| Course Goals | By the end of the course, you should:

• Be familiar with the lead generation process

• Be comfortable building a lead generation website

• Have an intermediate understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

• Understand how to obtain leads, price leads, and sell leads

• Own a fully built and optimized lead gen property by course completion

The process adheres to the following | Layout |

1. Niche Selection

2. Website Build

3. Website Optimization (On page and Off page)

4. Prospecting and Selling

How is money made?

Don’t worry, you don’t need to see my ugly mug to understand how this works. Click on resources to see my super rad infographic.

Okay, so my Word flowchart skills are atrocious, let’s never use that again.

The point is, you are funneling leads to small businesses. Think of yourself as a local hero – you are giving these people business (for a nominal fee, of course)

You do well, they do well. Everyone wins.

(yes I did capture my mouse in that infographic, don’t look at it)

Enough small talk.

30+ In-depth lessons are sitting by, ready to take you from lead gen novice to pro. Let’s get started!

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Head over to our exclusive Facebook Group and request to join. You will be accepted within 24 hours. This is THE spot to connect with other course students, as well as to ask questions, get motivated, and stay up-to-date with Digital Real Estate Empire happenings. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/821541214953503/

Step One of The Process: Find a niche market to make a lead generation property for.

“Niche: Denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.”

• Small obscure markets have low competition and are hungry for your leads.

• Target markets that have a medium-high dollar amount per job (i.e landscaping > replacing a door knob)

• “The riches are in the small and specialized niches!”

Our Goals For This Lesson:

1. Know what a niche is

2. Know how to research potential niche markets

3. Have an understanding of the Niche Worksheet

4. Have a niche selected for your first digital real estate property build out

Note: We will expand on the Niche Worksheet in later lessons, as well as fill the worksheet out together. This video serves as an introduction to the layout and purpose of the worksheet.

To-Dos: Download the Niche Worksheet found in the resources tab.

Google uses both backlinks and citations to determine the authority your website has. The higher authority your website has, the higher it ranks in Google searches.

Backlink

• A link to your site from another site

• Can be a text link, a picture, etc.

• The more authority the website has that is linking to your site, the better the backlink

• Number of/Quality of your backlinks are one of the heaviest weighing factors for your organic Google ranking

Citation

• Online reference to your business Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)

• Does not need to be linked to your website to get credit

• Mainly used for Google map pack rankings (you’ll learn more about this in the GMB lesson in Optimization Pt. 2)

Please note: This is a SUPER SIMPLE and SUPER BRIEF overview of these topics. We will deep dive into them later in the course!

1. Download Google Chrome

2. Download SEO Quake add-on

Worksheet Walk-Through:

• Number of Pages/Content Heavy or Lacking? Use the “Google Index” Number found with SEO Quake. For content, click on the site and scan the number of words on each page. If each page has over 1000 words, it is content heavy, less than, it is content lacking (NOTE: Most sites will be content lacking, unless they have professional SEO help)

• Number of Backlinks: SEMRush Backlinks found. Copy the number found for the home page of the website (Make sure you are not on one of their service pages or the backlink number will be inaccurate!)

• Number of Citations: See next video

• Age of Domain: Copy the date SEO Quake has found. The older the site, the stiffer the competition.

Reminder: Google uses the number of backlinks, the amount of content (# of pages and text on those pages), and the domain’s age (the older the better) to determine where a site ranks organically.

(See Resources for an example of what organic rankings are)

Reminder: Google uses the number of citations to determine a businesses ‘Map Pack’ position. The more citations, the higher the ranking!

(See Resources for an example of Map Pack rankings)

Make sure you download the Niche Selection worksheet!

Places to find niches:

• Thumbtack (Go to services near me)

• Angie’s List

• Home Advisor

• Top of your head. Does a friend or family member own a business? Do some research on their competition!

What makes a “freebie”?

• Top three listings in the map pack DO NOT all show on the first page of organic rankings

• Listings that DO rank on the front page have few backlinks and are light on content

• Map pack listings that DO NOT have a website attached (this makes it especially easy to beat out)

(See the Resources tab for examples of freebies)

HOMEWORK: Select 5 niches and create 5 different worksheets for them!

