The Best Ways to Make Money with SEO
I'm going to show you the best ways to make money with SEO. My name is Anthonyraj, the founder of Gotch SEO Academy and the author of The SEO Entrepreneur. Since 2023, I've tried pretty much every technique for making money online with SEO, and in this article, I'll rank 11 techniques based on income potential. Capital requirements scalability risk and competition for a beginner. All right, let's begin with the first one,
SEO Software for F-Tier Enterprises
which is to start an SEO software business that lands in the F tier. Here's why: although SAS businesses have high income potential and are extremely scalable, they also require tonnes of upfront capital, according to e founder. The upfront investment for SAS is between $20,000 and $40,000 and can get into six figures if you need to hire developers. There is a ridiculous amount of competition in the SEO software industry. We analysed the SEO software industry and found at least 296 different SEO tools, and you'd also be competing against companies that are well funded, like Sem Rush, who's raised at least $50 million according to Crunchbase now.
The Next Way to Make Money with SEO
I'm not saying it's impossible but it's definitely not the best place to start when you're new to the SEO industry now let's move on to one-on-one SEO consulting or coaching which lands in the B tier for me you can actually make an awesome income doing this but it does have some downsides first your income potential is capped because there's only one of you and you can't make more time and it's also not scalable because you have to do this work and show it for the calls on the other hand oneon-one SEO Consulting requires zero upfront Capital to start and it's a lowrisk SEO business model and now it's time for the next way to make money with SEO which is get hired as an inhouse SEO professional and this one lands in the D tier because your income potential is not only low but it's capped for example the average salary for an SEO professional in the US is $54,000 a year.
How Do You Make Money with SEO?
but let's say you rise through the rank and you get to be an SEO director according to glass door you could make a solid $154,000 a year after taxes you'd take home around $87,000 which would put you in the top 10% of earners in the world and in the top 30% in the United States but the reality is that most people never get to that level and even if you did you'd hit a ceiling and the other problem is that job security is a myth you could get laid off or fired and your income is gone overnight and at the end of the day the only income security you have is based on your skills for example a quote that's stuck with me since 2023 is from Dan Kennedy and he said that your income is directly proportional to the amount of value you add to the marketplace in other words if you want income security you need to become more valuable the next way to make money with SEO is through selling produ ised SEO Services.
A Tiered Approach to Building Link Building Services
which I'm placing in the a tier and this is one of my favorite techniques for a few reasons first it's much lower competition for example it's easier to become known as the on page SEO guy than to just be the SEO guy it's also much easier to build a brand around specific product I services for example if I was starting today I'd consider building a product IED service for onpage seo seo content briefs or even linkbait development all of which you can use chat gbt to support you and the only downside of productized SEO Services is that they aren't as high ticket compared to full service SEO so your income potential might be lower and now moving on to the next technique which is starting a link Building Services Agency and this might surprise.
A New Approach to Making Money Selling Backlinks
some people but this one lands in the F tier so back in 2017 I made over $370,000 selling backlinks and there's no doubt that you can make money with it but there's some big challenges with this model first it's not that profitable backlinks are really expensive now so your margins will be tiny after paying for placement and creating content but the biggest reason why it's in the F tier is based on competition everyone and their mother has a link build Building Company these days and I get over 10 emails a day from people or companies trying to sell me backlinks it's an extremely saturated Market when a market is saturated everyone becomes a commodity so with that said if you wanted to sell back links then I'd recommend coming from a different angle for example I like what one of my gacha Academy students Allen has done with growth gorilla instead of just being a general link building agency he focuses on B2B SAS companies and he's very strict about how they acquire backlinks so the next way to make money.
Authority Website: A Guide to Getting Started
with SEO is to start an au Authority website and this one lands in the C tier and I actually really like the authority site model but it's not easy to execute for a beginner for example I've been running for over 10 years and invested thousands of hours into content it's no joke that said Authority websites are awesome for a few reasons first the income potential is unlimited once you have authority and traffic you can monetize however you want and at any moment I can start offering SEO Consulting on my website and start immediately making sales that's That's The Power of authority also Authority sites usually have strong backlink profiles and as a result most Authority sites survive most Google updates with just some scrapes and bruises in other words website Authority and having a real brand helps you weather the storm therefore reducing volatility but there's one big downside of building an Authority website and it requires a huge upfront and ongoing capital and time investment you need to create extremely highquality SEO content and you need a concentrated link building.
