[Progress] Sold my $4.2m revenue agency. Starting an Affiliate Media Company with a clear exit strategy targeting $900k 2026/2027.

[xklit]

Hi,

About me
I recently sold my Social Media Agency. At its peak, I had 25 full-time employees. $4.2 million revenue. Armed with this experience, I am now embarking on a new journey—an affiliate media company with a clear intention and strategy to sell the company for $700k - $900k in 2026/2027.

Why do I share this journey with you?
I've worked on the company from my home office for a few weeks. I realized I needed someone to be accountable to - that's where you come in! I will post my journey, learnings, and strategy here. I hope you find it valuable.
Feel free to ask questions, give feedback or tell me if there is something you want to see. I welcome constructive discussions.

Strategy

This is only a piece of the pie. I'll write extensively and be 100% transparent about the strategy, learnings, tech stack, etc in my notes. I'll update these notes often and include guides (Read notion notes here). Once or twice a month I'll post updates on this forum.


Sneak-peek of strategies I'll employ:

• Re-invest all revenue until January 2025.
• Automate Social Media Marketing on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
• Automate personal branding on LinkedIn.
• Establish relationships with Affiliate Advertisers and Managers and leverage their copywriters.
• Hire a photographer, rent a studio & add professional photos to posts.
• Understand Generative Search as a potential threat. Build a loyal audience, and capitalize with e-mail marketing.
• Collaborate with freelancers for article creation. Hire a Virtual project manager to manage freelancers.
• The main revenue driver in phase 1 will be affiliate links. Introduce display ads, link-selling, etc., at a later stage.
• Prioritize on-page SEO and content creation with a reader-first approach. Creating real value for readers is the main priority.
• .. And much more in my notes.

Simplified Goals

• Purchase affiliate sites with revenue & add 100 monthly articles from August 2023 - January 2024.
• $4,500 Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) by January 2024
• $15,000 MRR by July 2024. Start a dialog with potential buyers.
• $30,000 MRR by January 2025. Steady growth & optimization of profits - prove business to potential buyers.
• July 2025 - January 2026. Steady growth, focus on profit/growth. Sell company/assets for $700k-$900k
• .. Read the in-depth thought process on goals and strategy in my notes.

Current portfolio

• Site 1: $1500 YtD revenue. 212 articles. Jul-23 revenue $250.
• Site 2: $750 YtD revenue. 97 articles. Jul-23 revenue $435.
• Other (3) minor sites: $45 YtD revenue. July-23 revenue $10. I'll expand on these later.
• August-2023 Across all sites, the average is $30.25/day.
• Total E-mail sign-ups: +300. need to clean up lists.

Snapshots
I use nine different affiliate networks, I cannot post them all so I'll post monthly summed earnings. Here is a snapshot of July performance for Amazon and a GSC screenshot from the same page YtD.


P.S. I'm happy to provide proof of my previous agency ownership and exit, with ID and references to newspaper articles to a moderator in PM.

 

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[BLITZSCALER]

Hi,

About me
I recently sold my Social Media Agency. At its peak, I had 25 full-time employees. $4.2 million revenue. Armed with this experience, I am now embarking on a new journey—an affiliate media company with a clear intention and strategy to sell the company for $700k - $900k in 2026/2027.

Why do I share this journey with you?
I've worked on the company from my home office for a few weeks. I realized I needed someone to be accountable to - that's where you come in! I will post my journey, learnings, and strategy here. I hope you find it valuable.
Feel free to ask questions, give feedback or tell me if there is something you want to see. I welcome constructive discussions.

Strategy

This is only a piece of the pie. I'll write extensively and be 100% transparent about the strategy, learnings, tech stack, etc in my notes. I'll update these notes often and include guides (Read notion notes here). Once or twice a month I'll post updates on this forum.


Sneak-peek of strategies I'll employ:

• Re-invest all revenue until January 2025.
• Automate Social Media Marketing on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
• Automate personal branding on LinkedIn.
• Establish relationships with Affiliate Advertisers and Managers and leverage their copywriters.
• Hire a photographer, rent a studio & add professional photos to posts.
• Understand Generative Search as a potential threat. Build a loyal audience, and capitalize with e-mail marketing.
• Collaborate with freelancers for article creation. Hire a Virtual project manager to manage freelancers.
• The main revenue driver in phase 1 will be affiliate links. Introduce display ads, link-selling, etc., at a later stage.
• Prioritize on-page SEO and content creation with a reader-first approach. Creating real value for readers is the main priority.
• .. And much more in my notes.

