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Self-taught developer earning $12K/month from a simple app š«š·
Welcome to a fresh edition of eBiz Insider, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business.
Today...
Building Veterinary Websites = $10M Exit
Free Training: 3 Secrets To Grow Your Travel Blog
Self-Taught Developer Earning $12K/Month From a Simple App
Failed His Way To $720K/Year
Google's 293 Failed Projects
His Vampire Website Earned $500,000 in 1 Year
$30K/Month Solo Travel Blogger
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Building Veterinary Websites = $10M Exit
Adam Greenbaum is the founder of WhiskerCloud, a digital marketing agency for the veterinary industry š¶
Per a recent profileā¦
In January 2022, Greenbaum sold the agency in a low 8-figure deal to Petdesk, which provides similar website and app services for veterinarians.
So that's at least a $10 million exit š°
Adam saysā¦
The best part of this story is that it was a bootstrapped venture, and I did it with almost no marketing budget.
š It all started back in 2011 whenā¦
Greenbaum launched a Boston terrier rescue and, with a background in digital marketing, built a website for itā¦
The site immediately began to grow, and Greenbaum started working with veterinarians around the world to help Boston terriers in need.
So he had some experience with building websites and working with veterinarians.
Then, a few years laterā¦
When Adam Greenbaum Googled the best local veterinary hospital for his two rescue Boston terriers in 2015, he found a whole lot of broken links.
That was the catalyst for spending 10 months building the infrastructure of WhiskerCloud, an agency that builds, hosts and manages veterinary websites. In June 2016, WhiskerCloud went live.
How Adam got tractionā¦
Built in Colorado published an article about Greenbaum and his new agency, WhiskerCloud. Within 24 hours, big veterinary medicine companies were reaching out.
Side note š
Built In Colorado is an interesting site, featuring tech businesses in Colorado.Ā
Is there a similar site for your local area? If yes, you could try to get featured like Adam did.
If not, maybe there's an opportunity to create something like this? š¤
Back to Adam, and another thing that helped him grow the agency was influencer partnershipsā¦
Early on, he became tight with two of the industryās top influencers.
āBoth owned and ran huge Facebook groups filled with thousands of people who were my target audience,ā he explained. āBy working with them and producing content together, I had their biggest fans falling in love with my company.ā
He also featured influencers in WhiskerCloudās content with custom graphics and posts. The influencers would then share this content.
Sounds to me like he built genuine relationships with influencers who shared his mission and values š
Fast-forward to 2022ā¦
Once WhiskerCloud crossed $2 million in ARR, he received multiple emails from venture capitalists each dayā¦
Adam ended up selling the agency to PetDesk for $10+ million.
At the time of sale, he apparently had 2000 customers, which would mean an average of $1000/month per customer š¤
I reckon there are still plenty of opportunities like the one Adam found.
What industries or niches are you familiar with? Check out the websites of businesses operating there. Do you see room for improvement? Could you help them find more customers somehow?
Help one business in that niche and it should be easy enough to convince others to work with you š¤
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Free Training: 3 Secrets To Grow Your Travel Blog
Today's email is brought to you by The 3 Secrets To Exponentially Grow Your Travel Blog In 2024.
That's a free live training happening this Thursday, Feb 29th.
Your host is Laura Peters, co-creator of Scale Your Travel Blog, one of the top-rated courses I've ever reviewed š¤©
If you're into blogging at all, the training is worth tuning into.
You'll learnā¦
How to drive thousands of readers to your blog each DAY on autopilot.. .without social media!
How to convert your blog traffic into consistent and predictable passive income.
How to take your travel blog to six figures and beyond.
(There will also be a replay sent out to anyone registers, so don't worry if you can't make the live training.)
ā¹ļø full disclosure | sponsorship info
Self-Taught Developer Earning $12K/Month From a Simple App
Benjamin Houy is the creator of French Together, an app to help people speak and understand French š«š·
In a recent interview, he revealsā¦
French Together started as a blog 10 years ago while I was studying in Germany and became my full-time job over the next few years.
You can see an early version of the blog from 2014 here š
Benjamin writes in the interviewā¦
When the COVID pandemic struck, I decided to turn my main product (an interactive ebook) into a proper web appā¦
Back when I was a kid, I learned a bit of C++, Python and PHP but never really got deep into it. Somehow, there was always a point when I would lose interest and switch to something else.
š However, during the pandemicā¦
My SEO traffic started declining. I ignored it at first, telling myself it would get better. Months went by with my traffic declining a little more every month.
After a while, I had to face the inevitable: my traffic wasnāt coming back. What I took for a simple seasonal change was in fact a shift in the market.
I found myself backed in a corner with only 2 choices: let the business die, or reinvent it.
He chose the second pathā¦
My initial goal was to take all the content and features of the ebook I was selling and put them in a web appā¦
After 2 months or so, the app was built and I was eager to get feedback so I contacted all the people who had purchased the ebook in the last 12 months and offered them free access.
š Even after launching the appā¦
My income dropped. Thatās because I switched from selling an ebook with an optimized and tested marketing funnel to selling a SaaS [software as a service], something I had never done before.
After a while though, I got used to SaaS marketing and my income started increasingā¦ Iām now at roughly $12k MRR and hope to double it within a year.
Elsewhere he mentionsā¦
The large majority of my sales and traffic come from SEOā¦
My funnel is pretty simple: people search for some French-related keywords, find the French Together blog and then either sign up for the newsletter or start a free trial directly.
š¬ Benjamin's advice for othersā¦
Donāt overthink it. Itās easy to spend years or even decades dreaming of starting, only to find yourself full of regrets. Start now with the skills and knowledge you have, learn as you go.
