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Bunch Consulting

In 2016 I started to write a bunch of blog articles about the process of looking for work, especially when you are over 50 and covered some of the do and don’ts. And I got a lot of great comments about my experiences. Here are links to those articles if you want to read them. . And . Then over the next year or two, I was able to land a bunch of great positions, both consulting and full-time. How To Find A Job When You Have Been Off The Market And You Have Hit The 5 Ohs I Am Working Now, 5 Oh And Out So, I am back out on the market and looking again. Also, since I have written several short books, mainly on Internet startups and online dating, I started to write a book about how to get positioned on the Internet for work using SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It will cover what you need to being doing online to be able to be found and keep working. It covers everything you need to do to get work both as an employee or consultant. If you are interested in a copy of this book when it is published, then get on to be notified when the book comes out. Or just make sure you are following me here on Linkedin! my email list here Using SEO to find work means getting work by being found versus applying for jobs. Because I was too busy with work to finish that book, it was not until my day job ended recently that I started to really finish the book, and it will be completed sometimes this year. I personally find writing blog articles and books as a way for me to get my knowledge level and basically figure things out. Just like this article’s main question, should I work full-time or be a consultant? Would love to have your opinion on this! As you know many large employers will want to hire you as a consultant, at least for 6 months. Smaller and medium sized employers tend to want to hire direct. Right off the bat, it would always seem that being an employee is the best option. At least this could be driven with the biggest issue of them all, healthcare. Now that I am back out on the market looking for another employer to take me on, I have to make sure our family is covered for health insurance. So, for me being a consultant seems to be a problem, and we don’t have serious health issues in the family, but I can imagine if we did, we would probably be stuck! I have been in both full-time and consulting roles over the years and most recently have gone back and forth between both states, and honestly there are benefits to both. But let’s just look at the options and why we would consider one or the other. The issue really is, do we have the choice between the option of being an employee and being a consultant. It is not always something we can control. But if you could control the choice between the two, let’s look at the ups and downs. Benefits of being a consultant: Freedom to not have to be on the clock: Being a full-time 40 hour a week employee means you are typically locked in. A consultant does have some flexibility with timing, but there is also the fact that a consultant may have to work late into the night on projects. Freedom in General: Seems like the moment I am working full-time for an employer, there is an immediate difference in how you are treated and what you can do is limited to the structure of the organization. Ability to Negotiate Hourly Rate: At times in my career I wanted to be able to raise my rate as consultant. You can negotiate your pay as a consultant, but once you are hired full-time, you have little to no negotiating ability for salary. You would need to wait till the end of the year or in some cases never. Tax Benefits: As an independent consultant you typically have your own LLC or Corporation and you have the ability to take tax write offs against the business. Seems like the new tax bill will be better for those with a corporation than without one. Benefits of being an employee Less Unpredictability: Being an employee there should not be the unpredictability of consulting. I have had to fly out to remote cities as a consultant and meetings and projects can happen almost instantly. Full-time employee status means you know what is about to happen. Benefits: Benefits are by far the main reason to be an employee. Unless you are building out a very large consulting firm with tons of employees who work for you or you can demand a very high hourly or project rate, then benefits can be as much as 30% of the value of working for a large employer. Job Flexibility: I found while working as an employee I was able to flex and change and move into different job functions, especially at a large employer. At one employer working full time I had 7 job titles and departments in 4 years. As a consultant you typically are locked into a narrow scope job. Management Skill: As a consultant, you rarely can be a manager, director or VP or CEO and very rarely will you be developed for management (if it still exists). Being a consultant means you will not be going to personal development training or management training. You will have to read articles like this one to get yourself trained! I am sure there are a dozen reasons for one or the other. It is still clear to me that working as an employee is the better situation. Maybe it has more to do with where you are at in your career (if you are not starting up a business). If you are about to have kids and start a family, obviously being on a corporation’s medical insurance is probably the biggest factor in why you would want to be an employee and not a consultant. If you had kids and they are long gone and you don’t have a major medical problem, then consulting could be the way to go. Let me know what you think. I personally could be working as either in the next few months. Either way tell me if you would rather work full-time, consultant, or run your own business (which could be just being a consultant!). Dan

Which Is Better For You? Working Full Time vs. Consulting?

