What would you do for £1000?

by eshber
18 replies
I have been liasing with a prospective client over email about her current needs for her business...

She is in a contract with an SEO firm that charged her £1000 upfront as a deposit and £200 monthly to maintain page 1 rankings for 5 keywords...

We got chatting at a seminar and she told me that she feels like she's being ripped off...so we had a long chat about her future requirements...

Anyhow, her current site is with Joomla and she wants it switched over to Wordpress, she needs a company logo and she wants a banner changed on her homepage...the logo and banner are the first things she wants done...

So she emailed me last night and said 'what could you do for £1000?'...

I was thinking of charging just £50 to change her banner...I already downloaded a few banners from shutterstock...

And maybe 100-150 for the logo...

Should I include the switch over from Joomla to Wordpress and seo for 12 months within the remaining £800-850?

What would you do for £1000?
#client #joomla #seminar #seo #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Steve Holmes
    12 months seo for £800? I certainly wouldn't do that.

    Just because she isn't happy spending £200/month on seo - doesn't mean she is conceptually "right".

    How hard are the keywords she wants to rank for? How much work would be involved for you?

    I'd say new logo, cms database transfer and a new banner. MAYBE a months SEO too but certainly not 12 months... don't undervalue yourself.

    Remember to ask this question, how much value are they getting from you? Price according to time, work and value. It is a tough balance to find and can be an absolute equation, just one that is hard to accurately quantify.

    Again, don't undervalue yourself and if you are comfortable enough to walk away if she doesn't meet what you deem yourself worth to be - there are plenty of business owners out there who will happily pay you properly.

    Best,
    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    I wouldn't spend £800 in SEO either. I think you could charge a little more than 150 for a custom logo design and banner. Charge should depending on how much competitive the keyword is and the value you can bring to the site.. Wordpress is much more SEO friendly tell her to switch it!
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    • Profile picture of the author WikiWarrior
      It looks like she just wants to get out of her current deal. I would offer to do all the set up work you mentioned and include 3 months SEO, after which time you are in a perfect position to negotiate a new monthly SEO deal with her. As Steve said you have to look at how much value you can give to her, so by working on her site, getting to know her business, seeing how much value she is getting and building up a few months worth of rapport and trust with her, she will be all ears for your offer of a better solution.

      Why is she unhappy with her current deal? If it's just a case of them not bringing her enough new business then any reasonable package you can offer for that £1000 will probably be accepted. Maybe her current seo company doesn't keep in contact with her enough or send her reports of what work they've done and results achieved.

      I would just focus on getting the client on-board and this does look like a slam-dunk deal. And just because she is not happy paying this other company £200/mo, if you can get her better results and offer a more personalised service, she might be more than happy paying you that £200 or more a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyscott
    Why does she want to switch from Joomla to Wordpress?

    Tony
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by tonyscott View Post

      Why does she want to switch from Joomla to Wordpress?

      Tony
      Right... say goodbye to rankings. As well as value of the platform.

      I would completely avoid this...entirely avoid her as a client. Definitely, LOL. This has trouble written all over it.

      She is getting a very good deal right now... We start plans off at $1,000 a month... no set up fee, but that is the monthly fee. If she feels like she's getting ripped off, and has those positions then what can you do? Either she is a greedy psychopath, or her rankings aren't converting with low quality traffic.

      The bottom line is money, how much money is she making off her current SEO firm?

      How competitive are her keywords? 24K directory submissions might not be something to scoff at if they have additional backlinks pointed to those submissions!

      How will you feel when her search engine rankings fall out because of converting to wordpress? It WILL happen, I have had clients stay with wordpress instead of converting to Joomla, due to that fact. I disagree with her switching to wordpress on soooo many levels, just because it is easy to use or outsource to someone for 50 bucks, doesn't mean it is the best decision. Joomla offers a lot more core flexibility. 9 out of 10 clients convert from wordpress to joomla! It is never the other way around... occassionally I'll get someone from wordpress or joomla wanting to convert to drupal, but that is about it.

