Claire FountainSee more entrepreneur interviews here >>
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Jamie I.F. – Owner & Operator of Increasing.com
- Favorite Tools & Services: Ahrefs, Google Sheets, Canva, and GeneratePress (why?)
- Where He Finds Talent: Reddit
- You May Not Know: Jamie got into SEO to fund a social project that provides resources to unhoused and food-insecure people in London, and he’s a HUGE Arsenal F.C. fan.
“Now with the day-to-day, we’re really in the trenches with SEO, content marketing, trying to get featured snippets, and trying to have as big a footprint on the Internet as possible.”
Jamie (known as @Jamie_IF on Twitter) runs Increasing.com, a site where folks can read up about how to make money from SEO, niche sites, and affiliate marketing.
The site was created so that Jamie could share valuable insights, tips, and tricks with any aspiring niche site owners looking to venture into digital marketing.
Background
“I wanted to start a social enterprise project to try and help the homeless or food insecure in London.”
The information shared on Increasing.com comes from Jamie’s real-world experience in cultivating a variety of his sites.
“Actual day-to-day stuff is running our own portfolio of sites in various different areas.”
Over time, the entrepreneur has built up a portfolio of different sites, some of which he built from scratch and some which were strategically acquired.
“We've sort of grown to decent enough size and acquired some, built some from scratch, and built the earnings from there and grown our team.”
Since his team has seen such success, Jamie says that day-to-day operations have shifted more toward outreach and continuing to expand the company’s online presence.
“Now with the day-to-day, we’re really in the trenches with SEO, content marketing, trying to get featured snippets, and trying to have as big a footprint on the Internet as possible.”
How Jamie First Got Started
Jamie, who is 25, recognizes that his business pursuit is just a stepping stone to getting the funds he needs to follow his true passion.
“I graduated from university only three years ago and got straight in this game, but it was more a means to an end than anything else.”
Jamie says he ultimately wanted to offer resources for unhoused people and people who are food-insecure in his hometown of London, but, unfortunately, he didn’t have the funds to do so on his own.
“I wanted to start a social enterprise project to try and help the homeless or food insecure in London, but I ran out of money. I wanted to be able to supply soup kitchens and other areas with food waste and similar food to be able to get that in the hands of people who are much more in need of it. But it cost too much, and so I turned to another option to try and raise the funds.”
At the beginning of his digital marketing career, Jamie planned to quit as soon as he reached his financial goal.
“I vowed to myself, When I make £2 million from the news sites finally, in cash, I'll leave SEO for good and I'll go to be more of a social enterprise CEO.”
As his career in this field has grown, Jamie realizes it’s not an either-or situation, and that SEO and helping out his community are not mutually exclusive.
“Now I realize more that you can do multiple things, and if you're a good enough outsourcer and manager, you can actually run two projects simultaneously, which is what I feel now.”
Finding Talent
Favorite Place to Find Talent: Reddit
“Recently, actually, we've had the most success with Reddit. There’s a subreddit called r/HireaWriter. You need to be in-depth, you need to say the exact things you’re looking for, the exact people you’re not looking for… What I would do is put a keyword somewhere randomly in the job description and require that with a Google Form application.”
Jamie's Toolkit
Favorite SEO Tool:
“It's just a great all-in-one standard toolbox. It's not the best in class and any particular area, but it's good enough that you can have a pretty wide impact in keyword research, backlink profiles, searching up, rank-tracking… It’s a very good all-in-one option I recommend as everyone’s go-to.”
Bonus Tools: Jamie also uses SurferSEO, SEOMinion, and AnswerThePublic
Favorite Management
Slack, Google Sheets, Loom, and Scribe
“We use Google Sheets just to manage everything. We use Loom in accordance with a lesser-known tool called Scribe. Scribe is a sort of step-by-step creating thing. If you just click stuff, it will then screenshot the actual action and then be able to create an instant, step-by-step how-to process. It’s great for management and onboarding.”
Favorite Image Editing Service
“Canva is great for image editing. The background removal function on its own instantly pays itself off.”
Favorite WordPress Site Tools
“GeneratePress for any WordPress theme and GenerateBlocks for building anything custom on your site. These are the fastest and best way to design things that will age well as the sites become more and more versatile.”
Bonus Tool: Another WordPress site tool that Jamie loves is Rank Math
Where to Find Him
You can reach Jamie I.F. through his agency website, or follow Jamie through his Twitter and YouTube.
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