2018 is gonna be an interesting year.

2018 會是很有趣的一年。

I started doing analysis on how much money we're spending to generate the traffic.

我開始分析我們花了少錢來產生流量。

And here's what's crazy, most people don't realize this.

誇張的地方是，多數人沒有注意到這件事。

We generate, let's say a million visitors a month on Neil Patel.

舉例來說，我們一個月有一百萬個 Neil Patel 的瀏覽者。

Do you know what the cost to get there is?

你知道要花多少錢才能達成嗎？

If you had to take a guess, with video, production, podcasting, blogging, promotion, ads, link building, okay.

你猜猜看，包括：影片、生產、推播、部落格、推廣、廣告、建立連結，這些。

I'm not sitting there building the links, like, someone's manually doing outreach.

我不可能一建立好那些連結，然後就會有人主動去推廣它們。

All the social media promotion, what do you think the cost is?

你覺得所有的社群網站宣傳要花多少錢？

I'm gonna say 100,000 a month.

我猜一個月十萬。

Yeah, it's close.

對，非常相近。

It's a bit more than that.

比十萬多一點。

It's a bit more than 110.

大概比十一萬多一些。

That's what it averaged out to for 2017.

2017 年平均花了這麼多錢。

And I was looking at this, and you spend the money, there's no guarantee that you're gonna get the traffic.

我看著這些數據，花了錢，也不保證能夠得到這些流量。

So our strategy for 2018, we just finished up one deal right now.

至於 2018 的策略，我們剛完成一筆交易。

It cost us a half a million bucks.

那花了我們五十萬。

I'm not gonna say the name of the blog.

我不會公佈那個部落格的名字。

In which we bought a blog in the marketing space for a half a million bucks.

那個我們花了五十萬買部落格的行銷空間。

They already get a million visitors a month and I'm like wait, wait, wait,

他們一個月已經達到一百萬訪客，我心想：「等一下...」。

It's cheaper to just spend money acquire people who already have the traffic.

花錢在已經有流量的人會比較便宜。

So in 2017 we bought Uber Suggest.

所以在 2017 年我們買了推薦網域關鍵字的工具，Uber Suggest。

I think it was like 110, 120, or 140 grand.

我想那大概十一萬、十二萬或十四萬。

I don't know what we paid.

我不知道確切我們付了多少錢。

It was something like that.

大概是這麼多。

I also did experiment with marketing program because they had a lot of back links.

我也實驗了不同的行銷方案，因為他們有很多反向連結。

I spent a hundred grand on that domain name.

我花了十萬塊買下那個網域名稱。

He barely had any traffic.

他的流量很少。

At one point he's like oh, I got a hundred thousand visitors a month.

他一度有達到一個月十萬個訪客。

I'm like, all right, whatever.

我心想：「好吧，隨便。」

So I wired him a hundred grand.

所以我把十萬匯給他了。

I 301 redirected the site, traffic increased.

我重新定向網域名稱，流量增加了。

Guess what happened?

猜猜發生什麼事？

Nothing.

什麼都沒發生。

I hoped that my traffic would go through the roof, but nothing really happened.

我希望我的流量可以直逼天際，但什麼都沒發生。

The Uber Suggest was a good acquisition and what I ended up learning from that is, who cares about links?

推薦網域關鍵字的工具讓我學到了一件事：沒有人在乎連結。

Don't buy anything for the links.

別花錢買連結。

Buy it purely based off of traffic.

完全根據流量去做購買。

And just pay a simple metric.

利用簡單的指標去付費。

So like, if someone Uber Suggest has roughly 200,000 visitors per month, I paid a hundred and something.

所以，如果有人的推薦網域名稱一個月有二十萬訪客，我付十萬多塊。

I would have paid 200 grand, the money didn't really matter.

甚至我會付二十萬，錢不是問題。

For the blog that I just spent half a million on, their traffic ranges on a really bad month, they'll get around 800,000 uniques.

我花了五十萬去買的部落格，他的流量在差的情況下，可以達到八十萬訪客。

On a really good month they'll get around, like, 1.2, 1.3 million uniques.

好的情況下，可以達到大概一百二十萬、一百三十萬。

And all I'm doing right now is I'm just buying as many blogs as possible.

現在我正在做的就是盡可能的買部落格。

I reach out to Search Engine Watch, which is another industry blog.

我對搜尋引擎觀察工具下手，它也是一個商業部落格。

They do jack shit with their site and it's just crap content.

他們的網站做提升的功能，內容很糟糕。

I tried buying them.

我試著買他們。

They ignored me.

他們忽略我。

They're owned by a private equity company.

他們屬於一個私人股本公司。

I had other people hit them up.

我請別人來聯絡他們。

Because if I hit them up, most people try charging me more.

