Who Is a Digital Landlord and How to Become One?
Real estate properties have been recognized as assets worth owning for centuries now. Now that we are moving to an ecosystem where all things digital is pretty normal, we must pay attention to digital real estate.
Now, when there are digital real estate properties, there are some digital landlords who own those assets. More so, they can make a profit from those assets, with some of the landlords making a million every year.
While generating a million-dollar revenue from digital real assets is intriguing, the concept is still pretty new. You can use it as an avenue for constant passive income. That is why I suggest acting when the platform is still new and taking the first action before the market becomes crowded.
If you are willing to learn digital real estate, go through this article. First, let me give you an idea of what a digital landlord is.
What is a Digital Landlord?
Let’s keep it simple. The digital landlord is someone who manages digital real estate properties or digital assets. These assets include keyless technology for remote security measures, websites, social media platforms, property management software, etc. Their day-to-day responsibilities revolve around managing traffic and inquiries some of these websites generate.
They are always active in the world of digital real estate and investing in different digital assets, such as purchasing domain names and websites or investing in social media account management for improving businesses.
Digital real estate is also referred to as virtual properties, digital assets, and internet real estate property. By investing in these assets and managing them thoroughly, digital entrepreneurs create a passive income source.
Responsibilities of a Digital Landlord
As said before, the responsibilities of a digital landlord revolve around maintaining portfolios of virtual real estate properties. However, here is a detail of the different responsibilities of a digital landlord –
- Lead generation.
- Rank and rent.
- Affiliate marketing.
- Social Media Management.
- Pay per Call.
These digital real estate managers or landlords ensure their profit by owning the different properties they manage.
But, the main difference here is that more than owning the properties is needed if someone is willing to generate profit from them. They have to invest the necessary amount of time, effort, and money to generate the income they need. So, naturally, managing digital real estate involves developing different skills.
Skills a Digital Landlord Needs
Aside from these, one needs to have a certain set of skills to become a successful digital landlord. The required type and amount of work for different types of assets will also vary. For example, a content platform requires a different type of work compared to an eCommerce platform or Amazon FBA business platform.
Research on Different Digital Real Estate Assets
This requires real digital landlords to study the digital world in-depth. They may have to take certain courses, do their research continuously, and gain different skills related to it. This type of research is more of freestyle research and does not have a hard and fast rule behind it.
Based on the recent technological developments, the digital landlord also needs to stay updated with the current changes in the platforms they own. This also includes complying with different and new technologies and learning to use them.
Learning to Use Different Tools
However, one needs to have in-depth knowledge of the platform they want to earn from. This could include learning different tools, ways of marketing in certain platforms, use of software, and implementation of strategies. Some of the most common tools these users use include –
- SEMRush
- Surfer SEO
- Ahrefs
- Keyword Cupid
- CTR Booster
- SEO Testing Tool
Knowing Digital Management Principles
When a digital landlord has certain digital platforms, and if they want to employ or outsource employees, they need to learn to manage people. A digital landlord with different digital assets may need to employ people in different roles. Maintaining and working with these people requires a convenient amount of management skills.
Avenues of Income for Digital Landlords
Here are some common avenues of income that digital landlords leverage from. They use these platforms for generating leads, driving sales, or marketing initiatives. Most digital landlords use these common channels to boost their rental income.
Social Media
It goes without saying – social media is one of the biggest platforms for digital landlords to run their rental business. Different social media platforms have millions of people engaging from around the world, providing massive website traffic.
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter have millions of people engaging daily. They are great platforms for generating leads through different ads, videos, and content. These are great platforms for generating brand awareness and boosting online rental income for digital landlords.
Rank & Rent
One of the popular ways for digital real estate owners to earn is through rank and rent. This process involves the digital landlord optimizing a local business’s business website or social media page for a fee.
How Does Rank & Rent Work for Digital Real Estate Assets?
Let’s say that there is a local restaurant and they are selling great momos for an aggressive price. This restaurant is looking for leads to convert into paying customers. Now, let’s say that you have a ranked website with a good amount of traffic searching for food, momo, and similar items. You can rent this ranked website to this local business and let them leverage the traffic.
This is a way of leveraging the traffic one has on the website and making money from it. A digital landlord does not need to start a brick-and-mortar-based business to make money. Instead, they can create a website in a niche industry and direct the traffic to businesses that need it.
Most of these practices are done through simple content creation and SEO practices. The landlords run operations like improving a website’s backlink profiles, creating authentic and customer-relevant content, doing on-page optimization, and more.
The process is to use the right traffic and drive it in the right direction where it is needed. Digital landlords charge a price for this service. This method is great for small businesses and local services who want to avoid the hassle of building a website and still want that traffic.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is like taking less worries and making more money. A digital landlord can sell others’ products without any additional worries. They do not have to worry about developing a product, dealing with customer queries or complaints, or other issues businesses face. They need to sell a product through the platform.
Compared to general real estate, the options for diversified income are immense. Digital landlords can also choose to create a membership product to generate recurring earnings. Affiliate marketing is one of those different profitable avenues of earning for digital landlords.
Cookie Software
When a visitor visits a website, the cookies can pinpoint their time of visit. The web server uses the cookies for sending a short stream of identifying data to the website browser.
These get identified and read via ‘name-value pairs, and they send them to the right destinations’ websites and give directions regarding what data to remember and share.
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the process of drawing out prospects or potential customers. Digital landlords can put the information of the leads into marketing software like a contract management platform.
Their goal is to nurture this lead or the prospective customers and guide them through the buyer’s journey. The part of nurturing includes sharing product offerings or promotional content to create buyer’s intention. This will eventually prompt them to buy from the seller.
