Growing a Pay Per Click Business (Agency?)

[Envious]

I've started a new progress thread that is going to be focused on scaling pay per click freelancing until it becomes a high income cashflow business.

I hate the term Agency, but what I do know is that I don't wan't to get stuck in the weeds being a freelancer. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it isn't going to allow me to separate my time from money and sell the business, which is what I would like to have the option of doing in the future.

In my last progress thread I was scratching around, learning different types of marketing and trying to fumble my way into getting some clients.
I managed to save up around 6 months of living expenses and have two monthly clients on retainer (with a couple more in the pipeline). It was at this point I decided to leave my job as I needed to cut that safety net and give this a real go.

Why a PPC Agency?

• Low start up cost
• I've already got two paying clients that I'm getting results for
• Almost instant results and feedback where as SEO, Social Media takes time
• I like monthly cashflow clients, not one of projects
• I needed to just pick something instead of being 'the idea guy'
• Did @Andy Black google ads course (thanks andy)!

Where am i so far?

• As mentioned, two clients with a couple more potentially in the pipeline. I've been doing a free trial for a construction company, currently spent a lot of time on a new landing page, his google ads and I've managed to get him 8 leads so far for about 50 pounds per lead. He's happy with it and looking like he will continue
• Building a portfolio of case studies and reviews for my website and trying to work out my offer.

Where am i struggling?

• Getting clients is a struggle, think I need to reread @Kyle T thread and start trying the methods on there.
• Productivity - some days I work 10-12 hours pretty much non stop, some days, only 6. I find it hard working from home and I need to get better at planning out my weeks.
• Not sure what the next step is which causes some negative thoughts and self doubt.

I don't LOVE this business model in all honesty,(maybe i will learn to?). I do think it is a little saturated and some clients can be a pain to deal with. But it's the best i've got for now and it's paying the bills!

Will update soon!

 

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[Andy Black]

I've started a new progress thread that is going to be focused on scaling pay per click freelancing until it becomes a high income cashflow business.

I hate the term Agency, but what I do know is that I don't wan't to get stuck in the weeds being a freelancer. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it isn't going to allow me to separate my time from money and sell the business, which is what I would like to have the option of doing in the future.

In my last progress thread I was scratching around, learning different types of marketing and trying to fumble my way into getting some clients.
I managed to save up around 6 months of living expenses and have two monthly clients on retainer (with a couple more in the pipeline). It was at this point I decided to leave my job as I needed to cut that safety net and give this a real go.

Why a PPC Agency?

• Low start up cost
• I've already got two paying clients that I'm getting results for
• Almost instant results and feedback where as SEO, Social Media takes time
• I like monthly cashflow clients, not one of projects
• I needed to just pick something instead of being 'the idea guy'
• Did @Andy Black google ads course (thanks andy)!

Where am i so far?

• As mentioned, two clients with a couple more potentially in the pipeline. I've been doing a free trial for a construction company, currently spent a lot of time on a new landing page, his google ads and I've managed to get him 8 leads so far for about 50 pounds per lead. He's happy with it and looking like he will continue
• Building a portfolio of case studies and reviews for my website and trying to work out my offer.

Where am i struggling?

• Getting clients is a struggle, think I need to reread @Kyle T thread and start trying the methods on there.
• Productivity - some days I work 10-12 hours pretty much non stop, some days, only 6. I find it hard working from home and I need to get better at planning out my weeks.
• Not sure what the next step is which causes some negative thoughts and self doubt.

I don't LOVE this business model in all honesty,(maybe i will learn to?). I do think it is a little saturated and some clients can be a pain to deal with. But it's the best i've got for now and it's paying the bills!

Will update soon!

I don’t love it as a business model either, but I do love meeting new business owners and finding out about their businesses and trying to help them. It’s got to the point where the money pays the bills and I’m letting clients churn without replacing them so I can start applying my skills to selling/building my own things. It’s a great skill to have, and to meet and learn from business owners.

 

[Envious]

I don’t love it as a business model either, but I do love meeting new business owners and finding out about their businesses and trying to help them. It’s got to the point where the money pays the bills and I’m letting clients churn without replacing them so I can start applying my skills to selling/building my own things. It’s a great skill to have, and to meet and learn from business owners.

