hey what's going on
welcome to the Doug show this is Doug
Huntington and in this episode I am
talking to my good friend Ron Stefanski
Ron is from the one hour professor which
is his blog and I did a quick video a
couple weeks ago over on the YouTube
side and I was sharing the fact that ron
has been publishing his income reports
since he started working online in late
2014
and those I mean those reports are like
super detailed and the really cool part
is at the beginning he actually lost a
decent amount of money alright so in
2014 he wasn't showing any profit in
fact he lost nearly fifteen hundred
dollars but he stuck with it of course
and again the super cool part is the
income reports are very detailed so in
2015 he made a little under 6,000 in
2016 he jumped by a huge margin up to
about thirty four thousand dollars in
2017 he made about seventy thousand
dollars
20:18 a hundred and fifty seven thousand
and here in 2019 like through the first
four months of January through April
he's made over sixty seven thousand
dollars so he's on track for just under
two hundred thousand dollars and he
works for himself he has not necessarily
affiliate sites but we'll call them
Authority or maybe like niche sites it's
you know splitting hairs at some point
but he has sites where he's making money
on ad revenue so primarily like adsense
and stuff like that anyway people were
super interested in you know hearing
more from Ron which I I suspected you
know he's a he's a cool guy he's fun to
talk to and this is a two-parter by the
way so Ron and I go deep into the weeds
I think a lot of people are gonna like
this episode and I'm gonna stop talking
here in just a moment but I want to let
you know there's a part two that is Q&A
so
in the video I also asked people what
they wanted to ask Ron and we went
through quite a few questions and a few
tangents Ron and I are kind of in a
little bit of a mastermind group at
least there's two of us so I guess two
couple weeks and we have been for
something like nine months pretty long
time and we just kind of shoot the
kind of in this episode and in the Q&A
episode coming out for episode 40 so
keep your eye out for that and be sure
to check out Ron on one our professor
he's not promoting anything I'm not an
affiliate or anything like that but he
has an awesome story so that's why we're
talking to him so do go to one our
professor and check out his income
reports you can sort of you know check
out when he was first starting and see
the struggles that he goes through and
the slow growth I mean this is generally
a grind and you'll get that theme as we
go through this conversation so let's
get to it
[Music]
welcome to this episode I'm sitting here
with my good friend Ron Ron how you
doing today howdy everyone I am really
good Doug how are you awesome doing
really well funny enough it was like 78
the weather all the time apparently it
was like 78 degrees on like Sunday and
then it snowed three inches yesterday
Monday he had the same thing actually in
Illinois yeah so it's like yeah we've
had this crazy cold front it's terrible
outside right now it's like 45 gets
right so dark in here yeah crazy
well anyway moving on from the weather
who knows when people are gonna watch
this but Ron is from the one hour
professor and run for people that don't
know who you are can you just give like
a little intro sure so I have been in
this whole thing
this internet marketing area what has
probably been I don't even know how many
years it's been Doug I think about six
years now I think about six years or so
background from that though I had a
basically in corporate America I went to
a digital marketing manager role worked
at a start-up I mean I was pretty
corporate marketing digital marketing
specifically I have a degree my mba in
marketing as well so I was kind of like
a corporate marketer and I had worked
through that and then I ended up going
as an entrepreneur and when I did that
it was a tough few years there I
struggled through quite a bit but ended
up kind of finding my area in authority
websites I do some affiliate stuff but
kind of finding my niche there and now I
just don't know portfolio websites and
I've just been growing my business you
know you're over here as much as I can
awesome and for the people who maybe
you're new to the channel or something
like that or new to the podcast this is
going to be broadcasted in multiple
areas but I did a short feature on Ron
because Ron you're making roughly like
15 to 16 plus thousand dollars per month
and that's been consistent and you have
been documenting your journey since
roughly the end of 2014 so you have like
multiple years of income reports where
you critically look at you know how your
business was doing and that that's why
we're talking here it really like I
haven't seen like a long term journey
like that where someone has done such a
good job documenting it so yeah yeah
because Heflin yeah pat flynn from smart
passive income he was like a big
inspiration for that of course like most
people and I did it and then now it's
actually kind of weird and I know we've
talked about this on other calls and
stuff but it's kind of weird because you
know I'm getting to the point to where
I'm making that income and it's it's
almost awkward to talk about but in the
beginning it wasn't like that you know
it was easy to report him making
negative 200 hours a month but then when
it's like they can in 15 16 thousand
hours a month it feels like you're
gloating which is uncomfortable but it's
like I'm not gloating I've been doing
this forever so yeah I've told you this
before I've really documented it all at
this point
I do the income reports other people see
them you know when they're on the email
list they'll see him that sort of thing
but it actually has really helped me
