By the end of my undergrad college years, most of my income was coming from my websites.  This was 6-7 years ago (damn, time flies!).

Back then, I always struggled with monetization.  I was playing the ad revenue game, which is a tough game–particularly, if you rely mostly on Google AdSense.  That’s when I began to shift my focus and research from AdSense to direct ad sales.

Around that time, the big thing to sell was sitewide footer links on a highly indexed site with good PageRank. I sold hundreds of dollars worth of those footer links.  I sold them as monthly subscriptions, so month over month, my income would increase, as I continued to pack in those footer links.

These days, due to changes in Google’s algorithm, sitewides aren’t nearly as hot of a commodity.  Nonetheless, the ways to find and make a direct ad sale from the years yonder still apply today.  I know this, because, just last month, for LocalClericalJobs.com (the subject of my 300K Case Study), I made $100+ worth of direct ad sales.

Here’s how you make direct ad sales. […]

Not too long ago, I introduced the idea of creating a megasite using publicly available datasets.  In this article, we’ll discuss how we can use US zip codes to create a 40,000 page megasite instantly.

(You can pick up your copy of the zip codes data set here: http://federalgovernmentzipcodes.us/.)

So, how does it work?  […]

One of the most common pre-sales questions I receive for the 300K Page Job Search In-a-Box is:  How do I pick a job search niche? (That question’s followed with: how do I pick a domain name?)

Like with any site, picking a niche requires research.  In the case of job search, your research should focus on employment data.  And, what better source for that than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)?

A couple years ago, BLS published their projections of employment by major industry sector.  Check it here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.t02.htm

For each industry/vertical, BLS captured the employment numbers for 1998, 2008, and 2018; and then the average annual growth rates between 1998-2008 and 2008-2018.  We want to focus on the 2008 and 2018 numbers.  In honing in on an attractive vertical, there are 2 things to look for:

• Large employment value – A large employment base means there’s a large target market for our job search site.  I’d say anything greater than 10 million is a winner, which leaves us with:
  • Manufacturing
  • Retail
  • Professional services
  • Healthcare / social assistance
  • Leisure / hospitality
  • State and local government
  • Financial services (this comes in close at 8.7MM employees) […]

I received this review from Erin, who runs LocalSoftwareJobs.com about 10 days ago.  It took me a while to post this, because I was busy with a cross-country move–just moved 2 days ago!

“I purchased the self-hosted version about a month ago. Setup was easy (not even a database to create) and Dave has been exceedingly responsive and quick to get out any fixes (which are just simple file overlays). He also performed an SEO Matrix for me. Out of curiosity, I kept notes on the number indexed pages in Google. Here are the stats for Local Software Jobs Search

“

Here’s another positive customer testimonial for 300K Job Search In-a-Box. This one’s from Charles, who owns LocalGraphicDesignJobs.com and just recently upgraded to the 5 license package!

“It’s been a very long time since I have seen such a solid method for producing ongoing passive income for the long haul with immediate benefits.

Major advantages – what I discovered in implementing Dave’s script:

• easy and quick setup
• clearly explained steps to get up and running fast
• no fiddling and tweaking with a WordPress or other CMS setup on a shared hosting environment that can put a strain on server resources
• natural and rapid backlinking for quick indexing in Google
• outstanding, highly responsive support in the rare case you have an issue
• multiple monetization options, plus automatic built in ad sales method
• easy ability to modify your site’s appearance
• very low ongoing maintenance, if any
• continual fresh auto-generated content that Google adores with thousands of SEO-friendly pages
• no need to write or import or spin your own content

Recommendation: […]

Earlier this week, I came across a very interesting case study article from a small business owner describing his experiences with Groupon.  Groupon and other group buying coupon sites is one of the hottest trends these days.  However, a growing controversial debate is whether there are any actual, long-term benefits to the small business — not the consumer.

There are 2 main things that make Groupon (and similar sites) unattractive to the small business owner.

