I took a call yesterday from a Web Developer who does a little bit of search engine optimisation work.
I’ve done a tiny bit of work for this guy before with some excellent results.
C'mon, hand over the cash
Anyway, he called up because he has 2 sites he’s trying to get high ranks in Google for.
Whatever he has tried hasn’t worked and the sites both languish down in position 90+ – so no-one ever finds them.
I looked at both sites, figured out what the problems were and told him the very quick and easy things he needs to do to get both sites ranking high in a matter of days and at #1 in a matter of weeks.
It took me 60 seconds to figure out what was the problem with both sites.
The Web Developer asked me what I would charge for helping him in the future.
$1,000 for 60 Seconds Work
“Well,” I said, “I’d charge a client $1,000 for figuring out what I just told you.”
He laughed.
He didn’t think I was serious.
“Truly. The information I’ve just given you has the capacity to make your clients an extra $1 million each a year.
Being # 1 in Google will result in lots more visitors and lots more sales. (His clients sell products for $100,000 and more.),” I said.
Knowledge = Value
It’s intellectual property that has taken me many years and many thousands of dollars to get. Not many people have that knowledge.
Knowledge = value. In this case, huge value.
It’s never about the price. It’s always about the value.
If I charged him by the hour I’d make $5, whilst his client makes $1 million.
And I’d be what is widely called a “complete idiot”.
Cheers
Brendon
Cheers,
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Absolutely agree Brendon. However I’ve been running into a counter argument lately that has been taking some wind out of my prospect’s sales. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.
They want me to work on commission of future sales. That is not the position I want to be in.
My standard line is that I – a lone, part-time, working-from-his-home-in-the-off-hours is using these techniques to regularly achieve high rankings for my own keywords (and other client’s) even when other mulit-million dollar companies target those fields, too.
I suppose the answer could be to gather my other client’s sales data and demonstrate in real $ figures the value I provided for the cost but I’ve had difficulty with businesses allowing me to use that sort of data.
Thoughts?
the answer was “unique title tags”, wasn’t it?
Thanks for the comments guys
Ted, I get that one offered lots of times.
“If you’re so good then you do it for us and get some of the $$$$.”
Trouble is it makes you a business partner with people you don’t know/don’t like/don’t have faith in/etc.
You’re at the whim of them in terms of how they deal with the customer, how they convert, etc. I don’t want my excellent work that gets results to be then compromised by inadequate closing strategies.
How do you measure the success? Who do you trust with the correct sales figures?
I took % of sales once with someone once. Got his site cranking within 16 weeks. Saved his entire offline business.
My commission the first month the site was killing it was $15,000. He gratefully paid.
Month 2 was $17,000 – his words were “I’m not paying you that much. It’s way too much for the work you did. You hardly have to do anything anymore.”
I told him we had an agreement (written contract) and he said “Well, I’m not paying. You can argue and bitch but I’m not paying you a cent unless you accept way less. Take legal action if you like, but if you do I’ll avoid paying you anything.”
I’m in business for me. I don’t want to be relying on others.
And Devon, yep – 80% right there!
You have also just shared your IP and the next time he won’t need you. Also he will probobily “blab” to his client who will not need him the next time either!
Charge a reasonable amount and do a great job and you get loyalty! To me that is the important one…
Cash Flow (the ongoing bit) is what is important, expecially in tough times.