Build a site, do SEO work on it and sell it?

[Mrupp44]

Does anybody do this? With success?

I keep finding industries right here in my local area (concrete work, home security, painting) that have 4-5 local companies that are competing and NONE of them are doing even the most BASIC items to seo their site or capitalize on ANYTHING online.

I could pick 7-8 of these industries and have somebody who works for me spend a couple hours a week on each building links and writing a half way interesting blog post, etc. and once they rank higher than most of the competition sell em for 2-3 grand I bet, especially since I can prove how much traffic they are getting.

Thoughts?

Thanks for weighing in.

Matthew

[DarinPirkey]

This is what one of my clients does for a living.  They invest roughly 6 months into a site and rank it for multiple areas and then sell to the competition usually for a $50 to $75 price tag.  They have larger sites that are regional and the last one sold for $210k.

I think this is a great way to add extra revenue to your company.  Even if the sites don't sell, you can sell the leads from them.  Some service industry leads they have sell for $50 a lead.  It's a win win either way.

[Mrupp44]

WOW! I didn't even think of that. That's a great idea.

If they don't want to buy the site I can sell them leads but also let them know I am selling leads to their competition as well - talk about motivating one of them to buy it from me

Right now my plate is full with helping my clients but pretty soon I need to hire some help and this would help keep somebody busy on something potentially profitable when they aren't busy w client work.

Thanks for the feedback!

Matthew

[DarinPirkey]

Make sure you get someone who is willing to work on a performance based structure.  For example, we get a standard fee for the site which includes design and SEO but we also get a piece when we sell the site and bonuses based on time  (he faster we sell it the bigger the percentage) and lead generation.  It's worked well and everyone makes money.  You'll be able to find someone that will do this too I'm sure.

[Mrupp44]

I have design and development people on the payroll. The rest would be done mostly by help I have here in my office when they aren't busy with client work if what I was thinking.

I ran the idea by my wife (who helps run the office) and she told me that's a great idea once I get caught up with potential new clients and the work load from the ones we already have which is her way of saying never!

Thanks for the response!

Matthew