Simplified Goals

• Purchase affiliate sites with revenue & add 100 monthly articles from August 2023 - January 2024.
• $4,500 Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) by January 2024
• $15,000 MRR by July 2024. Start a dialog with potential buyers.
• $30,000 MRR by January 2025. Steady growth & optimization of profits - prove business to potential buyers.
• July 2025 - January 2026. Steady growth, focus on profit/growth. Sell company/assets for $700k-$900k
• .. Read the in-depth thought process on goals and strategy in my notes.

Current portfolio

• Site 1: $1500 YtD revenue. 212 articles. Jul-23 revenue $250.
• Site 2: $750 YtD revenue. 97 articles. Jul-23 revenue $435.
• Other (3) minor sites: $45 YtD revenue. July-23 revenue $10. I'll expand on these later.
• August-2023 Across all sites, the average is $30.25/day.
• Total E-mail sign-ups: +300. need to clean up lists.

Snapshots
I use nine different affiliate networks, I cannot post them all so I'll post monthly summed earnings. Here is a snapshot of July performance for Amazon and a GSC screenshot from the same page YtD.
View attachment 50791
View attachment 50792
P.S. I'm happy to provide proof of my previous agency ownership and exit, with ID and references to newspaper articles to a moderator in PM.

Nice men,
I'm using also Affiliate to sell my goods,
Nice to see Your results...
Keep pushing!!!!

 

[xklit]

Nice men,
I'm using also Affiliate to sell my goods,
Nice to see Your results...
Keep pushing!!!!

Thank you, and good luck to you too.

 

[Vas87]

What sort of multiples do Affiliate companies generate? nvm found the answer in your notion doc.

 

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[xklit]

What sort of multiples do Affiliate companies generate? nvm found the answer in your notion doc.

Awesome.Thank you for looking it through. I'll note it here as well for the interested: I expect a multiple of 20x on MRR

 

[MitchC]

I may have missed this but are all the sites in the same niche? Is that the plan?

Opus looks interesting, im going to try it out

 

[Dockid]

Would you sell backlinks or guest posts from these websites as another way to monetize? People pay good money for high DA & high traffic backlinks.

 

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[xklit]

I may have missed this but are all the sites in the same niche? Is that the plan?

Opus looks interesting, im going to try it out

No, they're not the same niche. But both niches belong to "evergreen industries," meaning content, products, and services remain relevant and never go out of style. Moreover, these industries are highly lucrative.

My selection of niche was driven by passion and I have both knowledge and education in the field. This ensured sustained motivation on my part. Furthermore, it provides that I can utilize personal branding on social media platforms / podcasting alongside article writing articles. It's a fortunate coincidence that they are also prime choices for affiliate ventures.

Opus is a real game-changer!

 

[xklit]

I may have missed this but are all the sites in the same niche? Is that the plan?

Opus looks interesting, im going to try it out

No, they are not the same niche. But niches belong to "evergreen industries," meaning content, products, and services remain relevant and never go out of style. Moreover, these industries are highly lucrative.

My selection of niche was driven by passion and I have both knowledge and education in the field. This ensured sustained motivation on my part. Furthermore, it ensures that I can utilize personal branding on social media platforms / podcasting alongside article writing articles. It's a fortunate coincidence that they are also prime choices for affiliate ventures.


Opus is a real game-changer!

 

[xklit]

Would you sell backlinks or guest posts from these websites as another way to monetize? People pay good money for high DA & high traffic backlinks.

Yes agreed, that will be a revenue stream I'll turn on at a later sage. Especially when the business will focus more on profit optimization rather than growth. For now, I'll only buy High-Quality links.

 

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[circleme]

Understand Generative Search as a potential threat.

Hi xklit,

first of all: Congrats on your SMMA exit!

I'm an ex SEO-Consultant (primarily on-page / technical SEO), and had some clients / relations with people that have done a similiar approach to yours. Last time I've talked to them was after the Google I/O this year, where they have announced SGE; Afaik, almost everyone sold their affiliate sites after the announcement privately or via brokers because they believe (and so do I) that SGE will make a huge amount of affiliate/content-driven sites besides B2B irrelevant as soon as SGE launches.