In the final niche lesson, we will do a full walk-through of this selection process.

Worksheet Recommendations Recap:

• Target city population size between 50k-400k

• 5-10 businesses in the niche. More is fine, less is hard to sell leads to.

• Target niches with content-lacking top competitors (i.e top organic rankings have less that 1500 words on their pages)

• < 50 Backlinks is preferable

• < 50 Citations is preferable

• As far as age goes, the younger the site the better, but don’t get hung up on this.

• Choose a niche in your current city/town if possible

Revisit the “target niches” module if needed. It is highly encouraged that you follow these guidelines to a T for your first property. Targeting competitive niches is tempting, but it can be discouraging if you have difficulty ranking and selling leads in these competitive spaces. Get a few wins under your belt, then target the big dogs!

Congratulations!

This completes the Niche Selection Module! Before moving on, make sure you have completed 5 ‘Niche Worksheets’ and have selected a niche from those. If you have questions, be sure to post them to the Facebook Group.

Once you have selected your niche, move on to the next module.

NOTE: This course is designed to be completed side-by-side. I highly encourage you to follow along and complete each lesson as it is taught. There is no benefit to skipping ahead.

End of Lesson Goals

• Know how to find relevant keywords for your niche

• Be able to find relevant images for your site

• Know how to generate content for your site

• Be familiar with the Weebly Web Builder

• Have a fully built website ready for optimization
  

What is a Keyword?

Simply put, a keyword is a search term an individual uses to find a particular target, such as “Carpet Cleaner Near Me”. In this lesson, we will learn how to research keywords specific to our target niche. This allows us to reach a wider audience by generating additional search terms (keywords) that we may not have thought of.

According to Wikipedia: “Keyword research is a consumer behavior research which aims to identify what keywords people use in their decision making process. The objective of keyword research is to generate, with good precision and recall, a large number of terms that are highly relevant yet non-obvious to the given input keyword. “

Where to Find Keywords:

• UberSuggest

• Wordze

• Type in Google and look at the suggested search terms

• Research competitors keywords

Create a word document with relevant keywords for us to use while generating content later in the lesson!

I like to have 10+ images saved and ready to use before building a site. Others prefer to gather images as they are needed, choose which one works best for you!

Free Picture Resources:

• https://pixabay.com/

• https://www.pexels.com/

• https://littlevisuals.co/

• https://picography.co/

Pro Tip: Make sure you are gathering images that have no attribution required and are free for commercial use!

Note: We utilize Weebly Designer because it makes it easier to duplicate sites and website templates in the future.

Pro Tip: Use the professional plan to avoid Square ads being placed on your site!

Important Notes:

• Contact form and call to action in multiple places

• Keyword Heavy (Google loves lots of text!)

• Relevant pictures

• Fake it till you make it (reviews sell!)

See Resources for Web Layout Template

Pro Tip: Research your competition to find applicable service pages! Remember, the more service pages you have, the more keywords you can rank for.

• Home

• Services (with the actual service pages siloed underneath)

• About Us

• Contact

Use the following as website layout resources:

• djcastlerock.com

• thecastlerocklandscapers.com

NOTE: Gather individual keyword lists for your service pages. Find keywords related to the service (I.E. Sod Installation, grass installation, sod laying, sod install, sod service, etc.) This will give you a greater chance to reach your target audience, plus, if you use textbroker you will need to send them a list of keywords to use.

Writing content yourself? Use competitors for content ideas, as well as Wikipedia for service page content!

Outsourcing? Check out textbroker.com

Your home page should include:

• An introduction to your niche and what “your” business offers.

• Your business name and location multiple times

• A brief overview of the services offered. (Take the overall gist of what the specific service page says and summarize it)

This is where we use the keyword list we generated earlier in the course. Plug in your keywords throughout your content, trying to use each keyword 3-10 times.

