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Self made SEO's questions?

by Xelaetaks
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Is SEO a rewarding career for you when looking at stress vs reward - for example - could you deliver on a clients results?

Do you get clients from organic rankings online ?

What tips would you give someone looking to do SEO gigs for people?

Thanks
#made #questions #seo
  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Originally Posted by Xelaetaks View Post

    Is SEO a rewarding career for you when looking at stress vs reward - for example - could you deliver on a clients results?

    Do you get clients from organic rankings online ?

    What tips would you give someone looking to do SEO gigs for people?

    Thanks
    I used to be an SEO consultant (for ~10 years was my main income).

    It has it's moments, but since you are relying on a third party (Google) for success, it can be very frustrating trying to manage client unrealistic expectations. Never had a problem finding clients, turned many more down than I took on.

    Many website owners think all they have to do is pay an SEO as little as $500 a month and the SEO consultant does EVERYTHING required to rank for competitive SERPs in a few months.

    Many don't understand it's a partnership, I could explain to you exactly how to get a new website to high traffic in under 2 years or an aged authority site a significant increase in traffic (some sites could multiply the traffic several times over) in a few months, but you would have to do a lot of work to achieve this.

    SEO per se is easy when a client listens, most of my time was wasted hand holding new clients through the first few months.

    David
    Signature
    Freelance SEO Consultant
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    • Profile picture of the author creat1veone
      Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

      I used to be an SEO consultant (for ~10 years was my main income).

      It has it's moments, but since you are relying on a third party (Google) for success, it can be very frustrating trying to manage client unrealistic expectations. Never had a problem finding clients, turned many more down than I took on.

      Many website owners think all they have to do is pay an SEO as little as $500 a month and the SEO consultant does EVERYTHING required to rank for competitive SERPs in a few months.

      Many don't understand it's a partnership, I could explain to you exactly how to get a new website to high traffic in under 2 years or an aged authority site a significant increase in traffic (some sites could multiply the traffic several times over) in a few months, but you would have to do a lot of work to achieve this.

      SEO per se is easy when a client listens, most of my time was wasted hand holding new clients through the first few months.

      David
      David, please give me your opinion on the following: Is there really a $500 a month worth of work when ranking a client's site? Are we talking about huge traffic here like a million visitors a month? Huge competitive niches?
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
        Originally Posted by creat1veone View Post

        David, please give me your opinion on the following: Is there really a $500 a month worth of work when ranking a client's site? Are we talking about huge traffic here like a million visitors a month? Huge competitive niches?
        I was saying some businesses want to pay as little as $500 a month for SEO and expect competitive rankings in months from such a low investment.

        $500 a month is on the very low side for SEO work IF the SEO knows what they are doing. You can find plenty of people offering SEO services for as little as $5, but you know what you are going to get for so little: nothing of SEO value.

        When I first started offering a monthly package (12/13 years ago) it was at £250 a month not including VAT (I'm from the UK). So about $400-$500 a month, but this was a long time ago and I lacked a lot of skills (had no PHP ability at all for example). If I still offered SEO services today I wouldn't take a business on for anything below $3,000 a month. I have almost 15 years of SEO experience and that would be my starting point for basic SEO services and even then I'd expect the client to do most of the work (the job title is SEO consultant for a reason).

        Only way a business would pull me out of retirement is either a partnership worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or the offer was so good I couldn't say no.

        Anyone who knows what they are doing can charge a lot of money, since the knowledge and skills they have can be used to make money direct. Why work for the low thousands of dollars a year on a business site for others when you can make so much more money working on your own domains?

        Doesn't make sense. I have sites I haven't done any work on for 5+ years that make thousands of dollars each year, why would I spend my time on another business for what I can make in my sleep?

        David
        Signature
        Freelance SEO Consultant
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        • Profile picture of the author creat1veone
          Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

          I was saying some businesses want to pay as little as $500 a month for SEO and expect competitive rankings in months from such a low investment.

          $500 a month is on the very low side for SEO work IF the SEO knows what they are doing. You can find plenty of people offering SEO services for as little as $5, but you know what you are going to get for so little: nothing of SEO value.

          When I first started offering a monthly package (12/13 years ago) it was at £250 a month not including VAT (I'm from the UK). So about $400-$500 a month, but this was a long time ago and I lacked a lot of skills (had no PHP ability at all for example). If I still offered SEO services today I wouldn't take a business on for anything below $3,000 a month. I have almost 15 years of SEO experience and that would be my starting point for basic SEO services and even then I'd expect the client to do most of the work (the job title is SEO consultant for a reason).

          Only way a business would pull me out of retirement is either a partnership worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or the offer was so good I couldn't say no.

          Anyone who knows what they are doing can charge a lot of money, since the knowledge and skills they have can be used to make money direct. Why work for the low thousands of dollars a year on a business site for others when you can make so much more money working on your own domains?

          Doesn't make sense. I have sites I haven't done any work on for 5+ years that make thousands of dollars each year, why would I spend my time on another business for what I can make in my sleep?

          David
          That's exactly right, truth be told I didn't knew up until a few days ago, that real SEO services cost lets say at least $500/month, I've had SEO work done for $50/month and now I see why it was $50/month, and I've always wondered why don't people who offer SEO services just rank their own websites and make tons more than the pay.

          Now the prices of content writers like you have really surprised me, even $5/500 words seems amazing to me, I feel like that's incredibly easy money, incredibly, I cannot believe, that like you guys argued on the forum here, that there are people who send you outsourced articles after you've payed them $5/$10/$15 per 500 words.