You've wrote that you want to understand the SGE threat-potential. Have you made any research into this or do you want to play it risky and milk the cow as long as possible?

I mean, to me it looks like a quite a gamble and I'm really curious about your response. Btw, if you are interested: As SEO is still kind of a "passion"-area for me, even though I'm not in the game anymore as I pursue the/my fastlane now, I've written about the possible impact of SGE in this thread: MARKETING - My opinion on Google's new SGE and its influence on entrepreneurs This is quite subjective of course, but I'm not the only (ex)-professional in the SEO game with this opinion. Maybe that helps you a little bit.

Anyways, I wish you all the best and I do hope that SGE won't impact you as much as I believe it will.

Regards

 

[xklit]

Hi xklit,

first of all: Congrats on your SMMA exit!

I'm an ex SEO-Consultant (primarily on-page / technical SEO), and had some clients / relations with people that have done a similiar approach to yours. Last time I've talked to them was after the Google I/O this year, where they have announced SGE; Afaik, almost everyone sold their affiliate sites after the announcement privately or via brokers because they believe (and so do I) that SGE will make a huge amount of affiliate/content-driven sites besides B2B irrelevant as soon as SGE launches.

You've wrote that you want to understand the SGE threat-potential. Have you made any research into this or do you want to play it risky and milk the cow as long as possible?

I mean, to me it looks like a quite a gamble and I'm really curious about your response. Btw, if you are interested: As SEO is still kind of a "passion"-area for me, even though I'm not in the game anymore as I pursue the/my fastlane now, I've written about the possible impact of SGE in this thread: MARKETING - My opinion on Google's new SGE and its influence on entrepreneurs This is quite subjective of course, but I'm not the only (ex)-professional in the SEO game with this opinion. Maybe that helps you a little bit.

Anyways, I wish you all the best and I do hope that SGE won't impact you as much as I believe it will.

Regards

Thank you Circleme. And thank you for the great question!

I agree with the points in your thread. When "Doomsday" comes, clicks and CTR will decline. Many users looking for quick answers will be content with the AI-generated SERP. However, I believe we're far from having AI-generated answers that are truly exceptional. And far away from Google truely Implementing AI into search.

Why? Bing market-share and service costs.

This is purely speculative, but I believe we're still very far away from Google incorporating meaningful AI into their search engine. Because (1) Bing hasn't seen any benefits from integrating ChatGPT into their engine. In fact, they've lost market share compared to 2022. (2) I suspect Google recognizes this and will proceed with caution, especially when it comes to making significant changes to their core product. But also, because it’s incredibly expensive for Google to implement AI in search.

Some reports suggest that OpenAI might be spending $700k/day to maintain ChatGPT. Given Google's nearly 8 billion searches per day, the costs would be substantial.

I do think AI will be integrated into Google eventually, but perhaps later than many anticipate. In the meantime, I’m leveraging the excellent AI tools available to produce high-quality content and rank quickly.

Survival of affiliate blogs

I believe we're very far from having SGE AI-generated answers that are truly exceptional. This leaves a significant opportunity for high-quality affiliate websites. I believe when SGE is rolled out, traffic will drop, but the traffic the blogs will receive will be more relevant for conversions - those who are genuinely interested will seek out human-written content and rely on human-experienced reviews for the products they're researching.
t. The primary strategy I'm considering, from that tough process, is making an effort to convert top-funnel visitors into newsletter subscribers.

I believe the key to the survival of affiliate blogs is the conversion of visitors into subscribers.

Major companies will face the same SEO challenges in the future. In my opinion, this means that permissions and email marketing will become increasingly valuable. When you sell your affiliate company, you're not just selling blogs that people visit; you're selling a highly-relevant and convertable email list of readers who appreciate human-written content and insights

To sum up:
I think we’re far away from Google implementing SGE, and I’m milking the cow meanwhile. But I’m aware of the threat and I’m building my e-mail lists for the reason. I also think authority and link-building will become more relevant, as position 2 and below will become even less visited – in the screenshots it seems like they’re at least linking to the source pages.

