All Forum Posts by: Omar Ruiz

@Tom Gimer

There is no need to ignore your question. To clarify, I never said I was promoting crediability for my business, I said I was working to "create a system that promotes crediability for my business". These 6 months I was working with my developers to "create" a site (system) that, once published, would be considered creditable. 

I'm not stupid enough to say that an under construction page with a countdown to launch is creditable. Anybody can post up a site at any given time. I chose to work on mine for the past 6 months while still doing traditional marketing in hopes of a lead. You can believe it's a waste of time, but it's my time & my business...literally. As long as my site begins to generate leads that turns to deals, then it does not matter if I took longer than what others would believe it "should" have taken.

Google analytics is the best tool to know your exact numbers. The tool I used, to be clear and transparent, which is the same tool that OnCarrot promotes it's members to use for Keyword research and traffic, is SEMRush. Its supposedly shows that your site averages between 45 to 30 visitors per month. Go there yourself and type up your site.

Like I said in a few post responses before, I'm not a SEO guru. I am just someone, imspired by Gary Vee, who has taken time to do google research, read blogs, watched YouTube videos, participate in forums, looked into some SEO tools, etc.

As part of another SEO tool, I also searched your site in ahrefs and it shows you have 105 visitors this past month. Now, that # seems to be completely way off what your google analytics shows you, which is why I have also installed Google Analytics to my site. 

It just goes to show you and everybody reading this forum that the tools that people use to try to help rank their site may give some insight, however the person who owns their business would know better abour their business tha  anyone else.  Dont get me wrong man, I am not here to downplay your business, I was just sharing with the BP community within this forum, what I learned and my commitment to digital marketing rather tha  traditional marketing. That is why I am spending time studying how to do Google Ads & Facebook Ads in case my site is not ranking as quickly as I hoped.

@Norman Walton,

I do agree that OnCarrot provides exceptional training to its members about SEO. At the same time, in my opinion, they made the mistake of posting their trainings on Youtube, which allows anybody access to the understand their "SEO tool" (https://oncarrot.com/tour/seo-tool/).

I only found out about their youtube videos because I was researching more about them before deciding to becoming a customer. I had no idea what the training video meant, since I was not a carrot member nor did I have a site. But i knew the video would be helpful one day, so I saved it.

Once I found out there was so many wholesalers in my market using their platform, that is when I decided I need to develop my own site so I can stand out.

During my process of working with the designer, I came across Yoast SEO. Norman, here is a link of a screenshot of Yoast (https://ps.w.org/wordpress-seo/assets/screenshot-4) Does it look familiar, yep... OnCarrot simply placed this Wordpress plugin within their template & called it their SEO tool. I was like..."what!"... At that very moment, I knew I made the right decision to create my own site.

Plus, their training videos discussed integrating Keyword research (Google Keyword Planner, Uber Suggest, KWFinder.com, etc), creating crediability within the About Us page, remain frequest with blog post, create squeeze pages, etc.

Nothing is a secret sauce anymore. Just like Gary Vee says, "Google" is the tool. I also noticed you placed Digital Markerter on your BP page. I guess you drank the Gary Vee koolaid. :D. He is the person that has inspired me to focus on digital marketing & say goodbye to Direct Mail. Here is a 3 minute clip of Gary Vee explaining why there is no need to continue Direct Mail (https://youtu.be/ZsK41_MnnIM).

@Tom Gimer 

Maybe I am not understanding what you are asking as I am hearing you say that I have "wasted 6 months" to launch without a/b testing. 

I didn't waste 6 months, in my opinion, since my focus was to create a system that promotes crediability for my business.

You dont need a course to learn how to preform direct mail, drive for dollars or door knocking. But, going online, I have to put in time  and hard work in studying how to preform digital marketing (i.e.PPC campaigns, Facebook ads, email marketing, content marketing, etc) in hopes to dominate the real estate of page 1 of Google search results.

As you may or may not know, creating a site from scratch takes time. When I get one deal from my site, it will give me an immeidate return on my investment, both time and $. 

Lets put things into perspective:

I researched your website (masterstitle.com) & I see that your site started gaining traffic as of May 2016. Your site averages 36 visitor traffic per month & you have 21 backlinks. The keywords your site is mostly ranking for, organically on page 1, is "Masters Title" or "Title Masters".

Your biggest competition online is cottonducktitle.com. Their traffic average is 96 visitors and they only have 17 backlinks. They are also the only title company in Baltimore with a Google Ad, using the keyword "Baltimore Title Company". 

You are on page 6 on Google search results if you search "Baltimore Title company". 

So, if I am able to learn this about your business...online..and the closets i been to baltimpre is when i graduated from Howard in DC, then what makes anyone believe that I wasted time....?

I believe in cooking rather than microwaving a business. This means that I would rather take time to prepare a system for my business rather than just quickly rolling out a site just to "get started". 

Don't get me wrong, before this this shift, I started direct mail, I tested bandit signs, I did driving for dollars and some door knocking. I even hired a business intern this past summer to help me. It may work for many but I decided it wasnt for me and I had to change my mindset. 

You see I work 2 jobs (Counseling Coordinator at a high school and a licensed marriage & family therapist at my own business practice) which is about working 58 hours a week. 

