After almost 7 years on here, I have finally have a revenue-generating business

[Twiizlar]

Awesome Work!



Curious about this. What was your most effective method?
Also, are you sticking to your local geographic area or beyond?

My most effective method has personally been UpWork (I use it as a platform to find people in need then take it off UpWork after meeting with them) and reddit outreach. I have very little data as those were the 2 clients I secured lol.

I don't stick to a geographic location. Why should I? People need help all over the world and that's the beauty of an online business, you can help them from anywhere. Both of my clients sell all over the USA anyways so it wouldn't matter where i'm located.

 

[Darius]

I use them for different tasks and each have their own strengths. I like to keep them all as imo it's a necessary expense in order to get the best research.

Ahrefs is best for backlink building and competitor research.
SEMRush is best for keyword research.
Screaming Frog is best for technical website audits.

I use a mixture of these 3 tools daily and I don't want to rely on just one.

I've been a daily user of Screaming Frog for about 5 years and I'd recommend giving Sitebulb a trial. It's basically just a prettier screaming frog (more expensive too) but it's helped me speed up my workflow when auditing a site - and they have a 'crawl map' feature that's helpful for restructuring websites (and creating silos)

Once your revenue gets higher ($4-5k per month) - reach out and I'll give you recommendations on desktop software you should grab (and how you'd use them) that will speed up getting results for your clients.

 

[Darius]

So, a little update. I am still focusing on those 2 clients. I aim to build case studies out of these to add to my portfolio which will help me land more clients in the future. Both clients are benefiting from my work, one even had a 91% increase in organic traffic month over month. Considering I only had them for 1 month that is good since SEO does take some time so seeing fast results is motivating.

I have a quick questions.

I started this business with an action first mindset and didn't want to register the business until I had decent revenue. As we are a little over halfway through my 2nd month I figured I should start looking into that. I am leaning towards filing for a LLC. I was wondering if people do it themselves, use an online service (legalzoom), or use a lawyer. I know using a lawyer would be the easiest method but I would like to save money. I don't mind spending my own time going through the process. Any thoughts?

Depending on your state, it can be as easy as filling out an online form and paying a fee.

I've only filed an LLC in Ohio so I'm not sure how difficult it will be in your area. I feel like a simple Google search will tell you though.

I wouldn't hire a lawyer to file an LLC if I was in your position. I would consult with a CPA that specializes in taxes that could give you suggestions on what tax structure to go with for your LLC. Then you can file it yourself or using LegalZoom. (this isn't legal/financial advice though)

 

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[Twiizlar]

Do you have a plan on how you’re going to separate yourself from the actual work/business eventually? A lot of things for example, web development companies often times you have to do the web development. If you’re not developing, you’re not earning money.

What’s your plan?

No plan, like I always have been doing.

I worked a digital marketing internship for 3 months. There I found my passion for SEO and studied it religiously. When it ended in December 2018, I decided to commit and try to make it in the world of SEO freelancing (instead of getting a job).

I had no plan but I worked my a$$ off. Being that I had little experience and no portfolio, I just had to work 3x harder than the other freelancers. I had 5-6 potential client meetings before I finally landed my first one. I would spend 4-5 hours preparing for these meetings. I had no experience so I had to give away a lot of value and show them what I could do for them. All of this for free.

I finally landed one in January 2019 and I have been slowly snowballing since.

I kind of rambled on but my point is that I have no plan. I know I can eventually hire good freelancers to do everything I am doing but for now I am learning. I am learning how to freelance for my own clients and also learning SEO. After I reach $6k in revenue I'll start creating systems and hiring other freelancers to help me out.

Right now I am just enjoying the ride.

 

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[Xavier X]

Good job! Keep at it.

 

[Danny Sullivan]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your journey, including your up's and down's.

Might be a good time for writing a "How to" thread for the community to keep things sorted and maybe share some insights of which youtube channels might be interesting to watch, podcasts are worth listening, blogs are worth reading, which tools are handy to use and so on and so forth.

Keep rockin'.

 

[top boy]

Can you explain your prospecting method?

 

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[Maxboost]

where did you learn SEO tactics. I know the very basics but that is about it....

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Awesome Work!

• Cold calling myself
  I got tired of this after 30 calls. I know it's really effective and I would have picked it back up if I needed to later down the line

• Hired cheap appointment setter

• Cold emails

• Reddit outreach

• UpWork

• I work in a coworking space. There are about 30-40 private offices and I created a free SEO audit for each of them. I printed them in nice color and put them in a laminated report cover so it looked nice. I got a couple meetings but didn't close any.

• Craigslist

Curious about this. What was your most effective method?
Also, are you sticking to your local geographic area or beyond?

 

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[AdamUK]

Why do you use more than one paid SEO program? (ahref, semrush and screaming frog)
And that must eat into your profits. I think ahref alone is about 99$ per month.

