Prime Invincibility: Prime Visibility

The former president of NBC Universal doesn't come knocking on everyone's door, offering to buy their company. But that is just what Steve Rosenberg did for Prime Visibility, an Internet marketing services firm specializing in search engine optimization (SEO ), website on-page optimization, and pay-per-click management. The company's 2007 revenue was nearly $5 million and was ranked on Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America in 2007 and 2008. Their clients include Fox News, Brother Printers, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Nielsen. Prime Visibility CEO and founder Andrew Hazen has come a long way from his days as a lawyer doing mortgage foreclosures.

After failing out of SUNY Oswego twice (a result of excessive partying) Hazen graduated in 1995 and went on to attend Thomas M. Cooley Law School from 1996 to 1998. During his studies, he took a class in cyber law. It was in that class that Hazen created his first website; it was a simple site that helped law students. He linked to different case laws and old exams to help students prepare for class. Soon after launching the class project site, an attorney in Texas found the website and wanted to hire him to do case law research. He figured if an attorney was willing to pay him for research, there must be a huge market of lazy students who would pay him, too. In 1996, he registered Lazystudents.com and launched an online business while still a full-time law student. The website offered two services: a subscription-based database of useful links for students in all subjects and a custom research service. "Google didn't even exist yet," says Hazen. "What I was doing was almost like a mini Yahoo. But I'm not a techie or a programmer. The funny part was I charged everybody a $9.95 fee, but I gave every person the same password, which was, 'lazy link,' because I couldn't figure out how to create multiple passwords."

The Start of SEO

Hazen wanted to market his site online, but with his student loans piling up he couldn't afford to advertise with services such as Collegeclub.com and Student Advantage. Instead, Hazen set the goal of getting his website to appear on the first page of Yahoo results for the search "term papers." He began reading online forums and getting ideas. Through a lot of trial and error, he got his website to appear third in a list of 8.8 million results.

In addition to running his online business, Hazen graduated a three-year law program in two years. He passed the bar, returned to Long Island, and began practicing law. "I was doing mortgage foreclosures," says Hazen. "I was going to court and throwing people out of their houses and feeling terribly guilty about it. Then I had this idea to put all the Long Island businesses on the Internet and get them found." In 1998, without discussing his plan with his wife, he went into the office of the owner of his law firm to resign. "I told him I'm going to follow my dream and start an Internet company," says Hazen. "That conversation turned into the owner offering to back me, give me seed money, and be my partner." The law firm moved a couple of administrative assistants out of a corner, put up drywall, and that was the first Prime Visibility office.

Growing the Company

According to Hazen there were two major catalysts for the growth of his business from two slabs of drywall to millions in revenue. In 2000, Tourneau and Lauren Hutton signed on as clients, giving the company a higher level of credibility. The second catalyst was a 2003 documentary called "The Google Boys" that appeared on A&E's Biography channel. It was a one hour special about Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, and the producers interviewed Hazen about SEO. He appeared in the documentary for only three minutes and fifty-two seconds, but the publicity was priceless. "If you go to YouTube right now and type in 'search engine marketing,' that video is number one," says Hazen. "So now, people actually think that Google's recommending me because they see me on a special with Larry and Sergey—not in the same screen, but one minute they're looking at Larry and Sergey, the next it's this guy from Prime Visibility."