SEO is the new first job for teens; flipping burgers is so last century
Last weekend in Chicago at the BlogHer conference, my 16-year-old daughter Chloe got to give her very first conference presentation. The topic: professional blogging. Chloe got to share her story of "making money while she sleeps" -- through the creation of a blog about the popular virtual pets site Neopets.com.
Attending and speaking at BlogHer really inspired Chloe to start more blogs, to do more speaking, and to do more face-to-face networking with other bloggers. Her plans also include adding a forum to her blog using bbPress, WordPress' sister project. What a great experience it was for her -- at only 16 years of age -- to present in front of an audience, to receive kudos from so many bloggers afterwards, and to get interviewed by BusinessWeek. To top it off, Danny Sullivan says he wants to have Chloe on a panel at an upcoming conference!
Here are some highlights of Chloe on her panel at BlogHer...
It all began when my daughter was 15... she turned to SEO and blogging instead of babysitting or running a paper route as her part-time job and turned her love for the Neopets into a profitable venture -- with the help of a few smart SEO decisions. For one, Chloe used the keyword research tools Google Suggest and WordTracker to select both the name of her blog and its categories. The name became "The Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site" because it included the highly popular search term "neopets cheats." She set up her blog through WordPress.com, and within a couple weeks it appeared on Page 1 in Google for "neopet cheats". Chloe also devoted a bit of time to link building, through trusted blogs like Blogger Stories.
Wanting to turn her blog's popularity into dollars, Chloe was excited to add Google ads onto her blog, but found out the hard way that this wasn't possible due to WordPress.com's restrictive terms of service that forbids the use of AdSense or other third-party ads. Chloe soon moved her entire blog to the domain neopets fanatic.com.
Now, I'm pleased to say, Chloe's site currently ranks #6 for "neopets" (out of 6.2 million results). Her blog's traffic has grown to produce $20 to $30 per day in AdSense revenue. Best of all, Chloe only spends a few hours a month blogging and maintaining the site. Not a bad ROI!
That equates to somewhere around $700 to $900 a month. If Chloe wanted to earn something comparable through a typical minimum-wage first job -- at her age, this typically means flipping burgers, babysitting or operating a paper route -- she'd have to work somewhere around 25 to 30 hrs per week. Because she's built an income-generating asset (versus working dollars-for-hours for "The Man"), Chloe can take a paid vacation whenever she wants without affecting her take-home pay.
One of the key things to keep in mind about Chloe's story, is that she's proven that SEO is not "rocket science." Heck, a kid can do it! (Note that I've only given her a few hours of guidance, she has done this all herself.) So if you have a solid foundation of SEO knowledge, why work for a living when you can create assets that work for you? :-D
9 comments, 6 pingbacks
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Heck, at $700 - $900 a month Chloe can dropout of high school, skip college, move to Latin American or Asia and live a comfortable middle-class life on that income.
Perhaps Net-based incomes and global opportunities will change educational expectations.Comment by Jeff [Visitor]
· http://books.sorodesign.com —
08/03/07 @ 12:47
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[...] Spencer. Chloe passed on babysitting and paper routes and instead started a blog about Neopets, and is now pulling in $700-plus per month in revenue. Nice! I told my 9-year-old son about this and asked if he’s ready to start [...]
Pingback by Friday Night Link-o-rama » Small Business SEM [Visitor] — 08/03/07 @ 20:18
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Stephan,
Great story! What's interesting is I did the exact same thing.
When I was 14 I created a hockey website that helped hockey players buy hockey equipment by finding the lowest prices. I called it hockEdeals.com.
All of my other friends got jobs at retail & food service jobs while I sat back an earned between $500-$1000 a month doing... well, not much.
It's been 7 years & my site has grown by leaps & bounds. I'm a college student entering the job market with 6 years of online experience.
I played a little with Google AdSense but most of my profit was with affiliate programs through Commission Junction. I'm sure your daughter has looked into it. :-) If not, give her the heads up.