Your individual service pages should include:

• Content talking solely about that specific service (i.e. don’t talk about your other services in length on a service page dedicated to “Sod Install”) Use wikipedia to get ideas for content.

• Keywords pertaining to the specific niche

PRO TIP: Shoot for 1000 words on each page. If your competition is extremely content light, less is fine – inversely, if your competition is content heavy, you need to bump that number up to 2500 words + !

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, your site is almost done. I know you are getting weary, but I need you to power through this last video and you will have a PUBLISHED site that is ready to make you money! You’ll be such a pro by the end of this one, you’ll be able to throw up your next site site in 15 minutes.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine.”

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

“On Page” and “Off Page” SEO

“On Page SEO” is the optimization of visible website content including:

• Page content (number of words on a page)

• Keyword stuffing

• Heading Optimization

• Internal Linking

• Image Optimization

• Mobile Optimization

“Off Page SEO” is optimization that occurs off your site with the goal of improving your search engine rankings and promoting your web page to search engine users. This includes:

• Backlink Building

• GMB Set Up and Optimization

• Citation Building

Lesson To Dos:

Set the title for each page individually. Example: Keyword | Service Location i.e. Wedding DJ Service | Castle Rock, CO. Make sure they are under 55 characters by using this counter.

Change your first page headings to include an H1 tag. Again, H tags are how Google determines heading importance on a website. Headings vary from H1 to H6, with H1 being the most important. By default, all of your headings are set to H2 in Weebly. Use our little short cut shown in the video to make your important keyword page headings H1.

Use the following for your H1 Tags: <h1>Your Keyword Phrase Goes Here</h1>

Short and Sweet. Here’s your to-dos:

• Check your keywords for stuffing (CTRL+F): Make sure you are under 10 keywords for a given page. Use synonyms! (DJ, MC, Disc Jockey, etc.)

• Silo Your Content – Google likes things nice and neat. Make sure your service content and keywords are contained within their respective pages.

• Write a meta description – Something simple and eye catching. Put your phone number in there for increased conversions!

We are just fine tuning our site now. Your To-Dos for this video:

• Create internal links to your service pages throughout your site

More fine tuning. You’re in the home stretch now! To-Dos:

• Go through and add alt text to all of your images

Visit CallSling.com

Use the code LOCAL456 to save a TON of $

Note: Tracking Numbers are $15 per month.

CallSling Walk Through

Once your number is set up, click on the destination number here to be taken to the number’s settings.

Now you will see the number settings, below is a quick rundown of the different branches. I have underlined and expanded on the items that I utilize:

• IVR: Enable this to set up a “call tree”. You can create different options for the customer to choose from. For instance, if you have a lead gen site that is sending leads to two different customers, i.e. a landscaper and a lawnmower, you can set this up to say “Welcome to Castle Rock Lawn and Maintenance. Press 1 for Lawncare, Press 2 for Landscaping”

  
  

• Text Message Leads: Enable this to allow customers to send text messages to your tracking number

  
  

• Call Ringtone: Set up a different ringtone on your device when you get a call through this tracking number

  
  

• Call Recording and Greeting: You can enable the recording of calls (recommended). This records the entire call and will send it in an email to you once the caller hangs up. You can also set up a message greeting for customers (i.e. Welcome to DJ Castle Rock, this call may be recorded for training purposes” and then it starts ringing) Note: Calls that are forwarded to a business owner will still be recorded so you can keep track of them.

  
  

• Whisper Message: When you forward your tracking number to a business owner, turn this on to play a short whisper message to the owner (i.e. Call sent from Kyle’s Leads) and then the call will come through. This is important so they know this is a call you generated.

