Lessons Learned Running SEO Service and BST for Two Years

[cash202]

OP just curious to how much you were making as the insight is very good, but i am wondering on what scale of business was this (XX,XXX / XXX,XXX) so i am just wondering in this case there could have been many different things done, but of course you can't get somewhere you've never been without doing something you've never done.

I can only give you a number of figures. Six.

Breaking into 7 figures with SEO services will require a serious level of scale, especially wholesale.
Just do the numbers. How many clients you can get on month retainer and how much staff
would you need?

Say you want $10,000,000 revenue per year. That's ~$833,000 per month. Let's say you have
a bunch of small businesses at $2000/month. That's a 416 clients. You'll need at least 40 account
managers, 10 sales people convincing local shops that two grand a month is a good investment,
and 100 link builders to handle this load. 150 people staff is a not joke to manage. With this in mind
you'll probably keep only a few millions in profit from that revenue while having this crazy ass huge
company with office politics and other crap.

Now imagine you are a wholesaler with $500/month top of the line product. All over the sudden it
looks even worse.

Five figures you can do alone in the bedroom, for six you'll need some level of scale, via processes,
outsourcing and hiring, automation, etc.

My personal opinion, if you want 7-8 figures of revenue per year in five years, SEO services or
consulting is a wrong business model. It won't scale that much.

That SEO Moz in your signature were SEO consulting shop, but they wouldn't raise $19 mln of
venture capital if they'd remain it. They dropped consulting in favour of software that can be
scaled infinitely and they grew like crazy.

 

[gypsyr0ad]

Very nice thread and story, thanks for the share.

As you said about taking a vacation every now and then, is true, but also, one must treat themselves to something as well, not saying to spend money that needs to help the business grow, but to just treat yourself to something, after all,
what is the point of running a business or even working a reg job, if there isn't anything left over for yourself?

 

[Cratos]

Awesome post Cash, one of the best so far in 2013.

I love this part: (32) Own less shit. Simplify and streamline life as much as you can.

Thanks for sharing.

This is my favorite part also. There is no point on owning a bunch of crap. I love the way you think OP.

 

[TheEditor]

I have a daughter that loves me

What else do you need?

Maybe a son that loves you?

 

[TheEditor]

Yes yes, a thousand times yes.

The blueprint probably need a sister blueprint about making a website that doesn't suck though.
It focuses mostly on off-page and what I see now more and more is people with legit offilne
businesses (not affiliates, not MFA) getting smashed is SERPs. They used to rank and they drop.

 

[fad3r]

What does "have a life" mean to you?

I have a hell a lot of a life.

I leave on a beach in Australia (the pic in the post is taken not fat from my place)
I work on my own terms
I have all the material stuff I need (the thing is I don't need much)
I am fitter and healthier that I was at 20
I have amazing relationship with my wife of 13 years
I have a daughter that loves me

What else do you need?

I think you just won BHW. Although the fact that you enjoy dubsteb is beyond disturbing.

 

[fad3r]

I am not anti-materialistic as such.

There's nothing wrong with going crazy, living in mansion, driving Ferrari, having a collection of
Rolex watches or whatever. Enjoy it if you want.

What's wrong, in my opinion, is doing all of the above for reasons other that your personal
enjoyment, especially when you can't afford it.

If I am going to buy Ferrari, I am going to go there and write a cheque. And it won't even
make a dent in my bank account. And I am going to buy it because I want a fast ride, not
because "only those with Ferrari are the ones who made it". This is the way to do it for me.

We see this in Manhattan all the time. Kid's buying bottle service but they live with their mom and have 10k credit card debt. We call them ballers on a budget.

 

[cash202]

Very nice thread and story, thanks for the share.

As you said about taking a vacation every now and then, is true, but also, one must treat themselves to something as well, not saying to spend money that needs to help the business grow, but to just treat yourself to something, after all,
what is the point of running a business or even working a reg job, if there isn't anything left over for yourself?

Well, I agree I actually bought a tablet I didn't need. Now I can read BHW on Tapatalk while taking a dump.

I prefer treats to be experiential rather that stuff though. Like going skydiving or something like that.

 

[cash202]

I think you just won BHW. Although the fact that you enjoy dubsteb is beyond disturbing.

I didn't say I enjoy it I said I am more productive with that thing.

 

[herpa]

stupid noob question: what does BST mean?
thank you

 

[bk071]

stupid noob question: what does BST mean?
thank you

Buy, Sell, Trade

 

[oliver007]

Awesome read, thanks for the info

 

[ShadeDream]

Great thread, rep+.

Now, the real question is, how to build a successful system? How to scale and outsource so that things don't fall apart?

 

[cash202]

Great thread, rep+.

Now, the real question is, how to build a successful system? How to scale and outsource so that things don't fall apart?