keep myself accountable set goals every
month understand where my business is
nothing ever
falls off my radar because of those so
that's why I've continued to do them but
I've done them every single month with
things that I've learned and insights
just to help people along the way so
cool and for people that are interested
I'll put a link in the description so
you can check out some of the income
reports and stuff like that now before
we go on to some of the attack tactics
and stuff like that I mean we're gonna
go deep we actually have a bunch of
questions from people in the YouTube
audience that submitted questions so
thanks everyone for that but number one
you and I talked pretty often every
couple weeks but I didn't even I forgot
that you got an MBA I forgot you had one
you know that's cool and I guess I asked
you a bunch of questions but I don't
know because normally we're just you
know shooting the a little bit yeah
yeah you'll probably learn learn a few
things I was going for my doctorate my
doctorate was gonna be in higher
education because I was just gonna be a
college professor full time but then I
kind of was like I got about I think
it's about a year and a half it was a
three year program I got a year and a
half into it and then we had to like
give advice to a local business and
stuff I actually felt really
uncomfortable with that because I wasn't
fully about like invested in the pro I
was just getting it so I could be a
college professor I wasn't fully
invested and I was like I want to be an
entrepreneur anyway so I actually
stopped my you know getting my doctorate
I was like I'm just gonna stop now and
give this actually everything a full a
full push so some there you go something
you didn't know probably cool yeah yeah
I had no idea so you and did you go
straight from undergrad to grad school
okay yeah I went to give you a little
background I went to Community College
because I couldn't get into any colleges
so I wasn't like a great student I
wasn't high mean I wasn't terrible I had
like a in high school I think at 2.8
went to college first I went to
Community College to get my grade point
up got it up went to Western Michigan go
Broncos for three semesters got kicked
out because I like a lecture style
learning not for me so if anyone's out
there like oh I'm not smart you are
there's just certain things that you
learn in certain ways I wasn't good with
that so got kicked out ended up going to
school online a hundred percent to
finish up my bachelor's and then I was
like well I got my bachelor's but
everyone has that so now let me go and
try to get my masters and I don't went
to Benedictine University in Illinois
that was like a hybrid program online
offline so I did that and then I was
getting my doctorate and that was also a
hyper program as well so yeah but it
like I did go for my bachelor's straight
to my masters I think you're probably
like three or four months off there okay
and then my doctorate my I got my
masters I was like that's it but then I
was like a few years later like
admissions get my doctorate cuz I was
like in the college professor thing so
maybe I should do that and then like I
said I just I stopped because I want to
do this stuff and luckily I did stop it
worked out so bright and then you
mentioned you were like hey I'm gonna be
an entrepreneur it's a struggle what
were some of your early like ventures
well I always so my thing was I didn't I
still don't know how to code and I mean
you give me some HTML I can kind of look
at it kind of understand what's going on
if I'm looking at the page next to it
but I never understood that code I still
don't I always focused one thing is it
was big with me is I always focused on
websites and I did that for one simple
reason the low startup cost there was
such a low startup cost which is a huge
benefit if anyone's out there and
they're like oh I don't want to invest
money or they're cheap like I was
admittedly you know I had some money to
invest but I was just too scared to do
it when I was there it was like I didn't
want to invest it so I just would work
on it myself and I'd put all the hours
in but you can see those results and
websites have such a low startup cost
that was a huge deal to me because it's
like who has 10 20 30 you know fifty
thousand a hundred thousand to franchise
stuff some people do I didn't so that
was my biggest thing but my early
ventures man I create I mean cuz it's
all website based right but I created so
many different crappy website but like
this was not success like there's so
many different things I remember there
was a one for Dragon NaturallySpeaking
software I made a website all around
that because the Commission I think was
like if you get a commission from an
affiliate thing it was like I think it
was like 60 bucks or 80 but it was
pretty high so I was like I was like I
could do that and I spent all this time
and money and YouTube and ads and
everything that failed I mean the amount
of failures dug there insurmountable I
had one I still remember it was pictures
of babies in the womb calm that was a
website I made pictures of babies in the
moon
in the womb was a high search volume low
competition I was like I could do this
dumbest thing I ever did in my life like
I did it for like I think it was like a
week and I was like this is stupid so
yeah there's no shortage of failures we
could spend the whole hour talking about
failures if you wanted but yeah there's
been a lot of those maybe we could do
that sometime because I have a handful
also it would be hard think of how many
like that's really I would have to like
look at like the domains and I bought
over time and be like that was dumb
oh yeah I forgot like there's so money
that I've had that I'm like because as
an entrepreneur a shiny object syndrome
