I Started An Investment Education Site After A Positive Response From My Initial Blogs

Guillermo Banchero

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Published: June 4th, 2023

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Guillermo Banchero

Founder, InvestLikeJohn

Founders

Employees

InvestLikeJohn

investlikejohn.com

from Montevideo

started November 2022

Founders

Employees

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WordPress

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Ahrefs

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Hello, my name is Guillermo Banchero and I’m the CEO of Invest Like John. This platform provides investment education and resources for individuals looking to build their wealth.

Our product is our online website that provides solutions for common issues that people have using online investing tools. Our customers are individuals looking to improve their financial literacy and become better investors.

Since launching, we have seen some growth and currently have over 1000 users monthly traffic from around the world. Our approach to investment education has received positive feedback from our customers and has allowed us to generate some revenue from Google ads. We are considering adding some free courses shortly.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

My journey as an entrepreneur started as a software developer in Uruguay. In 2020, I started a business selling chatbots to a Chilean company using Dialogflow. Despite making some progress, I wanted to explore the B2C market.

The idea for Investlikejohn.com came about through my research using the Ahrefs tool. I validated the concept by writing 10 posts about the eToro platform and seeing how it resonated with visitors. The positive response encouraged me to expand the scope of the platform to cover a wider range of investment tools.

With four years of experience in software development and a background in teaching algorithms at ORT University in Montevideo, I felt confident in my ability to bring value to individuals looking to improve their investment knowledge. I also had a strong personal drive to help others achieve financial literacy and stability, which made this business idea feel like the right fit.

Being open to feedback and willing to continuously iterate and improve your platform is crucial to its success.

To validate the idea, I conducted market research. I wanted to make sure that there was a real demand for this type of education and resources. Today, I work full-time at Mercado Libre and run Investlikejohn.com as a second source of income. This allows me to continue building and growing the business while also having a stable income.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

As a digital product, the primary focus was on creating a strong SEO strategy and building a robust server infrastructure. The initial version of the course consisted of 10 posts designed to test the concept and gather feedback from early users.

To develop the content, we created a tool for scraping search intent and analyzing competition using reports Ahrefs and Puppeteer/ NodeJs. This iterative process was informed by feedback from SEO experts and my own experience as a software developer.

In terms of start-up costs, I was able to keep expenses low by utilizing tools such as Group by Expert, DigitalOcean, and WordPress. This allowed me to launch the first version of the platform quickly and effectively.

The satisfaction of seeing the platform live and receiving positive feedback from users was a great feeling. I was able to use this feedback to improve the platform and continue growing the business over time.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching Investlikejohn.com was a unique experience. My launch strategy involved a gradual approach, starting with the release of the MVP (minimum viable product) with 10 posts.

To establish an online presence, we use Wordpress and optimized it for SEO. The initial costs were minimal, primarily consisting of hosting fees and a small budget for marketing and advertising.

I did not launch a Kickstarter campaign or participate in any crowdfunding. Instead, I focused on organic growth.

The biggest lessons learned from the launch process were the importance of a strong online presence and the need for a flexible and iterative approach. I also learned the value of gathering feedback from early users.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

At InvestLikeJohn.com, we differentiate ourselves through the quality of our content and the expertise of our team.

Our content is carefully researched and written by experienced financial professionals who have a deep understanding of the markets and the various investment vehicles available.

This allows us to offer truly informative and valuable insights that our clients can use to make informed investment decisions.

We believe in taking full responsibility for our performance, and we work tirelessly to ensure that our clients achieve the best possible returns on their investments.

We are committed to continuing to innovate and improve our services to provide even greater value to our clients in the years to come.

I can share some strategies that have worked well in attracting customers since our launch:

Content creation: We have focused on creating high-quality content that is informative, engaging, and relevant to our target audience.

Social media marketing: We have leveraged social media platforms to promote our content and engage with potential customers.

Search engine optimization (SEO): We have optimized our website and content for search engines to increase our visibility and attract organic traffic from people searching for financial investment advice online.

Retaining customers is our next step for us. We aim to develop educational courses shortly that focus on various investment tools and offer comprehensive data and graphs related to key stocks. Currently, our primary source of income is through Google Ads.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We are continuously working to increase our traffic and improve our conversion rate. We measure our success by a variety of metrics, including monthly traffic, and average time on site.

Our short-term goals include offering an online course and further improving our website's user experience.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Starting the business has been a learning journey filled with challenges and opportunities. One of the biggest challenges was understanding the technical aspect of setting up a website and ensuring it had a strong infrastructure.

This involved researching and investing in the right tools such as Digital Ocean, which helped to keep start-up costs low. I also get the Aws certification the last year so I’m planning to use it when I get more traffic.

Another challenge was developing the content for the website and creating a strong SEO strategy. I learned the importance of researching search intent and competition, as well as seeking feedback from experts in the field. This helped me to iteratively refine the content and improve the overall user experience.

One of the biggest advantages was my background as a developer, which allowed me to easily navigate the technical aspect of setting up the website and implementing the SEO strategy. Additionally, being open to feedback and willing to continuously iterate and improve the platform was crucial to its success.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We currently rely on WordPress for our online blogging endeavors. To optimize our operations, we utilize various plugins, including Yoast SEO and Table Builders, among others.

Furthermore, we leverage Google Analytics to monitor website traffic and gather crucial insights into our customer behavior. These tools have played a significant role in our operations and helped us better understand the performance of our business.

Additionally, we utilize AHrefs and Node.js with Puppeteer to generate ideas for our blog posts.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?

Stay persistent! Starting a business takes time, effort, and hard work. Don’t get discouraged by setbacks and failures, but instead, use them as opportunities to learn and grow.