And regarding sources, it will be interesting to follow future lawsuits, for example, New York Times that considers legal action against OpenAI, because of copyright issues. The outcome of lawsuits like this will also determine the speed of SGE-release.

 

[circleme]

I do think AI will be integrated into Google eventually, but perhaps later than many anticipate.

In hinsight, I think so too. At the time of my writing about this topic, it seemed like a race between Microsoft and Google, but as you have mentioned already, a few things speak against it.

In the meantime, I’m leveraging the excellent AI tools available to produce high-quality content and rank quickly.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? How exactly are you going to use AI to produce content? Do you spin the content, produce a layout with AI and let it write by a human, etc.? I'm curious.

I believe when SGE is rolled out, traffic will drop, but the traffic the blogs will receive will be more relevant for conversions

Never thought of that, but it makes sense to me.

this means that permissions and email marketing will become increasingly valuable. When you sell your affiliate company, you're not just selling blogs that people visit; you're selling a highly-relevant and convertable email list of readers who appreciate human-written content and insights

Yeah, I see that shift coming as well from an investors perspective. I guess it depends a lot on the product you promote, but with an email list you can always cross- upsell.

Thanks for your input, it made me rethink a few of my viewpoints.

 

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[xklit]

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? How exactly are you going to use AI to produce content? Do you spin the content, produce a layout with AI and let it write by a human, etc.? I'm curious.

In the notes I've listed a few of the tools I'm going to use. I also create detailed content briefs for freelancers who use ChatGPT. Previously, I would have to pay a significant amount to hire copywriters for quality articles, often more than $30 for good ones. Now, I pay freelancers $5 per article, and the content remains high-quality because it's generated with AI and my prompts.

I'm an ex SEO-Consultant (primarily on-page / technical SEO), and had some clients / relations with people that have done a similiar approach to yours. Last time I've talked to them was after the Google I/O this year, where they have announced SGE; Afaik, almost everyone sold their affiliate sites after the announcement privately or via brokers because they believe (and so do I) that SGE will make a huge amount of affiliate/content-driven sites besides B2B irrelevant as soon as SGE launches.

I'm curious about your thoughts on why B2B affiliates won't be affected as much?

Yeah, I see that shift coming as well from an investors perspective. I guess it depends a lot on the product you promote, but with an email list you can always cross- upsell.

Agreed

 

[circleme]

In the notes I've listed a few of the tools I'm going to use. I also create detailed content briefs for freelancers who use ChatGPT. Previously, I would have to pay a significant amount to hire copywriters for quality articles, often more than $30 for good ones. Now, I pay freelancers $5 per article, and the content remains high-quality because it's generated with AI and my prompts.

So, your process looks something like this:

Keyword Research > Creating content brief for copywriter (including AI prompt, short- and long-tails, tonality, ... anything else?) > Freelancer inserts keyword(s) into the ChatGPT > Freelancer paraphrases article in his own words / according to your briefing?

• Collaborate with freelancers for article creation. Hire a Virtual project manager to manage freelancers.

Big thank you from my side regarding this. This basically tells me how far behind I am in terms of delegating things. I would go the freelancer route - maybe - but did not think about the manager who manages the freelancers at all. Here, I can see the difference between an agency owner and an ex freelancer pretty clearly.

I'm highly intersted in the exact order and in the process itself, as I think this is something a lot of content creators might benefit from. Can you please go in-depth about this ?

I'm curious about your thoughts on why B2B affiliates won't be affected as much?

I didn't mean B2B affiliates, I meant B2B companies which are pushing the SEO channel. There is mainly one reason why I believe that the B2B field won't get hit that hard:

Complexity of the product & B2B offers high-involvement products most of the time

The current state of the AI gives us a lot of great basic information the FIRST time we are asking something. If you want better results, you need to start the conversation with the AI in order to get better and better results, that's how the algo works in modern LLMs. My guess is that people who are searching for a B2B solution will not get into that process of starting a conversation with AI, no, they will most likely look within the SERP for companies that offer the product/service you are looking for and click on that hit.

Another thing is the high-involvement nature of most products within the B2B industry:

My last client sold huge combine harvesters. They do cost way beyond 200k. If someone wants to buy a harvester he most likely will search for something like "Best combine harvester models" or "Combine harvester prices". Even if we get a Bard / AI snippet result within the future SERP (SGE), the user journey most likely won't end there. He will still search for companies within the SERP or clicks the AI-recommended company site. After that, the journey keeps on going and in the best case the user converts into a lead.