Consulting comes in many forms. The version I want to rail against are the wannabe consultants. Those that pretend that the monotonous contract work their employees perform is consulting just because someone says it is. By this I mean nearly every company in the DC metro area that claims to be in consulting. This is personal — I have been fooled and I am pissed off. I want to share the lie I was told with you. If I sound bitter, please understand it is because I am. I’m lashing out because I feel stupid for being so naive. My inadequacies are my own. I just want to complain. I don’t expect anything. I got my first consulting job at 22. I assumed by consulting they meant three principal constructs. First, I would be working on projects of finite, short duration. No matter how asinine the project or client, I could rest assured that the next project was only a few months away. I would not be left to rot on a boring project for an indefinite period of time. Second, I would be working with a diverse array of clients, both in terms of industry and location. I imagined myself complaint-bragging on about another late night after catching the red-eye back from LA. I imagined that after a few months of demonstrating how much of a wonderful unique snowflake I was, those trips would be to Paris, Tokyo, and London Facebook Finally, I believed that my projects would actually be consulting as opposed to implementation. I envisioned small teams interviewing clients, gathering and analyzing data, and recommending solutions. I knew that as a junior consultant no client would care about my opinion, but they would pay good money to hear the findings of our team. In time I would eventually lead a team and give important briefings where my pocket square matched the color scheme of our deck The first thing that should stand out from my naive viewpoint is the overwhelming emphasis on cache and style over substance. My assumption is that no job, especially the glamorous, are able to match reality with expectation. But this wasn’t completely my fault. They intentionally misled applicants, creating an illusion of fast-paced, diverse consulting work. For example, the company I joined strongly emphasized their commercial consulting experience. During orientation, they showed a film describing the (supposedly) hilarious pitfalls that encumbered a consultant who had to catch a last-minute flight to Switzerland to deliver an important briefing. As you can imagine, I quickly envisioned myself packing up my things at the end of the day and hearing my phone ring. I’d be told to get to the airport immediately and catch the next flight out to some luxurious European city. I would be told that this was an undue but necessary hardship, as I alone possessed the skills and expertise to deliver this critical briefing. I’d show my loyalty by taking a seat in coach to ensure I arrived at the meeting on time. Now the hyperbole is my own but these jokers were laying it on pretty thick. Imagine my surprise when I learned that not only were there no flights to Europe, but reality was in fact the opposite of everything I expected. First, projects were long. In fact, never-ending is the more accurate term. What I failed to realize was that as an employee I might desire short term projects so that work stays fresh, but the business itself wants steady revenue. If a client is willing to pay for years of help, the business will gladly take that contract and try its best to keep winning extensions. Businesses want revenue to be predictable and boring. And go figure that the work itself becomes the same. Second, there wasn’t any travel. Travel is an expense: either the client or the company has to pay for it. The business wants to continually improve profits. Decreasing or eliminating discretionary expenses is a great way to do that. Finally, there was no actual “consulting” work occurring. Everyone worked as augmented staff of the client, performing business functions that the client was either unable or unwilling to staff themselves. As you can imagine, these were generally back office functions, usually performed under the direction of a client project manager. This person was usually the most incompetent person employed by the client in the given area we were working (anyone else with talent or work ethic was too busy doing real work to “supervise” a bunch of contractors). My request is simple. I would like DC consulting companies to start referring to themselves as what they are: contractors. Say it with me: contractors. There, that wasn’t so bad was it? Let’s think about contractors we all know, like landscape maintenance crews or tax accountants. Contractors can come in many forms and price points. As is the case with contract software development, contractors can be extremely expensive. The key distinction isn’t the hourly rate but the perceived work assignments. If I am working as a contractor, I expect to perform specific tasks for a client. I do not expect to be asked my opinion about the overall strategy and direction of the client’s organization. This makes sense. You may have the best tax accountant in the world, but it’s unlikely you would ask her for nutrition or exercise advice. There is nothing wrong with contracting, but it is not for everyone. For young, generalist workers, they may not want the specialization inherent with contracting work. If they are misinformed and believe they will be doing general consulting work when in fact they are headed for specific contracting assignments, there is a good chance they will become disillusioned. I ask that for the sake of the next graduating class DC companies represent themselves accurately. I think this will improve retention and employee morale. And help lower the pompousness of our city just a little bit. consulting is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the family. We are now and happy to opportunities. Hacker Noon @AMI accepting submissions discuss advertising &sponsorship To learn more, , , or simply, read our about page like/message us on Facebook tweet/DM @HackerNoon. If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our and . Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted! latest tech stories trending tech stories