Lead generation is one of the most important and wide aspects of putting leads into the sale funnel. It is the journey for a visitor where they transition from just being a visitor to a paying customer. Also, only some of the leads are generated and nurtured in the same way or serve the same purpose. Leads are nurtured differently based on their phase in the sales funnel.
Here are different types of leads based on their phase in the lead sales cycle–
- Market qualified.
- Sales qualified.
- Service qualified.
- Product qualified.
There are other different ways of leading generations. Some would include –
blog posts, job applications, competitions, live events, coupons, and online content for websites.
Pay Per Call
Digital asset owners can monetize their assets and earn from pay-per-call. So how does it work? It is the advertising platform where the cost paid by the advertisers gets factored by the number of telephone calls they get.
Pay Per call providers or digital landlords who provide this service charge the advertisers a fee for each call/impression/or conversation their initiatives cause.
Why Should You Become a Digital Landlord?
As technology, the internet, blockchain, AI, and other digital revolutions reshape the world, the definition of the word property also changes. Since young people nowadays are more involved in digital media for everything, it would also be a fun way for them to build their assets and net worth. Digital landlords are a way of investing in digital properties.
Reasons To Become a Digital Landlord
Here are some reasons why you should consider being a digital real estate –
- The world is moving toward a digital ecosystem where digital assets have a significant monetary value. Investors and traders can benefit from these assets and build a business on them.
- Digital real estate properties are enough to help someone pay off their debt, accumulate wealth, and enjoy life the way they want.
- Being a digital landlord provides you with the perk of financial freedom. Digital landlords have flexible work hours. They can decide how long they want to work and balance their work and life accordingly.
- Digital landlords can plan their finances easily if they have a constant and increasing source of earnings from the digital assets they own.
- Digital landlords can work from anywhere and work with people from different parts of the planet. They do not need a physical location to stay fixated and work.
- They can work with a variety of people with a variety of skill sets.
- Digital landlords do not require too much initial investment. While a real property would require thousands of dollars, you can create a digital asset with a hundred dollars only.
- Digital assets provide higher returns than real estate assets. If you rent out a house, you will generate a limited amount of monthly income. On the other hand, a website with massive traffic and authority will provide you with multiple avenues of income and a high return.
- Also, you do not have to deal with tenants, wait on late rent notices and initiate the eviction process.
- You can charge your clients based on their locations, their currency, their requirement, and based on your contribution to their business.
How To Become a Successful Digital Landlord?
Here are different knowledge you need –
Gather Your Digital Assets
First, you need to have different digital assets like social media pages, websites, etc. You can build a website from scratch or spend enough to get it built by experts in that field. If you have massive followers on Instagram or a similar social media platform, you can use your ID as a digital asset.
Learn the Tenant-Landlord Laws
Embarking on your journey as a digital landlord necessitates a foundational understanding of tenant-landlord laws. While the digital sphere offers convenience, compliance with legal regulations remains imperative to sidestep penalties. Beyond legalities, non-compliance risks tenant dissatisfaction, potentially leading to tenant turnover.
It’s prudent to delve into the intricacies of state-specific laws governing your properties. Accessing these resources online provides a dynamic reference point, aiding you in staying abreast of legal nuances.
Effectively blending digital convenience with legal diligence ensures a smoother landlord-tenant relationship, fostering satisfaction and mitigating potential complications down the digital property management road.
Marketing For Digital Landlords
Digital landlords leverage various property listing websites to market rentals effectively. Key information in listings includes the monthly rental price, lease terms, and relevant details to assist potential tenants in their decision-making. Essential elements to include are:
- Monthly rental price
- Lease terms and conditions
- Pet policy and associated fees
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Security deposit amount and refund conditions
- Amenities and property upgrades
To make listings engaging, consider adding high-quality photos and virtual tours. Responsive communication, transparent financial details, and regular updates on availability enhance the overall tenant experience. By optimizing for search engines and promoting positive reviews, digital landlords can maximize the visibility of their properties and attract suitable tenants.
Download A Management Portal
This platform facilitates the transition to a digital landlord by offering features like rent collection and automated notifications. It streamlines record-keeping, ensuring landlords maintain accurate documentation crucial for legal purposes. Being organized is essential, especially in potential legal scenarios where demonstrating communication with tenants through reminders and notifications becomes vital.
For optimal efficiency, it’s advisable to configure the tenant portal to send notifications. This allows landlords to stay informed about tenant correspondence and any necessary system updates, ensuring seamless management and communication. The goal is to enhance overall landlord-tenant interactions and maintain a well-documented record for legal preparedness.
Learn About Your Assets
It is really important to gain knowledge on different digital platforms and how they operate, and what type of audience (based on their age, gender, demography, and interests) exists there. It is also important to know the type of content those audiences consume.
Learn SEO
So, if you want to become a digital real estate landlord, you need to have immense knowledge of SEO. Why? Well, in the world of the digital jungle, SEO is your guiding light. The digital landlord uses their digital assets as platforms where they implement different marketing strategies. SEO helps you get your marketing strategy in place and reach the right audience at the right time through search engines.SEO helps you increase the visibility of your website. SEO allows you to rank your website higher in the SERP. With a higher rank, your website generates more impressions, which leads to more revenue. If you are operating on certain social media platforms, you should learn about how their algorithms work and how to read their analytics.
Final Words
Digital landlords are a high ROI income avenue with lots of scope for diversifying them. The more traffic you have, the more leads you are able to generate. This allows digital real estate owners to charge higher rental fees. With the help of SEO, they can boost their visibility and profitability in the process. Similarly, a social media platform with a huge following gives more audience for affiliate marketing and brand collaboration.
So, did you find the insight you were looking for on digital landlords? Please let us know your feedback in the comment section. Thank you for reading.
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