Yeah I agree, it's a great skill to have, and along the way you pick up other skills and network with other business owners. I guess what I don't like about it is the back and forth with clients and managing expectations. I think my Ideal model is where the work is front loaded (build a product, Saas, App) where people can decided to buy then and there, there isn't this dance you have to do.

But entrepreneurship is for life, so there is nothing to say when you get tired of it you can't sell or switch etc.

 

[Andy Black]

Yeah I agree, it's a great skill to have, and along the way you pick up other skills and network with other business owners. I guess what I don't like about it is the back and forth with clients and managing expectations. I think my Ideal model is where the work is front loaded (build a product, Saas, App) where people can decided to buy then and there, there isn't this dance you have to do.

But entrepreneurship is for life, so there is nothing to say when you get tired of it you can't sell or switch etc.

Well, with the right client it’s sometimes a case of set it up and then just keep the plate spinning. I’ve got some clients who we send weekly reports to and they never reply. The invoice gets paid like clockwork so I presume they’re happy.

 

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[eliquid]

I think my Ideal model is where the work is front loaded (build a product, Saas, App) where people can decided to buy then and there, there isn't this dance you have to do

As a SaaS owner AND a PPC guy....

I can tell you first hand this isn't as it seems. There is plenty of the dance in having a SaaS

 

[Andy Black]

As a SaaS owner AND a PPC guy....

I can tell you first hand this isn't as it seems. There is plenty of the dance in having a SaaS

The grass is always greener!

@johnp ... You’ve a budding SaaS and work for a SaaS doing their PPC (amongst other things). Curious what you think.

 

[johnp]

You’ve a budding SaaS and work for a SaaS doing their PPC (amongst other things). Curious what you think.

Ha!! Yes so true.

So, I do marketing (PPC & SEO) for a SaaS doing about 5 million ARR (10+ years established) and I built my own SaaS. In my experience of both working for a successful SaaS company and building my own from the ground up, I can say that it's not what it seems. Both SaaS companies were product-led/self-serve models. The day job company has about 10 people just support services. There's a reason why SaaS is "software as a service". Many people who are new to it just think that it's software without service, which is the furthest thing from the truth. In fact, I've used service to really sell the software.

All i can say is that SaaS is a lot harder than it seems. I spend quite a bit of time talking to customers and optimizing my onboarding experience to deal with churn and other stuff. Right now I'm tracking down two people for declined credit card payments.

Is the grass greener? Maybe a little - but I think it's a personal thing for me. I LOVE the SaaS game, but I've taken a ton of hits along the way.

 

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[Envious]

As a SaaS owner AND a PPC guy....

I can tell you first hand this isn't as it seems. There is plenty of the dance in having a SaaS

Ha!! Yes so true.

So, I do marketing (PPC & SEO) for a SaaS doing about 5 million ARR (10+ years established) and I built my own SaaS. In my experience of both working for a successful SaaS company and building my own from the ground up, I can say that it's not what it seems. Both SaaS companies were product-led/self-serve models. The day job company has about 10 people just support services. There's a reason why SaaS is "software as a service". Many people who are new to it just think that it's software without service, which is the furthest thing from the truth. In fact, I've used service to really sell the software.

All i can say is that SaaS is a lot harder than it seems. I spend quite a bit of time talking to customers and optimizing my onboarding experience to deal with churn and other stuff. Right now I'm tracking down two people for declined credit card payments.

Is the grass greener? Maybe a little - but I think it's a personal thing for me. I LOVE the SaaS game, but I've taken a ton of hits along the way.

Thanks for the insight guys, I guess from the outside things always seem better !

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Out of curiosity what do you think is the minimum someone could pay on ads and still get results? I’ve met fifty or so small business owners and they all need help but I don’t speak PPC at all so I had no idea what to say.

 

[Envious]

Out of curiosity what do you think is the minimum someone could pay on ads and still get results? I’ve met fifty or so small business owners and they all need help but I don’t speak PPC at all so I had no idea what to say.

It depends on the industry, some work better than others and some are more expensive per click than others due to competition.

