I have many clients, been running my company for 6 years as an SEO. Time to look at investing in some of my own websites (I have some but never get time for them) to make money as my clients make 85%+ profit on their websites. I want to get to a point where my client's money is pure profit and my own sites pay bills/company bills/tax/lifestyle. Had some clients for 3+ years.
Most people don't even make the minimum wage with SEO. As for me I'm keeping this SEO business in the black after all those time spent ($7 an hour) and server/captcha costs etc. I'm looking to SEO for any opportunity to outsmart Google big-time for several months which will be like a lottery and improve a lot of things I care.
SEO is generally much easier to sell to business owners rather than to bank from your sites, because local keywords are much easier to rank for then national.
So as a business model i would choose selling SEO services every day of the week. If you're good with sales or can find someone to sell for you on a commission only basis, you can build a profitable business very quickly.
Hmm. I use SER on (some of) my own sites as I understand the risks. I think it is wrong to use a tool that though powerful is quite likely to give a penalty at some point in time on a small local business site who may be unaware of those risks - unless of course you are building new feeder sites to generate leads for those businesses rather than pointing direct to their only website.
I went full time in 2008 and haven't done any client work since, purely working on my own sites. It is definitely more risk than being a service provider, but so far the lean times have been more than outweighed by the successful ones. For anyone else taking that route I'd highly recommend diversifying the tactics you use to promote your sites as if you lean too hard on one technique or tool it can all go away overnight - balancing low and high risk projects can get you through the bumpy periods.
Namdas, that's quality advice right there. Nice one. It sounds like you run it like an investment portfolio, spreading it just thin enough to ensure you have gains all the way.
Good points made here gooner + namdas particularly.
Yes regarding SEO being easier to sell than to make profitable yourself I saw that a while ago. When i used to feel like shit for not having any rnaking sites and otehr ppl were saying they are making a tidy living I more and more found out they were selling the services to local companies rather than doing seo in the 'trenches' :P of the affiliate field.
I sort of see that as the same idea as selling shovels to the miners in the gold rush not a new analogy but one id thought id borrow again.
Anyway Im not dissing it and like you say goner i bet its easier IF you like to interact with ppl and are good at selling yourself. I dislike both which is why i went full bore with 'lone ranger' SEO. I realise now its prob the most difficult to turn a steady income but I imagine the most rewarding once things take of. Ive had my spells of success and I think its jsut the nature of the beast that its always gonna be boom and bust, i just have to make sure I capitalize as much as i can during booms and keep money in the bank for the droughts.
The past few weeks tho ive been playing around with youtube and selling my zennoposter services (plug plug! :P) as otehr options to perhaps alleviate the constant emotional blitzkrieg of relying solely on SEO for income or lack thereof.
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Living well
So as a business model i would choose selling SEO services every day of the week. If you're good with sales or can find someone to sell for you on a commission only basis, you can build a profitable business very quickly.
I went full time in 2008 and haven't done any client work since, purely working on my own sites. It is definitely more risk than being a service provider, but so far the lean times have been more than outweighed by the successful ones. For anyone else taking that route I'd highly recommend diversifying the tactics you use to promote your sites as if you lean too hard on one technique or tool it can all go away overnight - balancing low and high risk projects can get you through the bumpy periods.
Yes regarding SEO being easier to sell than to make profitable yourself I saw that a while ago. When i used to feel like shit for not having any rnaking sites and otehr ppl were saying they are making a tidy living I more and more found out they were selling the services to local companies rather than doing seo in the 'trenches' :P of the affiliate field.
I sort of see that as the same idea as selling shovels to the miners in the gold rush
Anyway Im not dissing it and like you say goner i bet its easier IF you like to interact with ppl and are good at selling yourself. I dislike both which is why i went full bore with 'lone ranger' SEO. I realise now its prob the most difficult to turn a steady income but I imagine the most rewarding once things take of. Ive had my spells of success and I think its jsut the nature of the beast that its always gonna be boom and bust, i just have to make sure I capitalize as much as i can during booms and keep money in the bank for the droughts.
The past few weeks tho ive been playing around with youtube and selling my zennoposter services (plug plug! :P) as otehr options to perhaps alleviate the constant emotional blitzkrieg of relying solely on SEO for income or lack thereof.