Why I Hate DC “Consulting” Companies

220 Stories To Learn About Ux Design

236 Stories To Learn About Ux

Can you make money from AI? Yes, you can! AI (Artificial Intelligence) came in and swept the world off its ankles. It went from a phenomenon to a tool that most people use to expedite their tasks in today’s world. In doing so, comes opportunity; we’re talking side hustles from the comfort of your home to earn extra funds. How? Let’s get into it. Faceless YouTube Channels Have you ever stumbled across those YouTube channels where the creator remains a mystery, never revealing their face? There’s a good reason some creators might prefer to stay behind the scenes: profitability with minimal effort. Today I’ll let you in on a secret: these faceless channels are racking in tens of thousands of dollars per month in a nearly automated fashion. Brightside is a great example. This channel is banking over $10,000 monthly, excluding the extra cash from sponsorships and more. But they aren’t the only ones. Channels across YouTube are thriving financially with seemingly little work. The kicker? AI now serves as the ultimate sidekick, converting simple text prompts into fully fleshed-out videos ready for upload. That’s right, any individual can initiate a steady stream of what’s referred to as recurring income, an eloquent term for passive income, from almost any corner of the globe with just around $20 and a slice of their time using InvideoAI: Here’s how the magic happens: begin by inputting a text prompt into a facility known as ChatGPT, which then colludes with a tool called InvideoAI. It transforms your prompt into a comprehensive video you can spice up with your personal touch. Be creative with your packaging, which in YouTube speak, is crafting an enticing title and thumbnail. Post your masterpiece, and soon you’ll witness both views and earnings soar. Resume Writing Now this is one that I’m very familiar with because I help people make their resumes all the time! And the thing about resume writing is, it’s not so much about helping you get a job but making sure you don’t lose out on one! So you just need to make sure that it’s decent. There’s a story of a 35-year-old teacher who brought in 2 million from his resume writing side hustle and with the power of AI you can do this much more quickly. Now there are a ton of different AI resume websites out there in my opinion, the best one is going to be Rezi AI. Rezi AI is great and you can also combine it with Anakin AI’s plethora of AI writing tools just to make things a little bit better. Now typically, it’s not going to perfectly write anyone’s resume right off the bat, but it’ll get about 80% of it right? And then you go in and you fix things using Anakin AI and your brain. Now I’m going to be honest with you, again, like many other types of freelancing or making money online, it’s going to be best if you specialize; not only will it be best for you, but it’ll also be best for the client. So, you want to pick a particular type of career to write resumes and you want to familiarize yourself with that career and that industry. Overall, I think Resume Writing is a phenomenal opportunity. I’ve known people who’ve started seven-figure businesses in certain places like finance or management consulting, and it was all from writing resumes. So I’m gonna give this one an eight out of 10 opportunity score. I’ve met people who have started seven-figure businesses in certain places like finance or management consulting, and it was all from writing resumes. Creating Stock Images AI is getting so good that it’s almost indistinguishable from real-life images. And so, what you want to do as someone who creates AI-generated images, you want to see what type of images people are often searching for, and then see what types of images are already offered on these different platforms. For instance, Adobe Stock does allow AI-generated images on their platform. So, if you know the supply and you know the demand, then you’re going to be able to see that there are certain gaps in the market and that’s where you want to go ahead and fill those gaps by making a bunch of AI-generated images and on Adobe Stock, you’ll get up to 33% royalties. So, let’s say you sell an image for $1, you will get 33 cents out of that, and that probably doesn’t sound like much but if you think about the fact that you create an image one time and then it earns you royalties for the rest of your life, that can add up over time. So, each time you create an image and put it on a website like that, it’s almost like a little worker that’s out there making money for you 24/7. Creating AI Clothing Models There’s an artwork that was created using AI. Everyone knows that it was created using AI and has sold for $432,000 at an auction. Imagine that! A portrait by an AI program! There’s a lot of money, a lot of opportunities out there for this type of side hustle and it’s called AI Clothing Models. Clothing brands often need photos of models wearing their products. If you think I’m going to tell you to pull out a camera or unleash your inner Zoolander, no. With Al, there’s no need because you’ve got an entire army of models at your fingertips. With the Capcut for Business Al model tool, you can upload a photo of a piece of clothing and choose a model. Click, generate, and in seconds Al will ply your clothing onto the model. It is magic. You can offer the service on Fiver or directly to small clothing brands. Typically, a photo shoot with a model can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Realistically, will people pay the same amount for Al models versus real models? Probably not. Will they pay $20, $50, $100 maybe? I would guess most clients have a limited budget, so you’ll earn less, but with volume, the work could be worthwhile. Conclusion Now we have so many ideas for AI side hustles. To build the perfect AI side hustle project, you’re gonna need the perfect AI Tools. So keep on exploring!

