SEO’s alive, buying from our customers, and the importance of a brand

Excited to welcome over 9,000 subscribers in today’s newsletter issue – thank you for supporting the Growth Blueprint and continuously reaching out with feedback, ideas, and industry insights 💚

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

1. SEO is in really high demand once again
2. A conscious support for our own clients 
3. Surprising turn of events I hadn’t predicted 6 months back
4. Brand building is a philosophy

1. 4 SEO deals this month

The renowned interest in SEO this summer is surprisingly high.

At DevriX, we signed 4 SEO contracts over the past 40 days with ongoing clients investing heavily back into organic search.

As we approach September, lead generation in the last months of the year takes precedence – i.e. business as usual. But SEO hasn’t been a high priority for most businesses earlier this year due to ChatGPT and other AI bots.

What happened since is:

1. ChatGPT’s interest dropped over 40% since April
2. Other bots like Bard or Elon’s X.ai diluted the space a bit
3. Many publishers (and regulators) trying to prevent AI crawlers from scraping their content
4. Users getting tired of the hype or failing to find what they seek in bot archives
5. More recent data coming in 2023 is not yet indexed by bots – therefore the latest and greatest is still in Google’s SERP

I’m interested to see how Google’s organic traffic will evolve in the coming months – but so far demand is as strong as last Q4. 

2. Supporting our troops (i.e. stores)

Our Shopify app Rush supports over 2,700 stores. 

While we’ve built a $100,000 funnel that encompasses press releases, interviews with clients, paid ads, link exchange, content reviews, and other amplification efforts for our brands…

I made a conscious effort to support them personally.

Making 2 orders from two separate stores this week and recommending the best products I got. 

I’ll be categorizing the stores by category – and funnel more purchases (personal, business, gifts, office equipment) to our stores as a result.

This is how you build a community.

3. Missed predictions in 2023

I’ve made many breakthrough predictions over the past decade that carried me through the years – picking niches, successful growing platforms, stocks, angel investments, partnerships.

And I’ve made some poor choices along the way: failing to diversify, not doubling down on successful channels, missing out on great business opportunities, failing to recognize signals or not pulling out of poor deals on time.

I pulled a list of the top 10 surprises I hadn’t thought of 6 months ago. Here’s the long tweet that sums up the hypothesis.

Following the positive feedback from my followers, I marked my calendar 6 months forward – and we’ll see what I didn’t predict in the future! This newsletter will serve as a weekly reminder of what I’m tracking in terms of opportunities (and a way to retroactively see what I’ve missed).

There are tons of fads and hypes out there – the boom of the crypto world, NFTs, the AI wave now, previously voice search, the metaverse, and plenty of trends one could pick and double down on. I don’t regret any of them (probably apart from buying Bitcoin back when it traded for a dollar), but it doesn’t mean we can’t utilize and leverage similar peaks better.

4. Dropshippers should build brands

I speak with dropshippers almost every other day – and the fear of competitors stealing successful products ranks the highest on their “keep me up at night” lists.

This concept is flawed for various reasons – primarily due to the complex flow of building a store, sourcing, negotiations, great media buying approaches, nurturing the right audience in your pixel, conversion events, remarketing, abandoned carts, you name it. And I covered that in a longer Twitter thread.

You can easily find the top 3 most successful dropshippers, steal their products, try to run the same TikTok or Meta ads. There’s a 99.99999999999% chance you’ll fail to replicate.

Brand building, however, carries a lot of long-term value. Audience building, community nurturing, raising “superfans”. That’s what really differentiates titan brands from smaller, indie stores.

No matter where you stand on the “brand” matter – I want to hear from you. Hit “Reply” and let me know why you signed up here and what you want to achieve over the course of 2023.

Networking is the strongest weapon in our arsenal. Use it wisely.

Yours,
Mario

✍️ Business outreach Mistakes –  I founded DevriX over 12 years ago, and probably received tens of thousands of pitches during this time. What often solidifies my decision to ignore certain outreaches are inappropriate messages that throw conversations off and impact the brand’s perception. Have a look at this week’s deck for some of them.

✍️ Rush App Success Stories –  Brands like Combat Iron Apparel have generated $140,000 in revenue through Rush.app’s post-purchase automation. That’s a 50x return! 
Our success story got picked up by media like MarketWatch, Benzinga, CIO Influence, and AIThority! See how we utilize automated shipping notifications and personalized order tracking pages with upsell opportunities, resulting in significant revenue growth for companies like these.

✍️ Starting US LLC with no residency –  Non-US entrepreneurs often inquire about the feasibility of establishing a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the United States. The answer to the question, “Can a non-US citizen start an LLC?”, is a resounding “yes!”

📄The AI race – Amazon is designing custom chips called Inferentia and Trainium as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs for training large language models. Despite being a leader in cloud computing, Amazon is playing catch-up in the generative AI market, with competitors like Microsoft and Google investing more heavily in this space.