right and especially when you're at the
beginning because you're just trying to
make anything work so you're trying this
that is that you don't know what's gonna
work so I was totally everywhere all
over the place trying to make stuff work
so this is funny I got a I got a ask how
are you gonna get the pictures so
there's your problem
so actually what it was because I had
read somebody saying basically and this
is totally not okay to do but I was
pretty young and new to it they're like
if you just get the pictures and put
them up on your website you can put ads
and make money I was just taking the
website I was taking the pictures
illegally essentially just going to
Google like ooh like a baby in the womb
at two months I'm gonna get that and
then like I started research I was like
well this isn't okay like this is
actually I can get a lot of trouble with
copyrights for this so at the time I
didn't know that's really when it came
down to I was just like naive thought it
was a good idea I worked on it for like
a week week and a half and I was like no
cuz I I just basically once I found that
the copyrights off I was like this is
not worth the risk of making twenty
bucks a month maybe so and for any of
the listeners or viewers out there maybe
go check Instagram because I bet maybe
you're just ahead of your time because I
bet there's a couple Instagram handles
out there of people just posting
pictures of babies you would be someone
out there written up my brilliant idea
my brilliant idea yeah but I don't know
that's just one of the bad examples
there was there was a lot I tried to be
straight with it but like that's a thing
I did I did you to me you know I did
that my one hour professor website
originally I was focused on trying to
create courses I tried to do like and I
did some consulting so I did that like I
did anything and everything I could
possibly do to try to like make it
self-sustaining that was like
thing so make my whole employment
self-sustaining at me right right now I
want to jump into some of the specifics
on like sort of your approach to your
portfolio and the kind of sites that you
work on there's a lot of questions that
came in that are about like content and
link building and your keyword research
and stuff like that so we're gonna kind
of dive into that some of the tactical
stuff we're gonna meander around this
kind of how my brain works so can you
tell me just sort of the kind of
websites that you have sort of in
general yeah I mean at this point so
I've noticed a lot of people going into
the model of like the Amazon affiliate
thing which is good and I don't think if
there's anything wrong with that but to
me that it scares the crap out of me I
have a website that is in that and it's
in like the pet niche we'll just call it
that so yeah I have like the pet niche
the employment niche I'm trying to think
of any other niches I'm I mean I can't
really give away one of it I guess it
would be like a public service niche I
can't really give that away because it
would be too specific but in general
like the websites that I build I've done
Amazon affiliate but that that scares me
because Amazon they just did it this
last week I don't know if you heard but
like fashion got lowered by X percentage
like they keep dropping their
commissions and it just scares me it
really scares me because I feel like
Amazon is so powerful if some I will say
for anyone that's out there has an
Amazon site that's doing pretty well I
think where the real money is there is
creating physical products or digital
products if you can somehow monetize it
and do that and selling those on your
website is a much more safer business
model but for me most of my websites I
try to
I've kind of gone away from that whole
Amazon affiliate marcos it scares me and
I focused mostly on like informational
educational content type of websites
true authorities like finding a niche of
individuals or you know around a passion
or around a problem giving them all the
information that they need and then
usually monetization I get you know some
Amazon affiliate monetization some other
affiliate monetization and then mostly
it's actually Google Adsense I made
quite a bit from with Google
had sense but yeah there's some other
affiliate partners there but that's kind
of the businesses that I focus on are
informational educational around a
particular niche or topic to help people
got it and going back to you know one of
our influences Pat Flynn of smart
passive income basically he had you know
this site back in the day security guard
training training HQ yeah I think that's
yeah like a public case study I think
it's still around I think it's remained
you know relevant but that's a great
example for people to have a look at
would you agree Ron absolutely yeah I
mean I don't I don't know how well even
if you here's the thing if you search
security guard training now you're not
just gonna see his but you're gonna see
all the people that copied them which I
never think people should copy at each
other because I mean there's always room
for a niche but like be original but a
lot of people copy them so you'll see if
not his then you're gonna see other ones
that are probably way better than his
cuz he doesn't really work on that that
much anymore I don't think but yeah it's
still relevant yeah it's definitely
still relevant cool and I think yeah
it's important to point out like there's
many different business models like
you're saying so I focus on Amazon
typically I also have info products
educational kind of stuff and you focus
on like hats that's there's plenty of
room for many different business models
and they could all work just fine and
that pros and cons so yeah and I will
say too if you really want to do well
with an authority website or like any
