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Me again, still need help with that same client...

by sadiecopywriter
8 replies
Hi there,

I'm the one who posted earlier about the client who expected to be in the top 10 right away.

Now she is insisting it has must have this code at the 'very top':

meta http-equiv="Content-Type"; charset=utf-8"/> Also, on 2.<html xmlns= "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml&amp;amp;quot;

She says it's under "view source is #4. Meta charset=utf-8"

I don't don't know what any of this means. I admit, this site is from a (premium) template, so I'm not familar with this code. What is it, do I need it and how do I get it? (it's my first site for someone other than myself and I'm wishing I never took this job.)

Can somebody help me? I'm drowning here.
#client #smae
  • Profile picture of the author MarlboroMonkey
    It's just telling the browser which character coding to use and won't do a thing for your seo. I feel bad for you man...she's like a back seat driver.
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  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    Copy and paste to insert it into the code exactly as and where she specified. You can find it in the template XHTML code, and it will take some work to find it.

    Then send her an invoice for the additional work. It shouldn't be a very large charge, but it will help to re-establish your relationship with her -- that you're a contractor and she needs to pay you for work she orders.

    She clearly has a friend or relative who knows how to build websites and is checking your work with the intention of giving you hell about it. This is a very bad situation for you, and I advised you to make the cleanest break from her that you can.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Nah she probably has read a couple blogs and is now an expert at SEO. She's going to be a bitch to deal with.

    Charge EXTRA for EVERYTHING now... If she wants a sentence changed, $30... if she wants an image moved 1 pixel to the left... another $30. Let it add up!
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  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    Reminder to OP and newbs. You're not a web developer when you just change out the header and column names in a licensed wordpress them. If you're going to tell people you're building a custom website for them, and then do that, understand that eventually someone is going to catch you doing it and not like it very much.
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    • Profile picture of the author mojo1
      Hey Mercedes,

      Is it too late to give her the boot now and not later?

      I went out on my very first face 2 face appointment last week thinking I pretty much had it in the bag with the prospect that was until her daughter joined the meeting.

      Respectfully, she is a genius software programmer for a medical software firm.

      The daughter then proceeded to grill me on keywords and ppc. Mentioned Overture, yeah remember them? Also mentioned Alta Vista and ranking in search engines.

      I proceeded to share with her that not only had Overture not been in existence since the early to mid part of this decade but Alta Vista died a long time ago too right along with Northern Lights search engine. Northern Lights was the precurser to Google in how it brought back pretty good serps. Any oldies out there remember those guys?

      It became painfully obvious to me that she wanted to flex her knowledge muscle to which I didn't want to get involved with because her gentle mother just wanted a professional , personable website showing her music students as well as something she could manage.

      Yes a cookie cutter site but her daughter made it clear that she did not want a simple site because her or her 8 yr. old could do something with a simple template. Yet, she did want a barrel of keyword terms to show up on page one for along with creating a database to collect names, a newsletter for future and current students, announcement events page, business facebook page.

      Trust me, I mentioned these items to her mom during our initial phone conversation but her mom was not interested in any of these business building concepts at all . What drew her interest about me was how I shared some cool, low tech client referral ideas I presented which she grew extremely excited about and scheduled an in person meeting immediately. I showed her value during my phone call.

      Initially I quoted the prospect $297 for a simple 3 page website with 2 videos and 3 keyword terms in her meta description and included in her content.

      However, after meeting her super smart daughter, the writing was on the wall for me. It would have been too exasperating to have 2 clients that I would ultimately be answering to with such different personalities for the price of one.

      Not enough hours in the day for that, honey.

      Bottom line, that client situation would not have been my cup of tea.

      I sent her an adjusted invoice for $1600 to reflect their entire wishlist of items AND to deter their business in the most professional way possible.

      We all, including you do have choices about the clients we accept.

      Trust your instincts from now on. You'll be much happier and at peace for doing so.
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  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    This is a good policy, Mojo. It's perfectly okay to have an Actual Price and a Pain-In-The-Butt Price. When someone treats you like that you can quote the two prices by name.
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    • Profile picture of the author mojo1
      Originally Posted by beeswarn View Post

      This is a good policy, Mojo. It's perfectly okay to have an Actual Price and a Pain-In-The-Butt Price. When someone treats you like that you can quote the two prices by name.
      lol, love it!
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  • Profile picture of the author geotargeted
    This lady sounds like a time waster.
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