Summary
- I discovered that angel investing, specifically as an SEO angel investor, can be more profitable than traditional SEO work or affiliate marketing while requiring only 10% of the usual time and energy.
- Instead of investing money like traditional angel investors, I offer my SEO skills, knowledge, and resources in exchange for a business equity share.
- Many businesses are eager to exchange equity for expert marketing knowledge. It’s less costly and you retain some control over your investment.
- My investments in Surfer, Bloom, and Pre Condos brought significant returns and business growth, highlighting the potential of SEO angel investing.
- Being an SEO angel investor means focusing on established businesses with proven sales and market fit, which reduces risks compared to investing in start-ups without traction.
- Angel investing benefits include expanding your network, gaining new knowledge, and experiencing significant financial growth due to the synergy between different investments.
- Prepare for setbacks; investing in many ventures increases the chance of finding successful ones. Allocate resources wisely and be willing to lose what you invest.
- Build deal flow by establishing a personal brand, engaging on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, and attending industry events to connect with founders.
- Vetting the founder is crucial—invest in leaders who demonstrate potential for success in business and life.
- Look for positive signals like product-market fit and a scalable business model before investing, especially if new to angel investing.
- When negotiating deals, consider providing smart equity by contributing your time and expertise rather than only money. This can enhance your impact and reduce risks.
- Build your credibility by assisting your investments beyond financial contributions—provide advice, offer networking opportunities, and help businesses succeed.
- Continuously refine and grow your skills as an angel investor to improve the odds of investment success and reputation in the field.
Video
How To Take Action
I would suggest starting as an SEO angel investor by leveraging your skills instead of investing large sums of money. This could be more rewarding than traditional SEO work, while saving you time and energy. You can offer your SEO expertise in exchange for business equity, which many businesses value highly.
A good way of doing this is to target established businesses that have proven market fit. This approach is less risky than investing in startups without any sales. You’ll want to focus on vetting the business founder. Look for leaders with a strong chance of succeeding and who have skin in the game.
To find these opportunities, build your personal brand through social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. Help others by sharing valuable insights, which will establish your credibility. Consider attending industry events and masterminds to make connections and listen for promising deals.
When evaluating an opportunity, aim for businesses with scalable models and an unfair advantage in the market. Before agreeing on investment terms, compare their business with similar ones in the industry to ensure their valuation is reasonable.
Finally, remember to continuously assist your investments beyond just providing money or knowledge. Offer advice, networking, and support to improve business success and build your reputation as a valuable investor. By doing so, you'll increase the chances of your investments succeeding and creating significant financial growth.
Quotes by Author
"Growth by acquisition has 100% allowed me to get to numbers in life I could never even dream about"
"Angel Investing is a great way to learn more so than making money"
"When you have a stake in multiple businesses, the ability to upsell, down sell, and cross sell between them is enabled"
"Personal branding isn't for me bro, it's too late you already have one"
"Invest only if you buy stock in the founder themselves"
Full Transcript
I figured out a way to make more money with SEO than any other method more than affiliate marketing more than running an SEO agency plus here's the kicker it only takes 10% of the time and energy compared to these other models I'm talking about Angel Investing what but not in the traditional sense of giving money to a couple of 20-year-old Silicon Valley Tech Bros I mean becoming an SEO angel investor where you can put up your money but even better your SEO skills and other knowledge and resources in exchange for a percentage of a business and it doesn't take a lot of money to get started with this in my experience businesses gladly give away a part of their company in exchange for expert marketing knowledge and in this video I'm going to show you how you can get started yourself and to spice things up I've tossed in some golden nuggets from some of the most prolific angels in the SEO Community James douly Nick Eubanks and Kevin indig as for me so far I've done this a handful of times my publicly known SEO Angel Investments include Surfer the on-site SEO tool which grew from 1 to 13 million in annual revenue since I joined the cap table in 2019 Bloom Thailand's number one cannabis Product Company which ranks first second third and fifth for by CBD Thailand thank you very much and pre condo a Toronto real estate agency which was acquired last year by irise realy by the way if you have a business you'd like to partner with me on or would like funding reach out at partner adig marketing.com I'd love to learn more about your business now back to my previous Angel Investments some of these included cash from my side others I bought in with pure knowledge and resources and through them I've amassed nearly as much value and wealth as I I have actually doing SEO for myself why does this work