website you know and I'm Doug I'm sure
you'd agree you know you maybe start
with one monetization model like let's
just say Amazon and then you do stacking
right so then you stack on okay we got
an Amazon well maybe we should throw
them some Adsense on certain pages where
it makes sense let's create a digital
product let's and then you get a website
that goes from making you know I don't
know a thousand two thousand a month to
three four or five and that's how you
really you focus on what you have and
squeeze every drop of juice out of that
lemon right like get everything you can
and then when you're out about
monetization ideas that's the point
where you say maybe I should start
something new that's and that's I think
that's an important takeaway for anybody
because that's a mistake I made a bunch
of times so I still make that mistake to
be honest come from price right so when
you started
let's focus on just one site maybe the
the major site as far as revenue just to
give a good example so we could focus on
you know one site here like when you
started it can you tell us about like
how many keywords you had to start off
with like what did you launch with your
general plan of like link building or
did you even know all that stuff yet
um to be I mean I kind of knew it
because of my corporate like life I
guess you could say cuz the digital
marketing but I will say most of what I
learned I don't feel like was from the
job or it you know it also it definitely
wasn't from school I remember I had one
class on digital marketing that actually
still makes me mad so like it definitely
wasn't from that I mostly learned what I
did like through podcasts honestly I
learned a ton through podcasts and I
usually prefer podcasts because working
out or on a drive
you know commute you can still listen
but yeah my I mean my main website which
and just to be clear the reason if
anybody doesn't know I don't disclose
this anymore because I did at one point
and I got like some copycats coming in
and I don't like that so that's why I
don't disclose the website but my way
main website that particular one when I
started it it was actually just based on
and I'm not kidding when I say this
there was a need somebody in my father
had gotten remarried and there was a
need in the family for someone to be
able to get a job and they had certain
things going on out externally that were
influencing that so I basically went out
and I said okay well what other websites
are out there to help with this type of
situation that individual was having a
really hard time I couldn't find a
really good resource there was a few
others out there which there's a lesson
in that if it's already been done most
of the things you come up with will be
done at some point already but that
doesn't mean they can't be better so at
that point in time it basically looked
and I saw what was out there you know I
really think I can make something better
and I'm legitimately at that time was
building it to help that individual and
I was thinking maybe one day I'll make
like 500 bucks a month maybe you know I
have no idea and Here I am now I don't
even know what that website probably
pulls in like 10 to 12 thousand a month
or something like that so
but yeah like the the keywords I only
knew what my competitors were doing and
I only knew to do what they were doing
but do it a little bit better so it was
like I didn't really have a specific set
of keywords I kind of did something
which I'm sure we'll talk about like I I
work in systems that's like the way that
I am I probably should have been a
project manager to be honest yeah
but that's kind of how my brain works is
like how can we do something
creating outline for it or a template
template for it and do that and then get
it to a certain quality standard and
then do that over and over and over and
over so I did that with the the keywords
it was more like covering information
for all 50 states of the United States
with a certain content template to fully
cover that information move on and then
it was like okay we're done with that
port part of it let's go to this other
area where we can do 50 more pages on
specific information for all 50 states
do that and then let's move to this you
know so it was kind of like that the
systematic way of doing it but I started
with one and I built that out
I built it better than what they were
doing I didn't really have like a list
of keywords so to speak like nowadays I
usually do in that particular instance
though I didn't because I didn't really
I mean I knew kind of here's my targets
but I didn't really have like you know
it was more it was really to help
someone I mean that's now I try to focus
my stuff on really genuinely helping
people and usually things good things
happen from there so right and again for
people that are curious about an example
that security guard training HQ yeah is
I mean it's sort of a template that you
could follow that's really similar words
yeah
there's regulations for 50 different
states first that's like a perfect
example Doug that's like a perfect yeah
like a security guard in order to become
a security guard in all 50 states you
probably have certain laws or whatever
you have to follow so that's what I
would do is I would say okay the
security our training in Arizona let's
focus on that security guard training
Alaska let's focus you know and do it
that way
so that's how I started and then that
started to pick up steam and then I did
it more and more and more in different
areas yep perfect in for like people
that are familiar with the channel
usually focusing on like
related keywords buyers keywords these
are not these are generally like
information informational so it's like
purely informational there's no products
related to it
no really like yeah so there's no
