What if I told you there was a way you can build an online business using Google Maps? Well, there is….
In this post, I’m going to show you how to make money with Google maps, and why I believe this is the perfect work from home job opportunity.
I am going to lay it all out step by step, but remember, everything worth having requires effort, so if that doesn’t scare you. If you want to make money from home badly enough, and you can commit to yourself then read the entire post…
Or alternatively, watch the video below.
Can I Really Make Money With Google Maps?
I am about to show you 3 legit strategies that demonstrate how to make money with google maps and build a solid work from home business. All you need is a laptop and the ability to help people.
This is a strategy that many people have adopted, and I am going to break it down into steps.
You will learn 3 different strategies to earn money, including a way of opening the door to potential customers.
Before we start, it’s important to point out that this isn’t a scam, or a get rich quick scheme. I will only ever give you legit opportunities that take effort and sometimes a little push of your comfort zone.
If you are up for that challenge, keep reading.
The Proven Strategy
So it’s 2020, the craziest year I’ve ever known, Local businesses are suffering at the moment, especially in hospitality and retail, but other services too:
- Salons
- Dentists
- Personal trainers
- Taxis
- Small shop owners
- Cafes and restaurants
- And many more….
Now more than ever, they need an edge, a way to distinguish them from their competitors and that’s what we are going to help them with.
We are going to drag these business owners into the modern-day and help get more people through their doors. more customers, more profits, more money to pay you!
The premise of this strategy is that we use google maps to search for local businesses, identify the ones that haven’t configured themselves to take advantage of the worlds most powerful search engine, and that should open the door to potentially helping them with their digital needs.
That’s it in a nutshell and I’m going to add an extra ingredient that will explain how to make money with Google maps.
Identify A Business Owner & Location
This is the research phase – so start up your laptop, and open Google maps.
We are going to look for businesses that need our help – the service industry is great for this but really it could be anyone – dentists, chiropractors, electrician, plumbers, hair salons etc
If you have any industry experience or family members in a particular job/business, then that can work great, as you understand their business needs and how they operate. It also gives you a chance to test the process.
I would also think about the business type you are targeting, are they willing and able to spend money? Ideally, you want one that makes enough money but would benefit from more customers.
In terms of location, for now, I would stick to cities close to you, because if this blows up you may benefit from face to face meetings too, but also you know the local area and people.
Start researching the businesses you find and keep a note or google spreadsheet to record the details such as company name, email address etc.
Find The Problem
Before we move onto the 3 monetization strategies, we first need to get our foot in the door, and find a way of helping our local businesses.
Now, there’s a couple of things to look for here:
Google My Business (GMB)
Google is the most popular search engine in the world with over 70% of internet traffic.
One of the features they use to help promote local business is Google My Business, something that every local business should claim, it’s your way of controlling your details on google maps, and increasing your custom.
Why would you want to do that?
Because its Google – people use their phones constantly to find businesses they need. You won’t show up in the top results unless you are using GMB – yet so many people are leaving their business unclaimed.
So we are going to search for our business type and location, and literally click on them. Try different businesses, try nearby towns and cities. Move around the map and start compiling your list.
You are looking for any that say “claim your business”, some will have websites too and some won’t.
It’s fairly safe to say that any you find could do with some help with local marketing – now there you go, in the space of 2 mins, you’ve already learnt one of the most effective ways of marketing a local business.
Website Quality
The second thing to look for is the website itself – so many of these will have awful sounding domains and ageing websites.
It won’t take you long to find some examples that literally haven’t updated their websites in years and years, and are probably just a one-pager that their uncle Jeff made (as he was good with computers and all that jazz.)
Find the ones that look dated, visually unappealing, and mark them down on your list too.
Mobile-Friendly – Responsive
Open each website and change the size of the window, is it responsive? Does the layout change to suit a phone or does it stay in “desktop” mode?
In other words, if they don’t change size when you’re on a cell/mobile phone they probably need a refresh – and come from a time no one used phones!
We now have a list of local businesses that need our help. We are going to help these businesses with their marketing.
Now, don’t you tell me that you know nothing about marketing and you can’t do it!
