June Q/A Roundup

Hey it’s Opossum here! Welcome to my free monthly Q/A Roundup. Today’s post is on some of the best questions in the last month. Each week I write about a new topic or analyze a new digital business. If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:

1. Building A Semantic Tree

2. The World IS NOT Ending

3. Agency Owner Revealing Her Client Acquisition Strategy

4. Building Site Structure For Your Service Business

5. May Q/A Roundup

Question #1

When I am writing articles that involve historical facts or references, should I be citing references (think high school book report) or providing direct links to other sources (ex. Wikipedia, etc.) for more obscure facts?

Yes. 100%. They're called authority links and it signals to Google that your information comes from an authoritative source. The more authority the better. Why do you think Healthline links to government studies? It's not for their users, it's for Google. In Google's eyes, what's more authoritative than a .gov.

You should be doing this but you should generally not be linking to competitors for the KW you’re trying to rank for. There are exceptions of course. Linking to the brand you’re talking about, a gov or authority source that where the info came from, etc.

Question #2

“I’m doing everything right and I’m not seeing progress” or some variation of this.

I doubt that’s true. It’s really easy to overestimate how much work you’re actually doing. Or you’re really putting in the work and you’re focused on the wrong things.

BowTiedOpossum - Not a Guru @BowTiedOpossum

If you're growing any digital business, it's easy to give up when you're not seeing progress. Here's how you get rid of that self doubt and realize what the real problem is in your lack of growth.

• 1 post a month is not a lot for SEO

• 14 referring domains is not a lot for SEO

• Targeting any KW (in the beginning) above 300 searches per month is likely a waste of your time

• 1 video a week is not a lot for TikTok

• 1 Tweet a day is not a lot for Twitter

This is why it’s important that people focus on 1-2 channels in the beginning. You don’t have a team. You can’t spread yourself out and half ass it on every channel and expect growth.

Here’s some metrics of people I know that are seeing real success in their channel.

• 3+ KW targeted articles written per week. Targeted at less than 300 searches per month

• 10+ Tweets per day

• 3 TikToks per day from 3-4 different accounts. So, 9-12 per day.

• Answering 3 HAROs per day

BowTiedOpossum - Not a Guru @BowTiedOpossum

Just because SEMRush, Ahrefs, or another tool says a KW is easy/medium, it does not mean it's easy/medium *for you*. - You don't have links - You don't have much content - You don't have topical authority - You don't likely know how to structure content

Question #3

Should I upskill, get another job, then start WiFi money in 6 months or stay with my current job and start now?

This is a very difficult and personal question. Here’s the factors that I would consider.

1. How much more are you going to make? Is that amount going to make a difference in savings or extra cash to invest in your personal business?

2. What’s the difference in hours between the two positions?

3. What’s the difference in job security between the two?

4. What’s the opportunity cost difference between the positions vs potential for WiFi money?

5. Are you really the type of person who will actually start and stick with your personal business?

First, if you’re making (not saving) so little that you can’t afford to invest in a service business or affiliate site, you have to take the job and make more money. This needs to be your #1 focus.

This following sentence is directed at Americans since I’m familiar with the costs here. If you can’t drop a few thousand dollars for an LLC, hosting, links, and some tools, there’s almost 0 shot you’re going to make it anyways. While you can get started for almost free, that initial few thousand dollars will be paramount to getting some initial growth.

Second, the difference in hours matter. Unless you’re struggling to save (see #1), a difference of hours from 50h/week to 70h/week is non-negotiable if you’re trying to build up a side business. Let’s say you are going to put in 80 hours per week between your side business and day job.

Taking a workload increase like that will decrease your side business hours from 30h/week to 10h/week. You’re losing 67% of your time for your side business.

Third, we’re heading into a recession. If you have high demand skills and can easily get another job during normal times, this point is moot. During a recession, jobs decrease and the supply of candidates increase. Job security is an enormous factor that needs considered.

I can’t answer this for you. Only someone that knows your skill level, contacts, and industry can have an idea. This also depends on other factors like your savings, expenses, and how badly you need a job to stay afloat.