      Anyway, setting my personal opinions about wordpress aside, if she has top page rankings and you want to switch her to wordpress you will experience an entire other monster. I have noticed that, especially recently, if you convert a site to another CMS, with decent SERPs you will lose rank drastically... you will come back, but how would you like that call from her?
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      • Profile picture of the author eshber
        Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

        Right... say goodbye to rankings. As well as value of the platform.

        I would completely avoid this...entirely avoid her as a client. Definitely, LOL. This has trouble written all over it.

        She is getting a very good deal right now... We start plans off at $1,000 a month... no set up fee, but that is the monthly fee. If she feels like she's getting ripped off, and has those positions then what can you do? Either she is a greedy psychopath, or her rankings aren't converting with low quality traffic.

        The bottom line is money, how much money is she making off her current SEO firm?

        How competitive are her keywords? 24K directory submissions might not be something to scoff at if they have additional backlinks pointed to those submissions!

        How will you feel when her search engine rankings fall out because of converting to wordpress? It WILL happen, I have had clients stay with wordpress instead of converting to Joomla, due to that fact. I disagree with her switching to wordpress on soooo many levels, just because it is easy to use or outsource to someone for 50 bucks, doesn't mean it is the best decision. Joomla offers a lot more core flexibility. 9 out of 10 clients convert from wordpress to joomla! It is never the other way around... occassionally I'll get someone from wordpress or joomla wanting to convert to drupal, but that is about it.

        Anyway, setting my personal opinions about wordpress aside, if she has top page rankings and you want to switch her to wordpress you will experience an entire other monster. I have noticed that, especially recently, if you convert a site to another CMS, with decent SERPs you will lose rank drastically... you will come back, but how would you like that call from her?
        Why is it that nobody else has made this point about losing Search engine rankings if I switch her site to Wordpress. That is a really good point you've just made there! O dear, now what!
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        • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
          Originally Posted by eshber View Post

          Why is it that nobody else has made this point about losing Search engine rankings if I switch her site to Wordpress. That is a really good point you've just made there! O dear, now what!
          Because people don't ever think that is possible. Hell, I have just switched templates, wordpress, and joomla sites and it has negatively effected rankings. I would talk to her and ask her reasons for moving to wordpress. If she is updating her site now, there is no reason to move because it is user friendly ENOUGH for her to make changes.

          If moving to wordpress is something you have tried to convince her, then just learn some basics of joomla, you will end up liking it. Aweber integrates well in joomla, and there are many people on this forum who are very good with Joomla and offer help if needed.

          I think you should show her an example of the prices I responded with earlier. I think that should do it, and it keeps the door open later on if she still wants to migrate. Think about this strategically, you can do a little bit of work now, offering different things than originally planned and possibly gain a very long term client. Or you can migrate to wordpress, hoping rankings aren't going to be effected, and possibly lose a client! Play it safe, play it smart!
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          • Profile picture of the author omurchu
            Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post


            If moving to wordpress is something you have tried to convince her, then just learn some basics of joomla, you will end up liking it. Aweber integrates well in joomla, and there are many people on this forum who are very good with Joomla and offer help if needed.

            Do you have a good source for video tutorials for Joomla?

            I can handle WP but would like to see if Joomla would add another arrow to my bow.

            Thanks,
            Frank
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            • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
              Originally Posted by omurchu View Post

              Do you have a good source for video tutorials for Joomla?

              I can handle WP but would like to see if Joomla would add another arrow to my bow.

              Thanks,
              Frank
              Add me on skype if you have it - iAreNameLess

              I never used a video tutorial for it, but there are some out there. It takes a 50 year old client, maybe 30 minutes to learn how to do 75% of the things you can do with a website.