Try to get them to think of the value not the cost.

For example, say they spend 400 dollars on adspend and get 10 enquiries/calls/quotes.

They may look at it like 40 dollars per enquiry is quite expensive.

But what is One sale worth to them?

If they close the sale and it's worth 2000 dollars to them, then instead of costing them 400, you show them that for every 400 they spend, they will gain 1600.

Even if you add your fee on top, they are still getting a good return.

Then it becomes very attractive.

Most small business owners only see the cost, they don't see what they could gain.

And alot of small business owners don't feel comfortable growing for various reasons.

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

It depends on the industry, some work better than others and some are more expensive per click than others due to competition.

Try to get them to think of the value not the cost.

For example, say they spend 400 dollars on adspend and get 10 enquiries/calls/quotes.

They may look at it like 40 dollars per enquiry is quite expensive.

But what is One sale worth to them?

If they close the sale and it's worth 2000 dollars to them, then instead of costing them 400, you show them that for every 400 they spend, they will gain 1600.

Even if you add your fee on top, they are still getting a good return.

Then it becomes very attractive.

Most small business owners only see the cost, they don't see what they could gain.

And alot of small business owners don't feel comfortable growing for various reasons.

So it just depends then is what you’re saying. FWIW, I don’t have any problems selling..I just don’t sell PPC. I’ve been selling SEO or fb ads which typically come at a $1500-$3700 per month price point. It’s just.. I feel bad for the really new businesses. They need traffic but their budget is less than $500 a month. I didn’t know if a business could get any return for that on PPC.

 

[Andy Black]

So it just depends then is what you’re saying. FWIW, I don’t have any problems selling..I just don’t sell PPC. I’ve been selling SEO or fb ads which typically come at a $1500-$3700 per month price point. It’s just.. I feel bad for the really new businesses. They need traffic but their budget is less than $500 a month. I didn’t know if a business could get any return for that on PPC.

I hear you. I typically charge the lower end in fees because I want to help the smaller guys.

Sometimes businesses can get decent leads for €10/day or less in ad spend.

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

I hear you. I typically charge the lower end in fees because I want to help the smaller guys.

Sometimes businesses can get decent leads for €10/day or less in ad spend.

That’s great! Now I have something else to research. *runs off to read all your threads .. lol. Thanks Andy!

 

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[Andy Black]

That’s great! Now I have something else to research. *runs off to read all your threads .. lol. Thanks Andy!

We had a child physio who only spent €20-30 per week on Google Ads. We really wanted to help her so only charged her €75/mth. We split our fee three ways between myself, my developer, and my graphic designer. We’d designed and built a page for her, and I built the Google Ads campaigns. We ran the campaigns for her without any change for a couple of years.

Some would argue we should have charged more, but I think she was part-time and we wanted to help her and the kids she helped. When you think about it, €25/mth for two years for work you did once isn’t too bad right?

If you had a SaaS then €75/mth might be a nice monthly fee, especially if they stayed for two years and you didn’t have any work to do. (We did send a weekly report every Monday and she replied with how things went the previous week.)

 

[Envious]

Been working with this construction business owner for free in return for a case study and testimonial that I can use to get more clients.

I've got him 9 leads so far and he seems very happy, but wether he will actually commit to paying a monthly fee is another conversation all together.

I built a landing page for him which I own and built the ads within his own account. Once the fee trial is over and if he doesn't continue as a paying client, I will stop using my landing page and send it to his website.

I know many people don't recommend working for free. But here is how i see it.

Provide a great service with great communication and you will get at least one of these three things:

• A Paying Client
• A referral
• A review and testimonial.

Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but it most cases this will be true.

When you're just starting out, no job is beneath you.

Besides, you need to stand out from the hundreds of digital marketers out there who put no skin in the game.

 

[Blackman]

Been working with this construction business owner for free in return for a case study and testimonial that I can use to get more clients.

I've got him 9 leads so far and he seems very happy, but wether he will actually commit to paying a monthly fee is another conversation all together.

I built a landing page for him which I own and built the ads within his own account. Once the fee trial is over and if he doesn't continue as a paying client, I will stop using my landing page and send it to his website.