You donāt need the perfect idea, you just need to offer something people are happy to pay for.
I suspect there are opportunities to do what Benjamin has done but for other languages.
His app looks simple enough, wouldn't be too hard to build yourself or outsource šŖ
Benjamin's main advantage though was his 10-year-old blog that already ranked for a lot of relevant keywords. So you'd either need to build up a blog like that yourself or find some other marketing channel.
If you're a developer, you could find established language-learning blogs and offer to build apps for them, see if you can figure out a revenue share š¤
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š Failed His Way To $720K/Year
From the archive, published July 2022ā¦
Omar Deryan writes about trying to make money online back in 2017ā¦
During that year, I have tried and tested various business models, in this order: blogging, affiliate marketing, dropshipping, Amazon FBA, and Airbnb investment.
He managed to earn $500/month profit from Amazon, but that wasnāt enough š©
However, Omar joined lots of online communities that year and āstarted receiving requests to write, optimize and translate product descriptions for Shopify (Dropshippers) and Amazon sellers.ā
He pivoted to a service business and in December that year earned $7000 š¤
Fast-forward to today, and heās evolved the business into OJ Digital Solutions, a $60,000/month agency that helps Amazon sellers create effective product listings.
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Google's 293 Failed Projects
As of this writing, Google ā or rather Alphabet, its parent company ā has a market cap of $1.8 trillion, making it the 6th most valuable company in the world š
Keep that in mind while you check out this website: Killed By Google
That site lists all the projects Google has shut down over the years šµ
For exampleā¦
Google Domains
Google Podcasts
YouTube Stories
Google links
Lots of those projects had value but not enough for Google to keep them alive.
I know from personal experience that it can be really hard to kill something I've built. When I do that, I'm essentially admitting that I wasted loads of time and energy š
But as we can see from Google's example, even the biggest and best companies in the world don't hit a home run every time.
Far from it.
And I think it's safe to say that Google wouldn't be so successful today if not for their constant attempts at new products.
And their willingness to keep trying despite hundreds of failures š
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His Vampire Website Earned $500,000 in 1 Year
Check out this recent article in Wiredā¦
š¬ The blurbā¦
Serbian DJ turned internet entrepreneur NebojÅ”a VujinoviÄ Vujo floods abandoned news sites with AI-generated articles. But he wants you to know he's a nice guy.
Vujo apparently operates 2,000 such sites š±
He basically snaps them up as expiring domains after they've been abandoned.
Some of the sites he's acquiredā¦
TheHairpin.com ā previously a famous women-run media site.
TrumpPlaza.com ā former official website of the hotel and casino.
Pope2you.net ā once an official Vatican website.
From the Wired articleā¦
His most significantāand consistently profitableāpurchase is womenās media outlet The Friskyā¦
āIt cost a lotāall the money that I hadābut that was my opportunity,ā he says.
Vujo says the site generated over $500,000 in the first year he bought the domain. In addition to healthy income from ads and clients willing to pay for backlinks, the brand was a magnet for companies willing to pay for sponsored posts.
From a 2019 BuzzFeed articleā¦
The Frisky as it once existed is gone. Today itās a vampire website feeding off the propertyās former popularity and brand name to sell pay-for-play articles in order to influence search engine rankings.
Back to Wired š
Vujo was born in what is now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his family fled during the breakup of Yugoslavia. āI had two wars I escapedā¦ It was terrible to grow up in this part of the world.āĀ
He says his economic options have been limited, and this was simply a path available to himā¦
āMaybe it would be better for you that Iām a bad guy,ā he tells me. āBetter for your story. But Iām just an ordinary guyā¦ā
āIām just one guy who, yes, in business I am using AI to create shitty content on the internet to earn money or a fortune,ā he says.Ā
Heās not a mustache-twirling supervillain, chortling as he spews journalism-killing AI slime. Heās an affable young dad who wants his kid to have a nicer childhood than he did.
Plain to see why people get into this line of work.
Easier to make big money fast, even though itās unlikely to last.
Case in point: that website The Frisky earned Vujo $500,000 the first year he acquired it, but apparently its earnings are down to $50,000 a year now, a 90% drop š
So he has to keep hunting for new sites to take advantage of.
Personally, I'd rather invest my time and effort into building a legit brand/site that can thrive long term šŖ
Also, Google is actively trying to find and punish these vampire websites. And Google is a tough opponent to fight.
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š $30K/Month Solo Travel Blogger
From the archive, published June 2022ā¦
Back in 2012, Kristin Addis was burnt out from her career in mergers and acquisitions. So she quit her job, bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok š¹š and started a blog called Be My Travel Muse.
Per a recent profile, it took Kristin about 2 years to earn āa liveable wageā from her blog, and within 6 years she was earning āmid-six-figuresā in revenue.
Now her site earns about $15,000 on a slow month, and as much as $50,000 on a good month š¤
My main income streams are ad revenue from Mediavine, tours that I brand and run myself, partnerships with brands and destinations, and in the past I was freelancing as well.
SEO is key for Kristinās business, and HARO has been a good way for her to build backlinks to her site.
Just in the past month alone, Iāve been a source for both Oprah Magazine and Glamour UK.
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Thanks to Fardeen Khan for helping me write and research today's newsletter.
Hasta la prĆ³xima, rock on with your legendary self šŖ
Niall Doherty ā Canillo, Andorra
eBiz Facts (follow on twitter)
P.S. Want to learn the essentials of growing and monetizing a blog?
Then check out this free webinar happening on Thursday š The 3 Secrets To Exponentially Grow Your Travel Blog In 2024
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