Pricing my SEO & Article services (Need some advice)

First -congratulations and good luck in your new way :-)

There are some ways that you can know how to state your pricing:
First - check your competitors (check at least 20 of them) - what their site looks like? What packages are they selling? You can "spy" on them with some tools (13 Tools to Spy on Your Competitors)

Then you have to decide - what makes YOU different? Maybe narrow your niche to provide expertly, you should do some research and brain storming.

After this - it will be easier for you to decide what your prices will be - decide what your hourly rate and what your desire margin and - here you go!
If you are going to be unique and different it will be easier for you to justify your price.

I hope it helps

Thank You Lori. Your link is great!

Hrm, it depends. You can determine how much you want to earn a month, how many clients you would like to have. So you divide your monthly income goal by the amount of customers you expect to have and that will give you an idea of what to charge each customer. Good luck with your new business!

Cheers acesites

As a starting business,you should not price your services much.It is better to make your service cheaper compared to your competitors. If your clients finds your service effective,they will come to you regularly and order you more.This way you can create a brand value and a few months later,you can increase your prices.For a starting company,this strategy works.Hope this will help you.

Heya Hag66,

Let's say your services can indeed give your clients good value in terms of RoI (Return of Investment), i.e. Your content writing and SEO services can indeed generate more leads/prospects/affiliates/subscribers/viewers, sales and repeat business for your clients. With this:

Formulating a pricing structure now becomes a question of how much your clients are willing to pay for the value you can provide their businesses. Here are some distinct examples that could show you what I mean:

• Will you be taken seriously if you go to a corporation with 500 or more employees, say that your article writing and SEO services can generate 200% more leads/prospects/subscribers/viewers/affiliates, 100% more sales and repeat business for them (amounting to additional $six figure monthly net profits for them), and ask to be paid $500/month for your article writing and SEO services?

• Do you think you could get a lot of clients in this forum if you post an ad in the Warriors for Hire section here, say that your article writing and SEO services can generate 200% more leads/prospects/subscribers/viewers/affiliates, 100% more sales and repeat business for them (totaling to additional $500 monthly net profits for the average warrior), and ask to be paid $10000/month for your article writing and SEO services?

And, combining your real world specialized expertise and authority knowledge in particular industries and subject areas where you can provide your article writing and SEO services (especially if you can integrate more value added propositions) could also increase the overall value of your services for your target customers. Here's an example that could show you what I mean:

• If the target customer is a corporation that provides technologies, products and services for blind and visually impaired users around the world, then the article writing and SEO services of a general technology writer with SEO experience in the technology niche could most likely be valued lower than the article writing and SEO services of a totally blind technology writer with expertise and knowledge in creating technologies for blind and visually impaired users, and in formulating and implementing not just SEO campaigns, but also content marketing, brand positioning, social networking and viral marketing campaigns for companies that offer assistive products and services for people with disabilities, no?

At first to attract your customers, you should keep your prices very affordable and cheap compared to your competitors. As soon as, you are successful in getting your desired level of customers,you can raise your prices slowly slowly...

SEO I can't comment on, but for articles you should charge what you're worth! If you're writing the good stuff that is well researched, doesn't have filler and is grammatically spot on, then you should charge accordingly.

I've also found that I get a much better class of client when I charge more, making it a double win.

Much depends on your market and reason for the articles. For instance, I wouldn't suggest offering articles on the forum because the expected prices are so low, which results from articles being viewed as being commodities with no value except to exist for cheap SEO / backlink purposes.

On the other hand, if you are servicing a real business and providing articles for their website customers will read, that are reprinted magazines with the business name, etc., then the quality, length and cost are much different.

As an aside, having success boosting your own website and easily writing about an issue you have personal knowledge on, is far different than writing for others. Leaving your job and planning on starting a new business with apparently no customers, no target market, and not knowing what to charge - is a very high-risk seat of the pants endeavor.

The SEOBook blog (SEO Blog) has good information you may find useful.

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Provided that you are able to deliver good work: great writing and real SEO results, then you should charge what you want to be paid for the work.

The bottom line is that whatever price point you seek, there are customers out there that are willing to spend at that price point.

Your challenge is only in finding the right potential audience in which to make your sales presentation.

When I was doing ghost writing, I was able to sell custom-written articles at dozens of price points between $25 and $500 an article.

You are the person who decides what you should be paid, and if you stick to your guns, the people who are willing to pay you at YOUR PRICES will find you.

Some people will laugh at this advice, but at $45 an article, I was selling several hundred articles per month.

At $300 an article, I was selling a couple dozen a month.

At $500 an article, I was still selling about six per month.

Hi,
Have you looked at your competition? Call them up and see what they charge for the things you just described. I feel that is the best way to be in the ball park ,as far as, pricing your talents. You can always undercut a little, too.
Good luck
http://geririchmond.com

I think you need to choose a focus - setting price ranges for services you can guarantee. You can guarantee a well-written article. You can guarantee a site will be built.

But can you actually guarantee someone's site traffic will increase considering the way Google has been acting recently; and are you prepared to refund money if something goes wrong? I'm not sure I'd want that kind of stress...

It really depends on what the customer is also willing to pay for your services. Do you have testimonials to back up your claims? Remember SEO is changing all the time so you have to be prepared to change with it.

Articles - if you have written some good articles you could take an image showing how many visitors have read them. Remember there are people that are doing some really good work on Fiverr for $5 so be reasonable with what amount you ask.