I know many people don't recommend working for free. But here is how i see it.

Provide a great service with great communication and you will get at least one of these three things:

• A Paying Client
• A referral
• A review and testimonial.

Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but it most cases this will be true.

When you're just starting out, no job is beneath you.

Besides, you need to stand out from the hundreds of digital marketers out there who put no skin in the game.

We are kind of in the same boat, even located in the same city.

I'm also working for "free" for prospects (not clients yet) to build up a campaign and make sure we have a steady flow of leads coming in, before I can start charging them a monthly fee.

I think there's nothing wrong with that, especially when you don't have a portfolio of previous clients, and you are just starting out, so naturally you just want to be helpful and build some relationships, which will hopefully mean more referrals in the future.

One thing I would suggest is to keep everything in your own Google Ads account, rather than theirs, as this gives you slightly more control, and doesn't completely reveal how you run campaigns, so the client shouldn't be tempted to ditch you and try to figure out how to do everything themselves.

How did you get hold of this construction guy?

You might want to check out Andy's thread on local lead gen, as it's packed with info on exactly this.

 

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[Envious]

We are kind of in the same boat, even located in the same city.

I'm also working for "free" for prospects (not clients yet) to build up a campaign and make sure we have a steady flow of leads coming in, before I can start charging them a monthly fee.

I think there's nothing wrong with that, especially when you don't have a portfolio of previous clients, and you are just starting out, so naturally you just want to be helpful and build some relationships, which will hopefully mean more referrals in the future.

One thing I would suggest is to keep everything in your own Google Ads account, rather than theirs, as this gives you slightly more control, and doesn't completely reveal how you run campaigns, so the client shouldn't be tempted to ditch you and try to figure out how to do everything themselves.

How did you get hold of this construction guy?

You might want to check out Andy's thread on local lead gen, as it's packed with info on exactly this.

Thanks for the reply. What part of London you based in?

I should clarify, he already had google ads running but wasn't getting any results so I linked to his account with my manager account.

I want to be as transparent and honest as possible without creating un-necessary friction.

Sure, I might gain some control, but in the process i might lose trust which is pretty much everything where trying to gain a client.

I also own the landing page and I think most business owners just want the results without having the headache of learning how to get them.

Surprisingly, I got hold of him through cold email and he took a punt on me. Cold email hasn't been effective IMO compared to the amount of time I've put in, but I'm willing to try again once I can craft a No-brainer offer, and get a system in place with a software to send out the emails.

Its so time consuming otherwise!

 

[Blackman]

@Envious

I'm in south-west London.

Haven't tried cold emailing myself, as I think company emails get bombarded with such offers, so it's hard to stand out, even if you spend time on crafting creative subject lines, etc.

I did quite a bit of cold calling, which worked to an extent, but again, you're getting a lot of rejections doing this, and feels like you're wasting time, when only 1 out of 20 calls goes in favour.

I guess that's still a result, if you have nothing on your plate.

 

[Envious]

Just had a call with a guy who owned (and sold) a 7 figure agency some years back. He's been coaching agencies ever since.

He mentioned that I need a niche as it's too competitive to be a generalist and you'll end up competing on price which is not where you want to be.

I agree with him.

But It's left me probably more confused than when I started! :/

 

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[Andy Black]

Just had a call with a guy who owned (and sold) a 7 figure agency some years back. He's been coaching agencies ever since.

He mentioned that I need a niche as it's too competitive to be a generalist and you'll end up competing on price which is not where you want to be.

I agree with him.

But It's left me probably more confused than when I started! :/

I think our niche often reveals itself as we keep engaging the market.

 

[Blackman]

Just had a call with a guy who owned (and sold) a 7 figure agency some years back. He's been coaching agencies ever since.

He mentioned that I need a niche as it's too competitive to be a generalist and you'll end up competing on price which is not where you want to be.

I agree with him.

But It's left me probably more confused than when I started! :/

If you're doing well in construction, why don't you reach out to other construction companies and offer them your services?

Forget emails, try cold-calling first and see how it goes, as this way you'll get results faster, rather than blasting tons of emails and hearing no feedback.

