any advice on how to choose a person for SEO??

ask em to show you sites they've worked on and the improvements made to these sites in terms of sales/rankings

go to guru.com they provide reviews and you can find one that fits your budget. You can also learn and do it yourself. After 3 years I could say it was worth all the research I invested into this.

I seriously suggest that you first LEARN to
do the most important aspects of SEO
yourself, so that you can know whether
others are doing it well for you or not.

Nothing is more important than actually
knowing what needs to be done. It makes
it easier to get others to do it for us,

Kingsley

One thing I suggest is that - don't choose SEO's who give "guaranteed rankings" no *real* SEO would give you guaranteed rankings since search engine's algorithms change so quickly.

Of course, there are some things that can be guaranteed like number of backlinks, internal links, etc.

I agree that you should learn to do most tasks that you might have outsourced. I also believe that you can generally get a better price if you know what tasks you want (bookmarking, commenting, articles, link wheel, etc.) rather than getting "sold" a package. In my experience, most (but not all) package deals are overpriced.

Effective way to learn = Learn from Real Gurus. One of the best is Aaron Wall.

After you have learned at least the basics of SEO , chances are you will make the right choice in outsourcing your SEO work.

If you have the time, try to learn to do SEO yourself (through online research and forums like this one). It will take you about 1 - 2 hours each day, Monday through Friday. If you don't have the time to devote and have a budget, try to outsource. Just do your homework and find out references and experience of the company or expert you choose.

A found a lot of SEO's were not worth the money. The most important SEO strategy is backlinking and you can outsource this easily and inexpensively.

You could hire an SEO guru but only pay them after you get results.

I understand wanting to outsource SEO. I get very anxioius with having so much information to learn. You will leave the WF every night with your head spinning, full of new info to absorb. The good news is that it is fun and exciting stuff so take the time to understand it before you hire someone. Work on your sites as you learn, applying new things, and see how much fun you have as your sites jump in the rankings. You'll turn into a real nerd...welcome to the club...you're hooked.

Check for reviews/testimonials. Ask questions. Ask people you trust to refer you to who they trust.

It depends what you are looking for. I sell my SEO services for $1000+/month however like someone said those are businesmen who are busy with their work and they don't have time to learn or do SEO. We know how to do it and people hire us because we know that. Someone who need SEO for minisite they won't hire us but if local service provider hire us for $1k and we bring them 5-10 thousand dollars a month than it's a real bargain to them. So it's basically either you need the time and knowledge or you need money to pay the service. The more you know the less you'll pay. If you know how to outsource, how to spot good link building providers than you can do it for really cheap, however if you have problems with that you'll probably have to pay higher price to do SEO for your project.

You can spot fakers very easy. They are not honest, they are promising too much, they are not ready to explain you how and what they do, they want you as a client at any price. Good SEO knows the value of his services and won't prostitute his job, they can generaly say after analysis what results aprox. can be expected from their experience and they will be upfront with the price and lenght. However this is dynamic job and we can only give estimates, for guarantees and exact results you should hire who can see the future SEO is a marketing and nobody can say exactly what results will be of any marketing campaign.

However you also need to know what you want and what are you looking for. Is it complete SEO package or some link building tasks to be done.

my advice for people searching for seo experts is to learn it yourself. There are so many scammers in this industry nowadays and no-one can guarantee results anyway. If you learn the skills required yourself then you will be able to optimise your site continuously.

References and previous projects should be good enough.

Choosing a search engine optimization firm need not be very difficult if a company starts by requesting for proposals that focuses on its own specific needs. The success of any SEO project will need a comprehensive and customized approach based on a site’s unique characteristics.

SEO service providers have their own different packages, services and strategies. There are bound to be questions regarding paid-in inclusion programs, marketing principles and ownership of content. These issues need to be resolved before entering into any final agreement.

Most offshore SEO service providers of developing countries are working with SEO companies of progressive countries such as the USA and those in Europe and also in the Asian regions to deliver satisfactory results in quick time. Internet marketing, organic search engine optimization, web design, web application and development have become their strong points. Most exhibit the willingness to understand, appreciate and anticipate the needs of a website’s end user.

They say quality comes with a price. For quality offshore outsourcing, low wage countries provide quality at a lower price.