  
  

• Caller ID: Choose whether to show the caller number (i.e. the customer’s number) or the tracking number itself when a call comes in. Perk to using the tracking number is that you can save it in your phone as “DJ castle rock lead”, the downside is you cannot see the customer’s number to call them back. Note: Whatever you choose here will show up on the business owners phone if you are forwarding the calls to them

  
  

• Voice Mail Messages: If you are sending these to a business owner, check the red box. If they do not answer in X seconds, you can set up a voice mail message the caller will hear. This allows them to send a voice mail message to you (it will be recorded and you will be emailed). If you are answering the calls yourself (i.e. you don’t have a business owner taking leads yet) check the blue box. Customers calls will go directly to a voicemail. I then record my own audio and upload it under “Select Audio”. I say “Thank you for calling DJ Castle Rock. We are currently on the other line. Please leave your name, number, and the DJ service you are looking for and we will return your call as soon as possible” The message will be recorded and an email will be sent to you. If you plan to take the call yourself, no need to check this (this option comes in handy when you have a bunch of sites up). The “To Email” is who the voicemail message will be sent to. You can add multiple emails.

• Call Forwarding: If the business owner does not pick up you can have the call sent to you (or a different number)

  
  

• Send Text Messages to Caller: You can choose to have a text sent to the caller, typically apologizing for missing their call and ensuring you will get back to them ASAP.

  
  

• Email Alerts: Set up an email (or multiple) to be sent to you when a call is taken or missed. I use the default email template.

• Text Message Alerts: Set up text message alerts to be sent to you when a call is taken/missed.

Once you have your number updated, give yourself a call from a different phone and test it out! Refresh the CallSling “calls” page afterwards and you’ll see your call populated on the report.

Once you have a tracking number, return to your web site and update the number everywhere you have it listed! (Including in the SEO descriptions for the pages)

Lesson To-Dos:

• Set up gmail account for your digital real estate property (i.e. djcastlerock@gmail.com)

• Set up CallSling account and purchase tracking number

• Dig into CallSling and get familiar with the interface

• Update your “call now” buttons to your new tracking number

• Test your tracking number

That wraps up the “On Site Optimization”! Pat yourself on the back, you are cruising right along. Let’s now learn how to utilize “Off Site” SEO to get our site ranked and found on Google.

Your financially rich future is just over the horizon!

Lesson Objectives:

• Be familiar with backlinks and the back linking process

• Be familiar with Majestic – the layout, navigation, and research aspects

• Be able to find and create backlinks for yourself

• Be familiar with anchor text and the different kinds of anchor text

• Know the difference between DoFollow and NoFollow links

Know This:

• A domain is given authority by Google based on the amount of content it has, backlinks that exist to it, and the age of the domain

• The higher the authority, the more influential the site is in Google’s eyes

• When a site with high authority gives out a backlink to another site, some of their authority juice is sent over

• Therefore, a site with high authority will give a stronger backlink than a site with little authority

• A few backlinks from high authority sites will be stronger than many backlinks from low authority sites

• The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you will rank in Google searches

There are many ways to obtain backlinks – we will be focusing on blog commenting, one of the quickest and most efficient ways to backlink.

Backlink Sources – (NOTE: You do not get a backlink from these sites – you research their backlinks)

• http://www.ikoupi.com/

• https://www.thetripleplay.net/

• http://plexus.bz/

• http://bestpaperservices.blogspot.com/

• https://petbeast.com/

• https://www.celebsclothing.com/

• https://bridgetowermedia.com/

Here is the HTML code for commenting: <a href=”http://www.YOUR SITE ADDRESS.com”>YOUR ANCHOR TEXT</a>

To hide your anchor text (invisible comment), just add your web address to this: <a href=”http://www.YOUR SITE ADDRESS.com”></a>

Steps to obtaining backlinks:

1. Copy and paste one of the above sites into majestic, navigate to backlinks

2. Find a backlink that is a DoFollow and has decent metrics (high CF and TF)

3. Click on the link to see if it is a blog post. If it IS a blog post, see if you can add comments. (Make sure if you can, you double check the metrics of the page your comment will be shown on. It is typically less powerful than the main page)

4. Add a comment. Make it look natural! Add a hidden comment if the site is HEAVILY monitored (they are typically not)

Notes to Remember:

• You can copy the link address to any of the backlinks found in the comments section to find MORE backlink opportunities.

