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My Client - Cool story - Your Opinion

by Landon Walsh
11 replies
I'll make the story as short as possible....

So, while working on marketing for another client, and visiting a friend in Starbucks a man overheard me talking about my Marketing Consulting business.

Turns out he is the owner of a multi-million dollar construction company in Central Arkansas.

He was shocked to find out my pricing and examples of past work because he had recently spent over 10 grand to have some local marketing company make him a new site. They were hired 4 months ago and he still has not got a finished product.

Furthermore he had spent alot of money on his current site which is HORRIBLE, outdated, not kept up, and doesnt even have basic SEO done.

I thought this guy's story is really sad. This guy has a Great local company, money to spend, and still hasn't got the quality marketing work done that he deserves. Well I'm going to do him right.

I do think that this is a good example of how needed good freelance offline marketers are. Let this be a lesson to you all. If you can find great clients chatting with a buddy in coffee shops, then there is alot of money to be made building and marketing local business websites!

Get out there and make some money!!!!


Btw... Here is the guy's site if you want to see for yourself. I'm working on a marketing profile for the guy before I get to work for him. Feel free to put in your two cents:
Watson Homes
#client #cool #opinion #story
  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Originally Posted by Landon Walsh View Post

    Here is the guy's site if you want to see for yourself. I'm working on a marketing profile for the guy before I get to work for him.
    So whose website is this? The people he paid all that money to or yours? I thought you said they still hadn't delivered his website as yet?

    It's definitely so true though. There's a lot of scumbags out there... and unfortunately a lot of suckers too!
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    • Profile picture of the author Landon Walsh
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      So whose website is this? The people he paid all that money to or yours? I thought you said they still hadn't delivered his website as yet?

      It's definitely so true though. There's a lot of scumbags out there... and unfortunately a lot of suckers too!
      That is his current site. He has apparently paid $10,000 to another company to build him a new site but they haven't delivered for 4 months now.
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  • Profile picture of the author claytonkeirns
    Yes I totally agree! I helped a guy get on the first page of the organic results of Google within like a couple weeks.

    I'm actually sending out a bunch of letters tomorrow to business owners and Imma do some calling as well
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    "Forget about plan B, it takes too much focus off of plan A" -Will Smith

    "What's the 'Magic Bullet' that you have figured out?....Okay, what I would like you to do now, is to make a commitment to yourself to just give it away. Give it away to as many people as possible" -Eben Pagan

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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    I can't believe people charge $10,000 to build a website in this day and age, unless ofcourse it has a big database behind it and a lot of fiddly stuff. I'm glad this guy has finally found someone who knows what they're doing. Keep us all updated!
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    • Profile picture of the author Landon Walsh
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      I can't believe people charge $10,000 to build a website in this day and age, unless ofcourse it has a big database behind it and a lot of fiddly stuff. I'm glad this guy has finally found someone who knows what they're doing. Keep us all updated!
      Agree, however I would charge that much for a regular site which has high market competition and thus would require alot of back end marketing work.

      What is sad is that considering his business, a great website and great marketing should have a high valuation. Considering his high value clientele, i'm sorry to say that he has probably lost a few hundred thousand dollars due to a lack of online presence in his region.

      Thanks, I'll let you all know what happens.
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      I can't believe people charge $10,000 to build a website in this day and age, unless ofcourse it has a big database behind it and a lot of fiddly stuff.
      Unfortunately charging $10k for a simple site is a mentality that is often shown on this forum when someone new to designing for a client asks how much they should charge.

      The "one liners" often post here saying things like "depends how much they can afford" or "depends how much the site will make for them" followed by "I'd charge $5k" or "I'd charge $10k" without stopping to think how much the job is actually worth and whether or not an over inflated price is likely to lead to client loyalty and long term work.

      Then there are people like me who post and say things like $500 if it's a simple site with x pages (or whatever your real charges are).

      This reinforces what I've always thought about the former - that they are posting here to increase their post count and have very little clue what they are talking about!

      I charge all my clients the same basic fee - whether they live in a two up two down terrace or are millionnaires. It's about treating your clients as people and building relationships not about money grabbing.

      /rant - obviously I've got the grumps today
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      • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
        Banned
        Originally Posted by rosetrees View Post

        Unfortunately charging $10k for a simple site is a mentality that is often shown on this forum when someone new to designing for a client asks how much they should charge.

        The "one liners" often post here saying things like "depends how much they can afford" or "depends how much the site will make for them" followed by "I'd charge $5k" or "I'd charge $10k" without stopping to think how much the job is actually worth and whether or not an over inflated price is likely to lead to client loyalty and long term work.
        I like the ones who say they charge $1,000-$2,000 a month to do about 15 minutes of work each month for their "clients". I don't get too bent out of shape about it though, because I know most of them are full of crap.
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      • Profile picture of the author Landon Walsh
        Originally Posted by rosetrees View Post

        Unfortunately charging $10k for a simple site is a mentality that is often shown on this forum when someone new to designing for a client asks how much they should charge.

