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.

Mike Volpe went over things such as what qualifications an SEO should have, what they should charge, what they should and shouldn’t do, and what they should wear.  Ok maybe not the last one.

Two particular things stuck out to me as wrong, and maybe its just me.  I’m going to cover one now and another in a few days.

Mike said: “You should also make sure that their own website is optimized…”

He went on to add, “I would ask them what their URL is, I would take that URL and plug it into website grader, and run the report.  And if they don’t get at least an 80 or 85, at least that, then you know what, they really don’t know what they’re doing – or they just haven’t decided that its important enough for them to optimize their own site… And if they aren’t one to keep their own house in order, I just wouldn’t bother to engage them…”

Well, I couldn’t disagree more.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if 80-90 percent of the “good” SEO’s out there couldn’t even be found online without a bit of work.

Why?

Well, first lets back up.  I’ve only been doing SEO going on three years, so I’m no veteran.  I will say, though, that some of the men and women in the industry that I’ve met have a very basic website and sometimes a blog.  They don’t tout their skills online because they don’t have to. Personally I’ve been doing it for a few years now and this is my real first attempt at really promoting my SEO skills online (and even then, this website is also to help my current clients to learn things about SEO, not just 100% self-promotion).

A good SEO is busy. And by busy I mean busy.  Too busy to worry about optimizing their piddly little website that isn’t bringing in many new customers.

You see, anyone willing to spend $2000+  per month isn’t going to make that spending decision by reading website copy.  They are going to want to get references, talk to the person and get that ‘feel good’ feeling about the person.  Whether or not their website ranks for (whatever) is not in their realm of thinking.  They are concerned with results.  And results are where it’s really at.

Instead of worrying about the SEO’s ranking, customers should focus on what that SEO is doing for his/her customers.  Ask for phone numbers to their customers (if they can share them).  Talk to their clients and ask about their results and their rankings.  That’s where the meat is. Ask about increased revenue, sales, and leads.  Are they producing or just taking their money?

Now for years when I didn’t understand SEO, I always thought that a good SEO company would rank for ‘SEO’ or related terms.  But now I have changed my thinking.

I think most of the good SEO’s are invisible.  And they can be, because they’re kickin’ ass and growing businesses.