4 AI Side Hustles in 2024: Earn Big from Home

242 Stories To Learn About Ml

280 Stories To Learn About Future Of Ai

Let me tell you a tale about an SEO expert who decided to dip his toes into the world of digital product development. It’s a journey filled with highs, lows, hopes, and failures that any startup entrepreneur faces. It’s about overcoming insurmountable odds, venturing into uncharted territories, trying new things, and finding solutions in tough situations. I’ve been in the SEO game since 2006, creating websites and earning from Google AdSense, affiliate programs, and contextual advertising. But in 2014, I thought it was time to step up my game. I ventured into selling heavy machinery, earning a commission on each sale. The plan was simple: build websites, promote them, set up ads, and send leads to the supplier. Unfortunately, a crisis hit, and sales plummeted to zero despite hundreds of leads. I funded everything myself, which meant my savings took a serious hit. At the time, I was living in Thailand, and I had to move into a $250-a-month bungalow. I was in a deep depression, barely sleeping, but that’s a story for another day. The SEO Breakup So there I was, completely disillusioned with SEO and working with external partners. The main issue: My lack of influence over the processes, not to mention a glaring absence of understanding in sales and market dynamics. I won’t lie, I was bitter. Bitter about my partners, the economic crisis, and the world at large. I had put in the effort, and achieved tangible results — better rankings, more traffic, increased inquiries — but what did I get in return? Zero income, all expenses. But of course, everyone needs to make a living, right? So, I went full throttle into freelancing, taking on anything and everything from SEO services to designing business cards. In eight months, I managed to scrape together $12,000, mainly from freelancing and some residual income from past projects. At that point, I expected to have about $8,000 in disposable income over the next six months. So, doing the math, I figured I had a neat $20,000 in the bank. It was time to find my niche. After some online research, I stumbled upon ThemeForest — a marketplace that sells website templates, WordPress themes, plugins, you name it. One theme caught my eye: 20,000 sales at $49 each. That’s a cool 100 grand! And there were many more like it on the marketplace. Back then, I wasn’t into deep market analysis; I didn’t think of consulting with ten guys in the field or writing to them via their marketplace profiles. Nope, I just plunged in headfirst, guns blazing. I decided to start a company and hire a team, confident of my success. What did I know about failure, right? The Team I thought I’d churn out a couple of products simultaneously, dedicating 1-2 months per product. So, I decided to hire a team right away. Up until that point I’d been a loner, doing everything myself and thought it was simple. But then I hired: Two designers – I got lucky with one. She turned out to be a gem and pretty much saved the project. Two front-end developers – both turned out to be underwhelming (or maybe the marketplace standards were just too high). A programmer – I went through four of them in just six months. One even had a drinking problem. And then there was me – a jack-of-all-trades. What were my skills? A bit of design, fairly strong front-end development skills, a strong work ethic, and discipline. Coding, however, was my Achilles’ heel. Sure, I could use ‘echo’ to output stuff and I was quick at finding code snippets, but overall, you could call me a script kiddie. Planning There was no real plan, just dollar signs in my eyes and an Excel sheet filled with ambitious numbers. I thought it’d be easy. After all, I’d seen plenty of businesses for whom I’d built websites and improved Google rankings. In short: I was a noob leading a team of noobs, with a designer as our only hope. The Results Let’s skip the gory details of this failure, all you need to know is that my team was floundering. I couldn’t train them properly, and I was clueless about the importance of training and detailed technical briefs. So, naturally, the team dwindled month by month, and the money was running dry. In the first month, our star designer created a stunning design for an SEO agency template. I loved it and decided to make it our first template. It was a lucky break since I was an SEO guy myself, squarely in the template’s target audience. I spent 14 hours a day coding the design. It took a whopping 210 hours to complete the HTML coding — a number I’ll never forget. And then came a big surprise: the HTML coding was useless! When we started creating the WordPress theme, we discovered that we needed to build pages on a page builder, as that’s what customers preferred. Talk about a curveball! By the end of the second month, the team was down to just me, the programmer, and the designer. We were grinding away at the WordPress template, while the designer was crafting designs for future templates. We spent about $12,000 in the first three months. Our money was dwindling, but there was still a ton of work left to do on the theme. Another two months flew by before we finally had a finished product at the end of the fifth month. It was a real gamble — no accounting records, just playing it by ear. The marketplace doesn’t just accept any product — they meticulously check for code quality, security, and design quality. It took about 20 days to get the first response from the moderator. As you can guess, there were loads of errors. We’d get a rejection with 5-10 issues, fix them, and resubmit for review. Each review took about 3 days. It was a never-ending cycle. A Young Startup’s Search for Shelter Thankfully, I had made some friends in Thailand, including a neighbor who was opening a fitness studio. She had rented a large house for a bunch of trainers — at times, five to nine trainers were living there simultaneously. Eventually, I asked if I could stay with them since I was down to my last $2,000. She put me up in the trainers’ house, but all the rooms were occupied, so I ended up sleeping on a mattress in the 12-square-meter hallway, right by the door. Don’t worry, no one stepped on me. It was quite a sight — me living like a cat on a mat at the entrance. I stayed with the trainers for about a month. Then, an opportunity came up — some friends were going snowboarding for a month and asked me to house-sit and watch their