Moving From Niche Sites & Affiliate To Agency Owner

This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Mike in New York, who asks:

“I have been creating affiliate blogs and niche websites throughout my 10 year career. Had some great successes and setbacks to share. But now I feel tired of it with Google also specifically targeting more of these types of websites in their updates.

What other fields are there to explore in SEO, what else is working right now? How is client side SEO? How can a person like me who has worked on content websites throughout their career can make a switch? What does future hold for SEO? “

Great question, and one that actually led to me starting my agency. Here’s the background and then the answer to your question.

I had niche sites in music, weddings, clothing, architecture, etc.

They were all growing and doing well, but I got bored of the same topics in the same niches, and it became incredibly disheartening when unqualified affiliate managers took over programs, destroying parts of my income, or companies closed their programs because of low-value affiliates being approved in.

That’s when a few interesting things happened:

• A few of the advertisers on my sites (affiliates and sponsors) asked how I was driving traffic, so I shared with them how I optimized for search and then social later on.
• Next, I walked them through the email funnels and automations I created. The email automation backfired on me big time when 3 of my sites got hacked through a plugin, and 20 spam newsletter blasts went out simultaneously as they posted spam blog posts to my sites). Never connect your newsletter to automatically drop when a new blog post goes live.
• I met with two of the companies in person.

Both companies asked me if I could do the optimizations I do for myself for them. It was interesting because I was getting bored and missed the structure of a “real job,” which sounds weird because I’m not a 9 to 5 person.

After a few more conversations, it made sense. So I started letting my niche sites die and used them for training purposes as I brought on contractors and staff.

Now, probably 10 or 15 years later, my agency is still going, and each of the domains has expired (I chose not to sell them even though I got an offer when they were bigger).

Now onto the answer, there are four things to be aware of and prepare for.

The first is how agency work differs so you can mentally prepare.

Next is lining up why you’re more qualified than an experienced agency.

Third, you’ll want to outline the types of clients you can work on (can and want to are different) and projects you’re able to do.

Last is being ready for more instability and inconsistency than being a niche site owner.

Being Mentally Ready For SEO Consulting

When you leave building and monetizing your own websites for consulting, you leave as your own boss. You know what works and does not, and what needs to be included in content, for example.

But it is not your choice anymore, and that becomes frustrating.

You know that the Google Reviews update recommends listing multiple shopping options in order to provide a better user experience.

Still, the ad sales team or affiliate manager sold a sponsored post. Their agreement prevents you from adding the extra store. Then, they want to know why the review or list isn’t ranking.

Another obstacle is when they insist the content cannot have “real experience” or list certain or any “negatives” because the content is a sponsored post – and everyone needs to make the advertiser happy.

Google and social media guidelines do not matter in the ad and publisher affiliate manager world; it’s about the advertiser and getting more money from them. They are not SEO pros or social media specialists; they are sales and account managers.

Their job isn’t to know that their way of thinking and selling impacts the loss of traffic. They just need to close sales and negotiate higher commissions.

With ecommerce, you have to meet brand guidelines, which can include not being able to use direct and specific language.

Sometimes you cannot follow pixel lengths (character counts) for title tags because it goes “against brand,” and that same team will ask why the titles don’t show up in the search results.

Other times, you have to “stick to branding” instead of meeting customer intent. This will drive you crazy because the opportunities are right there, but branding almost always wins, even when it costs the company money. This is a cycle that runs on repeat.

As a niche site owner, you focus on UX and revenue, but branding usually takes center stage with a company.

The branding team is not a performance marketing team. It is guided by the general counsel and going for what is required for the trademark and appearance of the brand.

As a consultant, you will benefit from learning about branding and finding a way to balance the two. Corporate branding is different from niche site branding.

The general counsel also comes into play. When you run a niche site, you can take original photos, give real feedback, and share genuine opinions.

The general counsel of your client may decide that this is not allowed on an ecommerce store, service company, or within the publication.

A story could be about to break, and you have an opportunity to get massive backlinks and Google Discover traffic or beat the current articles ranking because none of them have original thoughts or experiences.

But the general counsel holds it up for review, and the opportunity passes you by. Or the counsel decides with branding that listing negatives is bad for the company or company image, even though it can build consumer confidence through transparency.

