Asked to seo very large directory, what $$$ to ask for

[Jeannie Crabtree]

I have been contacted to be part of a team and need to give them my prices. I am still undecided.

The person is looking into having a relative build a directory for say 50 biggest U.S. cities to start with, everything under the sun business listings ( not everything, but that gives you an idea) type of directory. With the ability for people to comment on the various businesses.

I would be doing on site seo and off site seo. How big this will get is ambiguous, so it is hard to put a price on the on site seo as well as the off site seo.

I need some ideas on how to define how much I will do and how much work I will put into this (don't want a 9 to 5 job). And how much to charge.

Thanks .

Jeannie

[Lucid]

Sounds from the size of it that it would pretty much be a full time job. So the question is a) how much time do you want to put in and b) how much per hour do you want to earn. Or c) how much money in the year do you want to earn, assuming this is your only job and how much time do you want to put in. That gives you your hourly rate not taking into account expenses.

[yukon]

If the site is a CMS like Wordpress (which is what I would use) then you have a few php templates to edit for on-page seo, which can be time consuming. I would bill 1 day per template page (what do you need to earn per day?).

Off-page seo can be even more time consuming & expensive depending on the external links you go after.

Ask them what their seo budget is for the project, If they don't know then their not serious.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Yes, it would be wordpress. A few php templates? I have a small directory and am building a couple more. I seo each page/post, so if you would explain that comment more, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Jeannie

Originally Posted by yukon

If the site is a CMS like Wordpress (which is what I would use) then you have a few php templates to edit for on-page seo, which can be time consuming. I would bill 1 day per template page (what do you need to earn per day?).

Off-page seo can be even more time consuming & expensive depending on the external links you go after.

Ask them what their seo budget is for the project, If they don't know then their not serious.

[outwest]

If it were me its too ambiguous to make a committment to
How can you give a price if you dont know what they want. could end up taking all you time and you give a price you thought was great but then turns out to be a real negative on your life or time

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Yes, I want to talk this over with my relative. I am the one who suggested a certain plug in that would do 50 cities. That would give more definition to this.

My take on what the guy said, I want it really big and you put it together. I have the money to do it, now I want the expertise to get it done.

Originally Posted by outwest

If it were me its too ambiguous to make a committment to
How can you give a price if you dont know what they want. could end up taking all you time and you give a price you thought was great but then turns out to be a real negative on your life or time

[Juvv2096]

Is he looking to monetize it? its going to be pretty expensive, and also there are so many of these business listing networks out there, whats going to make this one different?

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Yes, monitization will be renting out the top couple listings on each page, the pop up, etc.

There are so many of these out there, I hope he understands that. It is a good point. Personally, I think nichefying them will work better.

I am fighting the flu, so am making an early night of it. I will check this thread in the morning.

Thanks for all the input.

Jeannie

Originally Posted by Juvv2096

Is he looking to monetize it? its going to be pretty expensive, and also there are so many of these business listing networks out there, whats going to make this one different?

[outwest]

Originally Posted by Jeannie Crabtree

Yes, I want to talk this over with my relative. I am the one who suggested a certain plug in that would do 50 cities. That would give more definition to this.

My take on what the guy said, I want it really big and you put it together. I have the money to do it, now I want the expertise to get it done.

tell him $50,000
watch him have a heart attack

[lovboa]

Do it the internet marketer way and tell him your work is worth $1,000,000. But that you'll give him a one-time super duper limited time special offer for only $10,000! For an incredible unbelievable once-in-a-lifetime discount of $990,000!!!

Prepare a photoshopped picture of him in a Lamborghini, then after you tell him the great deal, whip it out and tell him this is the life he can live if he orders your service!

[MikeFriedman]

You could definitely ask for a lot more than $50,000/yr to work on a project like that. Assuming your plan is to target local keywords in each city, you are literally talking about thousands of keywords to work on.

If the directory has 50 business listings in each city (I have seen directories like this with as few as 20 up to well over 100), and you are starting in 50 cities, that is 2500 listings. I'm assuming you wouldn't target just one keyword for each listing. On the conservative side, lets say 3 keywords for each listing. That is 7500 keywords.

Now of course, in some cities the competition will be so light that the listings will rank with very little work and maybe just good internal linking alone. However, other listings, like restaurants in New York City, are going to take serious work.

If you take on a project like this and it is as big as you are describing, this is not a 9 to 5 job. More like a 9 to 9 job.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Yes Mike, you see the picture. This is huge. I decided I would need a team of a few people doing the on site seo if I took it on.

I appreciate your comments. At this point, we need to go back to the prospective client with a proposal. I don't think my relative or the prospective client fully understands the enormity of it.

