  • Profile picture of the author estudent
    Alex,

    Your story is sensational , a real inspiration - i am working right now on 'modeling' your strategy

    thanks for posting your story
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by estudent View Post

      Alex,

      Your story is sensational , a real inspiration - i am working right now on 'modeling' your strategy

      thanks for posting your story
      To be honest, it is not sensational It seems like many people have been doing this for a loooooooong time. After I did it for a client I started doing more research and even found few threads and WSO's right on this forum.
      I learned some more great stuff
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      • Profile picture of the author DBofBES
        Thanks for the information. It reinforces that there are many diamonds in ones backyard . . . one only has to look (and move to pick them up).
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  • Profile picture of the author burtf1951
    Now that's what I call playing it from the cuff. Another lesson that mosttimes we don't see the forest for the trees. Way to go!
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  • Profile picture of the author rhclemmons
    That was a great story and the best part,(in my mind anyway) was that you were helping some one with your advice and expertise.
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  • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
    Hey Alex,

    So you recommend putting the 5 pages in as "pages" or as "posts" on the blog?
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by Craig McPherson View Post

      Hey Alex,

      So you recommend putting the 5 pages in as "pages" or as "posts" on the blog?
      I did 2 posts on the home page, and added other pages. 1 page per product (or line of products). It also could be pages for services - but I would say pages, not posts! Also do not forget to create relevant tags - since each tag will most likely add another page in search engine results

      Alex
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      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
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  • Profile picture of the author Conference-TV
    Very great idea, I'm so interested about it. Hope I can do it too.
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  • Profile picture of the author residnt
    Congratulations,

    Now that you have the first one out of the way they will only get easier.

    residnt
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  • Profile picture of the author BrandonCampbell
    Great Story! I have often wondered how I could go about building sites for local businesses that I know need them. Guess it's as simple as just taking that first step and making a move.

    Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author w123
      An inspiring post, good job.
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  • Profile picture of the author shane_k
    I don't get it.

    You made his site from Wordpress so it was a blog. but don't the front pages of blogs always change when you enter in a post?

    How do you stop that from happening?

    Thanks

    Shane_K
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by shane_k View Post

      I don't get it.

      You made his site from Wordpress so it was a blog. but don't the front pages of blogs always change when you enter in a post?

      How do you stop that from happening?

      Thanks

      Shane_K
      I don't add posts to the main page.
      I add new pages to the blog, that's it
      Signature
      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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  • Profile picture of the author doctorjay
    I like the idea. Actually I bought some local domains to develop for real estate and farm the leads. As soon as I get more SEO experience on my blogs I plan to do that and then I can sell my services to others.

    Thanks Alex.
    Signature

    Visit my blog and learn how to improve your life through achieving a peace of mind and forgiving.
    I have also added a blog in IM now: newbie internet marketing.
    Always think for yourself. Common sense is often just common. Also don't be a Pringle - bring out you uniqueness in IM as other things.

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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by doctorjay View Post

      I like the idea. Actually I bought some local domains to develop for real estate and farm the leads. As soon as I get more SEO experience on my blogs I plan to do that and then I can sell my services to others.

      Thanks Alex.
      There was a WSO here by Michael (sorry I don't remember his last name) it was called One Hour Google. Really good materials for those who want to learn SEO... I am not sure is the WSO is still there though.

      Alex
      Signature
      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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  • Profile picture of the author multimastery
    Way ta go Alex! Now that's what I call creative 'Profitable' thinking.
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  • Profile picture of the author twannahiga
    Great post Alex! There is always heaps of money to be made in local businesses. I think its fair to say that lots of small businesses are really behind in terms of technology, and don't have a clear picture on how simple it is to improve their general productivity. Local businesses should be aware of having a more profitable and bigger size of customers through the internet. Good one!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alex Sol
      Originally Posted by twannahiga View Post

      Great post Alex! There is always heaps of money to be made in local businesses. I think its fair to say that lots of small businesses are really behind in terms of technology, and don't have a clear picture on how simple it is to improve their general productivity. Local businesses should be aware of having a more profitable and bigger size of customers through the internet. Good one!
      "really behind in terms of technology" as you say is not even the right way to describe it. I started going through local restaurants trying to get some business going - I'd say a good 50% of the owners didn't want to hear ANYTHING about it... They all said "I don't want to be associated with SCAM"... So I asked, "Sir, Why Do You Say This is Scam?" and they all reply: "Well, the InternetZ - isn't it a big scam? I read in the paper the other day, people get some diseases from it, or visrus... and they lose money there.."

      Wow, honestly I couldn't even imagine that many people in a developed country have no idea what internet is...

      Talk about being "really behind in terms of technology" :p
      Signature
      Alex Sol, Full time online marketer since 2007
      The Extra Paycheck Blog | Extra Paycheck Podcast
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