About the Company

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Joosep Seitam, along with his partner Martin Kardi, launched a business selling gold-plated moissanite hip-hop jewelry. Their venture targets African American customers in the USA, offering a specific type of jewelry known as hip-hop jewelry.

In just eight months, they successfully scaled their business to generate $30,000 in monthly revenue, primarily through effective SEO strategies. Their organic monthly traffic quickly surpassed 10,000 visitors, demonstrating the impact of their online marketing efforts.

Reflecting on their journey, Joosep recalls how he and Martin were in a precarious financial situation just two years ago, uncertain about their future. Despite the challenges, their determination and strategic approach led to the remarkable growth and success of their jewelry business.

Idea Behind Company

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As of September 2023, Joosep Seitam is a 22-year-old university dropout from Tallinn, Estonia. He started his first business at the age of 16, running a gardening business in the wealthiest neighborhood of Estonia. Within three years, he scaled the business to become the leading name in the local gardening industry. Despite this success, Seitam always harbored a desire to venture into the e-commerce space.

In 2019, he entered the world of dropshipping and found immediate success with his first store, selling Halloween masks inspired by the horror movie “The Purge.” He made $37,000 in just 16 days through targeted Facebook ads. However, the seasonal nature of the business forced him to explore new online stores selling evergreen products, but these subsequent ventures were not successful, causing him to lose faith in dropshipping. Fortunately, he found success selling designer clothes on platforms like Grailed.com and Etsy.com until he was banned for dropshipping.

In 2021, Seitam's business activities paused for eight months due to his military service. During this time, he met someone who would become a significant business partner, leading to multiple successful ventures. Together, they launched socialplug.io and Adsellr.com, which currently generate $50,000 to $70,000 in combined monthly revenue. Through these ventures, Seitam mastered SEO, learning from costly mistakes and eventually understanding how effective SEO could transform a business into a sustainable long-term enterprise by ranking relevant keywords on Google.

Creating the Company

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Joosep Seitam leveraged his prior SEO knowledge to enter a relatively untapped industry where competitors had either neglected SEO or executed it poorly. Their initial major investments included purchasing an expired domain for $6,500 and an Instagram name for $3,000. Joosep then created and optimized a website for two months to ensure it was as SEO-friendly as possible. Without funds for product image samples, they relied on their supplier to provide pictures for free. They connected a payment gateway, Stripe, but faced challenges as Stripe categorized them as a high-risk business due to their high-value products, leading Joosep to explore other payment gateway options.

During the next few months, Joosep wrote around 100 blog posts and gathered over 160 backlinks, growing their organic traffic from 100 to 8,000 visitors per month. They finally found a suitable payment gateway in the sixth month, after a four-month search. By the end of the sixth month, they had invested approximately $40,000 to launch the business. Joosep's efforts in SEO and finding a reliable payment gateway were critical to their early growth. He offers assistance with payment gateways and SEO through LinkedIn.

In the seventh month, they successfully integrated their payment gateway and generated over $20,000 in revenue within the first 15 days, achieving a 50% profit margin. By the eighth month, their organic traffic had nearly reached 10,000 visitors per month, and they were generating $30,000 per month in revenue. They collaborated with YouTube influencers to create review videos, recognizing that building trust in the jewelry business requires significant time, money, and effort. Sending influencers jewelry costing thousands per piece is part of their strategy to scale the business to hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly revenue. Joosep learned that even in a competitive industry, small businesses can succeed by targeting niches overlooked by larger competitors.

Launching the Business

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Joosep Seitam’s approach to business success hinges on offering unique value to clients. In their case, they provided custom leather jewelry boxes for customers to store and transport their jewelry. Additionally, they emphasized the importance of being present where their customers are, specifically targeting niche-specific keywords on Google and utilizing SEO to gain visibility. This SEO strategy has significantly contributed to their current success, driving organic traffic from zero to almost 10,000 visitors per month.

The initial step in Joosep's process involves thorough topical and keyword research. For every new business venture, he compiles a comprehensive list of relevant keywords in a Google Sheets file, often using tools like Ahrefs.com. This research phase is critical for identifying the keywords competitors are ranking with and helps in structuring on-page SEO. Joosep meticulously categorized the keywords into collections and crafted the copy accordingly, ensuring the inclusion of appropriate content volume by analyzing competitor sites. Once the copy was implemented, he focused on internal linking, a crucial aspect of on-page SEO that boosts site performance by linking collection or product pages from the homepage.

The subsequent phase was link building, starting with an extensive review of competitor backlinks and compiling a list for outreach. Joosep initiated the process by purchasing a new domain, setting up a Google Workspace account, and warming up the new email using Instantly.ai. This preparation led to a high email open rate, facilitating effective outreach. He meticulously evaluated potential sites for backlinks, avoiding private blog networks and selecting sites with healthy traffic growth. Joosep emphasized writing guest posts with relevant content and strategic anchor text to enhance SEO without appearing unnatural. By focusing on building topical authority—covering every relevant topic within their niche—he achieved significant organic growth, doubling website traffic solely through blog writing without initial financial returns. His dedication and belief in surpassing competitors fueled this successful journey.

Earnings

Today, Joosep Seitam's business is progressing steadily, though it is not yet profitable. They anticipate turning a profit within 2.5 months. With Christmas approaching, they estimate a turnover of over $100,000 during the holiday season. Their profit margins stand at around 50%, with no customer acquisition or advertising costs to date, relying solely on hard work. The returning customer rate is approximately 11%, with an average customer value of $1,000. Despite a conversion rate below 1%, visitors spend an average of 2 minutes on the site, largely due to blog traffic aimed at providing helpful information.

Their social media presence is strong, with over 50,000 Instagram followers, around 1,000 Facebook likes, and approximately 10,000 monthly views on Pinterest. Currently, 99% of sales are generated through their website, with the remaining 1% coming from Etsy. Over the next 12 months, Joosep plans to reinvest earnings into sending new jewelry to influencers and brand ambassadors on YouTube and Instagram. They also aim to hire a marketer to create high-quality Instagram content, posting 2-5 times daily. Joosep will continue focusing on SEO with a goal of reaching 50,000 organic visitors by the end of 2024. Additionally, they will scale Facebook ad campaigns and explore marketing on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, targeting $250,000 in monthly revenue by the end of 2024.

One of the most valuable lessons Joosep learned was navigating the complexities of payment gateways. Understanding how to approach payment processors and qualify for a low-risk category was crucial, especially since previous businesses fell into the high-risk category due to a lack of processing history and reliance on dropshipping. High product prices also contributed to the risk classification. Moreover, the timing of starting the business proved advantageous, as awareness and interest in moissanite jewelry, a more affordable alternative to diamonds, have been growing. This trend is reflected in the increasing search volume for related keywords, underscoring the market's potential.