I’ve dabbled in the flipping world, but in a reverse kind of way – I’m flipping my own sites.

I’ve been enamored by the Internet for many years now.  Over time I’ve bought some pretty killer domain names.  Typically I’d buy the domain with some grand plan in my head, execute it, SEO it and then get bored with it.  Or I’d find another domain name and be off on the new site, forgetting the previous one(s).

Renewals are Reminders

At some point, the registration for the domain name comes due and I’d ask myself, do I want to keep this domain name?  The answer is nearly always Yes.  Usually after renewing the domain I’d tell myself that I need to update that site, but rarely if ever did I go further than that.  Until recently.

About a year and a half ago I started a website in a niche with basically no competition.  It was a rare find and I was eager to get something going with it.  At the time I was messing around a lot with Joomla, so I put up a site and spent some time making it pretty.  I pulled in some RSS feeds with topics I liked and thought the site would take off.  It didn’t.

Then recently the domain came up for renewal, and I remembered how this niche had nearly non-existent competition.

From Jan 1-April 15 I had a total of 654 visitors with a bounce rate of 44%.  Not impressive.

What I Did

So I decided to rebuild the website in WordPress and set to the task.

• A week or so later I had the site ready and published it over the old Joomla site.
• I hired two writers and started putting good content on the site twice a week.
• I trolled Yahoo! Answers and Twitter search and found out what people were asking, then wrote up pages that answered those questions.
• I submitted one article to EzineArticles with my major keyword linked in the footer.
• I started a Twitter account and started following everyone who mentioned the niche or related posts
• I replied to those twitter accounts with a link to a relevant article on my site (if there was one)
• I set up twitterfeed to post to twitter every time there was a new blog post
• I started a Facebook Fan Page for the niche in mid-June
• On Facebook, I added the blog feed to the Fan page
• I started a Facebook advertising campaign, spending on average $5/day.

Traffic Results

From site launch, April 20 to the end of June, I had 4,865 visits and pulled my bounce rate down to under 33%.  So far this month, I’m averaging over 200 visitors per day – well on my way to an easy 50,000 visits by the end of the year.

Other Lessons Learned

We SEOs preach it all the time: Content is King.  The articles I’ve had written are pulling in plenty of visitors.  The search engines love the content and I’m climbing the rankings quickly.

Facebook advertising is cheap.  Since starting the ads, I’ve had 989,499 impressions at a cost of $133.82.  I’ve gained 215 fans thus far, and it climbs every day by about 6.  Worth it?  You bet.

The site isn’t currently making money, but will be soon.  I’ll introduce some non-intrusive ads or sell some sponsorships.  Since I own my own hosting company, the only real expense besides my time is the Facebook ads.  I’ll make that back quick, especially if the traffic continues at this pace.  Leveraging that traffic to get advertisers will not be a problem.

So Let Me Ask Ya This

What sites did you build back in the day that still have great potential?  Are there some really cool domain names just lurking in your repository that could turn into nice revenue?  Do you have a site that could use some updating?

The results can be phenomenal if you just take the time to do it.

Getting A Good Deal

Back in the day, (and still today, actually) coupon clipping was a great way to save money. I can remember my mom buying the Sunday paper simply to get the coupons.  She’d go through them, cut out the ones she wanted to use, and then wait for a double coupon day at the local grocery mart.

Today we’ve got so much information to sift through, it’s hard to keep up.  But thanks to social media websites like Twitter, (can Twitter really be called a ‘website’? It’s more of a tool) the ability to watch some of your favorite brands has become easier.  Getting information and savings is at your fingertips.

For example, my wife has been wanting to take the family to Six Flags this summer.  But at $35+ a ticket, a family of six needs a small loan just to get through the gates.  Then, yesterday around lunchtime I stumbled across this tweet from @martinbowling, which led me to become a follower of @SixFlags.  Martin’s tweet led me to a special link where I could buy 2 tickets to any Six Flags park for only $10 bucks each. Dude.  A quick phone call to my wife and son and we just saved a ton of money.  And just in time, too.

This is just one example of how social media can save you money.  There were no coupons to clip, no waiting in line at 5 in the morning (or overnight).  Simply follow a brand that you like and sooner or later you’ll get a good deal.

Geeks Win (or at least save)

Hopefully by reading this it is apparent that you can save money on Twitter.  Or if you’re a business owner, it is a bit more apparent that you can leverage a huge audience of followers to generate revenue (if you do it right).

But there’s a problem – if you’re reading this, you aren’t my target audience for this post anyway. Why? Because you’re online.  Even worse, you may be reading this from an RSS feed. So you’re probably already geeky enough to know about these savings.

And knowing is half the battle.  Thanks for using up my bandwidth, geek.

• General dentistry / cosmetic dentistry
• Business interiors and furnishings
• Fire Restoration
• Landscaping

These industries have a decent amount of traffic and we are confident we could help your business rank among the top for your industry.

These openings are only available for one client each, serious inquiries only.

For information on our policies, see Why We Only Take One SEO Client Per Industry

To inquire about getting your business set up for SEO, contact me at toll free at 1-888-379-0417.

So what can the average SEO do about it?  Well, we can educate them (assuming they are willing to listen).  We can show them case studies.  We can simply say ‘trust me’ (which rarely works).

Today, while thinking about this exact thing, I had a great thought.

Let’s say you are a business owner, and you have a building where you sell things.  Everyone knows that the first three rules of business are ‘Location, Location, Location’, right?