The lack of trust builders can negatively impact both SEO and conversion rates. It isn’t their job to know how to rank a website or convert a consumer – that is your job. You also need to work within the atmosphere they provide, as you are not part of the company.

You are no longer the boss, even though you own your agency. It is your client’s website and platform. You are an easy-to-fire version of an employee who relies on the decision-maker trusting your advice.

That means you cannot push back as heavily as an actual employee; you have to make more sacrifices while keeping things afloat.

That does not mean being dishonest or not sharing the downsides, but you do walk a fine line in every meeting.

It is frustrating not to be the boss or able to make the decisions, so prepare yourself mentally for the above and more. With that said, you will learn how to better select clients and who you work with as you establish yourself. My current client base is like living a dream.

It took me over a decade to learn how to detect red flags and when it is time to move on, but now that I did, I love working with all of them.

It is the same enjoyment I got from running my own sites, but I get the structure and deadlines I missed from the corporate world. Many of them have become friends of mine outside of work. Even when I part ways with them, many keep in touch, as we did become actual friends.

List Your Skills

Yes, literally create a list of what you are highly qualified to do and print it out. This comes in handy when pitching clients, and imposter syndrome kicks in. And it will!

Under each skill, list a few successes with each so you can mention it when talking to clients. Make sure you change them out as new ones happen.

Something you did five years ago is no longer relevant as an agency. You need new and consistent wins to stay in business.

Skills can include:

• Email and SMS acquisition.
• Monetization (CPC, CPM, CPL, CPV, download, sponsorships, affiliate, subscriptions, info products, etc…).
• SEO.
• Niche knowledge and the levels about which parts of the niche.
• Connections with other niche influencers and experts.
• Audience building (social media, readership, community forming, events planning, etc…).
• CRO or conversion rate optimization.
• Code and markup (HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP, schema, python, etc…).
• Datafeed optimization.
• Syndication.
• PR, interviews, and media training.

Once your list is built, rate each skill on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest. Think about which skills help other skills or teams so you can become a go-to resource for clients.

Now invest in yourself to get each marketable skill to at least a seven. I did this through necessity, like learning CSS (which I’m still not very good at) because I had to.

I also went to conferences where I could learn and discovered that many “gurus” and “keynotes” are not actual experts.

A few shows that changed my trajectory learning-wise are Pubcon, State of Search in Dallas, Zenith Duluth, and Barbados SEO. These, in particular, really changed how I see things. But I don’t use them to build business.

As an agency owner with niche experience, if you want to build clients, you go where the hiring managers are. If you are in the electronics space, go to electronics shows and inventors shows and pitch to speak.

That is where the marketers and founders are listening and looking for help. Do you work in housewares, food and recipes, etc.? The home shows are your perfect market to build clients.

The Types Of Clients You Can Work On And Projects You Can Do

Ecommerce SEO is very different from niche sites – the same with publishers and service-based companies. Then you get into non-profits, which is an entirely different ballgame.

Decide if you want to work on competing companies or all complementary to each other.

Now, determine how much time and effort each will take, and price yourself accordingly.

Don’t be afraid to map out hours on your calendar. This helps me keep track of what I need to be doing, in addition to my to-do list (which I literally write out and check off each week).

• News sites (wholesale, trade, organization, media).
• Niche sites (publishers, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, influencers, etc…).
• Ecommerce.
• Service providers.
• Lead gen.
• SEO audits.
• Retainer projects.
• Advisor roles.
• Hourly.
• Workshops.
• Public speaking.
• Event hosting.

Prepare For Instability

If you think Google updates or having a social media account closed is bad, wait until all clients leave in the same week. Things spiral faster than niche sites tanking.

It happens to almost everyone.

Clients are going to get pitched all the time, and you will lose some, even though you did nothing wrong.

Or you grow a company and brand, they make money and hire a new VP or Director, and that person brings in a new agency because they worked with them in the past.

You’ll also hear that the new agency can scale and work with larger companies. This may not be true, but it is what the founders hear from other founders when they attend networking events.

You lose when their peers put ideas in their heads.

Always put a little bit of money away, even $100 a month. It adds up and lets you keep going when things get bad.

This post is getting long; if you can’t tell, I’m passionate about it. So I’ll stop here. Give it a try if you have the ability and can take the risk both financially and mentally.

The worst that will happen is you fail and go back to building niche sites, take a full-time job, or do a hybrid. At least you won’t ever have to wonder what could have been.

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