Digital Real Estate:
The Online Asset Side Hustle
(Rank & Rent Training – Peoria IL)
Build Monthly Income From Websites You Own — Not A Job You Work
A step-by-step training program from Ashton James Digital teaching Peoria-area entrepreneurs how to create digital assets that local businesses pay to use.
Presented by the education division of Ashton James Marketing & Web Development — the same company that builds lead-generation systems for real businesses.
Digital real estate — often called the Rank & Rent business model — is the process of building small local websites that generate leads and then renting those leads to local businesses.
Instead of:
• Selling products
• Managing employees
• Running ads every month
• Fighting competitors on social media
You build an online property once…
and local businesses pay to receive the customers.
Think of it like owning a billboard — except online, trackable, and scalable.
How It Works
- You choose a local service niche (example: roofing, tree service, concrete, chiropractors, attorneys)
- You build a simple website targeting a city (Peoria, East Peoria, Pekin, Morton, Washington IL)
- The site ranks on Google
- Customers call the number on the site
- A business pays you monthly to receive those calls
- No inventory
- No fulfillment
- No employees
- No cold calling
- You own the asset.
Why This Side Hustle Exists
(And Why Businesses Pay For It)
Local businesses do not want websites.
They want customers.
Most businesses in Central Illinois struggle with:
• Inconsistent leads
• Expensive ads
• Marketing agencies that don’t produce calls
So they happily pay for predictable incoming customers.
You are not selling marketing.
You are providing opportunities.
That distinction is why this model works.
Why This Is Different From Typical Online Businesses or Side Hustles
Affiliate Marketing: You send traffic — someone else keeps the customer.
Dropshipping: You manage orders, refunds, suppliers, and support.
Trading / Crypto: Income depends on timing and risk.
Freelancing: You still have a boss — multiple bosses
Digital Real Estate: You own an asset that businesses compete to use. You're paid for access — not effort.
What You Learn Inside The Digital Goldmine Training
This is not theory. This is the same process we use to build lead generation systems for real companies.
Market Selection
How to choose low-competition, high-value niches in Peoria and surrounding areas
You will learn:
• Service demand analysis
• Avoiding saturated markets
• Our proven ricing psychology
Website Build System
How to build simple conversion websites (not complex tech projects)
You will learn:
• Page structure that converts calls
• Local authority signals
• Trust design
No coding experience required.
Google Ranking Strategy
The exact framework used for local visibility
You will learn:
• Local SEO foundations
- Map presence
- Authority stacking
- Ranking consistency
Lead Routing & Tracking
Turn visitors into trackable customers
You will learn:
• Call tracking setup
• Proof of performance
• Lead validation
Renting The Asset
How to partner with businesses professionally
You will learn:
• Outreach without cold selling
• Pricing models
• Simple agreements
• Retention strategy
Who The Digital Goldmine Is For
People who prefer building systems over chasing trends.
• Working professionals wanting additional income streams
• Business owners diversifying revenue
• Beginners wanting a structured entry into online business
Who It Is Not For
People seeking instant results or purely passive income without setup effort.
Expected Outcome
This is not immediate income.
It's asset development.
General progression:
• Initial build period
• Visibility growth
• First business partnership
• Recurring monthly payments
• Additional properties expand income
Each completed property reduces dependency on time-based work.
Why Ashton James Digital Teaches This
Most courses teach tactics. We teach systems — because we operate marketing systems daily for real companies through Ashton James Marketing & Web Development. You're learning a business model from practitioners, not influencers.
Is this legal?
Yes. You own a website and forward (rent) the leads to a local business owner for an agreed upon price.
Do I need to talk to customers?
No.
We teach you how to route incoming calls directly to the business owner (website renter).
Do I need Digital Marketing, web design, SEO experience or tech skills?
No — the course assumes a beginner starting point, and so you learn as you go along right up to lauincing and renting your first website.
Is the model dependent on social media?
No. It relies on search demand that's already there - you don't need to generate any demand (or create content and post on Social Media.)
Is this saturated?
No, not even close.
There are more than 35 million small businesses in the US alone, and more than 10 million of them don't even have a website!
Plus, local markets refresh constantly because businesses start and close every year.
How much can one site make?
It varies by service and city, typically a few hundred to several thousand monthly - for each site you have.
Once a site is rented, it becomes teur, monthly Passive Income.
Digital Real Estate Rank and Rent
The most common questions about the Digital Goldmine Course and the Rank and Rent business model.
Next Step
If the model makes sense conceptually, the next step is simply reviewing the full walkthrough of how the Digital Goldmine operates.
