Just Billed My First Client...

[Obsessed]

Don't remind me. I have more in student loans than my sister and brother-in-law took out to buy their new house two years ago. It's one of the main reasons I switched from a private school to UT to be honest.

I just wish 18 year old me knew half as much as 25 year old me does about getting jobs in the real world, I would've told every private school that offered me to shove it and went to a state school for free. Outside of the ivy league's and a few select others, it doesn't matter where you get edumacated at, it just matters who you know (and that's the main reason the ivy's are better as well) and that you even have a diploma of some kind.

A friend of mine, his dad was a professor at Memphis. Law and Accounting. He told me almost the same thing. In real life, doesn't matter where you get your degree, just get it. 10 years down the road it's not going to matter. Just do good work, the rest will take care of itself.

 

[Freak]

I remember someone here sells products on Amazon and does well. I can't recall who though.

 

[InVOLuntary]

What you should pay for in terms of SEO (not to be confused with pay per click) will vary greatly, depending on your industry and your business model.

Without getting into specifics if you want your site to remain anonymous, what kind of site is it, how do you make money, and is it a niche thing? Competitive?

We manufacture a high end,custom, luxury product. We market primarily to the good ole USA however most of our sales comes from clients east of the Mississippi. Our products sell for $150K to $350K. We have probably only 10 competitors nationwide, but really you could limit that to two or three as some of the 10 are either much higher end or much lower end. Our product has been described as sort of the Toyota Camry of our industry. As a side note, our industry has suffered greatly since the financial crash 2008. We lost 90% of our manufacturers. While it has recovered some, it's nowhere near where it was pre 2008.

90% of our sales leads come from internet. We market our site primarily through Google Adwords currently. Organically, we rate very low. Our site is old and needs to be totally redone and I am working on that.

Hope this helps and I am interested to hear what you have to say.

:hi:

 

[utvolpj]

I remember someone here sells products on Amazon and does well. I can't recall who though.

My wife and I sell on amazon and make enough to cover childcare for 2 kids. Not getting rich but every bit helps

 

[Boca Vol]

My wife and I sell on amazon and make enough to cover childcare for 2 kids. Not getting rich but every bit helps

That's cool!

What do you sell?

 

[utvolpj]

That's cool!

What do you sell?

A little bit of everything. Get some from online auctions and every couple of months I'll find a good deal on small electronics that were demos or overstocks. Got a couple of shelves full in the garage and we ship a couple of orders per day thru amazon. The stuff that's not quite amazon quality we turn on eBay or Craigslist. My wife actually hooked up with a local embroidery shop and we now supply a few different home goods items to them (like sheets and pillows). It's all about finding a niche that's not already saturated

 

[n_huffhines]

We manufacture a high end,custom, luxury product. We market primarily to the good ole USA however most of our sales comes from clients east of the Mississippi. Our products sell for $150K to $350K. We have probably only 10 competitors nationwide, but really you could limit that to two or three as some of the 10 are either much higher end or much lower end. Our product has been described as sort of the Toyota Camry of our industry. As a side note, our industry has suffered greatly since the financial crash 2008. We lost 90% of our manufacturers. While it has recovered some, it's nowhere near where it was pre 2008.

90% of our sales leads come from internet. We market our site primarily through Google Adwords currently. Organically, we rate very low. Our site is old and needs to be totally redone and I am working on that.

Hope this helps and I am interested to hear what you have to say.

:hi:

Sounds like you have a pretty prime industry for organic search success. Based on your description I doubt you will ever generate a ton of traffic, but it's probably very qualified traffic and more likely to convert.

 

[n_huffhines]

A little bit of everything. Get some from online auctions and every couple of months I'll find a good deal on small electronics that were demos or overstocks. Got a couple of shelves full in the garage and we ship a couple of orders per day thru amazon. The stuff that's not quite amazon quality we turn on eBay or Craigslist. My wife actually hooked up with a local embroidery shop and we now supply a few different home goods items to them (like sheets and pillows). It's all about finding a niche that's not already saturated

Hit me up if you get your hands on Zelda Ocarina of Time and a Nintendo 64.

 

[Boca Vol]

A little bit of everything. Get some from online auctions and every couple of months I'll find a good deal on small electronics that were demos or overstocks. Got a couple of shelves full in the garage and we ship a couple of orders per day thru amazon. The stuff that's not quite amazon quality we turn on eBay or Craigslist. My wife actually hooked up with a local embroidery shop and we now supply a few different home goods items to them (like sheets and pillows). It's all about finding a niche that's not already saturated

:good!::clapping::salute:

I would really enjoy something like that. A buddy of mine was an account rep for UPS and one his clients worked for an irrigation company (Landscaping). Well, every day he would come home with spare parts for sprinklers. He started selling them and BOOM...side business.

 

[VolFaninFla]

Any flea marketers or online sellers here? I sell closeout items on the side.
If you are selling on Amazon, eBay, or Craig's List, I have name brand, quality products for you.

 

[Aesius]

There will be value in content for a while. The way SEO has been trending has been towards on-page factors and away from off-page. Structure and content will always be important, IMO. If you don't already, get a technical understanding of SEO. That's where it's at.

Now as far as rules of thumb, like 500-1000 words per page, keyword usage, etc. that's becoming less and less important.

Writing for users is where it's at.

I know only a bit about SEO on the technical side. I really need to become more proficient at it as I grow my business. Right now I primarily add huge amounts of content to my clients' sites on a regular basis via subpages, blogs, and social media accounts. I know that the method I use is probably 3-4 years out of date (no black hat techniques or keyword stuffing, though), but it is still working. I've helped them rank highly for a lot of fairly competitive keywords and I know their calls have increased significantly.

 

[hog88]

Congrats Huff, the only thing better than invoicing that first client is cashing their check...

 

[Daloth]

A friend of mine, his dad was a professor at Memphis. Law and Accounting. He told me almost the same thing. In real life, doesn't matter where you get your degree, just get it. 10 years down the road it's not going to matter. Just do good work, the rest will take care of itself.

I wish my guidance counselor or many of my teachers had told me things like that. My parents did to a small degree, but in my little rinky dink town the fact that my final 4 schools were Vanderbilt, Duke, Yale, and Sewanee (the one I eventually went to because it would be cheaper than Duke and Yale said no, plus, by god you could play college football kid) was such an enormous source of pride and bragging rights to some people that they never once told me the real world doesn't give a rats ass for the most part.

Of course, if not for my father passing away I would've graduated years ago and I'd probably be an elitist schmuck about my private education.

 

[BEATBAMA12]

There are so many things you can do. It's crazy. I am always amazed at what people come up with. My bro-in-law makes simple kitchen tables with really nice finishes, and ends up with about $100/hr of work.

I know people that get junky furniture at Goodwill and paint it then sell it at flea markets for 10x what they paid for it.

Make a salsa.




Whatever. The problem with my side job is it's the same as my regular job. I need to change things up. Been thinking about driving for uber. It's not bad money and it'd be a fun social experiment.

Yeah I'm quite the craftsman, coming off a landscaping career to becoming a machinist, I just started my job and I'm still in school for machining, I just need space and more tools and a mill and metal lathe , and I could make anything.