Well chances are if your posting it here you have probably already answered your own question. But if your talking about the entire souteastern section of the United States, then HECK no. Not even heck no, Hell NO is it not worth it.

What you really have here is a "talker" someone who will waste your time and keep roping you along that he's interested. If you have spent weeks talking to this guy, either he doesn't see the value in what you provide, doesn't have the money to pay for your services or wants the farm.

I'd call him back or and say that you'd have to charge him $1,200+ retainer for a year to even get started attacking the whole southeastern market. See what he say's.. Chances are he'll balk and then go back to the original pitch. If he wants to move ahead, say "great" otherwise, leave him your number and tell him to give you a call when he's interested in getting 20+ new leads a month.

And throw out his number and forget you ever talked to him. In the end, if he's not comfortable with you or not interested in your services after weeks of talking with him. He's simply NOT WORTH YOUR TIME.

Actually pretty easy to do if you are blogging.

Just think it through and I am sure you will come up with a solution. We did.

Quentin

$1200 is not a fair price. He should be paying tens of thousands a year.

Charles,

I have a friend working for a company that does what you suggest. They charge $2K a month on a year contract. This seems like a very labor intensive task but maybe I'm just not thinking in the right terms. But $1200 for the deal seems below minimum wage.

Tom

Hey Charles,

This is interesting. It comes down to what you're prepared to do and for how much.

You don't need a separate web page for every keyword - ranking is more about links than content. I know people like to talk about how you can rank just with the right content, but I get my clients ranked for their keywords regardless of whether they have content for them or not. I definitely don't make them add pages to their site just so I can get them traffic for new keywords. So it comes down to how confident you are in your ability to get those rankings for them.

If you quote $1200 for 4kw phrases in 2 cities - then just multiply that for how ever many cities he is aiming at. Let him decide whether he's happy to pay you $10k a month to get the coverage he's after. (or whatever the number comes to for the number of cities)

Each new phrase requires separate focus and you've told him the cost for 4kw's in 2 cities - just get him to confirm the number he wants and then tell him the cost - you've only quoted for 2 cities so he shouldn't be surprised when you revise your quote for more.

If it's too much hassle or you're having to make promises that you're not comfortable with - back off and don't commit to it until you can make it good for both of you.

Good luck with it.

Andy

Thanks for your responses far. I really want to work with this customer, but the work for all major cities in the South East just seems overwhelming to me. I am a little concerned if going into this I feel overwhelmed at the project, I might not provide the right service.

At $1200, with only $600 up front, that leaves no funds for outsourcing.

I'm still not certain of what I asm going to do, but need to make a decision before Monday

Thanks

Stick to your quote. He has added a great deal more so give him a new quote for the additional work.

What makes you think he isn't prepared to pay for more cities at your current quote rate? I would just assume that he is.
example:
4 KW'ds X 2 cities = $1200 (50% prepaid)

4 KWD's X 10 cities = $6,000 (50% prepaid)

4 KWD's X 20 cities = $12,000 (50% prepaid)

I often supply prospects with a brief (not too long) menu of choices. What's he going to say? ..."Oh, I thought it didn't matter how many cities I wanted?" lol
_____
Bruce

1st, I wouldn't sell a 'commodity'

2nd since most search engines know where the server for the ISP is, local results are returned without the need to add the city in the search, so (in my testing) most people don't.

3rd, it is a rare small business that cannot increase their net 20-40% by looking at and changing their sales funnel, up, down & cross selling their current customer base and targeting previous customers in their marketing. All which has nothing to do with getting new customers via keywords. A businesses previous customers are like an IMer's list.

4th, You are not charging enough. $1200 up front and 600 a month for a year is closer to what he should pay. In 2 years from now when he does not rank for those keywords anymore, is he going to expect you to 'fix' that? What if a competitor blows him off page one 2 weeks after your work, how mad will he be then? The contract needs a time he will rank for and the only way to ensure continued ranking is continued work, especially if other competitors decide to target those same keywords.
The whole thing sounds like a legal nightmare. Do you have business insurance and errors and omissions insurance? If not, $1200 is not worth risking everything you own on. (IMHO)

Mark

Your quote was for 2 cities and 4 keywords. Agree to start there for the $1,200, and discuss other opportunities as you move forward.

I've been in direct business sales for 30 yrs, here's the question I'd ask my sales people: Did he come right out and say he expected these additional services for the same $1,200 or are you making an assumption?

If it's the former, he's trying to work you... stay focused on the original agreement. I've seen this tactic a hundred times, negotiation 101.

If this is an owner of the business you are dealing with and he is actually starting the relationship with such a tactic, I know I'd be looking to get all my money up front because these tactics likely won't stop here. I'd also be considering whether or not I want to continue the relationship if this is the case. These type of people will look for front end price reduction (can you include this) and back end price reduction, e.g. listen as long as your doing this, will you do that for me too? Or I'm not a 100% satisfied, but in stead of me short paying for the services why do also do this and we will call even?

If it's the latter, I think you need a real conversation... face to face or phone to phone clarify his expectations ASAP and get it cleared up. It sounds like a good opportunity.

Good Luck!

In my humble opinion I think he's try to work you.

Another tactic that may be in place here is to have you quote a larger package thus hoping to reduce the per unit cost and once you've agreed to this he will double back to the original deal explaining that he will go ahead with the original plan at a reduced cost with an assurance that when he is ready to get back to the bigger project you will get that business also.

Very interested to see how this unfolds...

I would stick to the original proposal, but offer to include more
cities of his choosing at a reduced (ie. $500 ea) rate. Protect yourself
with a well written contract. Include a time table you can live with.

Hugh

One option that I haven't seen anyone here suggest is the profit sharing and pay per lead models. It requires you to be confident of your abilities but its the best way to guarantee profit for both of you.

Essentially what you do is charge him a percentage per sale generated from his website (or flat rate per lead). I'll take a leads contract like that any day. You can prove to him on paper how it pays off to go this route. If you are lucky enough to be his webmaster as well this is even easier.

In these models you need him to open his financials to you a bit more. Don't be afraid to ask how much he makes off of each sale. If he has any idea what he's doing he'll know his lead to sales ratio. Calculate 10 - 20% of profits based off of either an individual sale or per lead based off of how many leads it takes to get a sale.

Also, charge him a retainer fee of whatever you feel comfortable with and a 2-year contract with buyout options.

The downside is you may not be able to control how visitors interact with his website or how good the website is at closing a sale. But it seems like a better than losing your tail to what he's offering you.

Charles, you might suggest to him that you (and he) need to start with what you offered and scale up from there. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. After you win the first battle, you start the next and quote your price. I would think some cities/towns are much easier than others, so you want the flexibility to price each according to the challenge the present.