so well because as a marketer you're able to help businesses like these grow allowing them to laser focus on running their business let the lawyers focus on lawyering let the dentist dentist while you market for them also there's another upside of actually having control of your Investments sure you can go invest in Nvidia right now but do you have any influence on how it will perform of course not now let's discuss what actually is an angel investor according to Investopedia an angel investor provides an seed money for startup businesses usually in exchange for ownership equity in the company an SEO angel investor is different the first difference is leverage you have a superpower in the form of organic traffic in exchange for your expertise Network and resources instead of buying into a startup at $1 per share you might be able to get shares at0 50 cents per share or even $0 per share this is called smart Equity leverage by the way when you're putting up work instead of money you're essentially doing a joint venture or JV and that's exactly how Nick Banks got started Angel Investing when he partnered with the dentist to create a Nationwide Dental lead generation website which is also exactly what I do with my JV Company lead spring partnering with SAS businesses e-commerce stores and law firms another difference is the type of business you might invest in the Investopedia article defines Angel Investors as those who invest in startups this might include businesses that are just Concepts and haven't yet made a single sale but an SEO angel investor often invests in businesses with traction that have made sales that have product Market fit and if and if all works out in these businesses have an exit event you're looking at real wealth generation now I'm no Tim Ferris but according to this article Tim invested in companies like uber Facebook Tas rabbit Twitter Shopify and dualingo his $25,000 Uber investment alone is worth over $100 million now and sure this is an example of being in the right place at the right time with the right connections but being so familiar with your own industry wouldn't you also say you have an edge a side benefit that I particularly enjoy is that with Investments like these in your back back pocket it's like living life with a lottery ticket it's exciting another perk that James dly pointed out is synergy James said quote when you have a stake in multiple businesses the ability to upsell down sell and cross sell between them is enabled you can even get reduced rates allowing these businesses to have better margins and grow faster James also said that quote growth by acquisition as 100% allowed me to get to numbers in life I could never even dream about just to add to what James is saying and I'm stealing this from a talk I heard from Ace Chapman a legend in the acquis position space let's say you have a client SEO agency and a link Building Company and the client agency sent $1,000 worth of business to the link building company buying links how much value did you add to the link Building Company $11,000 wrong yes the link company got that $1,000 but the value of the company increased by 3,000 if we're assuming a standard 3x valuation multiplier so $11,000 actually became $44,000 this is synergy Kevin indig also mentions knowledge as another side benefit Kevin's got a quite a long list of of Angel Investments under his belt according to his LinkedIn profile he says quote Angel Investing is a great way to learn more so than making money I learned a lot and met many smart people when you go through this process you get a crash course MBA you also get deeply familiar with the product and service your partners are offering moving forward one of my favorite angel investment benefits is how well expands your network Founders are going to ask you to come in for important meetings they're going to meet a players and introduce you they're going to ask for your feedback when hiring people your network will expand and your list of a player recommendations will as well which in turn will make you a more resourceful investor and business person in the future and let's not downplay the time leverage you get with investing you get to feel like you're a part of something without having to commit as much time as if you were an actual employee now I'm about to jump into how to get started with this but I must warn you not all is Peaches in sunshine with this model first of all it doesn't always work especially when you're investing in businesses that don't yet have product Market fit according to the book Angel by legendary investor Jason calanis who typically invests in super super early Silicon Valley companies to make the numbers work you want to invest in 50 companies of which only a few will work out it's been said that the fastest way to become a millionaire is to start with a billion dollars and then start Angel Investing which is why you should only allocate as much money to Angel Investing as you're ready to lose that said investing your time or knowledge for smart Equity is a less costly alternative which is why I love SEO Angel Investing by the way here's a quick word from the sponsor of this video search intelligence this campaign got us big links in websites such as life haacker Wells Online daily record and about 20 other news websites let me show you how we've done it we knew that people will be flying a lot this summer and we knew that journalists will be writing about this topic a lot so on behalf of our client we put together a nice guide about how to fall asleep on the plane then we use mrack to find journalists who write about travel then we put our advice in a nice email and send the tips to these journalists within just a few days the links started Landing securing our client natural place basements in really big websites