cat in exchange for free accommodation. Their apartment was located beneath a villa and was 70 square meters; it was filled with nice decor and a huge 1.5-meter TV. It was a culture shock for me — my living situation had drastically improved from a cat mat to “under-the-villa” luxury. But the continuous marketplace rejections were soul-crushing. I was living like a zombie — checking my phone in the morning for moderator emails, eating, and then heading to the beach to swim or walk. It was the only way to keep sane. The rejections kept piling up – 18 in total, each with 6 to 20 issues that needed fixing. It usually took 1-2 days to address these issues, followed by another 3-4 days of anxious waiting. I had no idea how many more errors they could possibly find. I felt like Sisyphus. The original plan was to create several templates, but the reality was grim: $20,000 had gone down the drain I was in a deep funk from nearly three months of constant rejections My life was as uncertain as a cat’s When Will This End? One morning, I woke up and lazily checked my notifications. I saw a message from the marketplace, but this time it didn’t start with the usual “Unfortunately, your…”. Instead, it read, “Congratulations! Your…”. I was so disillusioned by then that I just went through my morning routine mechanically. I finally got to my computer, opened the product page, and there it was – my first sale for $59. Of course, the marketplace took a 50% commission. ThemeForest has a progressive commission system – they start by taking 50% and then gradually reduce it to 30% as your sales volume increases. To reach that 30% threshold, I’d have to rack up sales of $75,000. I felt nothing seeing that first sale, so I just went to have breakfast. After some time lost on YouTube, I returned to my computer to find four sales. That’s when it hit me – I was running around the house, jumping, and yelling for joy. With these sales dynamics, I thought this was it – success! In the first month, I made $8,750, half of which went to the marketplace. I also knew that soon my template would drop from the first page of the marketplace, and sales would decline. Carefully observing other themes, I noticed that sales usually halve in the second month and stabilize thereabouts. But there was a glimmer of hope, a path to my fortune! The math was simple: over $2,000 a month from one product. Create 10 products, and that’s an easy $20,000 per month. The Setback Exhausted and craving a break, my friends and I took off to Bali for a month-long getaway. However, the fear of tarnishing my reputation and receiving negative reviews on the marketplace haunted me. So, every couple of hours, I found myself checking the support panel, and assisting clients religiously. Upon returning, I quickly created a second website template, this time for lawyers. It took about a month and passed moderation swiftly, but it was a sales disaster, barely making $200 a month. I thought it was just bad luck. After all, many templates were selling well in the market. Plus, my designer had accumulated 10 designs by then. So, I decided to hire more people. I borrowed $19,000 from a friend, agreeing to pay back $27,000 over two years with progressive monthly payments. This second attempt was slightly better. I hired: 3 front-end developers A new programmer The plan was to work on four templates simultaneously. I taught the team a bit and even did the front-end work for the fourth template. But trying to be both a manager and a front-end developer was a mistake. I was slow to respond to the team’s questions because it’s hard to constantly switch between tasks. As a result, both the team’s and my productivity suffered. We started in May but only managed to launch the first two templates in September. Honestly, I could have done 3-4 templates by myself over the summer. My main issue: I hate repetitive work. The first three templates were fine, but after that, it felt too routine. The fourth and last template was only accepted in the market right before the New Year. It was an epic journey. But sales were far worse than the first product, and I didn’t see any significant income growth. Moreover, I was repaying the loan throughout the second half of 2016 and all of 2017. Having to pay salaries and hoping to earn something for myself was a mental burden. You can see the 2016 earnings in the screenshot. There was growth from September, but I had the loan to pay off. And so, as you can imagine, I had to let go of my employees. 2017 was all about paying off debts. A New Chapter In 2017, I took a step back and tried to update unsold templates with second or third designs, but it didn’t help. I experimented with various types of advertising – AdWords, social media, blogs – but when you only make $40 clean per sale, it’s hard to turn a profit. Traffic in the US and English-speaking countries is too expensive. For half the year, I struggled to boost sales, then spent the latter half cheaply traveling around Asia, waiting for my debt to be paid off. There’s always a dip in December, but a spike in demand in January. In 2018, I decided to create another template for a proven niche – SEO agencies. It was a long and tedious process; I incorporated 20 designs, but it didn’t change the game. However, it did sell better than my other templates that were geared toward lawyers or fitness. A good designer was hard to find, so I ended up doing most of the designs myself. There was an initial surge in sales upon release in late spring but then became stagnant again. Eventually, I surrendered to working just two hours a day. I dabbled in various partnerships, and freelance work, and even tried launching my own WordPress site-building course. In 2019, I was all over the place – experimenting with partnerships and trying to get SEO clients. Nothing serious came out of it, although I have maintained one partnership, which is still evolving. Maybe It’ll Work After All? I don’t remember what inspired me, but at some point, I came up with a system for a conveyor belt-style template creation. I detailed it on paper and decided to seek investment. Winter was approaching. For over a month, I banged the drum – applying to startup incubators and talking to old clients I’d done SEO work for, as some had offered investments back in 2010. Eventually, two investors gave me $35,000. I packed my bags and flew to Thailand. I put together a new team: 2 average designers – should have hired one expensive one instead 