You can do it, and I will show you, but something to remember, the average age of a small business owner is 49. They are not from the generation of gadgets, software and digital marketing, they may need help with these things.
This is where you come in, and is exactly how to make money with Google maps.
I am going to show you how to create simple but powerful websites, that don’t even cost any money.
Pitch Your Services
We are going to get in touch with the business and introduce ourselves. Make it clear what we are offering and how we can help them.
I know this sounds scary, and I don’t like picking up the phone and speaking to people either, so I’m gonna show you a great way to do this and get your message across.
So if you don’t want to call them, then try email and you could word it something like this….
Hey, my name is Jon, I am a digital marketer looking to help local business owners with their online marketing.
I noticed your website on google maps and wanted to give you a few pointers that could really help you find new clients. No catch, just some free advice that will boost your online presence.
Firstly, I noticed that you hadn’t claimed your business on Google yet, the worlds biggest search engine, most people use google maps on mobile devices in order to locate businesses so it’s really important you are on there!
The only way to start showing in the top results is to register google my business – its really easy, you fill in some basic details. But it really does help boost your presence on the biggest search platform in the world.
Secondly, I noticed that your website isn’t mobile friendly…..
Lastly, Like all good homes, I think your website could do with a lick of paint, a freshen up in order to make visitors feel a bit more welcome but at the same time it should really encourage them to take action.
Now I normally charge $1000 for a basic website plus any tooling you may need on top of that, but i am looking to build my portfolio in your particular industry and would love to work with you at a fraction of that cost and help you with some of the improvements we identified above.
< BONUS PART – coming up shortly>
Jon
You can follow up with a call if you wish, or maybe a second email just to send them a demo website you created.
Now if you don’t want to write a letter then this is an amazing alternative that builds trust and puts a face to the email, increasing their chance of saying yes.
Download Loom from the Chrome store, it’s a great extension that lets you record your screen and create a custom video reading your speech out.
When you’ve finished recording, loom creates a unique URL/Web link, so you just need to add that to the email.
Level Up Your Skills & Income
This is the first strategy that shows you how to make money with Google maps, and like anything, it’s going to be a numbers game, some will say no and some will say yes.
Keep reading, as very shortly I’m going to show you how to profit even from the businesses that decline your services.
But it’s serving those that say yes that will build momentum and your confidence. You will progress fast and learn a tonne as you go along if you approach this with the right mindset.
When you do get a yes then firstly help them with the google my business, it’s really easy to do.
If you want to outsource this part then you could also look on fiverr and find someone that can help optimise their local business, add them into any local directories, and build up some trust to their site.
The main money is in the website build, and any additional services you agree. Offer to build that website and maybe pitch to help with other digital marketing services such as social media management, graphic design, advertising (all of which you can learn on YouTube).
READ MORE: Make Money Online With SAAS Affiliate Programs
You will need some details about their business, here are a few things to obtain to get you started:
- A main photo of them or a business logo
- Describe your business in a few sentences
- Who are your biggest competitors?
- What is your company colour scheme?
- What makes you different from your competitors?
- Why should someone use your business?
- Who is your target audience?
These basic questions can help you build the site, which you will get better at each and every time you do it.
Like I say this isn’t a push-button get rich quick scheme, it will take effort and you will level up your skills, but the good thing is, you are working with sites that can’t get much worse.
Strategy 1 – Build A Free Website For Small Business
Your next step is to build a website or sales funnel. If you don’t know, a sales funnel is similar to a website but it has a very specific purpose i.e instead of menus and pages it tries to direct them into signing up, buying etc.
The good news is there is software available that takes the heavy lifting out of this for you, where you can use loads of premade templates to quickly build a website and you just need to change out the details.
In fact, if you want a free template that you can just import yourself to get started then click on these examples I have created for you:
- Click to Get a FREE Restaurant Sales Funnel
- Click to Get a FREE Pet Business Sales Funnel
- Click to Get a FREE Barber Shop Sales Funnel
There are tonnes of really good sales funnel/landing page builders out there. I use Clickfunnels and Groovefunnels.
