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Wondering what the fastest way to make money online in 2018 is? No worries because that’s exactly what I’m going to show you today.
Let me start by saying that there is no guarantee you will be successful in what I’m about to show you. However, your chances of success are high if you take the right actions and are willing to put in the work to learn.
Listen:
I know the Internet marketing niche is saturated with people who claim to have the golden ticket for helping you make money online. And to be honest, there is a lot of nonsense out there. Many of these “gurus” make money by selling you products on how to make money.
Now, of course, that is still a valid business model.
But the issue I have with it, is that some of these gurus give you specific vehicles for making money online that they haven’t even had success in themselves.
That’s wrong.
So, listen:
If you have ever read my Gotch SEO blog, you know that I never share strategies unless I have personally tested, refined, and had success with them.
In fact, I even share many of my failures because those are often the biggest opportunities to learn. With that said, this method that I’m going to show you for making money online is the vehicle I used to escape my terrible job, build a thriving business, and ultimately have the capital to invest into other, more scalable business models.
So, what I’m going to show you today, is a business model that requires almost no capital to get started, has very little overhead, and can give you reliable monthly recurring revenue. After that, I’ll be showing you three strategies you can use TODAY to go out there and get your first customer or get even more customers.
What is this method I’ve been teasing you about? It’s simple:
SEO consulting or full service SEO.
So, the best way to show you the power of this method of making money online is to tell you a story. And don’t worry I’ll keep this short.
So, back in 2013, I was working a truly awful job as a loss prevention manager. During that time, I was also working on several niche websites because I wanted to make enough income to quit my job and go full-time online. My goal was $3,000 per month.
The challenge I faced is that I didn’t have enough capital to grow these niche websites fast enough. So, what I decided to do is begin looking for opportunities where I could do SEO for small businesses.
Within only a few days, I landed my first full-service SEO client for a whopping $100 per month.
In hindsight, it’s insane that I worked for that such a small retainer, but my goal wasn’t to bring in a ton of money. My goal was to get enough capital to support my niche site projects and to begin building a portfolio of successful SEO projects that I could leverage in the future.
But the truth is, back then, I realized that getting businesses to pay me to do SEO was much easier than trying to build several new businesses at a time.
So, that’s exactly what I began to do.
After this realization, I quit my job, packed my stuff up, and drove to St. Louis to not only be with my wife but to start my SEO agency. Within the first month, I built my monthly recurring revenue beyond $5,000 and ended up making over $200,000 in my first full year in business.
That is the beauty of full service SEO or consulting. You can grow your monthly recurring revenue very fast. Now of course, I’m not going to pretend that it’s all sunshine and roses.
There are some cons when it comes to client SEO.
Pros and Cons of Client SEO
Let’s start with the “cons” of going client SEO:
It’s labor intensive
It’s high pressure because you have to get results (or you get fired)
It’s very challenging to scale
It can feel like a job with many bosses
Low barrier to entry (higher competition)
Now, I’m not telling you this to scare you off. I just want to be realistic with what you can expect.
The truth is that the pros of getting into client SEO far outweigh the cons.
The pros of doing client SEO are as follows:
Low barrier to entry (pro and con)
Don’t need much startup capital (I started on a $500 credit card, but I don’t suggest doing it this way)
Low overhead
Reliable monthly recurring revenue
Multiple streams of income when you have multiple clients
Gives you capital that you can reinvest into other more scalable business models
So, at this point, you’re probably thinking what can you do right now to either get started in client SEO or get more clients for your existing SEO agency.
No worries, because I’m going to show you 3 ways you can get clients as soon as possible.
Before, I jump in, let me quickly explain what you need to get started.
3 Things You Need to Get Started
You need to know how to do SEO – It’s unethical and wrong to take someone’s money if you have no clue how to actually achieve the desired result. You don’t need to be an SEO master, but you need to have some wins under your belt. Ranking for hyper long-tail keywords is better than not ranking at all. Bringing me to my next point…
You need proof that you actually know what you’re doing – Document every single positive result that you get from SEO. Create case studies, gather testimonials, and do everything in your power to build a strong portfolio. This increases your perceived value and will make your sales process easier.
You have to be willing to face rejection and failure – Rejection and failure are effective learning vehicles and you should embrace them with open arms. There are no better teachers. As many personal development experts have said, you don’t learn much when you win. You learn far more when you lose because you get an opportunity to pivot.
Now that you know what you need to get started, let show you three ways you can get your first SEO client or add more clients to your existing business.
Strategy #1: Strategic Partnerships
This is easily one of the most surefire ways to grow your client SEO business. The challenge is that is requires you to do outreach and build relationships.
Here’s how it works:
You identify agencies that offer SEO as a service. You then reach out to them and ask them if they would be interested in using a white label SEO service provider.
If you succeed, you will then do the SEO for their clients, but they will get all the credit.
So in essence, the agency can focus on acquiring new customers and your only responsibility is to get their client’s results.
Many of my early clients were strategic partnerships. I can tell you from experience, that is a reliable and effective way to grow your agency.
But with that said, you don’t want to rely on this white label relationships as your sole source for revenue. It’s best use a combination of white labeling and direct to client relationships. That way you stay diversified.