Fourth is opportunity cost.

BowTiedOpossum - Not a Guru @BowTiedOpossum

Think about what your business will make per week in 5 years. That’s how much you’re losing by delaying starting by “1 week”.

This is really about combining 1-3 above. Yes. You may be able to make more money at another company with your salary. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make more money overall. If you have less time to work on your side business, then accounting for income and equity from that, you may make less overall.

To make the math easy, let’s say that your decision is a $20k a year higher job. Let’s also assume that you have no time to work on a side business. Let’s also assume that if you stayed in your current job, you could get your side business to exactly $1k a month and sold it at the end of year 2 for a 3X multiple.

Taking 2 years to build up a WiFi business to $1k a month is easily possible. In this scenario, you’d still come out $8k ahead than if you would have taken the pay raise. Not to mention the tax benefits…

I recently took a job that was $40k less than what I could have gotten. Why? Less stress, less hours, less risk, WFH, and I was sure I could make the extra money even without the equity.

Fifth, *will you actually put in the work*. Some people aren't self motivated and it's best for them to have a job. It's just how it is.

BowTiedOpossum - Not a Guru @BowTiedOpossum

How many of ya'll have been following this account for *a year* and still haven't started?

If this is you, you really have to have a hard conversation with yourself. Either start now or admit to yourself that you’re not motivated enough. The worst thing you could do is not take the job then realize later that you don’t have the internal motivation.

Question #4

Do I need a virtual address? Something to get around having my home address on packages when they go out and need to be returned?

Yes. 100%. That or a PO Box. All it takes is one crazy customer to come knocking on your door before you realize how big of a mistake it was to not spend the $10 a month to rent a PO Box.

Even if they don’t physically come to your house, real estate ownership is easy to look up. You don’t want someone slandering your name all over the internet for potential employers or others to find.

Question #5

How much startup capital do I need to for an affiliate marketing business?

Technically you can get started with $10 a month for hosting. There are other tools that you might want for a month to do KW research that would cost you less than $300 for one month. Then do all of the writing yourself. Link building will be free but a lot of work and eventually you'll have to buy links.

Affiliate is great because you can go as cheap as you need and put in a ton of sweat equity. Realistically though, after you learn how to write, rank, and build links, you’re going to want to outsource. If you don’t have the capital to outsource, you can’t scale as fast as you’ll want.

If you’re good at KW research, structuring articles and training your VA/writer/link builder, $10k would give you a good runway to profitability. Once you’re profitable, then dump every penny back into it for growth.

As long as you don’t spend like an asshole, the more money invested the better.

Wrapping Up

Here’s a few businesses being created by subscribers just like you. They’re putting in the effort. Are you?

natural dos - Natural Spectrum CBDA from American Grown Hemp.

Upsprout - Monthly Care Packages designed to affirm, guide, and support the experience of grief.

La Touraine - A brand of affordable luxury watches that brings together quality, value, and affordability.

UltMechE - Optimize everything for your dream engineering job.

Settee - The largest portal on internationalization and digital nomadism in Portugal.

Outdoor Rack Builder - An affiliate site for climbers.

Windstone Financial - Say goodbye to your accounting headaches.

My Fitness System - An affiliate site dedicated to fitness.

Fittest Travel - They consult with hotels on how to improve their fitness options and give travelers a resource to learn about the things they need to know to stay fit on the road.

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If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, you need to keep in mind why we’re here.

Your boss and company, no matter how nice, doesn’t care about your future. Nobody outside of a few family members and select friends care about your growth and your future.

You are the only one that can save yourself and make your life what you want it.

Single player. Just you.

This Substack is here to help you build a business and build the life that you want. I’ve laid out the basics to understand, analyze, & grow most any online business.

The best way to learn how to do this as fast as possible is to start from the beginning of the Substack. That and follow me on Twitter & Instagram.

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Disclaimer: Nothing written here should be construed as legal for financial advice of any kind. These are opinions and observations, written by an anonymous cartoon Opossum, built up over years working in e-commerce & affiliate marketing.