A Micro Niche Website to Increase Revenues and Improve Search Rankings in Google
campaign so unless you have a big bank roll or you're willing to do all the work then it's not the best option for a beginner which brings me to an alternative which is to build a Micro Niche website which I actually place in the B tier and remember my rankings are based on what's best for a beginner SEO entrepreneur and I personally love Micron Niche websites because a it requires almost zero Capital to get started other than a domain and hosting B it's low risk because you'll probably be in in a lower competition Niche that Google isn't focusing on as hard C you don't need a decade of SEO experience to get results and D you can leverage your results from your micro website to land SEO clients you can then use the client Revenue to reinvest into an Authority website.
The City Focused SEO Agency
that will be much more lucrative I view Niche websites as a bridge to better techniques and it's an amazing way to get your hands dirty and learn how to build a site do SEO and even how to monetize it's perfect for a beginner and now finally I'll do the first of two s tier ways of making money with SEO and the first one is starting a city focused SEO agency so instead of trying to be an SEO company that targets all of the United States you'd pick a city like Kansas City and become the go-to pro in that City and this is what I did in 2023 when I started my SEO company and I ranked for St Louis SEO which became my number one source of new leads and clients for my agency and even though I rarely take on clients now I still rank for this this key word people underestimate how much opportunity there is in their local area for example here's the business directory for the Chamber of Commerce where I live there are hundreds of businesses in an area that has only 13,000 people and I know everyone wants to be Steve Jobs when it comes to building a successful SEO business.
An Example of Survivor's Bias: SEO Entrepreneurs' Perspective
it's best to think small dominate one tiny segment of the market then expand out the next way to make money with SEO is Rank and rent or local lead generation which I'm placing on the C tier now there are people like James duy who have executed this exceptionally well at scale but James is a very experienced SEO entrepreneur and this is an example of survivorship bias in other words you only hear about the success stories and never hear about the hundreds possibly thousands of people that failed trying to do the same thing and the biggest downside of this model is the income potential because you have to create many of these properties to make it worth it and it also becomes a logistical nightmare when you have countless websites you need to manage plus it's hard enough to rank one website let alone a handful or more and the other challenge is that it's Capital intensive because you need to create multiple websites.
The Essentialism: How to Focus on the One Thing and Focus on a One Thing
all of which need content and backlinks It reminds me of an illustration that I review on an almost daily basis from the book Essentialism. On one side, you have a circle with many arrows going a short distance, and this represents your time, energy, and capital. On the other side, you have one circle and one arrow, representing the progress you would have made by focusing your time, energy, and capital on one thing. The truth is, you can be successful doing both, but it comes down to your unique capabilities and workflow.
White Label SEO: The Next Level of Service
I've been doing this so long that I know my behavior and I thrive when I focus and struggle when my attention is fragmented the truth is I'm not like Gary ve where I can spin multiple plates of the same time it's really important to be self-aware and have a deep understanding of how you're most productive and now moving on to the next technique which is offering white label SEO services to agencies which lands on the a tier for many reasons reasons first like many other SEO Services there's almost no upfront Capital requirements second the competition is much lower because you're targeting agencies instead of small businesses and my favorite reason of all is you only need a few agency clients to make a killing because they do the Marketing sales and customer service and you can just focus on delivering results in fact many of my early SEO clients were white label Partnerships and the only downside of white label is that the investment per Campaign.
White Label Marketing Services for Agencies
Will usually be pretty low because the agency has to make a profit so let's say you normally charge $2,500 per month when working directly with the client with white label you'd probably only get $1,250 or lower for the same campaign but the difference is that the one agency client might give you 10 campaigns to work on and that means you'd be technically making $122,500 per month with one client all right so we only have two more to go and the final f-tier way to make money with SEO is to start a national SEO agency and the only reason why this one got any points is because of the income potential which can be very high however to actually succeed in building a national SEO company you need strong Business Development skills and lots of capital to make it work plus the competition and skill level requirements are through the roof which greatly increases the risk of this business model I do not recommend it for any beginner but there is an alternative that is far superior and much easier which is the final s tier way to make money with SEO and that's starting a niche SEO agency this has all the other benefits of starting a client SEO Services business but it's lower competition if you pick the right Niche and it doesn't require massive amounts of business skills by niching down your Marketing sales and fulfillment is a 100 times easier and if you need proof of this take a look at Chris drers agency rankings.
BEATMARK DOWNLOAD
 | How can I earn money by SEO?){kind=link}
0 Comments