So, I recently completed a project for a real estate client and she reached top rankings on 2 out of 3 search engines. Not bad for a rookie What do you think is a decent pricing strategy/model for SEO work. This includes webcopy, linking campaigns, monitoring and such. Your thoughts on this?
xx dollar an hour? Thats the easiest way. (I charge usually about 30, but 50 seems more appropriate) Next to that I sometimes charge 5 minutes per visible link in MSN Search (I doubt thats a good idea, but somehow I did) and did you make new HTML pages for them? If you really like to know, I am interested in what you did exactly, just PM me, and I tell you what I would have charged.
I started up on my own at the start of this year and this has been one of my problems. What do i charge? At the moment i'm trying to build up a good customer base so i charge a low monthly fee which can start at £30 per month upto £150 per month. This seems to be working quite well but as i get more of a track record i do want to increase my prices accordingly. SEO prices seem to range from anything to anything. I came across some doing it as a hobby for £15 per month up to some companies charging thousands per month. At the moment i just estimate what the customer can afford and go with that even if it means putting in more effort than i'm being paid at the moment.
No offense, but what can you do for 30 pounds? I assume not much. You probably help him a lot, and spend like 5-6 hours a month on that client? In that case you are ruining your chances for yourself. If a client comes back, you cannot nearly do the things for the same prices, not even if you doubled, tripled, or quadroupled them. 30 pounds per month? What do you do for that? You cannot even visit him to explain who you are, and what you do, for 30 pounds. Making a bill is 15 minutes work.... looking at his website is 15 minutes work.. sending an email is 15 minutes work.. as soon as you have an office, you notice that your ACTUAL work takes only 50% of your time. The other 50% is making inquiries, support, etc etc. So charge per hour, charge 75% of your competitors or something, but make your prices real, so that when an old client comes back, you can actually help him? Or can you actually do anything for 30 pounds? In that case I am interested in working with you, as I have tons of work, and got a 100 or so to spare.
To be honest i do more than i should for £30 at this stage. I'm out to get the business and build up a good client base. I have already got my low paid clients a good ranking for that and will continue to do so. The fact i'm spending more time than i should doesn't really matter at this stage. I need the experience and to show others that i can do this. You may mock but its not easy trying to start up (as i'm sure you know) on your own. I do an analysis of the site, correct what i think needs doing and then implement a link building program. I do this through registered link exchange programs which are not to time consuming. Ifr you have any small clients that you want to pass on then by all means do it Just giving an honest answer to the questions.
BobL SEO is like any service - there are goingto be people who charge ridiculously high or low amounts (firms can charge $150k per year to big corporate clients, while as you mentioned - hobbyists can charge just a little bit of nothing) You should charge what works for you. If you can maintain your service for so little, and be satisfied with that, then by all means go ahead. Too many people raise their prices "becasue they can" out of greed. Still, keep in mind that there is a point at which bargain meets value - at least in the markets perception. I do some web design, SEO, ebay templates services like that - I was undercutting everyone with my crazy low prices - and since it was a 'hobby' it was fine for me to get just a few $$ for a great deal of time and/or effort. but it also brought me more interest than I could service effectively. I DOUBLED my prices, and my work load DOUBLED! I raised my prices again and I still have more side work than I have extra time to accomplish it. Seems that the low low price seemed 'too good to be true', or indicated poor quality to some. Make sure your prices are such that you can afford to do quality work, and that they reflect the quality of your work.
azakers, Wow. I wish I could be as greedy as you and get away with it. I think what also comes into play here are your business and salesmanship skills. I have plenty of experience running my own business and doing business development. Not to sound too arogant about this, but I'm confident of my businss acumen and such. At this point, I just need to figure out the hardcore logistics of this and what I can and can't handle within my vertical market. By the way, anyone here know how to draft up a good contract when doing SEO work?
I think AzAkers is right with people being suspicious with low prices. You want to prove that you can do it, but most companies want someone that looks like he already proven it. You dont need a big client sheet, just show off your own websites, or go there and talk 2 hours about how Google works.. show you can do it, make a blog, write daily good content and show your blog so they see you are active. The prices may look tricky. At first it scares companies off that are worried you are not serious. Secondly, you will not be able to keep up that price as soon as you will do it as profession. Administration, taxes, expenses, free meetings, papers, etc... Really it may look greedy, but its not. 50% of your income will go away as soon as its not a hobby anymore. Then you need to double prices, and your current clients will freak out. Why the hell will he DOUBLE prices they think? It might be more safe, by having less clients to start with, but to be sure you can keep them in the future when you are a professional. I dont mean you need more money, I just say look at the future and base everything on that.
Yes, that is correct. I just want to resell domain names. I'm not lookign resell hosting space. I"m not even looking to make any money off of it because it's a commodity now. I just want to add value to my clients so that they can just buy from me rather than from Godaddy. And then once they buy, I must then go into their account and make sure the domain is forwarded properly and such. It's a headache if I do it that way. Hence, the need to resell domain names. It allows for more control
just to clarify my "greediness": I raised my prices twice in an effort to reduce my work load - not necesarrily to make more moolah