📄China cuts interest rate, stops youth unemployment reports – Chinese officials have decided to stop reporting the country’s youth unemployment rate, adding to their efforts to restrict access to economic data, while China’s central bank has cut interest rates in an emergency move to boost growth as the economy continues to weaken. These developments, along with disappointing retail sales, industrial production, and property sector performance, indicate the struggles China faces in its attempts to revive its economy amid domestic and international challenges.

📄No more Enhanced CPC on Google Ads – Starting in October, Google Ads will no longer use Enhanced cost-per-click (eCPC) in Shopping campaigns, with these campaigns behaving as though they are using Manual CPC bidding instead. Google recommends trying target ROAS experiments or Performance Max campaigns as alternatives, but if no action is taken, campaigns will continue using Manual CPC bidding.

📄ChatGPT and bankruptcy – OpenAI spends $700,000 per day on running ChatGPT, with Microsoft and other investors covering the costs. However, if OpenAI doesn’t turn a profit soon, it could go bankrupt by the end of 2024, and the shrinking user visits to the ChatGPT website and competition from open-source models pose additional challenges.

📄Apple is 51% of Buffett’s portfolio now – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made a substantial investment of $800 million in three major US homebuilders, indicating a bet on the US housing market. They also sold positions in General Motors, Global Life, Activision Blizzard, Chevron, and Celanese, while their top holdings remain Apple, Bank of America, and American Express.

📈 Fund managers are the least bearish in more than a year, says Bank of America, wiping out a buy signal.

• Bank of America’s August global fund manager survey,
• polled money managers say they are the least bearish on markets since February 2022,
• their cash levels dropping from 5.3% to a 21-month low of 4.8%
• cash levels of under 5% mean the end of Bank of America’s contrarian buy signal, notes a team led by strategist Michael Hartnett.

Take note that a “sell” signal for assets is triggered when that cash level drops to 4%, so watch this space, and perhaps next month’s survey.

• S&P: 4,437 (-1.16%)

📈 Mortgage rates have increased for various types of loans, including 30-year fixed, 15-year fixed, 5/1 ARMs, and jumbo loans. The Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation is nearing its end, and economists predict that mortgage rates will decrease once the central bank signals the end of its rate-raising cycle.30-year mortgage rate: 7.51% (+0.09%)15-year mortgage rate: 6.72% (+0.09%)

📈 The New York Fed released its latest consumer survey on Monday. Let’s have a look at the results:Expectations for one-year ahead inflation fell for the 4th straight month (to 3.5% from 3.8%) to the lowest since April 2021.Short-term price growth expectations for gas, food, medical care, and rent are all at their lowest since late 2020/early 2021.The outlook for longer-term inflation also improved marginally, falling to 2.9% from 3% on both 3- and 5-year time horizons.the highest share of respondents expect to be better off a year from now since September 2021.

📰 This week we see governments tackle both the problems of nature and men. Whether that be Colorado water shortages, the Maui wildfires, or the ever-present discussion on gun control in the US. 

• Feds will ease water restrictions on the Colorado River after huge winter snow, but officials warn there’s still a shortage due to long-term drought
• FEMA estimates the cost to rebuild from the Lahaina fire will be around $5.52 billion. All three Maui wildfires are still active.
• Illinois state Supreme Court allows a ban on assault-style weapons to remain in place following months of legal challenges

Welcome back to my weekly selection of Seedblink’s investment opportunities. Let’s have a look:

• Swapp – to raise €2.35M to grow its flexible car subscription services in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. 

• Finqware – is securing €3M to automate European corporate financial operations fully.
• Weavy – is raising €2.7M to empower 94M developers worldwide in a $ 8B market.

Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.

Are you in Eastern Europe this September? Join me and other entrepreneurs in the first-ever Flippa meetup in Sofia, where we’ll be discussing selling an online business, acquiring, or simply what Flippa is all about. Pack your bags, it’s worth it. Have a look: 

• Highly Automated Fitness Blog – This 11-year-old content site offers articles, resources and tips for wellness and fitness. It is monetized through trategic ads, and offers a profit margin of 95%, strong organic traffic from the US, and 3.9K email subscribers.
  • Monthly Profit: $23.3K
  • Annual Revenue: $295K
  • Authority Score: 31
  Body Massager Ecom Store – A three-year-old business selling massage guns and other health products, with an annual revenue of $958K. With strong supplier relationships, an average 5-star product rating, and over 90K email subscribers.
  • Monthly Profit: $18.2K
  • Average Order Value: $82
  • Return Customer Rate: 9.5%
• Gaming Forum – An online community platform that caters to the diverse needs of gaming enthusiasts, primarily focused on multiplayer online games. With 13.8M yearly views, 92% organic and direct traffic and over 126M backlinks.
  • Monthly Profit: $7.8K
  • Monthly Page Views: 1.1M
  • Authority Score: 40

I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:

🌐 Scalable and secure WordPress? DevriX provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.

🛒 Running on Shopify? Set up Rush now and increase your revenue with post-purchase orders automatically!

🚀 Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $350/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.

👥 Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book. 

💼  Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.

💡 Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton.  And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!