因為如果由我聯絡他們，他們就會試著收更高的費用。

And I would have been willing to spend like 2 million bucks.

我願意花大概兩百萬元。

I hit up the Search Engine Journal guys from 2016 to the end of 2017.

2016 年至 2017 年尾，我聯絡了搜尋引擎觀察工具的人。

(I) Tried working out a deal.

(我) 試著談定這份交易。

The numbers just didn't pan out for me.

但最後我對價格不太滿意。

But, yeah, in general my marketing strategy for 2018 is purely just buy based off of traffic.

不過，是的，大致上我 2018 年的行銷策略就是根據流量去做購買。

And I look at the top posts that they have and how qualified their visitors are.

我會看他們排名前面的貼文和他們的訪客的切合程度。

And be like, all right, can I monetize this or can I not monetize this?

然後想著：「我能或不能用這個賺錢？」

I didn't even care if they have revenue.

我甚至不在乎他們有收益。

If they don't have revenue, even better.

假如他們沒有收益，那更好。

Like Search Engine Journal, the problem with them is, they have conferences, they have advertising, they have contracts for a lot of this stuff.

像搜尋引擎觀察工具，他們的問題是，他們有協商會、廣告、合約，這種東西。

I don't care for any of that.

我不在乎這一切。

I just want the traffic.

我只要流量。

So when you buy all these people for traffic and then you put it into your monetization flow, you can easily figure out, all right, what is this worth?

所以當你為了流量買了這些人來賺錢，你就可以輕鬆計算這些值多少錢。

Can I end up making my money back in a year, or three months, six months, two years?

我可以在一年、三個月、六個月或兩年賺回我的錢嗎？

Typically, if I can't make my money back in less than 12 months, I will not buy it.

通常如果我沒辦法在十二個月內賺回我的錢，我就不會買。

The other strategy that I use when I'm buying out these sites, I'm looking for the people who haven't monetized well.

另一個策略是，當我在買這些網站時，我會找沒有賺很多的人。

So the blog that I ended up buying for half a million bucks, they're not even making three grand a month.

這樣我最後用五十萬買的部落格，他們一個月甚至賺不到三千元。

If you're not even making three grand a month, that's a good deal, right?

如果一個月沒有賺到三千元，這筆交易就顯得很划算對吧？

They're like, you're gonna give me half a million dollars for this?

他們說：「你要給我們五十萬買這個？」

I'm like, yeah, yeah, no problem.

我說：「對啊，對啊，沒問題。」

I'm like, here's the legal work, boom, sign it.

「這是法律文件，碰！簽名。」

I'll wire it the next day, and I don't care.

我隔天匯錢，我不在乎。

But I'm getting really creative with acquisitions.

我開始很有創意的進行收購。

And if you don't even have the cash, another creative thing that I'm doing right now, I'm trying to buy a really popular marketing tool.

如果你沒有現金，另一個我在做的有創意的事情是，我試著買一個很夯的行銷工具。

And I don't want to pay them all the money that they want 'cause they want well into the millions.

可我不想付他們要的全額，因為他們要價數百萬元。

I'm like ah, this isn't worth it.

我說：「啊，這不值得。」

But, I'm trying to work out a deal where I give them X amount of money up front.

但我試著跟他們談，我先付他們一定金額。

Let's say like a million bucks, and then give them like a hundred thousand a month over X amount of times or a hundred thousand a year over X amount of times or a hundred thousand a year over X amount of times.

假如說一百萬元，之後一個月給他們十萬直到時間 X ，或一年給他們十萬直到時間 X 。

And I learned that strategy from my buddy Edward.

這是我從我的夥伴愛德華學到的策略。

He would acquire mortgage companies, and when you see inefficiencies in their site you'd be like, oh I can double the revenue 'cause they didn't optimize for traffic or conversions.

他會收購抵押貸款公司，當你看見他的網站的無效率時，你就可以想：「我的可以轉雙倍收入，因為他們不會為了流量去優化或轉換。」

So you buy it for what it's worth.

所以他值多少你就花多少錢買。

You optimize it, and then you use the profits to continually pay them out.

你優化他，然後用賺的錢繼續去付錢。

So then that way you're not using all of your money and the business is paying the amount.

這樣的話，你就不會用掉你所有的錢，你的企業能負擔所有的金額。

And sure you may have spent a bit more money, but personally, you don't have to spend as much money.

的確你可能會多花一點錢，但就我來說，到頭來付出的金額會比較少。

And that's my marketing strategy for 2018.

這就是我 2018 年的行銷手法。

My goal is to spend at least 5 million bucks this year just acquiring businesses purely based on their traffic.

我的目標是今年至少花五百萬依流量去收購企業。