products there's no buyers keywords it's
informational and it's ad revenue so
just want to point that out now how much
content is on the site now in terms of
the big site that I have yeah I think
it's that like I think it's a like 1,800
pages or something like that total I do
so to be clear so I focused on that that
will call it database type of content
just for the you know so people can
understand like 50 states database type
thing what we'll call that so I did
focus on that a lot but I also do
blogging and that's where I do the
keyword research and I say you know can
these individuals get hired by this
company or can these individuals get
training by you know I think of that too
so like I'll do the keyword research
I'll find specific questions that are
really important to that niche that area
and then I will have blog posts
answering those questions so I also do
blogging but yeah I'd like it like total
like 1800 I think it's a runner that's
been a in this man
yeah that's crazy but again it's been
what I've been doing it for five years
you know I mean and so like and like and
like when you outsource a ton I'm sure
we'll talk about that I saw outsource a
ton of my work so like when I outsource
I mean I really really really outsource
I'm not scared to spend thousands of
dollars every month not that you have to
do that in the beginning but once you
start making the money I'm a huge huge
proponent of rolling back back into the
business to grow it and that's how I've
really grown larger and larger larger is
by always rolling back profits into the
revenue into the business yep totally
and just as a reference point do you
happen to remember how many posts or
pieces of content that you like launched
that site with at the time I would say
I'm trying to think I would think that
it was probably around about I'd say
maybe about 150 total pages but it was
mostly focused on again that database
type of you know let's just use the
security guard training as an example
it was mostly built around that
so let's just say about 150 pages is
where I launched it and then I started
to see traffic and I wasn't too
concerned with monetization at the time
because that's always something config
there's always a way to make money
there's always a way to make money so
like yeah I think around 150 is where I
really did it nowadays if you would ask
me now where I would what I would do you
know now that I know a lot more and I've
been around for a while I would probably
say usually no less than like 25 pages
or 25 posts is when I'd really launched
something but it depends on your
strategy like if you're doing 25
informational pieces of content and you
launch you might start to get some
traffic after about six months is when I
think that's a Google sandbox you get
out of it so to speak so you might take
that but then it's like okay now you
have informational conference content
for 25 articles you don't have a way to
make money so it's like you know like
now you need to start doing affiliate
stuff you know so it depends on your
strategy there's a lot of but yeah I
would say like you want to have 25
well-written posts like don't just throw
out 500 words of garbage that's not
going to do it for you so about how long
are the the posts that you have
generally when they're questions I would
say mostly I usually the rule of thumb
is like when I say more there's 75 be
1,750 certainly 750 to a thousand words
is typically on the low end on the high
end I might go up to like 2,000 2,250
like maybe 2500 but I know some people
are like oh publish the longer content
list that any other I don't believe that
that's this is just a personal belief I
don't think that that's gonna be
sustainable I think eventually Google is
gonna be like hey you know you have
these 10,000 20,000 you know word of
things yeah right now you might get some
longtail but I don't think that works
because it's so hard to navigate and
like I don't know I mean that's my
thought I I know the argument of like
well there's a longer time on page and
all this and that but I don't personally
believe in that I would rather create a
URL and a title tag and a page that
specifically answers one query about one
thing if there's things that are really
really similar then yes tie them into
that and maybe make a different like
heading but in general yeah around 750
to a thousand as where as where I say so
right
and just to I I tend to agree with you
on yeah just in general but I mean let's
say you or I have a problem we type it
into our phone or maybe use some kind of
voice search I don't want to read like
10,000 words on okay I just want
like the one sentence answer so
sometimes if you could say it in a few
paragraphs that's better and yeah
sometimes people are in a hurry
yeah I think one caveat to that too is
that like some people think well because
google has their knowledge graphed there
now it's graphed so now let's like you
search and you get an instant answer and
they're like well they don't need to
click through your website yes they do
because even though if there's a
knowledge graph there and even though
there's that one or two sentences that
answer your question
they still want to know how you arrived
at that question like as human beings
we're not just gonna be like oh you know
read it on the internet it's true well
some people do that but most people are
like okay I understand that you're
saying that let me dive a little deeper
to understand why that is and everything
so I think that's important to
understand right very right in quick
quick caveat Ryan and I both know
long-form content is good but sometimes
short form content is the right length
so just to be clear before people get
upset and tell me that 15 to 18 hundred
words yeah there's the ideal length for
