A Startup Experiment!

[GTC1187]

Today is the first day of my new experiment.
I built a website for my experiment business today and have the site fully built out with on-page SEO complete for 2/6 keywords I am targeting. I have already started building backlinks. All of this took me about 3 hours and less than $10 for expenses so far for the domain and hosting.

This is the basis for my experiment to see how little I can spend, as I will spare every expense that I can.
Along with spending as little as possible I will work as few hours as possible, yet still attempt to build a business that will produce enough profit to provide for a family.
I will also attempt to achieve my financial goals in as short a time period as possible.

The reason I am doing this is to provide a survival plan for those forced out of their careers by the struggling economy. If I succeed, others could follow what I did to keep them afloat when the chips are down.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

The website will be used to generate leads, which I will close myself.
I will be using subcontractors to complete the work.
I have now a business plan, estimate forms, a contract I will be using, and other various paperwork.
Now I will need to file my paperwork and get a 1M dollar general liability insurance policy, which costs around $800 a year.
Next I will need to source some reliable subcontractors while I climb in the SERPs...

 

[tom_rob]

Hey GTC, any updates?

Tom

 

[GTC1187]

72 Hour Update!

Okay Gentlemen and Ladies, it is time for the 72 Hour Update!

I have now built some backlinks including a PR4 that I am rather proud of, and my 3 day old website sits on Page 20 for it's main keyword, which should get 2,000 searches a month realistically. I'm targeting 5 other major keywords, which should total up to around 10,000 uniques per month that are local and seeking my service.
I have now spent a total of 5 hours, that's right, 5 hours on this project and have spent less than $10 on this experiment to date. I already had the web hosting at around $8 per month for the best hosting they have. Plus a couple bucks for an old domain I hadn't touched for months that wasn't doing a lot.
I will be logging my hours and keeping track of everything in this fake business, just to see how little I can work while still bringing in enough money to support a family of 4.
Since I have expended 5 hours in setting up the site and performing on-page SEO as well as starting the site's off-page SEO campaign, I will invest another 5 hours doing random stuff to gather more traffic as well as lay a foundation with which to brand my company on the net.
This fake expirement company will be bootstrapped with no debt, no venture capital, and next to nothing as far as my initial investment goes. Any profits will go toward the Lambo and the 98' motoryacht I hope to acquire in the next 4 years.
Thanks,
Grant Carter

P.S. This company will be based upon 100% Internet marketing. I will not advertise off- line or have any real off line presence except for employees which I will hold off if hiring until I must out of respect for sheer laziness.
The whole point of this exercise is to prove that one can go from penniless in the gutter to a successful entrepreneur in just a matter of months, without learning any new major skills!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

And as of the last update, I am now on page 17 for my main keyword.
I will begin hours 6-10 of work on the site right now, at 12:00 AM Central Time.
Lets see what just 10 total hours worth of work will do for us!
Thanks,
Grant

 

[GTC1187]

And yes, part of this 5 hour block will be used to finish the on-page optimization of the rest of the site's keywords. I will post an update in 5 hours going over what I have done.
Thanks,
Grant

 

[kwerner]

my 3 day old website sits on Page 20 for it's main keyword, which should get 2,000 searches a month realistically. I'm targeting 5 other major keywords, which should total up to around 10,000 uniques per month that are local and seeking my service.

Let me ask you a question before you get too deep into this project - are these *exact match* searches per month or broad match or phrase match? Also, you never mentioned what the competition looks like for the top 10.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

This is not a fastlane business, this is a survival plan for those who are completely screwed so that they can keep their house and car and feed their kids. It's also an opportunity for me to show off.
I did analyze my 6 keywords, but this site is for a local service company in a medium-large market.
I'm not trying to make a huge profit, in fact profit is one of the last things on my mind...

 

[GTC1187]

What I mean is, I don't care if we get a ton of traffic or not as long as we get more than our competitors.

 

[kwerner]

I did analyze my 6 keywords, but this site is for a local service company in a medium-large market.

So, does that mean that your main keyword gets 2000 *exact match* searches per month then? The reason I ask is because of your statement I quoted previously and this one:

I'm targeting 5 other major keywords, which should total up to around 10,000 uniques per month that are local and seeking my service.