I have something to day about it too, with lessons

 

[NTotal]

I bookmarked your SEO blueprint thread and turned it into an Excel checklist with added comments and notes. It's literally the info that sparks the lightbulb for me. Before, everything was disorganized and scattered like I knew the steps involved but not in systematic order

I even gave the checklist to people who asked my SEO strategy (with full credit and link to your original thread of course). You earned my respect a long time ago and earned even more with this thread. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Who knows one day we can chat about SEO and business over coffee. Maroubra is not that far from where I live

 

[JayBay]

Thanks mate, for someone just starting out this requires double or maybe triple reads.

 

[cash202]

How to build a system (random notes)

This is my way of doing it. This is only one way, not the only way. Hopefully it will work for you.

You don't probably realise it but everything you do is a programme. You are running your patterns all day long like a well behaved robot. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. How you brush your teeth, how you walk, how you eat, how you work is all some sort of a program. I am only interested in how you work here.

Processes

• First you've got to be able to do everything yourself well. If I wake you up in the middle of the night and ask you to run, say, a Xrumer blast, there must be no thinking and no hesitation. You've got to know you stuff.
• Try to grab someone and explain to them how to do it and see if they can do it as well as you. Notice if they have problems with certain parts. What they are? What they needed to be explained twice. You can probably simplify some processes here as it is easier to explain them to someone else.
• Make Camtasia video and checklist for every single step of the process. How to spin article, how to upload to YouTube, how to post to WordPress, etc.
• Give your checklist and videos to someone else and see if they can do it following the instructions. Fix instructions as needed. You might find that you can streamline the process even more to avoid confusions and get faster results.
• Create a master process (for the project manager) that includes all the steps in the right order with parallelisation if have more than one employee. I draw it as a flowchart in http://www.simplediagrams.com
• Put them all on your shared internal wiki for the team access (see below)

Toolset

You are going to need the following (I put my current tools in brackets):

• Project management system (WHMCS project management add-in)
• Payment and invoicing (WHMCS, PayPal)
• Intranet and internal documentation (DokuWiki)
• Internal forum for team discussion / daily reports (MyBB)
• Document sharing (TeamDrive, Google Docs)
• Password sharing (LastPass enterprise)

All the passwords for all web properties created go to LastPass and shared among the team. Some more sensitive passwords to web hosting accounts are only shared with IT, etc. All suppliers orders, paid links (if any) and other external purchases for the project are recorded in spreadsheets in Google Docs.

All process videos and checklists are posted to the wiki so your employees can access it anytime they need.

I used to use milestone system in Basecamp for project management but I dumped it for the sake of simplification. Now, all I use is flat task lists in WHMCS project management. For each master process there is a task list template in WHMCS. For each task on a list there is a video and checklist on a wiki (well , for almost each task ). The reason I dumped Basecamp is because with WHMCS I can link sales to projects and automate invoicing and it allows customers to login and check task completion as well as Basecamp.

Team

Random notes:

• I run 100% virtual company. Everybody works from wherever they want (usually from home)
• Hire Filipinos.
• Filipinos are NOT like Americans or Australians. I am shocked about how humble and honest these people are and how much crap they can take without complaining. Don't be an ass and treat them well.
• Have a daily meeting on Skype. Voice call. Make sure everybody knows what to do for the day.
• Keep everybody in a group chat on Skype during the day.
• Ask them to submit a daily report as a post to the internal forum and ask questions.
• Review the reports before the morning meeting and make sure the questions and problems are addressed.

THE LAST FOUR POINTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT! This is exactly what makes the business run smoothly day in, day out. Any problems get discovered quickly and resolved and you'll know right away if your team needs more tasks or is overwhelmed with projects. Broken tools, failed passwords, crashed servers and expired lists all this doesn't last more than 24 hours.

I didn't include any hiring tips here. Let me know if need it.

 

[misterawesome]

How to build a system (random notes)

This is my way of doing it. This is only one way, not the only way. Hopefully it will work for you.

You don't probably realise it but everything you do is a programme. You are running your patterns all day long like a well behaved robot. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed. How you brush your teeth, how you walk, how you eat, how you work is all some sort of a program. I am only interested in how you work here.

Processes

• First you've got to be able to do everything yourself well. If I wake you up in the middle of the night and ask you to run, say, a Xrumer blast, there must be no thinking and no hesitation. You've got to know you stuff.
• Try to grab someone and explain to them how to do it and see if they can do it as well as you. Notice if they have problems with certain parts. What they are? What they needed to be explained twice. You can probably simplify some processes here as it is easier to explain them to someone else.
• Make Camtasia video and checklist for every single step of the process. How to spin article, how to upload to YouTube, how to post to WordPress, etc.
• Give your checklist and videos to someone else and see if they can do it following the instructions. Fix instructions as needed. You might find that you can streamline the process even more to avoid confusions and get faster results.
• Create a master process (for the project manager) that includes all the steps in the right order with parallelisation if have more than one employee. I draw it as a flowchart in http://www.simplediagrams.com
• Put them all on your shared internal wiki for the team access (see below)

Toolset

You are going to need the following (I put my current tools in brackets):

• Project management system (WHMCS project management add-in)
• Payment and invoicing (WHMCS, PayPal)
• Intranet and internal documentation (DokuWiki)
• Internal forum for team discussion / daily reports (MyBB)
• Document sharing (TeamDrive, Google Docs)
• Password sharing (LastPass enterprise)

All the passwords for all web properties created go to LastPass and shared among the team. Some more sensitive passwords to web hosting accounts are only shared with IT, etc. All suppliers orders, paid links (if any) and other external purchases for the project are recorded in spreadsheets in Google Docs.

