Renting Websites/Leads? | Interesting business idea, but seems a little fishy.

I get a decent amount of targeted ads on Facebook for side business related type of stuff. There's one for a take on wholesaling houses, stuff like that. The other day I saw a different one, and it was a very long post, but I read it, and it sounds quite intriguing, except for the fact that the actual costs of the program they are selling is not disclosed, and apparently you have to do an interview with them before you have the option to buy if they deem you a good fit. 

The business itself seems to make sense. 

1. Build a website for a particular type of business, in a particular area. (The post I saw used porta-john rentals in some town (~130k population) in SC as an example.)

2. Get site ranked on google so you are #1 when searched. (Apparently they have an algorithm to help with that.)

3. When you go to the site, it asks for your email to continue, thus giving you a lead.

4. Take these leads to a local business in the area. "Hey, do you want these leads I have already? First 10 are free." Then charge monthly from there out. 

5. Grow, Rinse, Repeat. 

Each site is going to cost you ~$50/ year for the domain and hosting, and depending on the size and market of each one, they claim you could charge $350-1000/month for leads. Seems nice...

From what I can tell, they are selling training, and some tool to handle ranking your site, tracking email and phone leads, and give you a local phone number in whatever town you are targeting. But I haven't found the "supposedly" one time cost yet.

Overall it seems to make sense, something just seems fishy about why they seem so open about the model, but closed about the cost. 

The Facebook Ad was from a page called "Secure the Bag", but it seems they end up blocked on facebook and have to use multiple pages or something. (Again, kinda weird.)

The link they directed to for details is neatsidehustle.com, which then redirects to 2019demo.com. 

Has anyone else seen or heard of this?

If it's somehow legit, I'd be interested as I can do web design, but I know the old saying is "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.".

Haven't heard of it but E36 M3ting up SERPs with email-walled sites won't work in the long run. I bet they're doing something fishy in Step 2 as well. And finally, I'd also be very suspicious about where those email addresses came from and how relevant they really are.

Had someone try to basically sell astroturfing services to my office last year.

Pre-edit: This sounds more ranty and high-horse than I intended, so I'd like to be clear that any aspersions are intended for the entity in question, and not to the OP for interest in a potentially valid business opportunity.

Sounds like they're selling you some proprietary "gaming" of Google, which seems temporary at best. And Google's pretty good at this point; you may be feeding the fleet of canoes in order to generate links to bolster your results.

Moreover, it relies on the vendors not bothering to pursue the same thing for themselves. The business is predicated on the people selling the service to not bother trying harder than you to sell the service they're in full-time. Sure, some folks will be too busy doing whatever the thing is to find time to "Internet better," but it seems tenuous.

I think it sounds like some combination of fishy things, and at its core it feels a bit like inserting yourself as an unnecessary middleman. A bit like parking a useful domain and requiring payment for the actual entity to get it. Or even patent trolling. "I'm not going to do the thing, but I suspect other people are, and I'm going to make myself an obstacle to their process 'til they pay me out." After all, before you used their proprietary algorithm, were the actual local businesses the top hits on Google for that service locally? i.e. did you basically out-search-engine-optimize them (if they can deliver on that) and then offer to sell them back that position?

I'm somewhere between "Probably a sleazy waste of money that doesn't work" and "it's sleazy behavior even if it does work." If you want to go into whatever business isn't doing a good job of advertising, great. If you want to farm out your services at improving internet sales, great. If you want to hijack the search results up front and offer to sell leads that might've just gone to this business in the first place... not so much.

"We can teach you how to make money flipping houses on your own too! Just come to this free seminar."

I've never gone, but if I had a bona fide way to make money, I'd just keep doing it. Not add competition to my market. So this type of stuff I have always written off.

Niche sites that generate leads or affiliate commissions are a genuine business these days, but the last thing you need to do is pay for training. Some of the topics they promise to cover also sound sleazy.

They'll also likely make more money from the training than you do from the sites.

Poke around here instead, for free: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-build-a-niche-site/

BoxheadTim said:

Niche sites that generate leads or affiliate commissions are a genuine business these days, but the last thing you need to do is pay for training. Some of the topics they promise to cover also sound sleazy.

They'll also likely make more money from the training than you do from the sites.

Poke around here instead, for free: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/how-to-build-a-niche-site/

Thank you. I think I'll go read through all of that!

z31maniac said:

"We can teach you how to make money flipping houses on your own too! Just come to this free seminar."

I've never gone, but if I had a bona fide way to make money, I'd just keep doing it. Not add competition to my market. So this type of stuff I have always written off.

It does seem like an awful lot of people who have apparently made it big in these various somewhat hard to believe ways, turn to selling training as the next revenue stream. 

Fulfillment by Amazon is another one that looks intriguing. 

z31maniac said:

"We can teach you how to make money flipping houses on your own too! Just come to this free seminar."

I think those guys live by the (usually false) statement "if you can't do, teach"

In reply to z31maniac :

yeah but is the scam to scam you out of any leads you find and do not have the money to make the deal ?

You are the troops out there searching  for leads !

^No idea. I don't have the constitution for that kind of stuff. 

I like my steady pay, health insurance, and stock options.