Rank and Rent - $2,000/mo from just 15 hours of work

Rank and rent is one of the best business models I know of.

It’s one of the only business models where you can start earning $1,000s/mo just MONTHS after you start.

And it can be super easy as well (if you don’t make some common mistakes).

Quick reminder:

25% off Site Stats Database ends today. Use the discount code PDWAXQYU25 at checkout.

If you’re wondering what Site Stats Database is, read about it here.

It’s an indispensable tool for niche research and competitive analysis and is the only tool on the planet that shows monthly traffic change data since the September HCU and March Core update.

For the uninformed, rank and rent is where you build a generic local business site, rank it on the first page and start getting inquiries from customers, and then send those inquiries to a local business in exchange for a commission or flat monthly fee.

Example Rank and Rent Sites

I learn best from real-world examples, so if you’re the same way, here ya go.

These two examples have been publicly shared elsewhere, so I’m comfortable sharing them here.

1. Grand Rapids Tree Service (grandrapidstree.com)

According to the owner of this site, it took 15 hours to build and has generated $2,000/month for over 8 years ($192,000 total)!

I searched “grand rapids tree service” in Google and sure enough, that site ranks #1:

It gets less than 100 monthly visitors according to Ahrefs (in reality it’s almost definitely a lot more). This just goes to show you don’t need a ton of traffic to make a serious income from rank and rent sites.

2. El Dorado Hills Pool Cleaning (edhpoolcleaner.com)

This site makes $650/mo. El Dorado Hills is a suburb of Sacramento, CA and has a population of only 49,000. This is proof you can make good money from rank and rent even in fairly small cities.

Imagine if you owned a dozen of these!

With AI content, you could build a complete rank and rent site in just a couple of hours. Pretty crazy.

How to Build Rank and Rent Sites the Right Way

The best thing you can do is to learn from others who’ve already done it. You don’t need to buy a course; there’s enough free info out there already.

One of my online friends, Niche Ranger, pivoted from niche sites to rank and rent recently. He’s already signed a few clients and makes over $1,000/mo from rank and rent.

He recently posted this (there are some GREAT comments on it, so be sure to read those!)

One common belief people have about rank and rent is that you need a Google Business Profile in order to make it work. Thankfully, that’s not true (it’s almost impossible to get a GBP without being a registered business with a physical location).

He’s also living proof you can rank a local EMD in a super short time:

If you want to read more about rank and rent from Niche Ranger, he writes about it on his website in more detail.

Another fantastic source of free rank and rent knowledge comes from James Dooley, who appeared on multiple podcasts talking in great depth about the business model (he makes millions from rank and rent sites).

There are lots of other great YouTube videos about rank and rent, such as this one that answers 25 common questions:

Don’t get bogged down too much by these videos and any conflicting advice you hear.

Just stick to the basics at first. You can of course experiment with different things, but this is the model that’s been proven over and over again to work:

• Build a site for ONE city.

• Choose a city with a population of 50,000-200,000. Higher is absolutely okay if the competition is low. And lower is okay if the monthly search volume is good (100+ month or so).

• Your domain should be exact match (city + service). Better yet, choose a domain with a bit of domain authority already, and you’ll rank even faster. More on this below.

• Choose a service niche where the business comes to the customer, not one where the customer goes to the business location. Think roofers, plumbers, landscapers, etc.

• Make sure there’s decent search volume for your main target keyword. The more, the better. For reference, the main keyword for the first example site (Grand Rapids Tree Care) has a monthly search volume of 70. The main keyword for the second site (El Dorado Hills Pool Cleaner) has a monthly search volume of 30.

• Make sure your site has good on and off-page SEO.

• Use CallRail or a similar tool for phone number tracking (watch YouTube videos about call tracking for rank and rent for more info).

• Sign a business as an exclusive partner (send them all your leads) for a flat monthly fee or cost per lead deal.

If you get stuck on any of these steps, there are plenty of articles and YouTube videos you can turn to for help.

Available EMDs you can register for rank and rent right now…

I’ve done a bunch of research for you. You’re welcome 😄 

Here are some great EMDs that were available at the time of writing this email. All of these are perfect opportunities for rank and rent.

EMD #1: indiogaragedoorrepair .com

Indio, California has a population of 92,000.

“indio garage door repair” has a monthly search volume of 10 according to Ahrefs, and 140 according to Keywords Everywhere.

But best of all, indiogaragedoorrepair .com has a domain authority of 10, and 17 backlinks according to Ahrefs. It’s a dropped domain. You’re not starting from scratch! With those metrics, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ranked for “indio garage door repair” in a very short amount of time.

EMD #2: joplintreeservice .com

Joplin, Missouri has a population of 52,000.

“joplin tree service” has a monthly search volume of 10 according to Ahrefs, and 260 according to Keywords Everywhere.

And joplintreeservice .com has a domain authority of 7, and has 7 backlinks!

EMD #3: santafewindowtinting .com

Santa Fe, New Mexico has a population of 89,000.

“santa fe window tinting” has a monthly search volume of 590 according to Keywords Everywhere.

And santafewindowtinting .com already has a domain authority of 2, with 51 backlinks!

EMD #4: kansascityductcleaning .com

Kansas City, Missouri has a population of 509,000.

“kansas city air duct cleaning” has a monthly search volume of 20 according to Ahrefs and 720 according to Keywords Everywhere.

EMD #5: stcloudhvac .com

St. Cloud, Minnesota has a population of 70,000.

“hvac st cloud mn” has a monthly search volume of 50 according to Ahrefs and 170 according to Keywords Everywhere.

There, I may have just given away $5,000/mo or more in value to whoever is lucky enough to register those domains first.

If you missed out on those, no need to worry. I have thousands more - many of which are EVEN BETTER than the ones I just shared.

I share available EMDs I’ve found on the first of every month (that’s tomorrow!) with paid subscribers of EMD Gold.

The domains I shared above would all be on the “Gold” plan.

Silver-tier domains are slightly worse (but still plenty of good ones) and Bronze-tier domains are a bit worse than Silver.

Tomorrow (August 1st) at 4pm CST, I’m sending lists of available EMDs to paid subscribers of EMD Gold.

• Gold-tier subscribers will receive a list of 1,000 Gold-tier available EMDs, and 1,000 that are Silver and Bronze-tier.

• Silver-tier subscribers will receive a list of 800 Silver-tier EMDs and 200 Bronze-tier EMDs.

• Bronze-tier subscribers will receive a list of 200 Bronze-tier EMDs.

And, quick heads-up:

One of the domains included in the list sent to Gold-tier subs will be a local service business EMD with a Moz DA of… wait for it…

A whopping 24 (with 82 backlinks)!

I can guarantee, this domain is worth multiple times more than the $9 registration fee.

So, upgrade now if you don’t want to miss that.

First come, first served. So, if you subscribe to the Gold plan, set your alarm for 4pm CST tomorrow (August 1st).

There will be plenty of other valuable domains in the list as well, so don’t worry if you miss that one!

Anyway, this email is getting long so I’ll wrap it up here. Hope you got some value out of it.

Thanks for reading,

Ian

Things you might be interested in:

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