 

[xklit]

Keyword Research > Creating content brief for copywriter (including AI prompt, short- and long-tails, tonality, ... anything else?) > Freelancer inserts keyword(s) into the ChatGPT > Freelancer paraphrases article in his own words / according to your briefing?

Yes. I have hired a freelancer to generate a large archive of images from both free-image sites and AI. I personally publish the articles and add images, but the freelancer uploads the articles as drafts and formats them according to another brief. This leaves me with the task of reviewing the content, adding images, and publishing.

When scaling up, I plan to hire a virtual project manager who will be responsible for adding images, proofreading the content, and managing other freelancers. To ensure high-quality work, I will allocate a significant budget for the virtual project manager, who will likely be a native English speaker.

I'm highly intersted in the exact order and in the process itself, as I think this is something a lot of content creators might benefit from. Can you please go in-depth about this ?

The goal is to outsource as much manual labor as possible. Especially when it doesn't require any difficult skills. So, as you also mentioned, the process will roughly be

• Do keyword research myself or hire someone to do it.
• Create a content brief with your own dialed-in AI prompts.
• Freelancer inserts keyword(s) into the prompts, feeds it to ChatGPT, and creates an article.
  • I focus on low-competition keywords for newer websites. cheap freelancers will be hired for theese.
  • High-competition keywords with high revenue potential will be outsourced to "real" copywriters, or I'll do it myself.
• Create a formatting brief, and make the freelancer upload the article as a draft
• Do quality control myself, add images, add internal links, and publish.

In the future, a virtual project manager will oversee all of this. We will hold weekly meetings to discuss our progress. Before hiring this individual, I will clearly define the targets, establish reporting guidelines, and set the budget.

I didn't mean B2B affiliates, I meant B2B companies which are pushing the SEO channel. There is mainly one reason why I believe that the B2B field won't get hit that hard:

Very interesting, thank you for this.

 

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[xklit]

New tools & strategy updated in notes.

Update August-23

• Monthly revenue (Total): $1,111 (+$416 compared to prev. month)
• Articles added: 102
• Articles Updated: 10

We're $3500 MRR away from achieving the $4500 target in January 2024.

Main site 1
Total revenue for the month was $537 for site 1. Added 46 articles and updated 10. Worked a bit on link-building. increased DR to 25 from 8. Updated articles, focused on conversion optimization and UX.

Main site 2
Total revenue for the month was $550. This site depends on seasonality. Therefore, I will shift most of my focus to site 1, which is more evergreen and relevant throughout all seasons. Added 46 articles. No link building for this page, DR-ratings are still 2.6

Other sites
Total revenue $25. Added 10 articles, mostly low quality.

 

[Timmy C]

How are you using AI to write good content?

I found it sucks, and produces garbage for me personally.

I tried all types of prompts and dumbing it down etc but it still sucks. By the time I get something decent, I can produce something else myself in half the time that's better

It just produces broad, and generic content with not much value at all in my opinion.

It's also obvious it's not written by a human.

Maybe I just don't know how to use it?

 

[xklit]

New tools & strategy updated in notes.

Update september-23

• Monthly revenue (Total): $2,022(+$221 compared to prev. month)
• Articles added: 50
• Articles updated: 10

We're $2478 MRR away from achieving the $4500 target in January 2024.

Main site 1
Total revenue for the month was $1607 for site 1. Added 46 articles.

The revenue from affiliate networks dropped significantly. Traffic increased, but clicks decreased. We tested some UX changes, but they clearly didn't work.

The increase in revenue for this month came from securing a direct deal with an advertiser, where we promote their products on a high-traffic page.

Traffic grew significantly from social channels, mainly LinkedIn with my Lempod strategy, and Instagram.

Main site 2
Total revenue for the month was $350 (-$200 less than last month). Only added 1 article.

Definitely feel the seasonality with this page. However, average positions also dropped significantly. We haven't done any link-building on this page, and we definitely got hit with the E-A-T updates. Will make changes to optimize E-A-T, and maybe focus on a little link-building. But the main focus will still be Main Site 1 for the rest of the year.

