Renting Out a Website to Local Businesses

[Andy Black]

Forget SEO.

Build a paid search campaign.

Build a landing page.

Send paid traffic to the landing page.

Generate a lead.

Contact the lead and confirm what they want and the best number to contact them on.

Do a Google search yourself.

Scour the Yellow pages.

Find businesses that could fulfil those leads.

Ring them and ask them if they do XYZ service and cover ABC location.

Tell them you have an enquiry for XYZ service in ABC location.

Ask if they can deal with it.

Give them the contact details.

Ask if you can ring later to find out how they got on.

Ring the consumer back too.

Take it from there.



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Stop thinking about "building" stuff.

You're helping the consumer find a local service.

You're helping a local service get new business.

Everything falls into place when you think about who you're helping, and what you're helping them with.

Read my "Clarity of Purpose" post.

And go help someone, this week.

 

[Andy Black]

Forget SEO.

Build a paid search campaign.

Build a landing page.

Send paid traffic to the landing page.

Generate a lead.

Contact the lead and confirm what they want and the best number to contact them on.

Do a Google search yourself.

Scour the Yellow pages.

Find businesses that could fulfil those leads.

Ring them and ask them if they do XYZ service and cover ABC location.

Tell them you have an enquiry for XYZ service in ABC location.

Ask if they can deal with it.

Give them the contact details.

Ask if you can ring later to find out how they got on.

Ring the consumer back too.

Take it from there.



.
.
.


Stop thinking about "building" stuff.

You're helping the consumer find a local service.

You're helping a local service get new business.

Everything falls into place when you think about who you're helping, and what you're helping them with.

Read my "Clarity of Purpose" post.

And go help someone, this week.

Wow. Nearly a year since I wrote this. Anyone want individual steps?

I keep saying this, not realising I've said it so many times already.

Damn, but I must sound like a stuck record to you guys.

 

[Andy Black]

Andy,

I am listening to the audio recordings in your personal blog... Will certainly listen to all your audio files. Thanks!

Was just answering Patti's question with regards to JobKilling.

My comments aren't directed at anyone in particular.

Forget courses. Just start. Consider that you already know enough.

Do courses when you have something very specific you want to learn, or you absolutely know you'll get a positive ROI on the investment (of time as well as money).

It's either "Hell yeah, or no".

There's enough notes written in here even by just me to help you get started.

"You don't learn until you launch." (Dan Norris)

 

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[Contrarian]

It's simple simple simple.

I've been validating my idea for a marketplace business that's in the works. The final product will be way more involved than a lead gen site. But, you have to get from A to B before you can get to D, E, F...and Z.

Makes sense to get to know something about the consumers before building a business around them right? But it's not like I can just find a list and call them as with the producers.

So, I threw up what might just be the worst landing page in the world. With the landing page builder's URL. Nope, I didn't bother to buy a domain. Then I ran totally unoptimized, generic Google ads to it. The landing page took me about 10 minutes and the Adwords campaign took me less than 5. For a product that costs over £1000.

Spent £29 on ads and got four opt-ins. Three of them didn't respond to my calls and emails - probably because I was emailing them from my personal Gmail and calling them in the UK from my unfamiliar-looking Maltese phone number. Nope, I didn't bother to set up a business email or phone number either (yet).

One of them did respond though, and I matched her with a provider and took a £125 commission for about half an hour's work. Much more importantly, now I have a client and an advocate for my yet-to-exist marketplace.

It's much easier to tweak something you already have than paint from a blank canvas.

 

[DaRK9]

Stop thinking about "building" stuff.

This is A+ advice. You can easily trick yourself into thinking you are taking action by "building content", "growing a user base", "making a website", etc.

The website is the 1%, but people act like having a website is 99% of the work. The website is merely a tool.

What's the value proposition for the customer to go into your page?

A good one is actual contact. I cannot believe how many times I've emailed or left messages for a service (I'm ready to give them money!) and never heard back. Or I get a half assed call a week later.