All process videos and checklists are posted to the wiki so your employees can access it anytime they need.

I used to use milestone system in Basecamp for project management but I dumped it for the sake of simplification. Now, all I use is flat task lists in WHMCS project management. For each master process there is a task list template in WHMCS. For each task on a list there is a video and checklist on a wiki (well , for almost each task ). The reason I dumped Basecamp is because with WHMCS I can link sales to projects and automate invoicing and it allows customers to login and check task completion as well as Basecamp.

Team

Random notes:

• I run 100% virtual company. Everybody works from wherever they want (usually from home)
• Hire Filipinos.
• Filipinos are NOT like Americans or Australians. I am shocked about how humble and honest these people are and how much crap they can take without complaining. Don't be an ass and treat them well.
• Have a daily meeting on Skype. Voice call. Make sure everybody knows what to do for the day.
• Keep everybody in a group chat on Skype during the day.
• Ask them to submit a daily report as a post to the internal forum and ask questions.
• Review the reports before the morning meeting and make sure the questions and problems are addressed.

THE LAST FOUR POINTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT! This is exactly what makes the business run smoothly day in, day out. Any problems get discovered quickly and resolved and you'll know right away if your team needs more tasks or is overwhelmed with projects. Broken tools, failed passwords, crashed servers and expired lists all this doesn't last more than 24 hours.

I didn't include any hiring tips here. Let me know if need it.

Let's hear the hiring tips

 

[cash202]

Let's hear the hiring tips

Sorry for the delay.

Parental Advisory (PG-15): Coarse Language

This is a repost from my private lair.

Hiring Tips

I actually bough this http://www.appsumo.com/appsumo-hiring-secrets/ and it turned out to be really useful.

Then I created something like this...

You will need Wufoo or other form builder, Camtasia or similar thing (you'll need it to train them later so it's good to buy it), some knowledge on GMail filters, a bit of a cash in PayPal and clear understanding on why the fuck do you need people, what qualities you are looking for and what exactly do you want them to do.

1) Create a really hard task that resembles what they will be doing if hired and, at the same time, emphasises the qualities you are looking for. For example, if you are looking for someone who will follow directions exactly and do stuff to your exact specs, make a step-by-step guide. If you are looking for a more independent employee, do not give all the details so they will have to figure things out for themselves to complete the task.

MAKE THE TASK REALLY FUCKING HARD.

I didn't at first and I had too many applicants who went through the task. As I promised to pay everyone, it costed me a few hundred bucks.

2) Use Camtasia to record the instructions and training on how to accomplish the task. Add some written instruction as well and post it somewhere online.

3) Create a Wufoo form with a questionnaire. Probe for the qualities you are looking for. Ask questions like "what's important to you in a job". Also, ask about their internet connection, PC specs and anything else you'd like to know. Add resume attachment field if you want. I personally don't even look at their resumes.

4) Set up an autorespond email for this form and tell them the next step is to complete the task. Promise to pay for the task and ACTUALLY PAY EVERYONE WHO COMPLETED THE TASK regardless of if they are hired or not. Send a link to your training and a link to another Wufoo form to fill with the result of the task. I also ask to upload the tax invoice as they will be doing it if hired.

5) Set up an autorespond email for the second form and say you will contact them for the Skype interview.

6) Open an account at onlinejobs.ph, pay for the membership.

7) Post a job ad. Write a copy in way that will attract people with qualities you are looking for and repel others. You'll need to experiment here. At the end ask them to send an email to your GMail account and put a magic phrase in there. Something like "My Twitter name is <blank>".

8) Set up Gmail filter to trash all email without the magic phrase. For emails with magic phrase set up a canned response and direct the to the first Wufoo form to fill the application.

9) Let the system run for a day. Collect responses from the second Wufoo form, analyse results, pay everyone for the task, send reject emails to people who failed to meet your expectations. Schedule Skype interviews with those who did.

10) Profit.

The key is to make every step and a task as hard as possible. I now strongly believe that only one out of 100 people should be able to complete the task and only 2 or 3 people will make it through the funnel. This way I don't waste my time interviewing a lot of crappy people. Those who made it to the interview, it is mostly to test if they are a good fit and I feel comfortable with them working for me.

 

[tdneubr]

this is excellent business advice. i recently had an instance with a service provider over a 2k balance. He had provided no work after 20 days and when I asked for a refund he wanted to start talking about the 'consulting' he had done with me. What a joke as he was courting me as his client.