              There is a learning curve, but you can get through it very easily. Plus learning it you can get additional work, and upsell. Low budget work, use wordpress... bigger budget, offer joomla.
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    for $1000 tell her you could gain her more traffic, more targetted prospects and ultimately more sales,clients and profits, now, is that what she wants?

    get her commitment , then be concerned how youre gonna do it and look at what she REALLY needs , rather than wants , also suggest she looks at the T&C s to getting out of her current deal , else she may just be comparing prices and reassuring herself shes not being ripped off or that she is and that shes right (as usual)
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    Mike

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  • Profile picture of the author eshber
    She's currently position 4 for all 4 of her keywords so there's not actually much for me to do other than to maintain her positions. I've noticed that her current seo firm have only done directory submissions for her - 24,300 of them...

    I was thinking of offering her google places listing instead of the seo within the price of £1000. What do you guys think? As her keywords are all "keyword" "town" or "town" keyword"...

    So i could do the banner, logo, joomla to wordpress shifting and setup google places too. As all her positions at the moment are below the google places listings.

    Does that sound better?

    Not sure why she actually wants to leave her current company other than she feels as if shes being ripped off...thought it was kinda rude to ask...she mentioned the £1000 deposit so could be because of that...should i ask her why she feels as if shes being ripped off? As they have managed to get her page 1 ranking for all her keywords so really, she should be pleased with them...

    The reason i'm interested in this deal is because she's starting a new business next month and wants to give the whole lot to me...logo design, web design, seo...so i wanted to keep her sweet!
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  • Profile picture of the author eshber
    She said she doesn't like Joomla as shes had alot of problems with it and has been told that wordpress is better...personally, i also prefer Wordpress, especially for seo.
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    • Profile picture of the author jimbo13
      If you say,

      'Do you mind if I ask you a question?'

      she'll say yes and then you say

      'You said the other day that you felt ripped off. I was just wondering what you meant by that?'

      Guess what will happen? She'll tell you.

      Why sit guessing? What if you go and do exactly the same thing without knowing it.

      If Doctors and Lawyers don't guess then why would you?

      But then again they are professionals right?

      Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Abul-Hussain
    From my perspective, £200 for 5 keywords on page 1 is a bargain!

    I've charged clients £200 per keyword per month!

    Either, she isn't getting a lot of business from the rankings, doesn't value her rankings or her average transaction values are too small to justify an SEO budget.

    For £1,000? I'd do the website, wouldn't touch the SEO aspects :-)

    Just my 2 pence

    Abul
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  • Profile picture of the author eshber
    She emailed me to say she is still in a contract with her current firm for 6 months. So this is my new offer:

    -Logo Design
    -Banner Design and replacement
    -Changing site from Joomla to Wordpress
    -Facebook Fanpage (Social Media Marketing)
    -Lead Capture Page (linked in with aweber)

    What you think?
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    • Profile picture of the author Norman Smith
      Originally Posted by eshber View Post

      She emailed me to say she is still in a contract with her current firm for 6 months. So this is my new offer:

      -Logo Design
      -Banner Design and replacement
      -Changing site from Joomla to Wordpress
      -Facebook Fanpage (Social Media Marketing)
      -Lead Capture Page (linked in with aweber)

      What you think?
      It depends on what she wants ?
      You prove to her that, you have higher ranking for her site,more site visitors etc and she should be delighted to pay you. Defend your charges, " too expensive compared to what? "
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by eshber View Post

      She emailed me to say she is still in a contract with her current firm for 6 months. So this is my new offer:

      -Logo Design Yes, $250
      -Banner Design and replacement $150
      -Changing site from Joomla to Wordpress Don't do it unless you explain the possibilities of losing her rank.
      -Facebook Fanpage (Social Media Marketing) $200
      -Lead Capture Page (linked in with aweber) $200

      What you think?
      And offer press releases, for an additional 200.
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  • Profile picture of the author KabirC
    For 1000 pounds I would probably design a logo and banner. SEO is around $2450 per a month USD for me and facebook fan pages I give free but charge another $2000 a month to maintain them.
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