Personalize your follow-up emails/calls. And actually find what they are looking for.
http://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog

Awesome place for this. You are stalling. Content, blah, blah. A landing page can be made in 15 minutes. Find the reason people need to choose you, then present that.

I'm not worried about content.

 

[Andy Black]

First of all - Andy thanks for giving us this valuable information.

I have a question about this "system" and if would work.

If I understand your concept you have company and you already have clients for whom you create leads.

In my case, I don't have any clients. All I am good at is building beautiful websites.

My idea (let's take for example local lawyer niche) :

• Build site
• Create adword campaign
• Create leads
• Contact xy company that I have leads
• Sell them leads for x2 money I invested

MY concerns: Would this work because the site would not contain any information that "I" am a real company.

Simplest way to get started:

1. Get a local lawyer as a website client.
2. Get paid to build a website (or just a landing page).
3. Sell them AdWords as an additional service and get paid MRR.
4. Say it's priced low (or free?) so you can get a testimonial from them and create a case study.
5. Build AdWords campaigns for the client. Ideally you own the account and they pay Google direct.
6. Get paid to learn to generate leads for them, with their ad spend.

Earn while you learn?

And for those that think you have to be an expert before you start... then listen to this video:

• You don't need to be an expert

 

[Andy Black]

I've done something similar. I built a landing page and AdWords campaign to generate leads for a local service business. I had a business signed up to pay the ad spend, and a flat monthly fee to me. Worked a treat.

You may want to read the third link in my signature (and the rest if it's of interest).

 

[randomnumber314]

Oh god, here I go...

I don't post here much. This title, your OP made me think of Andy Black, then he responded. So here's what I've become--read Andy's reply, do what he says. Seriously, he is one of (if not the most) valuable online advice givers who exists. Nicks, there's a reason your thread attracted him, and there's a reason to pay close attention--in other words you're on to something, and Andy is your treasure map.

 

[Ben Doyle]

I have 2 sites that follow this approach, both ranked and both rented.

The issue with going the SEO route is that it takes time to get a site ranked - sometimes months with no guarantee that anyone will rent it, so it's a time gamble.

But once a site is ranked top spot it's an easy sell, much easier than SEO as a service because it's never guaranteed.

If someone approached you and said 'Pay £500 a month and I'll try to rank your site but there are no guarantees'

Or...

'This site is ALREADY top spot on the first page of Google for your search term, how would you like to put your company's contact details on there and collect the leads for FREE for 30 days?'

Then if they've generated leads and made sales THEY WILL WANT TO PAY YOU TO KEEP THEIR DETAILS ON THE SITE, especially if you're in a market that has high order values.

Just phone the companies on page 2 backwards.

In terms of the site and it's content, make a site that a local business would have and fill it with content that a local business would use. Generic, 'This is what we do' type content and edit it to suit the company that rents it. Crappy 'SEO' types sites look poor and don't convert.

It can and does work but you need SEO knowledge and it's a time gamble.

Paid ads is quicker but there is still a learning curve. PPC and Facebook ads work well!

Hope this helps,

Ben

 

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[IGP]

My first thoughts were "Source-Wave" and "Alex Becker". To be honestly with you, don't waste your time with organic SEO. I know people that have tried this strategy to "rent" websites and failed hard.

Go to Google and search any service in a city...what do you see?

You see 11 PPC ads and 3-4 map listings...before you even see the first organic result. It's worse on mobile because the ads take up the entire first fold of the page.

Even if you ranked 1st result, 1st page, you are halfway down the SERP. Your dentist that is renting it simply will NOT get the volume of clicks...to get inquires...to acquire new patients... to make it worth renting it from you for anything over $100/mo. It's just not worth it.

I have a friend who runs a company that market's local businesses, and even a business ranks 1st page, 1st result... the majority of their clicks and inquires come through PPC. So my advice to you would be to listen to Andy, master PPC and conversion and figure out what you can do with dental leads.

I did this for a friend last year who owns a service business in Atlanta, as I don't take on clients and I did "Zero PPC". The result: an extra $70K in revenue so far this year! Cha... Ching!

Don't dismiss Local SEO. If you know what you're doing, it is still easy to rank.