ranking sure across a huge data set yeah
and you gotta I mean and you also have
to understand I'm answering my writers
are answering a question right if you're
doing a roundup review of five or ten
products even you might not even have
enough at 1,800 words so you know what I
mean like it depends on what the content
is and what the intent of the user is
that's the real key here so like the way
that my business works and my focus my
intent is gonna be answering that one
question or questions really closely
related to it and that's it and then
maybe I link to a few other things to
get them you know maybe I'm a email list
or whatever else but if you're onner
like a Amazon website like that sort of
thing yeah if you're doing a full
product review which I like I said I
have a website like that if I was doing
that then yeah you know you want the
longer content so it really depends on
the content and what the users intent is
I think that's the key to that whole
discussion so right on right on so just
quickly sounds like you have some
writers that help you out can you tell
us a little bit about the writing tea
how you approach that and you know just
in general what you're paying yeah um so
my writers for the most part I started I
was super super cheap when I started and
I actually you know I I hear people say
like oh you know I usually will pay I
usually do it by word and the reason why
I do that when I pay my writers I say
okay by word actually I'm sorry I say by
100 words it's just easier math but I
usually say that because I want my
writers to understand that I want them
to write what they need to write I don't
want to say write an article between 500
to 750 words and I'll pay you X amount
of dollars I don't like doing that at a
fixed cost because as a writer they have
no incentive to go past 500 and 500 one
words they have no incentive it's like
why would I spend more time doing this
for my client when I had this other
client who you know they have no
incentive so I basically say I will just
pay you per 100 words and usually that
comes out to like when I started at
first I had a writer that was like 50
cents per 100 words hello and I'm one
other thing I always get English based
people no matter what 100 percent I
never ever get anyone from outside of
the US because I've just found that well
I guess you could make the argument like
UK and all that would be fine you know
it definitely but they're you know their
currency is higher than our so that's
why I don't that's why I don't usually
go with them but like you want someone
who is an English speaker full-fledged
native and that's just what they do I've
just found when I've tried to do it with
other countries that I've always had too
many little issues like little intricate
things plus they don't always stand
understand like the humor here and the
current events it's just they're not in
the culture then I immersed in the
culture so they don't fully get it you
know right but I always hire them but
yeah I like when I when I pay him I
usually will do it per 100 words I
started it like 50 cents which was super
super cheap and the lady was working way
too cheap and then I was up to like a
buck and that was believe it or not like
some people will tell you you like oh
you have to pay at least like two three
four dollars per 100 words and I think
that you probably do get some better
content for that like for the most part
there is definitely that but there's a
point of diminishing return there
and the reality is with a lot of content
specifically if you choose the right
niche and it's not super competitive you
might be the only one writing it you
know or like one of the few writing yet
so good enough or a little bit better
than your competitor is better than
anything else out there not easy to find
those niches but I think I kind of
stumbled into one of those with my own
affiliate site so it's like when you're
dealing with that you don't need to pay
super super high and especially if
you're doing informational content like
I do you're not gonna see a huge return
on your content anyway I mean it's gonna
be like most of my content doesn't make
a ton of money the thing is I just have
a ton of content that makes a little bit
of money all those different pages so
like that's the difference between my
business model but if you're doing like
an is Amazon one like that that type of
website I could see paying more now I
typically pay and I've kind of I usually
go for people who have like a journalism
type of degree you know I look for
teachers are really big and now I'm okay
usually around two bucks per 100 words
which is like 2 cents a word that's
that's typically what I'm willing to pay
now which I've found that the content is
good enough so I have that and then I
also have I'm trying to think of how
many writers I have right now I think
it's three different writers right now
is what I have and then I have a editor
that actually manages all the content of
all my websites and she just gives it
that final look through and then if I
ever have an issue this is why I like
that because they all kind of they don't
report to that editor but at the same
time she's kind of the catch-all so if I
see something wrong with when I R my
articles I don't have to go to the
writer I have to go to the editor and
say hey why did you miss this and then
they catch that flak and then it spreads
to all my writers and all my content so
they know don't do that again and then
they're making sure that they keep the
writers in check and I tell them you
know if you have to talk to the writer
please talk to the writer tell them this
like that's okay like I'm leaning on you
and if this if this content isn't good
I'm leaning on you so this is on you and
this is gonna be your problem if it's
not good so that's used that whole