The reason why white labeling is so great on your side is because you only have to sell to the agency one time. Once you partner up with the agency, they will send you new projects all the time.
That is, if you are getting results.
So, here’s a basic workflow you can use to build strategic partnerships:
Identify companies that offer SEO services. The most obvious target is other SEO agencies, but you should also build a prospect list of traditional marketing companies, web design/development companies, PPC companies, graphic design companies, or even video production companies.
Find contact information. You can use a tool like Voila Norbert or Hunter.io to find pretty much anyone’s email.
Start your outreach. I’m not going to give you a ton of guidance on outreach because a templated-based approach will have low conversion rates. You need to use personalized, well-thought out email to build relationships.
With that said, I’ll give you some key elements you need to cover if you want to have high conversion rates.
Get. to. the. point.
Here’s what most people think when they get an unsolicited outreach email:
Who are you?
Why do you matter to me?
What’s in it for me?
What’s your offer and how is it going to benefit me?
I see this mistake so frequently when people reach out to me wanting something.
They want without giving first.
People want to know how they are going to benefit from your proposal. Think about how you are going to help the person you want to influence before thinking about your wants and needs.
Lastly, give the individual a strong offer. Strong offers benefit the other party more than you. It’s that simple.
Strategy #2: The FOMO Tactic
Let me start by defining what “FOMO” is… FOMO stands for fear of missing out. I won’t get too deep into the psychology of FOMO, but it’s a powerful principle that works almost all human beings.
The way you are going to leverage this principle is by finding influencers who don’t have a strong organic search presence. Then you will reach out to them and give them data showing how much traffic they are missing out on. Obviously, the end goal is to do SEO for them.
So, let me get a little more specific about these steps:
1. Develop a list of influencers (Instagram, YouTube, etc) who aren’t getting much organic search traffic. The key is to find influencers where the follower to organic search traffic ratio is way off.
For example, let’s say a fashion influencer has 100,000 followers on Instagram, but you estimate their organic search traffic is less than 10,000 visitors per month. This would be a prime candidate to reach out to. Ultimately, look for unbalanced ratios or little, to no organic search traffic.
Now you’re probably thinking, how do I do that? Just throw the prospects URL into SEMRush (20-day free trial) or Ahrefs to see their estimated organic search traffic.
Take note because this will be primary leverage point when reaching out.
2. Do some basic keyword research to get search volume.
3. Reach out to the influencer(s) to gauge their interest. Use a template like this:
Hey [NAME], love what you’re doing on [Insert Platform]. My name is [Your Name] and I’m the head of SEO at [Your Agency]. I noticed that you have a large following on [Platform], but I wanted to give you a heads up that you’re missing out on approximately [INSERT TRAFFIC ESTIMATE] website visitors every month. Can I send you a quick video showing you how you can capture this traffic you’re missing out on?
4. Send a follow up sequence if they don’t respond.
5. If they do respond, then you need to show them the keywords they could rank for + how much traffic they could get from ranking for those keywords.
6. Send pitch email or get on the phone.
Just make sure your offer is “special” and that there is a deadline attached to it. If you don’t have a ton of credibility, then you use a free or ultra low priced offer just to get your feet in the door (free SEO audit, free keyword research + a SEO content strategy, free competitor analysis, free link prospecting, etc).
The key is add massive value upfront and remember that lifetime value is what really matters.
Strategy #3: Client Thief Method
Strategy #3 is the most risque method because you are calling out low performing agencies.
The truth is that businesses pay to get results. They aren’t a charity and they want to see a return on their SEO investment. If an SEO agency isn’t achieving that goal, then there is no reason that a business should continue to pay them.
Of course, every SEO agency needs a fair shot. Which means that they should be given enough time to be properly evaluated.
To put that in perspective, most SEO campaigns pick up traction around the six month mark, but this can vary greatly based on website authority, website age, and various other issues that are encountered. So, in essence, the Client Thief Method is designed to attract businesses who are unsatisfied with their existing SEO campaign.
Here’s how it works:
1. Create a landing page using Leadpages or some other platform that streamlines the process.
2. Create a Facebook ad. Here’s are some ideas:
“Does your SEO agency suck?” or “Is your SEO agency not getting you results?”… we will audit your website and SEO campaign 100% free. No commitments. We will tell you if your agency is on the right track or if they don’t know what they’re doing. This analysis is 100% free and private (don’t worry, we won’t tell your agency). Your business deserves to get results when you are paying an agency. Don’t waste another day wondering if your SEO agency actually knows what they’re doing or not. Secure your free assessment today.
3. Send a video or text-based SEO audit (pdf)
4. “We can help” pitch. Nothing complicated here. You showed them the issues in the audit and now you are simply emphasizing that you know how to fix them.
5. Categorize your prospects based on sales cycle. For example if the prospect is locked into a contract, make sure you note that in your CRM. That way you can follow up in the future.
Conclusion
Getting into client SEO or any type of consulting work is one of the fastest ways to make money online. I’m so incredibly grateful that I stumbled upon this form of monetization because it was the ultimate teacher and most importantly, it gave me the capital to try other business models.
Want to learn SEO?