It does take longer to rank these days, but that also means that when you get there it takes longer for someone to displace you too!

 

[Hvazquez07]

I love this model because you OWN the property. Many of us that come from an SEO background will know that most of the time you're working to make your client's website rank higher (unless you're using 301 redirections), but this is a model that I love because it gives you power and independence.

The same happens when ranking YouTube videos and sending calls to a redirected phone number. Same strategy, different platform.

 

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[MarcUK]

Wanted to throw my 2 pennies in here. This very strategy is one that I have successfully run for nearly 4 years, generating online leads in local markets via websites I have built and ranked to the top of Google then found partners to take those leads.

In fact, as I've told Andy previously in the last few weeks I've sold a number of websites that I built using this strategy for quite a significant amount of money so it's not to be sniffed at as a strategy.... it can work, still works, and has worked.

Local SEO is far easier than any other SEO but there are some things you will want to consider.

1. It might take you 6 months to get to the top in some verticals
2. Local citations and verifiable matched NAP data is key to your success
3. A physical postal address is almost a nailed-on requirement for any local service website if you want to get the most leads and exposure

If you want any more information on any of the above points in a little bit more detail then more than happy to provide a more detailed response and perhaps some stepped points.

 

[Andy Black]

Hey Andy, can I have individual steps please. I have two AdWords clients signed up for management not for lead gen, they are both very happy with the leads they are getting. I find it hard getting new clients, I am thinking about cold emailing. I would rather do a lead gen model as I think it would be an easier sell to business owners. How do you choose a niche to go after locally?

Start with people who already know, like, and trust you. Forget cold traffic to start with. It can be done (listen to the call with @Contrarian) but why not start with people you already know?

Read all the steps laid out in this thread, and the threads it links to. Plenty enough to get started I think.

 

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[Contrarian]

Sounds interesting, any advice on choosing the niche? I'm looking at electricians or double glazing repairs, do you think product businesses are better than service businesses?

The lead gen site I discussed on the call with @Andy Black was for electrical testing services (so, a niche within a niche). It was minimally profitable because electrical testing is generally a very cheap service, so I couldn't charge much for the leads.

My marketplace-in-development is in tourism. I picked the niche because there's a need but no-one is filling it anywhere in the world. It's a blue ocean strategy. I've worked in cut-throat, hyper-competitive sales fields my whole life and I don't want to play that game anymore.

I brainstormed literally hundreds of fragmented markets that would benefit from aggregation and looked at all of them. Products, services, events - doesn't matter. Then I went where the need is but the quality competition isn't. Another consideration for me was high ticket price and respectable margins for the suppliers so the commissions aren't a hindrance for them.

But if I were you I just wouldn't worry about it too much. Pick whatever market you want, generate a lead, give it to someone and take them on board as a client. Tweak, adjust, refine, scale. Then go get another client. And another and another.

If the market you pick doesn't work or isn't big enough for your liking, it doesn't matter. At least you'll be doing something and learning as you go.

I wouldn't know how to do what I'm doing now if I hadn't done all the things I'd done before. Doing that lead gen site really took me from stationary to moving forwards in my ventures. (PS. Thanks again for the inspiration Andy!)

Just do it.

 

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[Aston_M]

Just took a call from someone looking for a service in my area, they called from my landing page. Passed the lead onto a local service provider, fingers crossed he can close. Easiest phone call I've had with a service provider, he liked what I am doing.

UPDATE:

First phone call resulted in a job being completed today by a tradesman at a pizza chain who had a fault that was affecting their business, so the tradesman was very happy! I've messaged him saying I can make your phone ring with enquiries for £10 per phone call. Hopefully he accepts. Cost me 0.86p to generate that enquiry.

Second phone call resulted in a job being put in the diary on Friday for another tradesman in a different town. Cost me 0.46p to generate this enquiry.

It feels good helping consumer and busy owner, I just need to monetise this now.

UPDATE:

The tradesmen from the first phone call is now going to pay me £10 per phone call I give him

 

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[NickS]

Amazing value in this thread. I've bought a domain name, set aside some marketing cash, and I'm going to give Andy's advice a try. I'll keep you all posted.