Adam

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Good job man. Welcome to the club

 

[FinnVenture]

Thanks for sharing and AMAZING PROGRESS! How do you keep up to date with the blogs that you follow?

 

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[Kyle T]

Can you tell me more details about how you used Upwork to find clients and how you were able to transition clients away from it?

 

[JeffH]

Hey! Welcome to the forum.

So instead of trying to land individual clients, I should try to land a franchise?

I feel like there would be too many steps involved and especially unlikely for a small and new agency like me? I also couldn't handle more than 2 to 3 more clients as I want to slowly scale my business.

I'll look back into this when I get bigger and have more systems in place with a bigger team. Thanks!

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I usually read the forum at work and don't want to actually log in from there.

Yeah, franchise seem to have a typical punch list for marketing. After being in a franchise, myself, I truly learned a lot. After I left, I've always kept it in the back of my head that if you wanted to drum up some business for something that may be of use to a franchise, you could just use "the list" of franchises and play the numbers game; mailing each a sample, contact their marketing director, operations manager, CEO, etc.

Looking at my first reply, I worded that a little weird. I said all franchises use the same place. I meant the franchise picks the marketing agency and we, as franchisees "all" use the one they chose.

Yeah, if you can handle 1-2 more, you may contact some of them and just start working through them- although landing one may land you a small number of franchisees or 100's. I don't really know how much work the agency put in behind the scenes but usually they scheduled an appointment with us, verified some information (so that our info. would be consistent across our website, review platforms, etc) After that, if I wanted to change how much I spent each month on ranking and PPC, I just made a quick call. Honestly, when you own a franchise, we always joked that you just try to survive every day and it was a hat I didn't wear. Looking back, the agency had control, I didn't.

EDIT: We used a company called Dri ven Local....I pretty sure they were very small at the time. Looks like they were acquired by Scorpion

 

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[Mazzolini]

I never understood why people want to be a “freelancer” and not an ageny. If i were a business owner, i would much rather hire an “agency” than a “freelancer”. It just sounds a lot more professional and concentrated.

Thank you for the posts, this is very inspirational. I will work on my own PowerPoint template

Well, I my 2nd client posted on UpWork and I sent a highly personalized proposal to him. We then chatted on Skype and had 2 phone meetings. I put a lot of time into them and the first one was a complete personalized proposal.

I presented myself as professional as possible. I am not a freelancer (in their eyes), I am an agency owner. I explained in the beginning that I will invoice them monthly. I made sure my invoices were branded and also my powerpoint. This gave me legitimacy. I did not lie to the client and say I was a big agency or anything, I just acted like one

The only reason a potential client would want to deal through upwork is if they don't trust you. Which is fair for freelancers. I made everything super professional and built trust so that I could invoice him directly. It was also important to build trust as I would be invoicing at the start of the month, not after the work.

r j

 

[Twiizlar]

I never understood why people want to be a “freelancer” and not an ageny. If i were a business owner, i would much rather hire an “agency” than a “freelancer”. It just sounds a lot more professional and concentrated.

Thank you for the posts, this is very inspirational. I will work on my own PowerPoint template


r j

I have actually talked to many people that specifically want a freelancer and not a big agency. I've worked in a digital marketing agency before and I was stretched really thin and couldn't get good work done. Also, agencies tend to be pricier since they are more structured and established usually.

With a freelancer, you get a personal approach and not a random account manager that you have to deal with. Freelancers also usually come with a cheaper price.

That being said, I think the benefits of being an agency outweigh the benefits of being a freelancer. Although, it's not like you should be choosing as they are different. I define myself as an agency because I do work with a lot of different people (content writers, gfx designers, etc.) and I plan to expand in the future. I do not want to be a 1 man shop and the power of the internet makes it so I can hire other people when the time comes easily.

 

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[Twiizlar]

Depending on your state, it can be as easy as filling out an online form and paying a fee.

I've only filed an LLC in Ohio so I'm not sure how difficult it will be in your area. I feel like a simple Google search will tell you though.

I wouldn't hire a lawyer to file an LLC if I was in your position. I would consult with a CPA that specializes in taxes that could give you suggestions on what tax structure to go with for your LLC. Then you can file it yourself or using LegalZoom. (this isn't legal/financial advice though)

Thanks for the reply. I meant to say accountant and not lawyer that was my fault. I am wondering on how they can help me with my taxes. I am still starting and don't have too many moving parts. Down the line I will 100% hire an accountant for my taxes however I am considering just doing them myself right now.

That being said, I have never done taxes for a business and have no idea how all of it works.

 

[Ocean Man]

Update:

April is now over and it has been a good month.