And then the offsite seo would start soon after a couple pages are seo'd... it is all doable, others have done it, but I want to make sure this person understands the enormity of it and what it entails financially and is just not dreamming about how big he is going to be and how much money he will make.

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

You could definitely ask for a lot more than $50,000/yr to work on a project like that. Assuming your plan is to target local keywords in each city, you are literally talking about thousands of keywords to work on.

If the directory has 50 business listings in each city (I have seen directories like this with as few as 20 up to well over 100), and you are starting in 50 cities, that is 2500 listings. I'm assuming you wouldn't target just one keyword for each listing. On the conservative side, lets say 3 keywords for each listing. That is 7500 keywords.

Now of course, in some cities the competition will be so light that the listings will rank with very little work and maybe just good internal linking alone. However, other listings, like restaurants in New York City, are going to take serious work.

If you take on a project like this and it is as big as you are describing, this is not a 9 to 5 job. More like a 9 to 9 job.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

He says he used to work for Google. In what capacity, I don't know. So he may be familiar with this IM speak. LOL

Originally Posted by lovboa

Do it the internet marketer way and tell him your work is worth $1,000,000. But that you'll give him a one-time super duper limited time special offer for only $10,000! For an incredible unbelievable once-in-a-lifetime discount of $990,000!!!

Prepare a photoshopped picture of him in a Lamborghini, then after you tell him the great deal, whip it out and tell him this is the life he can live if he orders your service!

[MikeFriedman]

Originally Posted by Jeannie Crabtree

but I want to make sure this person understands the enormity of it and what it entails financially and is just not dreamming about how big he is going to be and how much money he will make.

This is going to be the biggest challenge for you.

If he looks around, he will find a couple people who know next to nothing about SEO or the amount of work involved for a project like this, and they will tell him they can take on the project for something ridiculous like $200/month.

And if he is relatively new to online ventures, he might be one of those people that think online marketing takes little to no skill and/or money. If he is one of those people and you do get the job, he probably also thinks that all of this can be done in a week or two and will be wondering why he is not a millionaire after 30 days.

I would probably start a proposal like this at a minimum in the $8500-10,000/month range. I would really need to research it more intensely. Might very well need to be double that price after looking at it more closely. The other thing that would affect pricing if I was looking at this is if the client is ok with starting with 10 cities at a time or if he wants work done on all 50 at once.

I would want some real details from him on his plans to monetize this whole thing. I would want to see if he has really thought it through or if someone just bought some silly WSO about setting up directories in cities and thinks it takes no work or planning. The money will just magically come rolling in. If his plan is to sell space in these directories, how will he sell it? Is there going to be a dedicated sales team to sell the 2500+ spaces available or does he think that businesses are just going to call him and beg for ad space?

If he doesn't have a solid plan in place to make money off of this, it won't last very long. I wouldn't want to get involved in a project like this only to have him bail after 2 months.

[Jeannie Crabtree]

Exactly! Mike, that is my gut feeling. Thanks for breaking it down and the suggestions on pricing.

As it is, my brother is having to come up with this whole plan, and that is not a good sign. A business person would want to map that all out, then find people to talk with to refine the plan and do the work.

I think the man is dreaming, but we will see. My brother and I talked and agreed that he would suggest making a directory for each city to the prospective client.

Not that the 50 cities is not do able, ( it is quite a reach) but this way will let the prospect get into the workings of it and see how it goes. On our side, it lets us see if this is doable with this person and expectations can be met.

The prospective client expects to do all the cold calling and getting people on board.

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

This is going to be the biggest challenge for you.

If he looks around, he will find a couple people who know next to nothing about SEO or the amount of work involved for a project like this, and they will tell him they can take on the project for something ridiculous like $200/month.

And if he is relatively new to online ventures, he might be one of those people that think online marketing takes little to no skill and/or money. If he is one of those people and you do get the job, he probably also thinks that all of this can be done in a week or two and will be wondering why he is not a millionaire after 30 days.

I would probably start a proposal like this at a minimum in the $8500-10,000/month range. I would really need to research it more intensely. Might very well need to be double that price after looking at it more closely. The other thing that would affect pricing if I was looking at this is if the client is ok with starting with 10 cities at a time or if he wants work done on all 50 at once.

I would want some real details from him on his plans to monetize this whole thing. I would want to see if he has really thought it through or if someone just bought some silly WSO about setting up directories in cities and thinks it takes no work or planning. The money will just magically come rolling in. If his plan is to sell space in these directories, how will he sell it? Is there going to be a dedicated sales team to sell the 2500+ spaces available or does he think that businesses are just going to call him and beg for ad space?

If he doesn't have a solid plan in place to make money off of this, it won't last very long. I wouldn't want to get involved in a project like this only to have him bail after 2 months.