 

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[AlexanderCordero]

Hello Everyone,

I have so many questions and things to share with so many of you....

@Patty Clarkson are you referring to JOB KILLING? I learned about the Fast Lane from Brad at RentSimpleWebsites / Job Killing. He said in one of his videos that he was inspired after reading MJ's book. Actually, he made a business of the same concept of selling leads and is in the fast lane managing lead generation sites, selling coaching and a membership to a phone system to route / track leads. (Today I went to YouTube but could not see any of their videos. hmm wondering what happened)

@NickS Did you launch your lead generation website? I'm here to help in anyway I can. Perhaps we can help each other by sharing resources (designers, ideas, templates etc.) Right now I am working with a team to see which of these 2 websites enjoymaids.com or glomaintenance.com we want to model after. Your votes are welcome.

@Andy Black Your posts are so awesome. Learning so much... Wanted to learn how you turned you in-law business around. Love how you took a general business like electrician and made it hyper-focused. Andy, I am wondering if <removed by mod> is your work? This design is very minimalist. Loving it... more intrigued to learn if it really converts.

@Hvazquez07 just checked out your personal website... really cool. Hope we get to learn more about your success with lead generation websites etc. Your contributions are sincerely appreciated.

To all please know that come from contribution and will share and help as much... lets keep this tread live and perhaps we can help many launch their business without costing them a leg and an arm.

To our success,

Alexander

 

[tafy]

I just want give my 2 cents here but I think your chasing a dream, the niche website idea is extremely difficult to pull off especially for a tiny niche of dentist in city. What's is your value proposition to the consumer? Who are these people looking for articles on dentists? What are they looking for?

The other way which is better in my opinion is a niche website for dentists b2b, how to market their business and all really good content like that then offer extra services like websites, company videos, email marketing, direct mail etc.

Do you have industry experience within dentistry or marketing?

 

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[tafy]

Get it started and let us know the results

 

[DaRK9]

I can spot the local lead gen sites a mile away and wouldn't inquire or give any information. Maybe that's just me.

Most people don't even know wtf you just said. They either think Trust, or SPAM.

 

[AlexanderCordero]

Wow Mr. Black,

I'm new to the community and cannot put my iPad down... want to read every post you have written.

I'm new to the FastLane phylosophy, mentality but I look forward to contribute & to help others as much as I can.

Mr. Black, I own a few domain names such as RoofExpress.com (Under Construction) and have a couple of friends in the roofing business. Could you please point me in the right direction with regards to building a lead generation business? At this time I have been checking out the videos from Job Killing and ImPaulJames on YouTube.

Thank you in advance and you can trust that I will pay it forward to others in the forum.

To your continue success,

AlexanderCordero

Wow. Nearly a year since I wrote this. Anyone want individual steps?

I keep saying this, not realising I've said it so many times already.

Damn, but I must sound like a stuck record to you guys.

 

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[Andy Black]

Wow Mr. Black,

I'm new to the community and cannot put my iPad down... want to read every post you have written.

I'm new to the FastLane phylosophy, mentality but I look forward to contribute & to help others as much as I can.

Mr. Black, I own a few domain names such as RoofExpress.com (Under Construction) and have a couple of friends in the roofing business. Could you please point me in the right direction with regards to building a lead generation business? At this time I have been checking out the videos from Job Killing and ImPaulJames on YouTube.

Thank you in advance and you can trust that I will pay it forward to others in the forum.

To your continue success,

AlexanderCordero

Thanks for the kind words @AlexanderCordero.

Check out the Lead Gen thread linked to in my signature (and lots of the other links).

 

[AlexanderCordero]

Hi Alexander, Did you go through the Job Killing program? I've been seeing a lot of videos on You Tube from the same 1 guy - crying its a scam.... but he's trying to sell his own SEO services for cheaper. lol

Just wonder if there is any merit to this guys claim, that the guys from JK are doing things illegally by false advertising through a Lead gen site without a proper license for whatever niche. Not sure if I'm allowed to post the youtube link?