just like this this and this this is a great example about how you can leverage seasonal Trends to earn links to a website anticipate what journalists want to write about at all times and give them the stories that they need they will reward you with some great juicy links I hope this is helpful now back to the video another issue is finding good deals in the first place I agree with Kevin when he says if you have money you'll find Opportunities to invest but the best deals come from a strong Network that pulls you into opportunities we'll talk more about this later and once you find these deals vetting which ones are bad and which ones are good is challenging Nick Eubanks shared that early in his career he'd been part of Ventures that were taken down by trademark issues and in another the founder was just straight up stealing and now he's learned that vetting isn't just about vetting the business deal but vetting the founders as well so you've decided you want to try your hand at this whole SEO Angel Investing thing how do you get started step one is to build your deal flow in order to find good deals you need a big enough selection to choose from the way I built my deal flows through my personal brand pre condo came to me because of my reputation as a good SEO Surfer was a great fit because I have a personal brand in the SEO space you might be thinking personal branding isn't for me bro it's too late you already have one are you on Facebook Twitter well great you have a personal brand how I built M is so easy it's stupid see this Facebook post from 2015 from someone needing help with their SEO here's my reply genuinely helping them no pitch just genuinely helping meanwhile building trust and establishing myself as an expert then I started writing blog posts detailing some of the SEO tactics I was using and those blog posts started getting shared by others organically it was all pretty low effort chances are you know me through YouTube but YouTube is really only a 2 to threee Endeavor I barely just got started moving on you see these two posts right here pinned at the top of my Twitter and Facebook profiles got a business and looking for funding marketing partnership I'm looking for Angel opportunities would love to learn more about what you have going on these posts bring in 80% of my deal flow and I can also say that the deals I get through them are twice as good as compared to when I go out looking for them when the deals come to you they're just better Kevin indig built his personal brand through his Twitter and Linkedin social following as well as his growth memo newsletter the personal brand Playbook is simple choose your platform whether that be social media podcast YouTube whatever and help people that's literally it you can also do what James dly does and I do for that matter which is to attend masterminds and events dly uses that time to scan the rooms he's in for people that work hard have good ideas and look fun to work with now that you have deals and opportunities coming in let's work on your vetting skills come in close because what I'm about to say means everything when it comes to vetting all about the founder you're vetting the founder even more than the business opportunity invest only if you buy stock in the founder themselves ask yourself what are the Founder's chances of succeeding in this business and in life itself have they done this before do they need this to work have they put their own money in this business Nick loves what he calls numbers Founders Founders that can mathematically prove how the business model is going to work and generate a return on investment Kevin agrees that your best bet is on the founders themselves but you're also looking for other positive signals such as product Market fit sharp execution and a good target market speaking of product Market fit if this is your first time Angel Investing do not touch startups that do not yet have traction before a business has product Market fit you're speculating which is a fancy word for gambling that said let's say you found a great opportunity with product Market fit and a great founder here's some of my favorite vetting questions can this business scale does this business have an unfair Advantage are you going after a gap in the market that your competitors don't fill and what's the market cap of this business okay so you found a great company to invest your time or money into now it's time to make a deal how much time money or both are you exchanging for what percentage of that company this is always a challenge if it's an ambitious founder which you want they're going to think their business is worth $1 million even though the company doesn't yet had the financial history to back it to check if a business's value makes sense look for comparable businesses in the same industry that have raised funds before after you've agreed on the value of the business now you can start to negotiate on how much time money or both you're going to contribute for a stake in it next go to LinkedIn add angel investor to your job title and go show off to everyone you know you're done not quite if you want to take this pass seriously just like everything else you want to be the best damn angel investor you can be if you came in with smart equity and not just straight cash you deliver on what you promised but even if you just invested cash give your time to the founder when ever they ask be there for them give them solid advice introduce them to your network it's a win-win your Ventures will have a higher success rate your reputation will improve you'll get better deals over time and your partners will love you again if you have a business you'd like to partner with me on please reach out at partner digity marketing.com otherwise subscribe for more videos just like this one
