Changing Affiliate World – Part 6 (black hat domain flipping)
Monday, May 18th, 2009Let’s have some fun – and try to do it with no (little)money!
Concept: So Simple anyone can do it! Super Simple Spare Time Blogging. (up to 5k per day – Really) or We could call it black hat domain flipping that you don’t have to feel guilty about.
The “changing affiliate world” is a series I’m doing in parts to give those going through the 30 day guide some ideas to get something off the ground. You can see all the posts on the “Changing Affiliate World by looking at the “Changing Affiliate World” Category. They are supposed to be fun or interesting concepts that you can turn into a real business.
As I noted in part 1 I’m going to be burning through my “idea” folder and just posting them all. Today I’m going to post one that I can’t believe I never got around to doing – and be warned, I’m going to be jumping into this with two feet this coming week. I’m so dang nice though that I’m going to share ALL my notes. Since my handwritting is horrible I’ll type instead of scanning them in.
One day my wife and I were in a small furniture store near our house. The guy is a woodworker who buys antiques and other abused furniture and fixes them up and sells them. He does great work, and probably isn’t ‘rich’. If you don’t live in our town you probably won’t ever see him or know about him. In talking with this guy he said he wanted an internet presence – enough that if you searched for his store you could find him easily. Maybe some day he would start to put his custom work up there, but his real concern was “Social Proof”…. ie he wouldn’t shop somewhere he couldn’t find any info on.
At this point I was swamped with work (I was even upset with my wife for making poke around stores when we didn’t need anything that day), but I told him about my website, and told him I would take care of him if he called me. I also warned him that I wasn’t cheap and even for a basic website It was going to probably be higher than he wanted to spend. You see I didn’t care about his business… I was busy.
On the way home my wife said. You should just BUILD his website it would be a nice gesture. The ensuing fight about why he didn’t give me a table on my way out because it was a nice gesture sort of made me dismiss her idea completely – - because I was right… RIGHT?
Sure, it’s bad business to give away things with out some way to make money off of them.
I wasn’t so sure there wasn’t a way to turn my wife and her “WRONGNESS” into a good way to drum up business when we needed it – so into the idea bin it went. It came out again a few weeks later when I had the “Solution” to her WRONGNESS……
It would be SO easy to buy “furniturerepairing-doverdelaware.com” (or something like that) and rank in about 5 minutes. It would only take a few minutes more to throw out some links raving about the quality and service linking back to this site to both rank, and get him just what he wants. Sure he isn’t a paying customer (yet), but let’s say a week later I walk in and say:
“Joe, my company does SEO for small local businesses and we realize how competitive you have to be with your prices and with your money. I understand that you would be wary about spending any amount of money when you have no idea of the results.
What do you think it would be worth to be in the top ten search engines results for furniture repair, and antique furniture in your area?”
He is going to say some number, that’s when you turn on your salesmanship and haggle higher (if needed) or give him the deal of a lifetime on a site that is ready to go with his needs and rankings, and you can hand him ownership of today (along with a monthly maintenance bill) for two websites. The one you made already (that you will put links to his NEW site on) and a site that has those keywords and his store name in them. You could also just subdomain it out — then if you have two furniture stores in the area you can service them both.
If you live in a small area it’s easier than you think to rank for local terms – - and the businesses aren’t looking for 10 zillion hits. They want social proof to be strong enough to get the customer inside their shops.
Open up the classifieds, write down the numbers of the folks selling services in your area. Start making the sites, get them ranked, and call them up. If the first electrician doesn’t bite call the next one. Social proof always wins out — and you have some already (your ranking for what they are selling).
The other thing to remember is that MOST businesses have had someone pitch them a website or SEO services that are in the HUGE money range. Simple things like a blog install and skinning are sold for over 2 grand offline every single day.