The one I am going to recommend to you is Groovefunnels who have a free plan, with tonnes of different applications – more on that in a moment.
Strategy 2 – Affiliate Marketing
First of all, anyone who agrees to work with you, can now build a relationship with them, look to secure a monthly retainer to take care of some of their digital marketing needs – emails, website maintenance, advertising, social media etc.
All stuff you can learn on youtube or outsource
But this is another trick to making money, by using affiliate marketing, where you get a commission if someone buys through your link. In other words, we recommend products that we get paid for.
For example……Groovefunnels.
Who is creating an all in one digital suite where you get:
- Webpage builder
- Membership sites
- Sell digital products
- Eccomerce
- Webinars
- Basically everything you could need all in one place, which saves paying for multiple services.
But perhaps the best advantage of Groovefunnels is that it has a free account, which some of the more established funnel builders don’t…….and people love free.
So you could prove the concept, get them setup using your affiliate link, and then when they are happy you can upsell them on the full version.
At the time of writing, if someone signs up to a paid plan, then Groove pay 20% commission to anyone using the free account, and 40% if you’re on the full account.
So my advice would be to pay for the one-off platinum commission and learn everything and anything you can about it.
Dive deep, watch all of the youtube videos, and test it.
Create a template for each and every business type you can think of. Show it as a demo. Talk about the benefits for it.
Now show the customer how great it is and how initially they can sign up for free, as everything they need is in one place
If you then set them up, you would get that 40% if they buy it either as a one-off or each and every month.
READ MORE: GrooveFunnels Affiliate Program: First Impressions?
I can tell you with absolute certainty that there are people doing this – they immerse themselves in software and see how it can help others. They then go out there and show these people how it can help them.
I know of a blogger who did this with Clickfunnels and ended up selling his blog for reportedly 6 figures. Don’t underestimate this model and don’t underestimate how possible it is for you to do this, if you put the time into learning it.
Now, here’s the bit you’ve been waiting for.
A way we can still make money from those that said no to your polite email.
Because let’s face it, a random out of the blue email will work for some, but others that are a little more cynical like yours truly here, will think hmmmm what’s going on. Is this legit?
Strategy 3 – Write A Guide Using Affiliate Links
Now I haven’t seen anyone else who creates content on how to make money with Google maps, teaching this, so this is just for you as a thank you for making it this far
That video pitch or email pitch we send the potential customer, I want you to add something similar to this:
I appreciate that you may prefer to do this yourself, but as you’ve taken the time to read my email I want to help you anyway, so I’ve created a guide to help you through the process which you can find here…..
ADD LINK TO A GOOGLE DOC OR VIDEO TRAINING THAT SHOWS THEM WHAT THEY NEED TO DO
Thank you for reading, even if you’re not interested in my services please do go register that google business listing – you won’t regret it, and good luck for the future…..
So what I want you to do, as a one-off task, is write a guide. Show them what they need to do.
Even though they said no, we are working on a value approach.
We have already told them their website is crap and they aren’t getting traffic on google, so that thought is in their head. Let’s now build trust, and help them out anyway…..
You can either create a google document and just add screenshots and instructions, or maybe create some video training, you can actually do this for free using Groovefunnels where you create your own member site.
Whatever works for you.
It doesn’t have to be fancy, you’re just going to show them two things:
- How to claim Google My Business
- How to create a website or sales funnel in Groovefunnels (You can even share a template for them so they just import it and change the name etc)
Again, that will automatically make you a commission if they one day buy the full package, so it’s in your interest to make that document good.
Who knows, they may also get in touch and say “I’ve looked at this and can you help me?”
Basically, some people will be scared your email is a scam but they know their website isn’t great, so will do it themselves, this gives us a way of making money through our affiliate links.
These are 3 genuine ways that show you EXACTLY how to make money with Google maps. In this case, we are making money from companies that want to work with us, and those that don’t.
Like anything this strategy is as good as the work, you are willing to put into it. Good luck and I will see you on the next one.
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing and how to make money recommending products, then this free training is where I started, and have since built a regular second income.