You may want to watch a few cold calling videos on Youtube to learn best practices, how to get past receptionists, what to say to decision makers, etc.

The good thing is that you already have something that works and your client is happy, so just think of ways of how you could do the same thing for another company in a different location.

 

[Envious]

It's been around 6 weeks of working with the construction company, in that time I've gotten them around 20 leads.

It's not a mind blowing amount, but I learn't a lot and also they provided me with very little information to work from so it's a result I'm happy with and I think he is too.

The ads are working well and the right traffic is coming to the site (a large amount of negative keywords has weeded out poor quality traffic) but as the site is a little thin on the social proof side, conversions remain fairly low.

There is a lot more we can do, but without the effort from his part, conversions will likely stay the same

I've now given the owner two options - Continue working together for a fee or to give me a testimonial (hopefully a referral too)

My facebook ads client I'm on track to hit all of their targets and its looking likely they will extend the contract

I've also been building my case studies, Standard operating procedures and my website during this time.

I've been reading a lot about how very successful agency owners got to where they are now - And they all keep saying the same thing - CONTENT. Create it, promote it and keep building it. So i guess that is what I will have to do.

This gave me a great amount of fear at first and the self doubts came thick and fast.

Who would want to read what I write?
I'm not an expert?
Who needs another blog?
I can't write

I felt like I wanted to give up, I started looking for other options.

But i know that the only way to become a good writer and someone who is confident in their craft is to stop running away from the things you know you should do.

I'll be writing a post per week and trying to build an email list at the same time.

 

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[Envious]

Not heard anything back from the builder. I'll give him till Monday and then chase him.

I've joined a BNI chapter local to me, it's expensive and a bit commitment but I think it's a good way of getting clients, helping businesses and refining my offer.

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust.

Been playing around with ahrefs and semrush to formulate some article ideas. It's a shame that digital marketing is so competitive and getting search engine traffic is not going to be easy. It will probably take at least a year to get some traffic to the site, but I have the resolve to keep plugging away and eventually it will come.

Had a bit of a 'aha' moment too when using these SEO tools. I checked a competitors website (a very big google ads agency in the UK) and saw that they were getting maybe 5-10 visits on each of their pages and blog posts.

It doesn't sound like a lot right?

But if you've got 500 pages and each is getting 10 visits, then you've got a lot of eyeballs on your site, signing up to your newsletter and converting into leads.

If only 0.5% of those readers become leads, thats 25 leads a month or 300 per year, just from one channel! That's the power of content and SEO.

I never looked at it like that before (probably why I always avoided content marketing) and it firmly cemented in me that you have to build an audience.

 

[Andy Black]

Not heard anything back from the builder. I'll give him till Monday and then chase him.

I've joined a BNI chapter local to me, it's expensive and a bit commitment but I think it's a good way of getting clients, helping businesses and refining my offer.

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust.

Been playing around with ahrefs and semrush to formulate some article ideas. It's a shame that digital marketing is so competitive and getting search engine traffic is not going to be easy. It will probably take at least a year to get some traffic to the site, but I have the resolve to keep plugging away and eventually it will come.

Had a bit of a 'aha' moment too when using these SEO tools. I checked a competitors website (a very big google ads agency in the UK) and saw that they were getting maybe 5-10 visits on each of their pages and blog posts.

It doesn't sound like a lot right?

But if you've got 500 pages and each is getting 10 visits, then you've got a lot of eyeballs on your site, signing up to your newsletter and converting into leads.

If only 0.5% of those readers become leads, thats 25 leads a month or 300 per year, just from one channel! That's the power of content and SEO.

I never looked at it like that before (probably why I always avoided content marketing) and it firmly cemented in me that you have to build an audience.

I don’t have any articles on any websites I own. I may get round to it later this year. I figure, why write on a blog and hope you’ll get visitors from Google in a years time? Why not help people where they are, at the time they have a problem or query? Or create content and run ads to it?

Have you listened to the chat I had with @Kak about building relationships?

Last year I joined a Facebook group of 2,500+ Irish business owners, purely because I wanted to chatter with more local brick and mortar business owners and maybe make a few more business friends locally. There’s a paid area so I coughed up because I prefer being in smaller paid groups. That meant chatting to the group/business owner first before getting accepted. She then found out what I did, but didn’t trust me because (as she laughingly said) she doesn’t trust any of you online marketers.