I'm not planning on doing the program, but am studying the business model myself. So if there is any part of what they are doing illegal, I'd like to know!

I did not go through the Job Killing program. Don't know why but today I could not find his videos on youtube... the only video I found was this one

With regards to legalities please consult a licensed attorney. I am certain that in some niche's you need to be licensed.

regards,

Alexander

 

[Andy Black]

I'm confused.

Find a local business that needs more leads. Help them.

You're not helping them by taking courses or studying videos on YouTube.

Listen to the first radio interview highlighted in my signature.

Spend your money on diesel and coffee. (Look the thread up.)

 

[DaRK9]

Someone has been on source-wave. If you notice, Alex doesn't make his money actually doing this.

He makes it from his tools.

This can work in theory, but I found people don't want to pay to complete against others. If its a big area and you rank #1, just charge one person more money.

Be prepared to refund if/when you lose placement.

 

[DaRK9]

Must be a coincidence because I don't know what source-wave is, or who Alex is.

I was planning on selling it to just one person, yes.

http://source-wave.com/

If you are going to do this, its a good place to start.

It will also get you talking to local businesses and doctors. Never a bad thing.

 

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[DaRK9]

I've done some reading but one thing I keep wondering about is what the hell I'm going to write for content...

Let's say I want to make a website and rank high in the dentist niche. What kind of content do I fill my website with? When you have a landing page, like Andy Black does, it's obvious, but what about the idea proposed in the OP?

It seems rather disingenuous to rank for "dentist Cardiff" and have the visitor land on a generic website about dentistry (until I find someone who wants to rent). I imagine the bounce rate would be off the charts too.

Find common questions people have about dentistry, then answer them. When you have a dedicated client, you can then start to tailor it to their practice.

Also, evergreen content is badass for this. One of my local clients is getting tons of traffic from a 11 page report on finding problems and trouble signs of ATV's.

They fix ATV's, and have gotten sales directly from it.
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/10/16/guide-to-evergreen-content-marketing

 

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[tafy]

So your value proposition is simply, "hey, about 1/3 of all people who are looking for a dentist in this city, land on my webpage.

What's the value proposition for the customer to go into your page? So they are looking on google for a dentist, why do they need your website? why not contact the dentist directly?

Possible value props:

1. User generated reviews
2. Show prices of all dentists
3. See availability for appointments

 

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[MyronGainz]

My first thoughts were "Source-Wave" and "Alex Becker". To be honestly with you, don't waste your time with organic SEO. I know people that have tried this strategy to "rent" websites and failed hard.

Go to Google and search any service in a city...what do you see?

You see 11 PPC ads and 3-4 map listings...before you even see the first organic result. It's worse on mobile because the ads take up the entire first fold of the page.

Even if you ranked 1st result, 1st page, you are halfway down the SERP. Your dentist that is renting it simply will NOT get the volume of clicks...to get inquires...to acquire new patients... to make it worth renting it from you for anything over $100/mo. It's just not worth it.

I have a friend who runs a company that market's local businesses, and even a business ranks 1st page, 1st result... the majority of their clicks and inquires come through PPC. So my advice to you would be to listen to Andy, master PPC and conversion and figure out what you can do with dental leads.

 

[MyronGainz]

The general idea is that, because it's so very niche, it is quite easy to rank high (especially where I live - not everything is as high-tech as in the States).

So your value proposition is simply, "hey, about 1/3 of all people who are looking for a dentist in this city, land on my webpage. Interested in advertising on it?"

Let's say my website only gets about 10 visitors a day. That's 10 potential clients for a dentist (very targeted traffic too), then consider how much a dentist makes on average per patient. Just one extra client per day can make them a lot of money.

I have no industry experience with dentistry. The idea is that it works for all types of small business. Because dentists are so expensive, they're just a lucrative target. I do have experience in marketing however.

Also, "1 extra client per day" is a LONG shot. I know dentists in Toronto, one of the largest cities in the world, that spend thousands on online marketing...and it's a good week if they obtain 2 new patients (through online marketing).

 

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