• One of my clients upped his package from $699 to $1000.
• I got a small client for $499 on a month-by-month basis. April went good and he is on holiday but will most likely continue for more months
• I have contracted $130 worth of work to another agency (really easy work)
• I have just signed a client looking to white label my work at $50/hour on UpWork. I just completed his first test project where he wanted me to give him a year SEO plan for one of his own websites. I knocked it out of the park in my opinion. I have made $250 so far and will be getting more work from him soon

Those are the main updates in April. May I have guaranteed revenue of $3k + whatever more the 2 agencies need (I predict somewhere between $400-$500).

It has been a good month and my UpWork profile is now beefy with the $499 client and the $50/hour client. Before this I only had 2 projects done of $50. I now have $1k earned which looks good.

I am really proud that I have reached $3k/month. I have high profit on that revenue since it's digital work. I don't include any budget that my clients give me for backlinks ($400 and $100).

I'll be going hard again in May looking to sign more clients. The client that has upped to $1k said he has a friend who needs SEO help so he sent me his website. I sent back a proposal and I should be hearing back from them soon.

Things are looking promising!

Do you have a plan on how you’re going to separate yourself from the actual work/business eventually? A lot of things for example, web development companies often times you have to do the web development. If you’re not developing, you’re not earning money.

What’s your plan?

 

[Merging Left]

Do you have anything, other than this thread and perhaps your existing clients, keeping you accountable? Do you have anyone in your life who will call you out when you fall off the path or slip into old habits? If not, you might spend some time finding an accountability partner to push you through the moments of low motivation.

 

[Twiizlar]

Do you have anything, other than this thread and perhaps your existing clients, keeping you accountable? Do you have anyone in your life who will call you out when you fall off the path or slip into old habits? If not, you might spend some time finding an accountability partner to push you through the moments of low motivation.

No I currently do not. I do need one.

I'm a very strong believer in the saying that "you're the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with". When I am in an entrepreneurial environment I was working well. This was at my coworking space but once I started working from home I started to slack off. I am back on track.

I am thinking about either joining the coworking space again or finding a mastermind/accountability group. I am looking for entrepreneur meetups and stuff in person but I feel like most are general BS stuff. I wish there was a meetup of real entrepreneurs who just want to work on their business (and not sell stuff to the group lol).

 

[adaltorrero]

Excellent! You are starting young and that is an advantage. Keep it bro! Remember to re invest your earnings from the business in passive income. You will multiply your income. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[mrgetitdone]

awesome.

 

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[Jon L]

can you ask your old client and your current client for referrals?

 

[Twiizlar]

Yes, I plan to ask my old client for referrals soon. We just ended the contract the other day so I want to wait a little.

I bootstrapped so far and don't have too much money to reinvest. I am living very frugally. While I do have savings I do not want to tap into it at all. I want to keep growing this business so I can start investing heavily into marketing for myself.

What I am willing to invest is my time. Time to work hard!

 

[ownyourtime]

Great job on your current accomplishments. I’m not entirely familiar with SEO, but after reading this I am sure to read up.

 

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[uroz]

Great job man!
Don't wait too long to ask for referrals tho.

 

[ytomasch]

The only true failure is when you fail to get back up after being knocked down. Any other time i'd just call it a learning experience.

What's up guys, figured i'd give an update as it's been 6 months.

I have failed.

 

[MaxKhalus]

you

As you can see by my join date, I am approaching my 7 years on this forum. I joined this forum when I was 15 and a lot has happened since then. I joined in high school and have graduated college. Now, I have my own business.

I can't even begin to count the number of businesses I've "started". Everything from dropshipping, marketplaces, blogs, local services and the list goes on. I cringe when looking through my post history on here

I was the biggest wantreprenur and I was really comfortable during college. I didn't take much action and the little action I did take would only last 2-3 weeks. I was simply just too comfortable.

I graduated and got a job. Surprise, I didn't enjoy it. Even though I didn't enjoy it, I learned a lot. I got a job in digital marketing and found my passion for SEO specifically. I studied and learned about SEO 24/7 and practiced all on my own. I was simply obsessed with it. It fascinated me and really captured my interest.

That job was temporary and it ended on December 5th. I had some money saved up and gave myself a 3 month period to try to start my own SEO agency (which is basically freelancing in the beginning). I was very confident in my ability and the value I could provide. I worked my a$$ off and managed to sign my first client after 26 days. I would spend a lot of time prospecting and preparing for meetings. Since I didn't have a previous track record I would have to show the value I could bring in the meetings. I would prepare for 3-4 hours for each meeting basically giving away my strategies for free. After about 6 meetings like this, I signed my first client and have recently signed my second a couple days ago!

If you're curious about the numbers, the first is a 6-month, $1300/month contract and the second is a $630/month, 3 month contract. This is a start I am more than fine with and it is only up from here!

I'll be updating this thread periodically. Time to get to work

Edit: Maybe I should double check my title next time lol

that's awesome

 

[PapaGang]

Tremendous. Congratulations!

 

[PapaGang]

Low-dollar clients tend to be more demanding than high dollar ones.

Completely agree.