After being a normal group member for a while (and not spamming anyone as marketers are wont to do) she invited me to do a Google Ads workshop last night which went down really well. I spoke to her this morning and she wants me to run paid online workshops for her members. We’ll split the proceeds 50/50.

She also runs a directory of 130,000+ Irish businesses. She wants to have a Zoom next week about how I can help her grow that and add more value to its members.

Another of the group admins wants to have a chat about selling a social media marketing course he’s got created. I won’t charge him for my Google Ads advice because it will be great to rub shoulders with him and get his help with social media marketing.

Personally I’d rather build relationships than go the SEO route.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I don’t have any articles on any websites I own. I may get round to it later this year. I figure, why write on a blog and hope you’ll get visitors from Google in a years time? Why not help people where they are, at the time they have a problem or query? Or create content and run ads to it?

Have you listened to the chat I had with @Kak about building relationships?

Last year I joined a Facebook group of 2,500+ Irish business owners, purely because I wanted to chatter with more local brick and mortar business owners and maybe make a few more business friends locally. There’s a paid area so I coughed up because I prefer being in smaller paid groups. That meant chatting to the group/business owner first. She then knew what I did, but didn’t trust me because, as she laughingly said, I don’t trust any of you online marketers.

After being a normal group member for a while (and not spamming anyone as marketers are wont to do) she invited me to do a Google Ads workshop last night which went down really well. I spoke to her this morning and she wants me to run paid online workshops for her members. We’ll split the proceeds 50/50.

She also runs a directory of 130,000+ Irish businesses. She wants to have a Zoom next week about how I can help her grow that and add more value to its members.

Another of the group admins wants to have a chat about selling a social media marketing course he’s got created. I won’t change him for my Google Ads advice because it will be great to run shoulders with him and get his help with social media marketing.

Personally I’d rather build relationships than go the SEO route.

You have an interesting perspective on this @Andy Black . I remember from the thread on COVID that we were both similarly affected by recent events. One thing that I noticed in the aftermath though is that it's much harder to score high ticket sales than before (probably 80% of our revenue comes from the sale of big funnels and marketing campaigns which can cost $3-20K).

Before, my cold email and cold LinkedIn campaigns were working quite well. We'd find people we could help, reach out, get on a call, and then close. Nowadays, that is all much harder. Buyers are really strategic, and harder to find on the prospecting end. There's less commitment, and even getting calls/meetings is harder than before.

In my case, I wish I had gone the SEO route in the past when I could have easily afforded to do it. I also thought it's not necessary. But, when the business owner comes to you, it's much easier to make a sale and help them. Whereas they are naturally skeptical when you go to them. The SEO route is actually much easier than you make it seem.

Even my website, which believe me only has 3 blog articles, and about 8 pages (one for each service), can rank in the first 3 pages for important and highly competitive keywords. If back when I had 6 employees I put someone to work just on SEO for us, we would be getting a consistent pipeline of leads today, without doing anything else. Even in such a poor condition, the website delivers 1-2 SEO leads every month. Then the focus would be on how can we help them, rather than how can we find them.

So I'd say get their attention in an automated way, start building relationships only after they reach out. That is ideal it seems to me based off what I learned.

 

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[Envious]

I don’t have any articles on any websites I own. I may get round to it later this year. I figure, why write on a blog and hope you’ll get visitors from Google in a years time? Why not help people where they are, at the time they have a problem or query? Or create content and run ads to it?

Have you listened to the chat I had with @Kak about building relationships?

Last year I joined a Facebook group of 2,500+ Irish business owners, purely because I wanted to chatter with more local brick and mortar business owners and maybe make a few more business friends locally. There’s a paid area so I coughed up because I prefer being in smaller paid groups. That meant chatting to the group/business owner first before getting accepted. She then knew found out what I did, but didn’t trust me because (as she laughingly said) she doesn’t trust any of you online marketers.