3 front-end developers This time, I recorded hourly videos for the team daily, reviewing their work, pointing out mistakes, and giving recommendations like a caring grandfather. And you know what? It worked – we saw relatively fast results. However, the marketplace had significantly raised its design standards, and our templates were repeatedly rejected. Not with constructive feedback, but bluntly labeled “trash”. The challenge became consulting with top-notch designers to figure out what was wrong. I started getting pretty good at design myself, noticing even a 1-pixel misalignment. After six months, I got lucky and found a strong art director. He corrected all of our mistakes, and our first few templates were accepted. He raised our design quality immensely. During our best months, we were releasing five templates to the market, while the total market release was around 80-90 templates a month. I dreamt of capturing a market share and dominating the marketplace. But still, sales were challenging. However, with our design quality improving, I remained hopeful. COVID helped our sales. After three weeks of lockdown, it seemed everyone was launching online businesses and in need of website templates. We created 17 accepted products that year and had about 5 rejections. At the peak, we were making $6,500 a month, plus custom work through the support service, which totaled up to $7,500. But that was the peak. Our sales stopped growing, even with new products. This barely covered salaries for seven people, plus operational expenses. Though, I was drawing a decent salary and eating well. I decided to sell the project through Empire Flippers, without the team. This is the last screenshot I could find. I remember the figure being around $320,000 in sales, but apparently, I didn’t take a screenshot of that. The Exit I applied to Empire Flippers, filled out the P&L, and underwent an assessment. Along with the project, I promised to find someone to handle support and update the themes for $300 a month part-time, reducing costs. I received a maximum valuation of $210,000. Everything seemed set, but then I hit a roadblock – ThemeForest’s Terms of Service prohibited account sales! They informed me of this restriction, and the six-figure income from the sale slipped through my fingers. For six weeks, I corresponded with them, resorting to threats, pleas, blackmail, and every tactic under the sun to get permission to sell the account: Claimed discrimination Said I needed to pay off my mortgage or I’d be homeless Argued it was unfair they were appropriating my intellectual labor Pleaded that I needed the money for my family Promised to create a new account and upload new templates there I don’t know which argument worked, but they allowed it! Though they emphasized it was a “one-time exception”. Once I got the green light, Empire Flippers listed my lot. Silence reigned for nearly a month, then a potential buyer scheduled a video conference with me. He was a well-known figure in the Affiliate circles. We had a great chat, and an hour after the conference, the Empire manager called to say the buyer was interested. I was thrilled until the manager mentioned the buyer wanted to drop the valuation from $210,000 to $150,000. I was initially speechless with indignation, but then I remembered how in an American docu-series on Discovery Channel, people haggle. They start low, then gradually meet in the middle. I played the game and told them that anything less than $190,000 made no sense for me. The manager relayed this to the buyer, and we eventually settled on $180,000, which was beyond my expectations. I popped open champagne! Just like that, without flinching or giving in, I made an extra $30,000, though I could have easily caved to the buyer’s initial offer. The Real Earnings Success stories usually boast huge sums, but let me show you the real economics: Of the $300,000 on the screenshot, $108,564 went to marketplace commission and taxes. The remaining amount of under $200,000 covered salaries and the first loan. Of the $180,000 from the project sale, a large chunk went to Empire Flippers commission (15%), investor shares (7%), and employee bonuses (15%). In the end, I barely had enough to buy an apartment in the early construction stage, even having to borrow a bit from my sister. That was the outcome of five years. I paid myself a salary of about $2,000-$2,500 monthly and got a bonus from the project’s sale. Back to SEO After my stint as a product manager, I realized I didn’t want to deal with immeasurable data like design, which can’t be quantified or compared. So, I returned to my first love: SEO and data analytics. Together with a partner, I founded . We specialize in auctioning domains and PBN building services for SEO in highly competitive niches. MonsterPBN I dove back into SEO analytics, while my partner, a senior developer, automated processes, parsed, and processed large volumes of domains, from which we picked the best for reasonable prices. We promote both our and our clients’ projects in the US and European markets. If you need powerful domains or a turnkey PBN, come to us, and we’ll deliver quality as if it’s for ourselves. Lessons Learned What lessons did I take away? I learned to focus on quality, paying attention to every line and pixel. Management is a job in itself and should be done meticulously, not mixed with technical tasks. Devoting time to employee training and creating videos and protocols is essential for clarity and smooth processes. Investments are easier to find through connections than by applying to places like Y-Combinator, where there’s a half-year queue and often no response. Hiring employees who are genuinely interested in solving your problems is crucial for efficiency and aligned goals. Selling something with a 35-month ROI is like freeing yourself from business troubles for the next three years. It changes your life significantly. It’s crucial to seek qualified experts for advice right away. It will save you years and tens of thousands of dollars. It’s better to hire one expensive expert for a key position than two mid-level employees who need continuous training. You can’t achieve something big without top-notch specialists and employees. Never give up, even when you’re told something is impossible, or when faced with constant rejections. But then again, maybe quitting earlier would have been more profitable elsewhere. Now, what valuable lessons did you pick up from this story?