        The "one liners" often post here saying things like "depends how much they can afford" or "depends how much the site will make for them" followed by "I'd charge $5k" or "I'd charge $10k" without stopping to think how much the job is actually worth and whether or not an over inflated price is likely to lead to client loyalty and long term work.

        Then there are people like me who post and say things like $500 if it's a simple site with x pages (or whatever your real charges are).

        This reinforces what I've always thought about the former - that they are posting here to increase their post count and have very little clue what they are talking about!

        I charge all my clients the same basic fee - whether they live in a two up two down terrace or are millionnaires. It's about treating your clients as people and building relationships not about money grabbing.

        /rant - obviously I've got the grumps today
        Agreed! For me to even consider charging $10,000 I would have to be building a huge site with alot of graphic design, programming, and marketing work.

        Here is one of my typical Sales letters I will send over Craigslist. Its normally takes me about 2 hours to copy and paste 30 emails from targeted posters and I pull in a good 2-3 jobs ranging from $300-$4000 dollars each.

        Hi there! My name is Landon Walsh,

        I found your request on criagslist and thought I would shoot you an email. I am a Internet Marketing Professional with 4 years of marketing experience and consulting with hands-on experience in improving sales for online wholesale and retail operations.

        *I do mostly SEO, SMO(Wordpress, twitter, facebook, Youtube), and PPC work, *However I also do website and graphic design. *For graphic design and programming projects that are over my head I have a small team of designers and programmers I turn to. *I will attach some sample ads and work that my team and I have done. *Some more examples of what I personally can do for your company include:

        • Website design
        • Blog Design
        • Wordpress Page creation
        • Light programming work (HTML, CSS)
        • All Required Marketing work
        • SMO & Youtube Services
        • Twitter SMO market follow building
        • Keyword and SEO analytics
        • A/B site testing
        • Connect with Affiliate Advertising
        • Professional Traffic metric reporting
        • Track and analyze site performance
        • Analyze and implement the best SEO/SEM practices
        • Manage external vendors and monetization.
        • Analyze trends and recommend campaign changes and updates
        • Create and manage PPC(Or Cost per Action) campaigns across multiple search engines and mediums



        My prices very depending on what you are needing accomplished, if you would just reply with a email I can give you a quote on the services I offer.


        Generic quotes for Service:
        (These are not exact quotes, but average estimates on services. Each job requires different pricing according to the services needed and time spend.)



        Marketing:

        Overview(email) - Free
        Market Research - (Free with Marketing Strategy plan)
        5 Page Marketing Strategy - $250
        10 page Marketing Strategy- $500

        Basic SEO check and setup - $100
        Advanced SEO workup - $250
        Top SEO Pagerank for multiple keywords(Content Required) - $500+

        Site Design:

        Webmaster:
        WordPress Setup and Design/ $100 - $200
        Basic (CSS, HTML) / $100 - $300
        Advanced(CSS, HTML, jQuery) / $500 +

        Developer:
        JavaScript, Advanced CSS & jQuery, PHP / $5000 +

        SQL & AJAX services Pending...

        Graphic Design:
        (Examples included)
        Basic/ $50-100
        Professional/ $200+

        Content:
        Article, blog, & pages:
        (average Pricing)
        400 words $15
        500 words $20
        600 words $25

        Webpage Content Remapping:
        $300



        Service Examples:
        http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4926499_n.jpg

        http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6780639_n.jpg

        http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6737656_n.jpg

        http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...3_517975_n.jpg


        As far as payment is*concerned*that is entirely up to all that you want done for your product and business. *
        For projects over $500*
        30% as advance, along with selection,*
        50% as second installment, as per setup milestone or phase,
        20% (remaining) on final delivery of project

        For projects up-to $500*
        100% as advance, along with selection
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  • Profile picture of the author seafrontsteve
    Great story - maybe I should go to Starbucks more often.
    I meet people there but don't generally talk loud enough for others to hear.
    It reminds me of a time I once moved house and had to get rid of a piano in a hurry - try as I did, I couldn't find anybody willing to collect it. In the end I had to chop it up and take it to the tip - where I found somebody mortified I didn't find him earlier.

    The problem for buyers and sellers of online services is finding each other easily and at a profitable price.
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    • Profile picture of the author Landon Walsh
      Originally Posted by seafrontsteve View Post

      Great story - maybe I should go to Starbucks more often.
      I meet people there but don't generally talk loud enough for others to hear.
      It reminds me of a time I once moved house and had to get rid of a piano in a hurry - try as I did, I couldn't find anybody willing to collect it. In the end I had to chop it up and take it to the tip - where I found somebody mortified I didn't find him earlier.

      The problem for buyers and sellers of online services is finding each other easily and at a profitable price.
      No, not starbucks! At least not the one in Conway Arkansas. Even thought I've picked up a great client there. It was the worst coffee I've ever had. I puked 2 hours later and was shaking from one cup of coffee. I'm a writer... I can handle strong coffee. That was just bad.
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