After being a normal group member for a while (and not spamming anyone as marketers are wont to do) she invited me to do a Google Ads workshop last night which went down really well. I spoke to her this morning and she wants me to run paid online workshops for her members. We’ll split the proceeds 50/50.

She also runs a directory of 130,000+ Irish businesses. She wants to have a Zoom next week about how I can help her grow that and add more value to its members.

Another of the group admins wants to have a chat about selling a social media marketing course he’s got created. I won’t charge him for my Google Ads advice because it will be great to rub shoulders with him and get his help with social media marketing.

Personally I’d rather build relationships than go the SEO route.

I agree somewhat, but it doesn't need to be either / or. It can be both.

Building relationships and building an audience can be done at the same time and will compliment each other.

The reason I'm sold on it is I've listened to, read about and spoke to successful people who have done what I'm trying to do and they have all said writing good content and building an audience is the number 1 thing to grow a business. If its good enough for them it's good enough for me haha.

 

[eliquid]

I agree somewhat, but it doesn't need to be either / or. It can be both.

Building relationships and building an audience can be done at the same time and will compliment each other.

The reason I'm sold on it is I've listened to, read about and spoke to successful people who have done what I'm trying to do and they have all said writing good content and building an audience is the number 1 thing to grow a business. If its good enough for them it's good enough for me haha.

The only issue I see from this is, when did these people do it?

Even something as recent as 1 year ago could be a big change today.

Users have so many more distraction moats now then they did 12 months ago, or 24 months ago, or dare I say 6 months ago. What worked for 20 people, who you may now follow, 24 months ago building up great content that you are now reading a book on, or podcast for, might not actually work that well now.

Same for anyone you have spoke with.

Posting articles on your blog and on Medium and on LinkedIn worked very well 2 years ago. It could have built you up to be an authority which slingshots any content you make now even further.

Someone that is new and just starting? Not so much the same runway. For an example, I now don't read anything on anyone's blog, Medium, or LinkedIn.. I have too many other distractions now like Tik Tok and such. Years ago, I did as there wasn't as many distractions.

Can you get some success? Sure.

Will you be able to live up to the success of someone that your reading a book on got from 2 years ago? Probably not.

Also, it isn't about the content. It's about what's in the content. You have to make not good content, you have to make execellent content.

Neil Patel was writing 10 or more articles a day years ago, every day. So much so he hires outsourced content teams to do it and put it together. That worked fantastic years ago. It made him an "authority" of sorts.

His fame and authority can propel any article he writes now. If the landscape years ago was what it is now, he would have struggled a lot more with that "coming up" before his authority.

Just make sure you realize that. When you do, you might see there are other ways today that can get you what you want, more effectively.

.

 

[Envious]

Little update from me.

Got a couple of new jobs this month - One was a building small shopify store for someone I know (really don't like doing websites at all!) another is going to be Google ads on a monthly basis for the builder I mentioned.

I've been slacking big time in terms of going out and trying to get clients. I much prefer just talking to people about their issues and helping them, I don't enjoy trying to hard sell people into using my services.

Maybe that is my issue?

Anyway, for the moment, my bills are getting paid but I'm certainly not where I thought I would be by this time. However, I'm enjoying picking up skills and getting paid for it that I will use later on in the journey.

 

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[Tom.V]

It's a good model for generating cash flow but at the end of the day you're always right around the edge of budget cuts and market fluctuations. Not every client is good at business and even amazing results won't keep people around. A whole lot of work for money.

I could always get back in the game managing accounts, but hiring people to handle it and building long term assets was more my style.

Now the only accounts I manage are the ones for my brands. No more clients not having this or that, or not following critical advice. Different animal when you can control all of the variables that impact your own success.

That said there are massive companies who are purely PPC management. But it's a hard road and major platform changes isn't making that easier on anyone. What worked for years now does not and complete strategy adjustment is required. For larger enterprises it's easier to adapt since you can throw money and time at it to adjust. For smaller outfits, especially one man bands, it can mess you up.

A word to help you out though, if you're serious about this endeavor, niche down and create a solid acquisition funnel & VSL you can use to keep your calendar full of warm appointments. Lack of new deals is what kills most and churn will happen. So long as you're outpacing the churn you will be in good shape and can worry about other more important matters.