Other sites
Total revenue $65.

 

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[xklit]

How are you using AI to write good content?

I found it sucks, and produces garbage for me personally.

I tried all types of prompts and dumbing it down etc but it still sucks. By the time I get something decent, I can produce something else myself in half the time that's better

It just produces broad, and generic content with not much value at all in my opinion.

It's also obvious it's not written by a human.

Maybe I just don't know how to use it?

I've experimented extensively with prompts, and the results with ChatGPT's 'Custom Instructions' have been quite good. However, while we use it primarily to assist our copywriting, we do not rely on it to exclusively write the content.

 

[ErickMendez]

I recently sold my Social Media Agency. At its peak, I had 25 full-time employees. $4.2 million revenue.

Why did you sell your SMMA/B2B company? I'm curious because I want to start one too. I have friends with successful businesses who don't use social media, and I feel like with social media it could really boost there business.

 

[xklit]

Why did you sell your SMMA/B2B company? I'm curious because I want to start one too. I have friends with successful businesses who don't use social media, and I feel like with social media it could really boost there business.

Too many headaches, to be honest. Here are some pointers:

1. There's also a lot of unpredictability in providing SMMA services, especially if you're focusing on paid social media. With changes like iOS14 and the shift away from cookies, it's becoming harder to track results and showcase value to clients. This means not only is it a challenge to bring clients on board, but keeping them is another hurdle. It's a known fact that client retention in social media consultancy isn't easy.
2. Scaling SMMA is a headache: When you grow, every step up requires more hands on deck because you're essentially selling your employees time. If things slow down, you might be in a position where you have to let people go. Unlike e-commerce where you can just sell off stock quickly, here you're dealing with real people and their livelihoods, which is a whole different ballgame.
3. Marketing agencies are highly susceptible to economic shifts. The recent surge in inflation has dealt a significant blow to the industry. When budgets tighten, marketing is often the first area to see cuts. While having extended contracts with clients can offer some revenue stability, it's not a foolproof solution. Clients often seek ways to exit these contracts, leading to conflict.

I wouldn't start an SMMA now.

The market is also overflowing with competitors. Because it's so simple to jump in, a lot of people are starting SMMA. This makes it tough to stand out and sell, as most established businesses are constantly bombarded with offers from various digital marketing agencies. We managed to establish ourselves early so we could focus on strategic marketing rather than cold outreach. But with so many now in the game, differentiating oneself is very hard. We also felt that.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Too many headaches, to be honest. Here are some pointers:

1. There's also a lot of unpredictability in providing SMMA services, especially if you're focusing on paid social media. With changes like iOS14 and the shift away from cookies, it's becoming harder to track results and showcase value to clients. This means not only is it a challenge to bring clients on board, but keeping them is another hurdle. It's a known fact that client retention in social media consultancy isn't easy.
2. Scaling SMMA is a headache: When you grow, every step up requires more hands on deck because you're essentially selling your employees time. If things slow down, you might be in a position where you have to let people go. Unlike e-commerce where you can just sell off stock quickly, here you're dealing with real people and their livelihoods, which is a whole different ballgame.
3. Marketing agencies are highly susceptible to economic shifts. The recent surge in inflation has dealt a significant blow to the industry. When budgets tighten, marketing is often the first area to see cuts. While having extended contracts with clients can offer some revenue stability, it's not a foolproof solution. Clients often seek ways to exit these contracts, leading to conflict.

I wouldn't start an SMMA now.

The market is also overflowing with competitors. Because it's so simple to jump in, a lot of people are starting SMMA. This makes it tough to stand out and sell, as most established businesses are constantly bombarded with offers from various digital marketing agencies. We managed to establish ourselves early so we could focus on strategic marketing rather than cold outreach. But with so many now in the game, differentiating oneself is very hard. We also felt that.

Good points, I’m a lead generation / training provider for agencies. What you say is true, at the same time, there’s never been a better time for smaller / newer agencies to snatch contracts from big agencies with big level clients.

Recession means they’re cutting budget, a lot of companies are moving away from Madison Avenue type agencies towards smaller establishments that can provide similar value at a fraction of the cost.