Tell her to keep it up! She sounds like a smart girl and you're right... "flipping burgers is so last century."Comment by Cody Ward [Visitor]
· http://www.hockedeals.com —
08/06/07 @ 14:59
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i think your daughter also has "most likely to succeed" under her belt now! haha this is very impressive, you must be very proud ;) i think this is a very inspirational story because if 16-year-olds (and apparently those are the irresponsible ones) can do it, there are no excuses for others who claim they are too busy or whatever excuse they have to not do it.
i am actually transitioning my site into a blog site as well and am also going to use the adwords to general side income. $700-$900 a month is fabulous ROI.
cheers,
cindyComment by cindy@staged4more [Visitor]
· http://www.staged4more.com —
08/07/07 @ 23:26
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[...] year old girl who has taken her passion and is making 20-30 dollars a day. You should head over to Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings and check out the full article on his daughter’s success. Her site is The Ultimate Neopets [...]
Pingback by Neopets, Minimum Wage Blogging, and Making Money Online » Some Make Money [Visitor] — 08/10/07 @ 00:39
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I am so proud of your daughter. I am a mother of five and I am excited to see a child do this one their own. YOu must be one proud parent. Of'course you are, every parent is proud of their children. I am working with my son on getting a blog put together but he doesn't seem too interested in it. He loves the computer but tends to stick around on myspace and he wants money, but doesn't want to concentrate long enough to do it. It is funny to think that I am a grown parent and I have learned something from your daughter.Tell her I said congratulations.
Comment by Gaje Master [Visitor]
· http://gajemaster.com —
08/10/07 @ 22:43
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Great story! I think this just goes to show that there are really no boundaries anymore. But I do still think there is a place for young people to hold more traditional first jobs (and I think there is a market of people looking to hire teens).
My 16-year-old sister and I started a company to connect them called myfirstpaycheck.com. We put up some google ads and while we're not making a lot of money yet, we are getting lots of people jobs!
thanks for sharingComment by austin [Visitor]
· http://myfirstpaycheck.com —
08/15/07 @ 12:06
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Thats a fantastic story. I wish I knew about blogging back when I used to go on Neopets...
Im nearly making as much as her though :)Comment by Matt Jones [Visitor]
· http://bloggingfingers.com —
08/26/07 @ 07:16
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[...] what RSS is and how to use Bloglines, and told him to start reading the Problogger feed, because if Stephan Spencer’s kid can make money online, yours can, too, [...]
Pingback by Speedlinking By The Beta News | The Beta News [Visitor] — 09/05/07 @ 07:22
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Great story- doubly happy because I am SEO professional and unschooling/homeschool mom.
Unschooling basically means learning by doing and this is a prefect example of learning through life. I believe any one can learn anything through their passion for some thing. Chloe has learned grammar,creative writing, mathematics, economics , social studies and more though her passion- not to mention earned money and a solid boost to self esteem and self worth.
My daughter started her "fashion" blog at 9 and I used my own AdSense account to put up ads for her site .... for about an hour. They were quickly pulled when she said hey mom- " Hey mom- is it okay if we go to the library and use their computer to I can click on my ads ?" YIKES. She is 10 now and blogging away but no AdSense ads til she can get gher own account !
I am going o spread the word about her site on some of my unschooling board- we are always delighted to hear about real learning done through living and doing and not from a textbook.
Congrats to you too dad for your terrific support!Comment by Lisa [Visitor]
· http://www.lifelearning.org/ —
09/09/07 @ 19:41
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[...] I want my kids to have this feeling before they even get into the workforce. Some Examples: SEO is the new first job for teens; flipping burgers is so last century @ Scatterings [...]
Pingback by Virtual School FundRaising: Knock on my Website and I’ll Knock on Yours | Housewives (and othe [Visitor] — 09/13/07 @ 11:58
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[...] think I've read it b4 tho on Stephen Spencer's blog. Oh, not the same story, but just as inspiring SEO is the new first job for teens; flipping burgers is so last century @ Scatterings __________________ Looking for vBulletin Support ? Check out our Forums. Submit your sites to my [...]
Pingback by $70,000 Dollars a month at 17 - Page 2 - Earners Forum [Visitor] — 10/28/07 @ 18:51
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i've been looking for a job that i can do online and this seems like the thing. the thing is i have no idea how to start it at all. any sugestions?
Comment by Amber [Visitor]
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03/28/08 @ 20:28
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wow this sounds like something i would want to do can and would you tell me how i could get started i am 17 and i need a little xtra cash to buy my first car!
Comment by matthew klimeck [Visitor]
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05/04/08 @ 10:26
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