It took me 6 months to build my private practice. As soon as I was able to get myself enrolled on insurance and get an online profile, I started to getting referrals within a week. I did make edits to my profile content from here and there and got it to the point where I am confident in what I have. Now, I get about 3-4 calls/emails per week for counseling. I use the site Psychology Today as my referring source. They show me stats on how many people are searching for counseling in my area, out of those how many people looked at my profile page and it takes account for everyone who actually reaches out to me. I calculated that I get an 11% response rate from the total number of people who viewed my page divided by the total of whom actually reached out. Search me on Google (Omar A. Ruiz, LMFT) if you're curious to know if I'm being honest.

So what does all this have to do with waiting to launch... I was researching, studying the big brands (Homevestors, Expresshomebuyers, etc) and my local competition. I reviewed what made them similar, what stands out and how much traffic are they getting based on keywords and pay-per-click campaigns. Could I have done this while having a site up...Yeah...but I would rather have a finished product (website) that I can tweak later than a piece a crap landing page. I want to develop crediability and professionalism. I need my cash buyers and sellers know that I am someone they want to do business with.

@Danny Johnson I do agree with you that investors wanting to get into the online world, who don't have much time, don't want to customize a site, nor have the funding to pay for customization, could definitely benefit from your product or OnCarrot. Especially if they do Direct Mail. They can use your product as part of their website link, under their contact information within the letter itself. I see and hear a lot of people just wanting to get a landing page just for the purposes of getting folks to see that they are creditable online.

If you message me directly, I can definitely give you the link to see the back end of the site, that way I'm not all talk. 😁 

I have a bigger vision, I want to dominate the real estate of Google's SERP (page 1, top 3 results of the organic searches) for many different keywords. 

As far as driving traffic (marketing), I'm currently taking a course online about Google Ads & overall digital marketing (including Facebook Ads, email/content marketing, social media, etc). I've also used some big brand SEO & SEM tools (not just Google Keyword Planner) to preform keyword research/analysis/organization. As you may know, since you wrote the article on the top 25 keywords, these tools also allow me to research my competition's site (content that drives them traffic, what PPC campaigns they are running plus how many, overall site visits [impressions] per month, what page they are ranking and which keywords they are ranking for, etc).

I'm not a SEO or SEM guru. I'm far from that. I am just utilizing the resource of Google & YouTube to get an understanding of what steps I need to take to get on top. If I build it, they will come...

I am in the favor of online marketing. . I have tried Direct Mail, Driving for Dollars, Door knocking, Property Tax Lien list, craigslist and develop a referral network with an Estate Sales company. I had gotten 5 leads in total from these strategies but no deal. I stopped and deciided that I need to develop a site. 

Everybody is being trained to believe that Direct Mail is the best "medium". I disagree. Physical mail, in my opinion is for bills, check, invitation or garbage. I am in a competitive market and I can only assume that with all the letters these homeowners are getting, my mail is just another one going into the trash (regardless if it is a yellow letter, business letter, zip letter, greeting card, post card, or lumpy mail). 

I chose not to invest in OnCarrot.com nor LeadPropellor.com as I found that there are over 26 wholesalers (maybe more that I can not find) who have OnCarrot. The first result that shows up on google for the keywords "We Buy Houses Boston" is an OnCarrot member. 

I believe that online (digital) marketing is the way to go. I can install Google Analytics to measure how much traffic my website is generating, which allows me to then install a code for retargetting ads that will follow that site visitor. No Guru is teaching Digital Marketing, they are all sharing that online marketing is a part of the total marketing funnel but Direct Mail is the way to go. Does it work, for some yes and they live by it. But I refuse to waste more time and money on 1997 type of marketing and invest in 2017-2018 digital marketing. 

Marketing is cluttered everywhere. Every business wants your attention. The question is how do you navigate through the clutter so that you can stand out. My site is set to launch in one week. My goal is to use digital marketing strategies (i.e. SEO, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc). At least I can provide actual numbers through Google Analytics to show how my investment in marketing is providing me with leads that convert to deals.

I have chosen to pay a website developer to help me create my wholesaling lead generation website We Buy Stressful Homes, which will launch by end of next week (no later than December 16th, 2017). My question to wholesalers on BP is whether anyone has invested their time & money into having a lead generation site (i.e. Free [Wix.com, Weebly.com], Template [OnCarrot.com, LeadPropellor.com] or Professionally designed)? If so, why did you choose to do this (i.e. to actually capture leads online, create creditability, or somethings else) & how much traffic are you getting (both paid and organic searches)?

I disagree. Its 2017, people need to look into digital marketing. Everyone talks about Direct Mail, but if everyone is talking about it, that means everybody in your market, as a wholesaler, is doing direct mail. 

My suggestion, invest your money into building a website and learn about digital marketing. Who is looking forward to going home to looking through their mail, especially if these are distressed homeowners. Physical mail is either for a bill or a check, everything else seems garbage. Plus, Direct Mail has a 1-2% response rate. So, for every 100 letters you send, you will get maybe 1 person callling you. From there it is a 50% chance they want to sell and another 50% chance that they will accept your offer. So already we are at 1/4 of a lead for every 100 people.

Try Melissa.com. Here is a link to a video of what they offer for Skip Tracing services. You could also use a free site TruePeopleSearch.com.