A total of 10,000 *exact match* searches per month for a local service business seems like a lot to me.

...Wait, maybe not talking about people searching for their company name, but instead the type of service they provide + city name (such as "car washes austin" or something like that). Is that what you're saying, or do you mean something else?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

I was shocked when I saw the numbers from the AdWords Keyword Tool, it is notorious for exaggerating it's results. Even if I get less than half that many hits, I will still be swamped with estimates to run and subcontractors to babysit.
If I see more than 10-30 hits a day, which is what I initially expected, I'll have to come to a decision about what I wAnt to do with this company. I hadn't mentioned before now, but it is just a small cog in a large contraption I am in the process of building and I would hate for it to be taking too much of my time, given the service company makes less than half of what my other venture makes per manhour.
Thanks,
Grant

 

[kwerner]

Man, I just can't figure out what it could be that gets that many searches for a local service business, it definitely makes me curious. Good luck with it!

 

[GTC1187]

Okay, I have my on-page done to about the bare minimum I can get away with.
Backlinks are built and that concludes the first 10 hours of this experiment.
Let's see how many will get indexed and where the site ranks in about 6-8 hours from now.
Thanks,
Grant

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Denis]

This is interesting. Good idea.

Care to elaborate on your techniques for getting backlinks?

 

[GTC1187]

Update:

Okay, I installed WordPress on this domain on the 17th. It is now the 21st and one of my major keywords is now sitting on page 9, and another major keyword is now on page 13.
The other keywords are still looking for traction as more links get indexed. I'm interested to see if I can rank on the first page of Google and get my first call on or before Saturday. Organic conversions by a site only a week old is pretty cool.

 

[GTC1187]

Start building backlinks before submitting your XML sitemap? Check. Google dance? Double check!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[kwerner]

Updates?

 

[GTC1187]

Okay,
I got really sidetracked lately on my ecommerce site and with learning how to code with teamtreehouse.com, which I heard about here.
I still have this project on the front burner, but the content on my site was so new and I experienced wildly erratic google rankings trying to rank it so fast, so I've been letting it chill for a week or so and I will be ranking the keywords on the first page within the next couple of weeks, then have all the keywords in the first positions a couple of weeks after that.
I'm so busy with all of my projects right now and working on other people's stuff that I don't feel comfortable trying to run a service company too without taking some extra time to build the company on a solid foundation first.

 

[JEdwards]

You are really all over the place.. Good luck in finding success with that plan of action..

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

Hey, Jack!
I've been working pretty hard, I haven't taken but about 5 full days off since early October.
A couple of weeks ago I worked 27 hours without getting up from my desk for more than an hour.

 

[GTC1187]

I did get a $300 sale today though with my ecommerce website, which is pretty cool.

 

[kwerner]

What are you doing / plan on doing, specifically, to rank your site in first position?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

I'm just building backlinks(no spam) and doing on-page optimization.

 

[kwerner]

I'm just building backlinks(no spam) and doing on-page optimization.

Can you elaborate on this at all?? Are you building all links manually? Are you using any tools? What type of links? What's your strategy?

 

[kwerner]

I'm just building backlinks(no spam) and doing on-page optimization.

Can you elaborate on this at all?? Are you building all links manually? Are you using any tools? What type of links? What's your strategy?

Bump for answer to the above question. :coffee:

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[BetGeek]

What does the site do? What is the business model?
You're talking about leads, so there has to be a sale somewhere...

www.confused.me

 

[kwerner]

What does the site do? What is the business model?
You're talking about leads, so there has to be a sale somewhere...

www.confused.me

4 random posts within the first 22 minutes of signing up = suspicious

 

[biophase]

I did get a $300 sale today though with my ecommerce website, which is pretty cool.

Glad the site is working out! Aren't you glad you didn't close up shop or give the store to me!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GTC1187]

Damn straight, brother!
I've invested more time in the sushi knife site than I care to think about, but I've learned SEO and I'm now learning how to code. Skills that are monumental in the leverage they provide...

 

[NJDonny89]

GTC do you use any tools like Traffic Travis, Market Samurai, Scrape Box, or are you doing everything organically?