• One, Groupon takes a huge cut of the already discounted product or service.  In this article, he says the Groupon cut is typically 50-60% of the revenue.  As a result, in most situations, the business is literally losing money for each coupon sold (and consumed).  Therefore, business view Groupon promotions as a marketing investment.  It’s a great way to get the word out there about their businesses.
• Secondly, the customers that Groupon drives to businesses are, for the most part, price-sensitive consumers — i.e. cheap bastards. 🙂  Therefore, are these the customers businesses want to attract?  Also, what are the chances of repeat customers, since most products/services offered via Groupon a fairly expensive (without the Groupon discount)?

Now given these odds, the author describes the strategies he used to make the Groupon promotion a worthwhile investment.

[…]

Get in on the Early Bird discount 300K Job Search (Hosted Solution).  Coupons are getting used up fast!

Here are a couple more reviews for this offering. The first is from Jim Saari, who launched HealthcareJobsToday.net.

“Thank you for this great script.

To think that I just found it online while browsing is amazing.  That fact also goes to prove that this guy knows what he’s doing.

This is definitely a true autopilot system!

I was really excited about how fast things picked up right from the start.

Project started 7th of June. So far (17th of June) Google has indexed 8500 pages.

Also, everything is set up to plug ads in. I have set up AdSense and CPA offers.

Even the organic traffic has picked up without me doing anything. Analytics says: 94 visits so far. […]

To celebrate the recent release of the 300K Hosted Solution, I have been sharing customer testimonials (posted yesterday and the day before).  Well, here’s another.  This one’s written by Simon Hurst, who bought 3 licenses, one of which is Local Sales Jobs.

“Having been around the web a while and been ripped off a few times it is a joy to report back on the service I have received from Dave and his 300K business package. I bought three licenses at the end of May.

To start with my technical skills are low but the back up I received from Dave during my installation was top class. He even kept patience with me when it was down to my miss typing my domain names that I was having issues. With Dave’s help the install was completed quickly, with fast responses to my email questions, usually following user errors from my end.

Now to the beef, the three domains I registered are all indexed in google with over 7,000 pages indexed. Every day sees more pages indexed. As yet I have not used the pages to build or sell back-links, but hey I have been on holiday while this has been happening. In addition I am now starting to see adsense income as well.

I am completely happy with my purchase and the power of the 300K package, so much so I am studying Dave’s other packages and services. The man rocks.” […]

This morning, I just released the Hosted Solution version of 300K Job Search In-a-Box.  (Check out this link for the Early Bird discount of 25% off, which applies for the life of your account.) So, I’m now posting up customers testimonials.

Here’s one I just received from Bob Reilly, who bought 3 licenses of 300K Job Search In-a-Box at the end of May.  For those following my SEO case study, Bob is the customer who saw a $20+ day from Indeed on day 2 of his sites being up!

Well, anyway, here’s the testimonial…

“First I would like to say thank you. Following your system I have made to date over $325.00 in ad sales thru indeed.com. I am making REAL MONEY!

And my sites are indexing well and fast. After two weeks one site is at 6060 pages index and the other is 4600 pages index. I have had some positive results in both sites. I also flipped one site I own for $200.00 so the system works. My site URL’s are: rn-traveljobs.com and travel-nurseswanted.com I would and have recommended your system to many!

Thanks,

Bob Rielly” […]

300K Job Search In-a-Box has been about 3 weeks now… and I’ve been receiving very great responses from customers!  Here’s one I just received last night.

“My name is Keith Dean and I am an Offline Client consultant with over 20 clients that I provide work for. My main client has a podcasting service for students and unemployed graduates and needed a job site service to help promote his site.

I discovered Dave from “the man who sold the web” by accident and once I had read through the technical details of how to set up a jobsite using his script decided to purchase 3 licences for my client. I was a little worried with some of the technical aspects of the setup but I didn’t realise what a superb level of support I would receive from Dave.

I was helped through a couple of the steps that were a little too technical for me and now have a fantastic job site for UK jobs running live on my clients site at http://pods4jobs.co.uk.

For anyone wanting to set up a jobsite this is the place to go as not only do you start gaining backlinks quickly from the job pages as they get indexed but you also receive fantastic support and help every step of the way – a 5 star recommendation from me!” […]