You could easily upsell him with a simple shopping cart, a newsletter (aweber), etc… Set it all up and spend a few minutes to teach him how to use them and your good. If you really want to impress him use camtasia to make a video just for him. Hey joe – this is how you log in and do xyz. Use those printer cd labels to make sure it has your website and phone number on it…. so he always calls you back. Since your billing him for maintenence you can upsell him on anything you want wiht a personal note anytime you get a new idea…..
Like — Hey Joe. I just build a portal for woodworkers on the east coast. I’ve already added you for free, but there are upgrades available where you can show your merchandise. Interested?
Popularity: 9% [?]
notsure says:
May 20th, 2009
8:29 pm
Umm isn’t this what every web designer does?
admin says:
May 20th, 2009
9:19 pm
@notsure – Nope. 99 percent of web designers try and get a client first, or just do a photoshop mockup.
Huge difference in having them rank for an actual domain name PRIOR to selling them.
If your concerned about not being able to sell “joesfurnituredoverde.com” just get furnituredoverde.com –
IllinoisMike says:
August 28th, 2009
11:54 am
Why is this approach Black Hat? I totally get what you’re doing here—brilliant, by the way…but want to understand what makes it Black Hat.
Are you able to share how much these niche sites should sell for? I have an auto repair niche targeted and was thinking $1000-$1500 for a Joomla-based site. Am I over-thinking it?
Thanks for the great info!
IM
admin says:
August 28th, 2009
4:27 pm
@illinoismike
This is black hat digest – If I talk about elephants they can be black hat if I want them to be
Actually this isn’t a common way of doing things. Normal “black hat seo” is using your brain, automation, and any search loopholes you can find. This is the same kind of thought going into selling websites.
To value that site you should ask yourself:
1.) Who wants it.
2.) How much traffic/customers would they get from this.
3.) Can they make the xxxx dollars back fast from the new clients?
If the answer is yes – you can sell it to them for whatever you feel it’s worth. You just have to convince them.
If “joes auto repair in dover de” could get 1, 10, or 20 new customers a month from direct geographical searches and you can hand him that traffic — you win.
In the future though if you are going to keep doing this, use wordpress. I’ve tried to teach “joe” how to use Joomla and I get a headache everytime. Even with video “JOE” just never gets it and I always end up fixing their screw ups.
Wordpress is pretty dummy proof these days.
IllinoisMike says:
August 28th, 2009
11:14 pm
Excellent! Plesantly surprised to see a response (with the last comment from May, I figured it might just dead end). Also really happy to hear you recommend wordpress over Joomla, since it is typically way-overkill for what “joe” may need.
One last question, while I got ya: If someone’s company is called “Dover Auto Repair,” and that domain happens to be available, is that better or worse for this cause? I’d think better, but I also think he may get P.O.’d at you for end-running “his” domain name (if he even knows what that is–maybe worse if he doesn’t). Don’t want a tire iron where it ought not be
Thanks for this great, thought-provoking content!
Best,
IM
IllinoisMike says:
August 28th, 2009
11:21 pm
Ooh, not to wear out my welcome, but I’ll ask now and be abused later, if I am being piggy…
Have you ever done any “lead selling” sites? Set up a site like “dovermulch.com” and have a basic app that does intake “How much mulch do you need…what type, etc” and then sell those leads for $X to one or two local companies? Is that too much hassle? Seemed like it might be a good way to “set the table” for selling him the whole site for more $$$ at the end of the season.
Gonna have to give you a shout out when I come to Milford next year. That fish place on the road from Milford to Dover is awesome!
admin says:
August 29th, 2009
2:00 am
I’ve yet to run into a business called “dover auto repair” where that actual domain wasn’t taken yet. I’m sure it could happen – but I doubt there would be legal issues since they are probably not trademarking the term…….. and I don’t even think they could.
I don’t sell leads. I’ve build a few landers for those that do though. It just seems like a big pain in the rear to me. I’m sure you could do it though.
What fish place? I’m a bit north of there, but we drive through that area to go to the beach all the time. I think I know the one your talking about – but since I’ve got 4 kids we don’t get to eat out “nice” often anymore.