hierarchy and it has worked for me but
when I first started to go back to
people who are probably earlier I just
hired a writer they would submit content
to me I would review it I would edit it
and I'm obviously I still teach at
colleges and stuff so like I'm good
that whole part of editing and all that
because it's just like part of my
profession but I would edit it myself
and then post it myself you know but as
I grew I had someone post and then I got
an editor like that took time for me
that was probably one of the most
difficult things for me to let go off is
like putting in a tear place not I
barely even see some of the content now
I mean it like it just goes up there and
then my virtual assistants is like hey
it's up and then I'm looking at it and
I'm looking if I see anything wrong I'm
like hey wait a minute and then I'll go
back but I wasn't like that before you
know so how did you I get this question
often so how did you like let go of that
control um I know that I'm not great at
everything I think I'm pretty decent
slash good at a lot of things but I'm
not great at everything and it just
comes down to the fact that like I
wasn't a journalism major you know I'm
not like I'm a good writer I had to be I
mean I almost did like a whole thesis
and my doctoral program at all I'm a
good writer but I understand that
there's people who are better at it than
me I understand that there's people who
are way more passionate about it and
writing and creating content in general
takes forever it's a very long press
like it just takes time I didn't like
spending my time doing that it's not
that I couldn't do it but it was like
okay I can spend all my time doing this
or I can buy back some of my time and
have someone else do it and then I can
oversee the whole direction of the
website and really where we're going you
know that was like a really really big
thing to me in like one of the things I
always say to people who are like
hesitant to outsource at the end of days
and you were on your deathbed right
hypothetically you're sitting there do
you think that you're gonna be like man
I wish I would have edited more articles
like that kind of thing or like I mean
that's dramatic but the reality is every
hour that you buy back of your own time
buy an investing in outsourcing is
another hour you get to actually live
and enjoy and have for yourself you know
and like it may sound cheesy or whatever
but that's how I think like if it comes
down to time anything it takes me a lot
of time outsource as quick as I can
because I know that time is the one
thing none of us can ever get back you
you can never do it so yeah
yeah it's I mean I was gonna say like
that once I started letting go like
things are you know the editor is gonna
do good enough you're like if you really
want to scale and I mean there's only so
many hours that each of us has so you
have to do something you have to
leverage it somewhere and like you said
once you hit a point that you could
reinvest you could buy back some at that
time and do more visionary kind of stuff
where you're like doing things to grow
instead of just like you're implementing
strategies you're no longer in the weeds
you're not working on your butt or like
in your business you're working on your
business you know like you're above your
overseeing it you have people doing
certain things you're making sure those
go well but you're also able to do
forward thinking you're thinking about
what's the next content were you know
what affiliates what direction do I want
to go yeah that was a big thing and I'll
say like in the beginning to just to to
bring it back to my past a little bit I
when I started this I had a full-time
job personally it was as a marketing
manager and I started it as a passion
project as with a full-time job I think
that anybody who does it unless they
have a ton of money saved up I think if
they just like leave their job and just
go all for it I personally found that
crazy because I like taking calculated
risks you know and for me I had I
couldn't invest a ton of money into it
in the beginning but I was short on time
but what I could do is I could manage a
writer who could create the content then
I could edit it then I could put it up
and I had the money still coming in to
where I could afford to do all that you
know and that was a tough transition to
get away from because I had like the
golden parachute you know making like
over a hundred K you know like that
whole thing everything was really really
great but now I make more than I ever
could have made and I work from home and
I get to decide everything I want to do
which is way way I do this even if I was
making less well I did do it when I was
making less it took a huge risk
so yeah totally and you know what I
forgot to ask this how long I guess when
did you quit your full-time job as the
digital marketer so I was a digital
marketer I think probably from when I
really really focused on this website I
think it took about seven or eight
months from until my first website
really really took
and I really took off like don't get
like confused by that like when I say
really took off I'm talking it made like
three to four hundred dollars a month
like that was really taking off to me
and the reason for that was simple it
had momentum that was my biggest thing
and I was like dying to leave my
corporate job I was dying not I like my
workers or my like co-workers you know
my boss wasn't terrible like at times I
get annoyed but who doesn't at their
boss but they weren't terrible it was
just I didn't like like the commute
killed me like all these different
things so for me yeah it was like like I
don't know I think it was like seven or
eight months or so and my website
started to show my momentum started to
make a little bit of money and I was
