"Rent-A-Site" concept - Does it still work well?

IT works. Only If you can Rank

How did you do your initial keyword research for this site or similar sites?

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I just pick a local service industry, do keyword research on the industry, look at the traffic and competition, and pick out keywords that have traffic. I do not over think it, usually the right keyword combinations are your city and some version of the service for the industry.

I don't shoot for lawyers, doctors, or dentists, because the big guys are. I try to hit very small businesses, mom and pop operations, family owned service businesses. These people know how to run their business, not market a website. After sending them a few customers, they have no problem seeing the value.

Do you sell many of the sites that you initially rent out? When you do rent them how much are you charging them per month or do you charge per lead (# of phone calls for that month)?

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When we are discussing the site I offer them it for a rental rate, on a per lead basis, on a percentage of income basis, or as an outright purchase, their choice. I am going to make money whatever way they choose.

I tell them if they lease/rent/lead capture in any form, and want to purchase the site later, it will be at fair market value. (Their best option is to buy before the site gets ranked, because purchase price depends on monthly sales, BUT I do not tell them that.) I let them pick the method they like from the options above, and always try to get the hosting and ongoing SEO. This way, their arrangement with me is completely their choice, and all I do is accommodate their needs.

My main goal is to get them as a customer. Whatever it takes to do that within reason I will do. Once you get them, and produce results, they will not leave you.

I got this via e-mail from a client of mine today. She has a simple website on homestead that she built herself, and her niche is local homeschooling. Homestead was charging her $100 a month for seo services for the last two years and had done a few bolded keywords, and a few backlinks and called it good. My original pitch was that I would do her SEO for her site for $100 a month for three months. then reevaluate. All I have done so far for her is keyword optimize her site and do local business directories. I have not even optimized Google places yet (she gets 2 hours of work each month for the $100, although I have been spending more than that each month to make sure she gets results)

The three months are up and she wrote me this after I sent her some improved ranking reports and told her I was seeing statistical evidence of traffic coming in. I asked her if was she seeing it and was it converting. This is her reply:

Thanks for everything!. Business is definitely coming in...new clients every
week. I have at least tripled my income compared to what I was making last
fall. I had a consultation with a new client today who said she found me
online and that my rankings were all high. I didn't ask her to elaborate
because I didn't want to reveal that I was surprised about that. Whatever
you're doing is working. I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything,
but I'm glad to have the business. You can use me for a reference anytime.
Thanks, Steve!"

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She even insisted that I use that "tripled my income" part. Now the honest truth is that I have spent well more than 6 hours on the site doing the proper research. getting the on page SEO right, and doing the quality local directories I have done so far. And SEO services for $100 a month is obscenely cheap. But she is now a rabid fan, and I can send that testimonial to potential customers with her contact information and she will verify every word.

Get a few of these, no matter what it takes. This woman will sell my services better than anything else I can do. Why? Because in three months, I tripled her income. That is not hype, hope, nor bullshit, that is solid fact and she will verify it.

And I did it with nothing more than careful research, and common sense SEO.

sldebo said:

I got this via e-mail from a client of mine today. She has a simple website on homestead that she built herself, and her niche is local homeschooling. Homestead was charging her $100 a month for seo services for the last two years and had done a few bolded keywords, and a few backlinks and called it good. My original pitch was that I would do her SEO for her site for $100 a month for three months. then reevaluate. All I have done so far for her is keyword optimize her site and do local business directories. I have not even optimized Google places yet (she gets 2 hours of work each month for the $100, although I have been spending more than that each month to make sure she gets results)

The three months are up and she wrote me this after I sent her some improved ranking reports and told her I was seeing statistical evidence of traffic coming in. I asked her if was she seeing it and was it converting. This is her reply:



She even insisted that I use that "tripled my income" part. Now the honest truth is that I have spent well more than 6 hours on the site doing the proper research. getting the on page SEO right, and doing the quality local directories I have done so far. And SEO services for $100 a month is obscenely cheap. But she is now a rabid fan, and I can send that testimonial to potential customers with her contact information and she will verify every word.

Get a few of these, no matter what it takes. This woman will sell my services better than anything else I can do. Why? Because in three months, I tripled her income. That is not hype, hope, nor bullshit, that is solid fact and she will verify it.

And I did it with nothing more than careful research, and common sense SEO.

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Never thought about the homeschooling niche. Might wanna check that out for my area as well. How did you find this client in the first place? Were you doing research for the niche to setup a rental type site and was the client advertising thru Adwords or thru offline ads? When you found this client was she ranking at all on the first page for any of the main keywords such as "home schooling city" "home schooling in city", etc.?

nice thread.

Im starting my "rent-a-site"business here in my country lets see how it goes.

Actually im planning to work as a directory for local business niches.

Charging something like $100 a month for each business listed, you guys think it would work?


Right now im trying to rank my first site to see what i should do SEO wise to rank fast.

BTW, im not in the US/UK market. Not english.

Nice thread. Love the info.

I am wondering if how many 'keywords' you try to rank per site?
And when you actually start 'renting them out'? Would that be after you get 1-2 keywords on page 1? Or would that be after you get at last 75% of your keywords on page 1 etc.?