Scaling in terms of more clients is also not the only way to scale. There are micro-agencies out there that are looking to move towards bigger customers, rather than more customers. The total number of customers remains constant, say 10-12, and 3-4 people is all it takes. But they get replaced over time with bigger and bigger clients.

Most agencies suck because their retention rate sucks. So if you get a customer, and then lose them, you’re always back to square 1, getting a customer again. That’s not a business, it’s a racket. A merry-go-round that requires constant sales activity to be kept up. You should be keeping customers for 1-2 years once you sign them up, on average.

If you don’t… work on your service and target bigger, successful customers, not on customer acquisition.

 

[Andy Black]

Interesting thread.

Am I right in saying you've switched:

1) From growing client brands to growing your own brands?

2) From social media to search?


Curious if you've thought of running paid search ads to your own brands.

 

[ErickMendez]

Interesting thread.

Yeah this thread has some crazy value for me.

Curious if you've thought of running paid search ads to your own brands.

curious about that too.

 

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[Andy Black]

This video springs to mind:
1) Build your own brand.
2) Generate leads from Google.

View: https://youtu.be/6gvJ3O8tri4?si=YBJW61b6gbeR_Zia

 

[xklit]

Interesting thread.

Am I right in saying you've switched:

1) From growing client brands to growing your own brands?

2) From social media to search?


Curious if you've thought of running paid search ads to your own brands.

Not sure if we're talking about SMMA or the new affiliate business, but regarding SMMA:

Success with Google Ads (Search) for SMMA depends on your ICP (ideal customer profile). Our clients were in the enterprise segment, and those types of leads aren't generated through search. They were generated through networking and word-of-mouth and also through value-providing marketing initiatives such as webinars, attending or hosting conferences, and e-books/whitepapers. We engaged in many of these activities. For example, we would invite potential clients (people working in marketing departments) to dinners where we would discuss new developments in the SoMe space, ranging from iOS14 updates to legal matters. We avoided basic topics like using a particular funnel on paid social or using specific sounds for TikTok; instead, we focused on unique and relevant material that was challenging for them to learn on their own.

We would spend a good deal on Paid Social to promote these initiatives, and then some basic retargeting on relevant pages through both Paid Social and Display.

As for the affiliate brands, I'm solely focused on growing my own brands now. I'm not investing in paid methods, just organic approaches like Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn

 

[Andy Black]

Not sure if we're talking about SMMA or the new affiliate business, but regarding SMMA:

Success with Google Ads (Search) for SMMA depends on your ICP (ideal customer profile). Our clients were in the enterprise segment, and those types of leads aren't generated through search. They were generated through networking and word-of-mouth and also through value-providing marketing initiatives such as webinars, attending or hosting conferences, and e-books/whitepapers. We engaged in many of these activities. For example, we would invite potential clients (people working in marketing departments) to dinners where we would discuss new developments in the SoMe space, ranging from iOS14 updates to legal matters. We avoided basic topics like using a particular funnel on paid social or using specific sounds for TikTok; instead, we focused on unique and relevant material that was challenging for them to learn on their own.

We would spend a good deal on Paid Social to promote these initiatives, and then some basic retargeting on relevant pages through both Paid Social and Display.

As for the affiliate brands, I'm solely focused on growing my own brands now. I'm not investing in paid methods, just organic approaches like Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn

Yeah, I was talking about your new business where you're building your own brands rather than client brands.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

They were generated through networking and word-of-mouth and also through value-providing marketing initiatives such as webinars, attending or hosting conferences, and e-books/whitepapers. We engaged in many of these activities.

Just curious, what was the breakdown in terms of acquiring new clients between your networking / word-of-mouth efforts and your inbound channel (referring here to stuff like running webinars, publishing e-books/whitepapers, etc.)? Were they sort of equal or did one do most of the heavy lifting?

 

[Oden]

Hi Xklit, it would be interesting to see how it went for you after the most recent updates. They really shook up the whole SEO world. It reminds me of the Panda- and medic update.

Basically all of my competitors, including myself, dropped like 30-60% in search visibility, while forums, newspapers and e-commerce got boosted.

How did it go for you, and whats your thoughts about these update/the future?

I was also curious about what your prompts for article writing looks like. I understand if you don't want to share the keys to the vault, but some insights would be interesting. I have played around with it for a bit, but still rely on human writers.

Cheers for an interesting thread!