How I Made $480,000 Through Web Development and Returned to SEO

কিভাবে আমি ওয়েব ডেভেলপমেন্টের মাধ্যমে $480,000 তৈরি করেছি এবং SEO-তে ফিরে এসেছি

Wie ich durch Webentwicklung 480.000 US-Dollar verdiente und zu SEO zurückkehrte

Cómo gané $480,000 a través del desarrollo web y volví al SEO

Comment j'ai gagné 480 000 $ grâce au développement Web et je suis revenu au référencement

मैंने वेब विकास के माध्यम से $480,000 कैसे कमाए और एसईओ पर वापस लौट आया

私がウェブ開発で 48 万ドルを稼ぎ、SEO に戻った方法

웹 개발을 통해 $480,000를 벌고 SEO로 복귀한 방법

Como ganhei $ 480.000 com desenvolvimento web e voltei para SEO

Как я заработал 480 000 долларов на веб-разработке и вернулся в SEO

Web Geliştirme Yoluyla Nasıl 480.000 Dolar Kazandım ve SEO'ya Nasıl Döndüm?

Tôi đã kiếm được 480.000 đô la thông qua phát triển web như thế nào và quay trở lại SEO

我如何通过 Web 开发赚取 480,000 美元并重返 SEO

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BUNCH CONSULTING

bunch.consulting

-- employees

Since n.d.

COMPANY RANKING

BUNCH CONSULTING

EVERGREEN INDEX #2408

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT BUNCH CONSULTING

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