Thanks

I think you would rent it out not based on how many keywords you have, but how many targeted visitors the site gets and how many leads it generates.

If its first place for 5 keywords but none convert to leads, it would be useless to the people who are renting it.

Put yourself in the business' shoes and ask yourself if the site would honestly help you out for what it costs.

lol started yesterday, today got my site page 1 rank 5... the backlinks ive been building are not even live yet. Might be number 1 this weekend max

www.hardwoodfloorrerefinishing-houston.com

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Tho i am not a designer, but I am a picky person.
With respect (and seriously, no offense), how did your client feel about that site after looking at it?
It looks pretty plain and not too 'professional' to be frank.

On the bright side, I bet you must be very good at selling at this point.

I apologize for being direct, but I am just curious the type of sites you guys are renting out etc.
Perhaps it might be the reasons why some fail and some banking it with success?

SuperNoobInc said:

I went through a couple older theads. A few mentioned it works well but hard trouble finding clients. Some admitted they tapped into the wrong niche etc.

I would love to hear more about this. Thanks

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Any chance you could provide the threads you went through? Or if not just provide me the search terms you used and I will look them up myself.

creativepotion said:

Tho i am not a designer, but I am a picky person.
With respect (and seriously, no offense), how did your client feel about that site after looking at it?
It looks pretty plain and not too 'professional' to be frank.

On the bright side, I bet you must be very good at selling at this point.

I apologize for being direct, but I am just curious the type of sites you guys are renting out etc.
Perhaps it might be the reasons why some fail and some banking it with success?

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Still looking for some inputs on this. Thanks in advance.

Yes. I owned www.citydoctor.com (replace city with city name obviously) and after 4 months of searching for someone to rent it out, I actually found a doctors office who was interested in buying it outright, sold for $6500.

HookahJosh said:

Yes. I owned http://www.citydoctor.com (replace city with city name obviously) and after 4 months of searching for someone to rent it out, I actually found a doctors office who was interested in buying it outright, sold for $6500.

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What sort of doctor site was it? Did you build out like it was a actual site of a doctor and was it ranking on first page and generating search traffic? It had to be a one of the professional doctors such as chiropractor, dentist, surgeon, etc.? Can you give some more input or possibly tell us the url since you already sold it?

Need some help!

I have some rental sites, I am about finished. I rent 1 rental site to 1 company.

I am looking to get someone on my website for the time being while it's ranking.

Currently, the #'s are 123-123-1234 but I'd like to put a real phone number and real address!

Is there a "good" way to prospect people on whom you should put on the website -> who will pay in the future and not just want free leads?

This month, I'm trying to get about 10-15 of my rental sites up and have someone on there for the time being while I get it ranked.

Raevinn said:

I have spotted quite a few potential clients like that, but when I contact them they either don't reply or already have someone managing their website for them.
I think the problem is that they've been bombarded with spam and telemarketers for so long that they don't even listen to anything anymore. They also seem scared in a sense that they feel that websites won't really make any difference to their business.

I've had a meeting with a cosmetic dentist before where I found one of her ads around campus. I already had a website that was ranking first and getting a ton of traffic. I told her this but when I mentioned it would cost $300 a month to rent she started becoming hesitant, saying things like "I usually only print a few flyers every now and then, but I guess if this website is more effective it could work well." I even offered a 2 week free trial and sent her an email lead and she still wouldn't bite.

I don't get it man, because it was obvious that she could use more clients. And the waiting room of the practice was filled with all these vintage couches and fancy decorations so I can't imagine she doesn't have a bit of cash to spend. My sales skills are probably my biggest downfall I guess.

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1. Most of them have been spammed to death.
2. The majority have made the wrong decision and now they are steaming.
3. INSIGHT. It's hard to project the main picture into their minds.


Workaround : Free trials.


Best advice : build your company in a very professional way. Attend to [insert target here] seminaries, meetings, you name it. Organize professional seminaries once a month, invite them, sell your shit.

I mean the online services, once properly explained will stick to their minds.

dantob said:

What sort of doctor site was it? Did you build out like it was a actual site of a doctor and was it ranking on first page and generating search traffic? It had to be a one of the professional doctors such as chiropractor, dentist, surgeon, etc.? Can you give some more input or possibly tell us the url since you already sold it?

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Would like to follow up on this as well.

itzpaul said:

Need some help!

I have some rental sites, I am about finished. I rent 1 rental site to 1 company.

I am looking to get someone on my website for the time being while it's ranking.

Currently, the #'s are 123-123-1234 but I'd like to put a real phone number and real address!

Is there a "good" way to prospect people on whom you should put on the website -> who will pay in the future and not just want free leads?

This month, I'm trying to get about 10-15 of my rental sites up and have someone on there for the time being while I get it ranked.

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Have you rented the site out yet? How much did you rent it out for? Share your info here man!

Annah said:

1. Most of them have been spammed to death.
2. The majority have made the wrong decision and now they are steaming.
3. INSIGHT. It's hard to project the main picture into their minds.


Workaround : Free trials.


Best advice : build your company in a very professional way. Attend to [insert target here] seminaries, meetings, you name it. Organize professional seminaries once a month, invite them, sell your shit.

I mean the online services, once properly explained will stick to their minds.

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I think attending to meetings and seminars sound like a good idea!