          Then I saw your post where you charge $60, this blew my mind and now I would really like to see what a $60 post looks like, or maybe you can just link me to a post which you consider to be good, so I could get a feeling of what kind of work is needed for such pricing? I'd really appreciate it.

          Thanks!
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          • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
            Originally Posted by creat1veone View Post

            That's exactly right, truth be told I didn't knew up until a few days ago, that real SEO services cost lets say at least $500/month, I've had SEO work done for $50/month and now I see why it was $50/month, and I've always wondered why don't people who offer SEO services just rank their own websites and make tons more than the pay.

            Now the prices of content writers like you have really surprised me, even $5/500 words seems amazing to me, I feel like that's incredibly easy money, incredibly, I cannot believe, that like you guys argued on the forum here, that there are people who send you outsourced articles after you've payed them $5/$10/$15 per 500 words.

            Then I saw your post where you charge $60, this blew my mind and now I would really like to see what a $60 post looks like, or maybe you can just link me to a post which you consider to be good, so I could get a feeling of what kind of work is needed for such pricing? I'd really appreciate it.

            Thanks!
            You've mixed me up with another poster, I don't sell content.

            I buy content and can say if you are paying $5 for 500 words you are probably getting low quality content from non native writers.

            If I could find writers that could write like this www-news.co.uk/106-russia-ukraine-conflict-a-new-cold-war-begins/ (I wrote it, it's a quick filler article and didn't take long: need about 50 articles before submitting to Google news) I'd buy hundreds at $3-$5 per 100 words: the above article is around 400 words so I would have paid $12-$20 if I could find the writers.

            It's hard to find quality writers for filler content that isn't respun stuff, since the above site has to get into Google news to be worthwhile have to do it myself (can't risk low quality).

            For quality writing where the writer has expertise I'd pay much more. Another one I wrote www-news.co.uk/101-should-europe-embrace-genetically-modified-food-on-economic-grounds/ would be worth around $40 if I bought it (I have a background in genetics, so know the subject). I wouldn't sell the content for $40, worth a lot more to me, I'll make a lot more than $40 from that page long term.

            A lot of webmasters are looking for cheap content as filler articles for relevant backlinks etc..., they aren't looking at the potential value of the content per se because they aren't buying it to convert to sales or anything.

            If I could find writers who would review affiliate products and generate quality reviews I'd pay at least $5 per 100 words because I can easily make a ROI from the affiliate sales.

            Many webmasters under value what good quality content is worth and I'm saying that as a buyer not a seller of content. I can easily gain traffic for thousands of well written articles etc... and make money from the traffic. I can't easily create thousands of well written articles etc...

            David
            Signature
            Freelance SEO Consultant
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            • Profile picture of the author creat1veone
              Originally Posted by SEO-Dave View Post

              You've mixed me up with another poster, I don't sell content.

              I buy content and can say if you are paying $5 for 500 words you are probably getting low quality content from non native writers.

              If I could find writers that could write like this www-news.co.uk/106-russia-ukraine-conflict-a-new-cold-war-begins/ (I wrote it, it's a quick filler article and didn't take long: need about 50 articles before submitting to Google news) I'd buy hundreds at $3-$5 per 100 words: the above article is around 400 words so I would have paid $12-$20 if I could find the writers.

              It's hard to find quality writers for filler content that isn't respun stuff, since the above site has to get into Google news to be worthwhile have to do it myself (can't risk low quality).

              For quality writing where the writer has expertise I'd pay much more. Another one I wrote www-news.co.uk/101-should-europe-embrace-genetically-modified-food-on-economic-grounds/ would be worth around $40 if I bought it (I have a background in genetics, so know the subject). I wouldn't sell the content for $40, worth a lot more to me, I'll make a lot more than $40 from that page long term.

              A lot of webmasters are looking for cheap content as filler articles for relevant backlinks etc..., they aren't looking at the potential value of the content per se because they aren't buying it to convert to sales or anything.

              If I could find writers who would review affiliate products and generate quality reviews I'd pay at least $5 per 100 words because I can easily make a ROI from the affiliate sales.

              Many webmasters under value what good quality content is worth and I'm saying that as a buyer not a seller of content. I can easily gain traffic for thousands of well written articles etc... and make money from the traffic. I can't easily create thousands of well written articles etc...

              David
              First off, sorry for the confusion, I thought you were selling articles. Never mind that, I've read the articles you linked to, and I've got to say I am really surprised!

              Yeah I understand why you wouldn't want to outsource your content, if you want something done properly, do it yourself, right? But partly, that's because we tend to judge other people's work and compare it to how we would have done it, because naturally many people subconsciously believe they would've done it better! Note that I said partly.

              At first, when I imagine myself writing, I think: "If content is so valuable to buyers, why would people NOT do an awesome job, do the research, really WORK on it, like if it would be a real job, because it is."

              Then I remember there's a lot of work, like you mentioned you need 50 articles, and that surely takes time, if its done properly. Could you please tell me what's the standard deadline for writers? Imagine you order 50 articles from me, when would you expect me to be done? How would that work, would you want to publish one article per day, or demand 50 articles in a week?

              I really don't know and I would appreciate if you, as an experienced internet marketer would care to point out to some ground rules and common practices with writing.

              EDIT: I've been looking trough the second post you linked to, you value it at $40, does that include just the post or the response in the comments as well?

              Thanks again!
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