• If you hit a dead end on a link opportunity, KEEP SEARCHING. You will hit numerous road blocks and dead ends. The backlinks are out there, go find them.

• Majestic will not always show all the backlinks obtained for your site (Google may not have indexed them yet, or ever. Find more)

• DRIP your backlinks in. No more than 3 a day per site. Once your site is ranked where you want in Google, STOP the backlink process.

• In competitive niches, it is important to look for backlink tags that match what your site is about

Backlinking is a skill. It takes time to learn and master. If you have questions, post them to the Facebook group!

IMPORTANT: You must have a local address for a GMB account because Google will send a postcard with a code on it to “verify” the business

Notes about GMB:

• Over and above all ALWAYS focus on your ORGANIC rankings first.

• Your niche may not have a Google Map Pack, if it does not, you do not need to set up a GMB or do citations.

• There is a chance your GMB will get flagged and suspended, this is not a big deal.

• GMB and citations are not necessary to this process, but will get you a high number of leads if you can rank in the top 3 on the map pack

• You need to know how to do this for other businesses if you plan to do SEO work for them

Before Moving On:

• Set up a gmail account for your lead gen business.

• Obtain a local address to use. You need to be able to receive a postcard from Google at this address! See below for ideas on how to get this done.

GMB Postcard Ideas:

• Friends, Family, Co-Workers

• Facebook

• Facebook Marketplace

• Craigslist

• Family and friends family that live out of state

• Call motels in that area and ask if they can receive a code for you

• Call local bars and ask if they can receive the code for you

Notes:

• Make sure you double check that the business name you’d like is not currently in use

To-Do List:

• Fill out listing 100%

• Check out competitors GMB listing

• Change the name on your downloaded pictures

• Upload 20-30 pictures

• Download the app and link it to your GMB

• Obtain backlinks and improve your organic rankings while you wait for verification!

PRO TIP: Verify GMB Listing Before Moving to the Citation Lesson!

• Don’t overthink citations. They are simply your business Name, Address, and Phone Number posted in online directories.

• Use WhiteSpark.com to see your competitors citations, as well as the number of citations they have.

• Create more citations than your competitors.

• Find 200+ Solid Citation listings here: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/local-seo-citation-sources-usa/?fbclid=IwAR1VmqL-z0iz9zj-tkhtmCG618rhl2FeEvKp4ope1gHJziJKE-vkCCvsqZk

Factors for Map Pack Rankings:

1. Organic Rankings

2. Number of Citations

3. GMB Optimization

4. Reviews (Google and Elsewhere)

Adding our site to the Google Search Console encourages Google to index our website faster, which can sometimes take weeks.

Google Search Console Steps:

• Search “Google Search Console”

• Make sure you are logged in with your lead gen gmail account

• “Add Property”, enter your URL on the right option.

• Select the HTML code, copy this

• In Weebly, go to settings -> SEO

• Paste HTML code under Header. Save your settings and publish your site.

• Head back to Search Console, hit ‘Verify’

• Once verified, head over to ‘Sitemap’

• Simply type in sitemap.xml as it appears here and submit – https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml

• Done! Wait for your site to be indexed.

REMINDER: It can take weeks for Google to index your site, don’t worry if you can’t find your site right away!

Huge Congrats!

Your first tangible digital asset is complete. Building and optimizing your sites only gets easier – before you know it, you’ll have dozens of sites built and generating you monthly income!

Leads are coming in, what do I do with them?

Sweet baby Jesus, we’ve hit the pinnacle of our training. Leads are pouring in, and it’s time to take make some money. Here’s the play:

You have leads in hand –

• Google your niche. There are two places to look for potential clients – the sponsored ads at the top of the page (they are already spending money on their business, it’s an easy sell) OR page 2,3,4..etc. of the search results.

• Start calling the businesses, make sure you are talking to the owner, ALWAYS the owner

• Let’s say we have three leads for our DJ service.. two weddings and a birthday party. ring ring “Hello, is this ABC DJ Service?” “Yes, it is” “Do you DJ weddings and birthday parties?” “Yes we do” “Awesome, I have three people looking for DJing services through a side project site I’ve been working on.. two are looking for a wedding DJ service and one is looking for a birthday party.. would you be interested?” “Absolutely!” “Awesome, let me just grab some info from you real quick, what’s your first and last name a good email to send these to?”