like I can do this
and then I just like I I have a condo in
the city I rented that out I went to
like a crappy apartment in the suburbs
like I downsize big-time you know III
was paying for parking and this is in
Chicago it's just you know it's not the
most expensive place but it's pretty
expensive so I had all that stuff I
moved to the suburbs
I like no more cable like I caught all
ties with everything and I had I don't
know what I think I had like ten or
fifteen thousand saved up total okay I'm
and I was just like I'm going for like
I'm gonna do this and I'm going for so
okay yeah I was like dude if you had a
six-figure job and then you're making
three or four hundred dollars a month
like that's bananas but you had other
stuff you downsize you did some bad
things all right yeah and I also and I
will say too I had because I've been
teaching for all this time right so like
I still and I'm very blessed I still
have some of my teaching gigs at just as
an adjunct professor like a part-time
take on courses when you can I still
have some of that so like at the time I
had it and that was you know I did that
and a little bit of consulting to
survive it was like in the red every
month or like even every month but I was
just working as hard as I possibly could
on these websites so or on the website I
should say at the time right now
link building so tiny questions on link
building can you well actually let me
just ask you this because some people
say link building is a total waste of
time they don't
and do it they maybe wait for some
natural links what do you think about
links I think that's bananas no it's
just say that a this a link building
doesn't matter at all in my personal
opinion and experience this isn't just
opinion this isn't you know this is
something that I've lived link building
will get you there faster I guess is
what you could say like yes you can
create a ton of content and if you if
you do if use the kgr the keyword golden
ratio you will get rankings you will get
up there and yes you will but even
though you're getting served for those
relevant results and even though you may
be getting you know views on your
website what are the chances of that
person's a webmaster what are the person
that that webmasters going to link to
you not very high so like some people
say oh I don't do link building I I I
will say and Doug you know a lot about
the history I think I've overdone link
building at the past at times a little
too hard and you know we could talk
about that later whatever but for the
most part when it comes to link building
I personally feel like it's an absolute
necessity you don't have to go crazy on
it but like after like six months you're
gonna find if you are just creating
content you're going to be writing to
nothing and you're not gonna see much
like I have a website now that I'm
working on we have I'm trying to think I
think it's about 80 articles 90 articles
right now I am getting maybe one visit a
day maybe and it's been about three
months but I I know that that's okay
because I'm gonna do link building and
I'm gonna kind of build it up so I think
link building is a requirement
personally I think that you have to at
least do some link building in order to
be really successful that's how I feel
cool and I think because we have so many
questions on that we may hold off on
some of the link building details
because I think we could just I mean
actually someone just said just talk
about link building all day influence
that was Josh but um
yeah basically I tend to agree with you
you know you can get away with not
building links but if you build links
it's just like putting you know gas on
the fire or really or something some
other highly flammable thing that's like
useful like it's I think people like the
idea because
they don't know how to do it or it seems
scary or they want to do less or work
right it's like it's like it's like
sales because it's like link building
there if you get a one to three percent
conversion so that means every hundred
targets you get one to three of them to
link back to you
that's pretty average decent I mean I
don't that's not that's not completely
terrible like in that number it's like
can you sit there and deal with all that
rejection over and over and over like
really good people are getting seven to
ten percent but like that's not you know
one out of every ten isn't very
encouraging you know like it's tough so
like yeah you really I think a lot of
people don't want to do it cuz it's just
full of rejection it's not fun I love it
I don't know why and I'm glad I love I
don't even know why it makes me tick but
I love it because I think it's cuz I
know all my competitors aren't doing it
they're not focused on it and they don't
they don't really focus on it enough
they don't think it's important enough
and I could tell you definitively 1,000%
it is extremely important because I have
websites where I don't do it and
nothing's happening and then I start
doing it and then guess what all my
rankings start climbing it always
happens always and that's that goes for
Amazon Web sites or Amazon affiliate
websites that goes for informational
websites all these any type of website
it always is going to help because it
just gives you more authority that's all
it does so yes and yeah we can we can go
on and on and on and on but just for the
main site that we've been talking about
do you have an idea like how many
referring domains are pointing to it
just to give people an idea the
craziness that is going inside I'm gonna
have to look at a trust actually for
that one I've got I've got it up here
right now so at this point I have 419
referring domains to that one so that's
a total but I will say and I don't know
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