In this post I’m going to break down some simple straight forward ideas as to why you should consider jumping into the world of SEO consulting. Let’s first talk about my story and how I got involved in SEO.

As someone who has been involved with internet marketing for over 6 years I’ve had my fair share of opportunity to “dabble” in different areas of the industry.

I’ve done everything from Podcasting, CPA Marketing, Blogging, Product Launches, Selling on Amazon, Affiliate Marketing and more.

Figuring out what really worked 

It wasn’t until I got introduced to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as a service that I really started to have success online.

I had been working in a day job doing tech support at the time for over 5 years which was becoming very daunting for me. During this time, I started my first blog which eventually led to creating a podcast. I managed to develop many key relationships over a span of 2 years while podcasting and interviewing many successful entrepreneurs. The problem with my podcast was I never really managed to build much of an audience, what I did build though was many solid relationships with other successful business owners.

One of my very first interviews was with Jon Haver of Authoritywebsiteincome.com which eventually led to a conversation about partnering up on offering an SEO service.

During this same time frame I shifted from my tech support role into a full time eCommerce position working with a brand to help promote products on Amazon using the FBA program. I managed to learn a ton about selling on Amazon and eCommerce in general.

All the while I was still running this service with Jon, I really saw the potential of what was truly possible with SEO services. We managed to generate over $20,000 in a span of just 3 months selling our services and this really got me excited about it’s potential.

Watching the owner of the current eCommerce company put so much time and effort into building a business around a simple product I found it was profitable and overall exciting I just was not excited about building someone else’s business on Amazon.

Jon ultimately decided to take over the business SEO service model himself and this left me out of the picture but really motivated to get my own SEO services going for myself just knowing the huge potential that was there.

Around this same time, I got offered a bigger opportunity to work with a much larger brand as an eCommerce manager so I took the position, got a nice pay raise and worked every angle I could to learn even more about eCommerce.

What I quickly found was again I was very un-motivated to build another companies brand, despite finding lots of ways to improve sales and profit through internet sales the company refused to make many of my suggested workflow improvements.

Starting out on your own

It was around this time I knew I had to start working on building an actual business model for myself that made sense and I could have true control over.

I had previously built many WordPress based websites like my blog where I had run my podcast. I decided to come up with a simple brand name and initially started out by offering a lot of web design services for easy income. In some cases, it may have been a simple website for a painter for $350 and a barter to have some rooms painted in my home. I just did this to get some cash flow rolling. Granted this was nice pocket change, it wasn’t enough to go leaving my day job over.

I always kept an eye out for “SEO” based jobs while searching around Indeed.com. I managed to find an insurance company seeking help with SEO on a part time basis. I went in for an interview and approached it as I would any normal job, the key was transitioning this “job” into a work from home opportunity where I’d simply call or visit the office once a month all the while doing the work on a freelance basis. This is exactly what I managed to do and it allowed me to continue working at my full time job.

I didn’t really know 100% everything I needed in order to rank a business locally but I knew that if I had a $1000 budget I could find someone for a fraction of the cost to do it for me. This is where I set out to find a company whom I could develop a good relationship with that had good results working with clients and could rank my clients on my behalf.

I spent quite a bit of time speaking with different companies, trying some ad-hoc services and eventually settled on working with a company based out of the USA for $250/month. Over the next few months my client’s rankings increased and all I had to do was walk in with a “white labeled” report showing them the work that “I” did. The report had my own branding and the insurance company was under no impression I was hiring outside help.

I was profiting $750 a month for driving 10 minutes out of my way to meet with this company for an hour a month, I couldn’t believe how well it was working!

I continued to seek out new clients and bring on several more web design jobs that mostly turned into one time deals. Over the span of a year I managed to initially pull in over $10,000 on my own all while working a full time job.

How SEO consulting compares to other ways of building a business online

I want to discuss how this model compares to most other ‘methods’ and ways of building a business online today:

• Working as an SEO Consultant is scalable, you can sign on 3 clients in a month for over $1000 each and be well on your well to financial freedom and working for yourself.
• SEO is simple to outsource – Despite lacking the knowledge when I first got started I managed to not only learn how to do it myself over time but also build some key relationships allowing me to outsource every task needed to complete the work and get my clients positive results.
• It’s an actual sustainable business model – Unlike some other methods of earning online today, it’s not some ‘one-time secret method’ to riches. Many of the strategies and products shared online today don’t always have sustainable long term potential.
• Every local business needs help today with marketing, everyone wants to grow and be the business in their area generating as many phone calls as possible.

Here are some of the key things to think about before becoming an SEO consultant:

• Do you enjoy working with people and talking on the phone? If the answer is no, this most likely won’t be for you. You will be speaking with people a lot; in fact, I’d say communication might be one of the best possible things you can offer as a consultant.
• Are you comfortable letting other people do work for you? Sure, you can do all the work yourself but why would you? There are tons of services offered today.
• Are you willing to adapt to an ever-changing industry? Google releases updates all the time, strategies change and you need to be willing to adapt.

You are the boss, not them

I always see posts in Facebook groups of many people who have allowed clients to “control” them. Almost like they left a 9-5 job and now instead of having one boss they have 10+ bosses telling them what to do.

Sure, this is definitely a downside of this business model but if you set yourself up from the start to have very specific expectations with your clients you should ultimately be able to pick and choose who you work with.

After managing over 35+ clients I can now tell you that so long as your communication is A+ and you can always show improvements to your client’s business, you shouldn’t be getting phone calls every day asking why they are not on the first page of Google.

You need to set clear goals with your clients and give yourself room to breathe so you are able to spend more time working on their business vs. talking on the phone aimlessly.

Teaching What I Learned

One area I also got heavily involved in while exploring different business models online was teaching online courses.

Around the time I was working with this 2nd eCommerce company I decided to get more serious about creating online courses. My first successful course was all about how I built an eCommerce shop that utilized the Amazon affiliate program.

This was another area I had spent some time learning about all the while working a full time job. I realized over time I could take skills I had learned myself and turn them into fully fledged video courses to teach others.

I was always on the lookout for new and exciting products in the SEO niche. I decided to pick up various products that involved teaching others how to get started with their own SEO business, how to do SEO, how to get clients and pretty much anything and everything there was out there on this subject that I could find when I was starting to get more serious about it.

I started putting a lot of it into action, trying different methods to find clients, trying different strategies and more.

How To Earn Your First $1000 As an SEO Consultant

I’ve decided to share an exact step by step method on how I land clients.

Of everything I’ve tried to do when it comes to landing clients this has been my #1 way of bringing in new business and I’m going to share it with you 100% for free.

(Note if you are here from my email list, you likely have already seen this so no need to opt in again)

If you are struggling online right now and would like to try out a true SEO Consulting business model book a FREE 45 minute agency consulting session with me here. 

I’m always open to helping students and would be happy to answer any questions you might have.