• Send this first round for free. Now, follow up a few days later.. “Hey Eric, Kyle here.. the guy who sent you those 3 leads.. how did they work out? Did they book business?” “Yes they did, I have them scheduled for blah blah blah..” Tell him this little ‘side project site’ is really starting to pick up and you have more leads coming in. You need a good, reputable business to send them to. Tell him you’re happy those first free ones worked out well for him, and you’d be happy to send him every single lead that came through your project site, but you’d like to be paid for your services.

• Time to pitch your sale and close the deal. Before you make this call, have a number in mind. See the “Value of Your Leads” lesson for further info.

• If you fail to get the business owner, or they are not interested, or they hang up on you… their loss. Move on to the next one!

Once You’ve Made The Sale –

• If you’ve decided to send leads directly to the business owner, change the forwarding number in CallSling (see below)

• If you are hanging onto the number and taking the calls, keep answering the phone as outlined in the video (hello, I’m currently working on DJ Castle Rock’s website and taking the calls, let me grab your info and what you are interested in and I’ll forward this to our DJ right away)

To Change Your CallSling Forwarding Number –

• Access CallSling account. Click on “Numbers” in the top menu. Then click on the destination number as shown in the first resource image.

Then update the destination phone number as shown in the second picture. You need to update this to be THEIR number.

Double-check all of your CallSling settings to ensure they are correct!

Once updated, your business is more or less automated. Let’s head on to the next lesson and cover the payment.

You’ve got your leads going straight to a business owner… now, how do you get paid?

Two main ways:

1. Credit Card – Use Stripe, Paypal, or Square. You will get charged a processing fee (typically 3%), but the ability to set up auto-pay makes this a no brainer.

2. Cash – Money in hand is great, but it makes it difficult to track expenses and income for tax purposes. It’s nice to have a few cash clients on the side, but I’d never encourage going all cash.

• Make sure you both are clear on how you will be billing them, whether it’s per lead, commission per sale, etc.

• I bill my clients at the end of each month. If it is a commission deal, I follow up to confirm how many deals were made before invoicing them. If it is a per lead deal, I send them a screenshot of CallSling, along with the invoice. Finally, if it is a monthly flat rate, I just let Stripe automatically invoice them.

Pro Tip: As soon as you are pulling in over $1k a month, start an LLC for yourself. This will not be covered in this course, but there are numerous tax benefits to doing so. I also recommend utilizing 1-800-Accountants for your tax time needs. In my opinion, it’s worth completely automating your tax and business services. I pay 1-800-accountants to take care of all my business filing and tax preparation needs. As a general rule of thumb, I set aside 30% of my monthly digital real estate income for taxes.

Once your site is generating income:

• Keep creating backlinks: At least until you are positioned on the top of Google organic rankings

• Keep creating content: I’d recommend generating one new piece of content for your site each month (outsource it!) This keeps you relevant in Google’s eyes.

• Keep an eye on the competition: If you notice them hitting the SEO hard, you’ll need to do the same to maintain your top spot

• Don’t be scared to ask for more money: Once you are confident in your skills and what you offer to your clients, don’t be scared to re-negotiate your terms with them! You’ll never know if you don’t ask.

Note: You need to have a Weebly Designer Account to do this.

As we start to scale our Empire and build out multiple sites, duplicating the layout is going to cut down our production time DRASTICALLY. Fortunately, designer Weebly makes this easy to do with the simple click of a button. See the resource picture for the location of the duplication button.

Congratulations! You’ve made it through the course!

Please don’t be a stranger ! Stay active in the Facebook community and feel free to share your thoughts with me about the course, the content, and everything we’ve got going here at The Digital Real Estate Empire. I’d love to stay updated on how your sites are doing, and how far you are taking this ‘little thang’ we’ve shared with you.