So let’s say that I came to you and told you that every day I’d come by and move your building an inch closer to a major intersection in your town.  I’d spruce up your building, make it attractive and at the same time I’d pick it up and move it closer and closer.

Now, being closer to an intersection means more people will see your signs, right?  And once you get to the intersection (an inch at a time might take you a while), you’ll have more traffic, more people will be aware of your business, and your revenues will go up.

So after (whatever amount of time), I say let’s take this to a new level. Let’s move your building toward the local highway. It may cost more, but you’ll see more and more traffic.  Your brand awareness will go up. People will see your building from many streets.

Soon you’ve moved past the highway toward the Interstate.  Thousands (or more) of people are seeing your building, your sign, your brand every day.  Revenues are going up, and you are enjoying success you never thought possible.

Now, let’s take this one step further. What if, the highway that I moved you towards just happened to contain only people that were interested in your products? Nearly every car that drove by was a targeted customer.  Your target market, delivered to your door.

To be fair, let’s define an expense.  dictionary.com says a cause or occasion of spending. Perfect.

If I were Joe Average Business Owner, you’re probably right, SEO is an expense in the short term scheme of things.  There’s going to be a definite amount of time when I’m out spending my return.  There will be months of payments gone to the wayside before I will ever see any return on that money, and it may seem like it’s not working.

And SEOs see this a lot.  It takes time for the search engines to crawl your site, and it takes even longer for your website (which is competing with thousands, if not millions of others) to creep up the SERPS.  That’s why we ask for 6 or 12 month minimum contracts.  Our ‘salary’ is performance based.  You climb the ranks or we lose our job. Simple as that.

Back to expenses – sure, an SEO campaign is a serious cost for your business.  In the short term, it will look like you’re losing money out the wazoo, but long term you’ll see that the money you invested is returning at a rate that has turned it into a nice business asset.

Investment: a devoting, using, or giving of time, talent, emotional energy, etc., as for a purpose or to achieve something

I bargained with life for a penny
And life would pay no more
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store

For life is a just employer
He gives you what you ask
But once you have set the wages
Why, you must bear the task

I worked for a menial’s hire
Only to learn dismayed
That any wage I had asked of life
Life would have willing paid.

For those of you just getting started in SEO / SEM consulting, listen up.

Earlier this year I partnered up with a business colleague to do some revenue share for him.  Basically it was this: I do SEO for him and I get a percentage of the revenue that the website creates.  I actually do this for several local businesses, but I’m not sure that it’s the best option.

While small businesses love to ‘partner up’ with other business owners, I’m really having second thoughts about doing this in the future.

Here’s the deal.  You offer a great service, one that can propel a business (literally) into a new revenue stream. You have the know-how and understanding to create wealth.  And wise small business owners will see this and want it.  However, most small businesses lack one thing – money.  While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience that a lot of small business owners want a lot, particularly things they can’t pay for.  Of course, who wouldn’t.

If I owned a coffee shop, and in came a guy with a laptop, having meetings, talking to business owners, I’d want to know what he offered.  I’d want him to market my business.  But I’m just a little coffee shop owner, I don’t have that kind of money to throw at marketing.

Just a word of advice – RUN!

My wife often tells me that I’ve got this soft spot for people in a pinch.  For some reason I feel bad when I see a business owner struggling, and I want to help.  I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes – perhaps they’re really bad at accounting.  Perhaps they are funding useless causes.  Perhaps they have no idea what’s going on at all in their business.  Whatever it is, all I see is the outward sadface, and I offer to help.

Most often she’s right (dammit!).  She sees me working for these people ‘in hopes of a future return’.  She sees the kids wanting new this and that, and she sees me working away, but the bank account doesn’t increase.  I can’t blame her for getting aggravated.

So if you’re good at SEO, and you know it, don’t fall for these things.  You offer a damn good product, quality advice and the power to increase sales.  Don’t let it go for cheap.

Disclaimer: There are plenty of reasons to help out a small business.  I am in no means telling you to avoid these altogether – rather I’m telling you to be wise.  If you have a friend that needs help, throw him some link juice. Do a small link building campaign. But don’t go overboard just to prove yourself.  If you want to do that, do it on your own website, not someone else’s.

I read a lot, too.  I’ve read all the ‘Rich Dad’ books, even bought one for my son.  I’ve read Tim Ferris’ 4 Hour Workweek (loved it) and many more.  Now I’m reading a great book called The Millionaire Next Door.

You could say I’m obsessed with being rich.

But I don’t think I am.  I do think that money is an awesome tool, and there are plenty of people out there who could use more, me included.  I’m not a believer in lotteries or unexpected windfalls.  Sure, that’d be nice, but I’d prefer to earn it myself.

(There’s a saying in the custom auto industry – build it or buy it.  I prefer build it.  A little old fashioned hard work never hurt anyone.)

Anyway, I pay attention to how these people make their money.  The guy on Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich made his money doing what he loved: mortgages.  There’s another guy on there who is in to leveraged buyouts of undervalued companies.  Most of these guys grew up in an average middle-class family, started working in an industry that interested them, and soon thereafter started their own companies doing the same thing.

It’s no secret that you’ll most likely never get ‘rich’ working for someone else.  Most all millionaires in the US are self-made, and they did it by starting their own company.  So I guess I’m on the right track.

Can an SEO firm make a millionaire? I don’t know, but I’ll let you know