How much would you charge for this?

[victorjones]

Hi guys,

I have a guy who wants to rank his website for like 30 out of 40 keywords in google uk (1st page of course)... The thing is he wants me to rank those 30 keywords, they should stay in top 10 for like 30 days according to Google Webmaster tool and after that he will pay men and then he will also pay me monthly fee for the keywords if they keep top 10 ranking.

The keywords are really competitive.. My question is what would you do and eventually how much would you charge ?

Help is appreciated!

 

[nikao]

without knowing the keywords and competition it is really impossible to give you input imho...

 

[victorjones]

Keywords are mostly about translation since it's that niche .... pretty much everything you can get about translation, translators, ect .... and the their main website isn't ranking for anything .... so it's everything from scratch for me ..

without knowing the keywords and competition it is really impossible to give you input imho...

 

[Uppa839]

Assuming that:

1. the keywords are medium to difficult to rank for
2. He wants about 30 keywords at least on the 1st page of google
3. he wont pay you any money until that is done

My recommendation would be to drop him as a client. No self respecting IMer would consider this to be a good deal. The terms are to skewed in his favor, if you get 29 keywords on the 1st page of google and the 30th on page 2 he can say you didn't fulfill the terms so I don't have to pay you.

As Nikao pointed out if we don't know the competition then we can't really say how much to charge but think of it this way. How much is your time worth, is it worth the time to put into ranking each and every keyword with no money down? hell no. For me I would easily be charging in the thousands to consider taking this job. Then adding the monthly maintenance fee onto it. Of course if he is willing to foot the bill for all services you use to rank the keywords that is a different story but I find it very unlikely.

You are probably hung up on this because he is your first "big" client. If you really want to keep him politely point out how much time and effort you would have to put into it and calmly say that it is simply not profitable. If he would like to hire someone else for it that is fine but will most likely be met with a) an IMer who has no idea what they are doing and will eventually cost the business more than they pay him or b) most likely be rejected or negotiated into a different deal. Always make yourself look favourable and always, ALWAYS, end it as nicely as possible to keep some good will and thus keep a potential client/referral/link in your network on the back burner.

I would probably appraoch him again in a few months time to see how things are going. You can invite him out to lunch or a drink he will most likely be frustrated then you can offer him a new deal or service package at a "cheaper rate because of our past relationship and to show there are no hard feelings".

 

[victorjones]

Thank you. That actually makes a lot of sense for me. I mean it would definitely takes a lot of time and work to be able to rank for all those competitive keywords and I would most likely make an offer but it won't be a small number! And also, I would like to get at least 50% now not to end up doing all the job and he says "Well done" at the end without paying. I mean this is way to much work for nothing. I am always kind ~even in most ridiculous situations~, I believe that the attitude is really important!

Assuming that:

1. the keywords are medium to difficult to rank for
2. He wants about 30 keywords at least on the 1st page of google
3. he wont pay you any money until that is done

My recommendation would be to drop him as a client. No self respecting IMer would consider this to be a good deal. The terms are to skewed in his favor, if you get 29 keywords on the 1st page of google and the 30th on page 2 he can say you didn't fulfill the terms so I don't have to pay you.

As Nikao pointed out if we don't know the competition then we can't really say how much to charge but think of it this way. How much is your time worth, is it worth the time to put into ranking each and every keyword with no money down? hell no. For me I would easily be charging in the thousands to consider taking this job. Then adding the monthly maintenance fee onto it. Of course if he is willing to foot the bill for all services you use to rank the keywords that is a different story but I find it very unlikely.

You are probably hung up on this because he is your first "big" client. If you really want to keep him politely point out how much time and effort you would have to put into it and calmly say that it is simply not profitable. If he would like to hire someone else for it that is fine but will most likely be met with a) an IMer who has no idea what they are doing and will eventually cost the business more than they pay him or b) most likely be rejected or negotiated into a different deal. Always make yourself look favourable and always, ALWAYS, end it as nicely as possible to keep some good will and thus keep a potential client/referral/link in your network on the back burner.

I would probably appraoch him again in a few months time to see how things are going. You cna invite him out to lunch or a drink he will most likely be frustrated then you cna offer him a new deal or service package at a "cheaper rate because of our past relationship and to show their are no hard feelings".

 

[Uppa839]

Thank you. That actually makes a lot of sense for me. I mean it would definitely takes a lot of time and work to be able to rank for all those competitive keywords and I would most likely make an offer but it won't be a small number! And also, I would like to get at least 50% now not to end up doing all the job and he says "Well done" at the end without paying. I mean this is way to much work for nothing. I am always kind ~even in most ridiculous situations~, I believe that the attitude is really important!

That's good, no matter the circumstances no matter how stubborn the client is you must always be nice to them.....well most of the time. I am Australian and I regularly "tell them how it is" funnily enough most of my clients always comment on my honesty and that's what gets me referrals. Kinda funny how in an industry where there is so much distrust towards IMers my biggest selling point is brutal honesty lol.

I also forgot to suggest give him a range of options so he feels like he is still in control. He wont be but as long as you explain things clearly and don't promise him anything you have done more than any of the competitors are willing to do. I would say package 5 keywords together for about 200-300 plus a 500-1000 monthly maintenance charge (depending on what needs doing and how long it will take you) for maintaining and increasing the usage of his website. Clearly say that you will focus on these keywords and build them so they get a higher average of organic traffic from google than any other source (that's what I have done in the past but yours might get more form facebook or something just twist it to suit your needs)

Edit: Just a thought occured to me if you did price high like my suggested 500-1000 a month maintence and if he turned you down you could still offer the 500. Something like:

"Look I have taken on more clients at this stage and I have had to increase my prices to 1000. But considering our past and because I feel like you got the short end of the stick I'll come back on to help you. I'll even lower my orginial offer of 1000 to 750 (or 500, personally 50% discount sounds to good to be true espcieally if he has already been had by IMers).

I should also say I meant for this to happen if he rejected the deal and then you contact him in a couple of months lol.

 

[subster]

Repped Uppa for his great answer, helping an other member out with his very intelligent point of view.

 

[Uppa839]

Repped Uppa for his great answer, helping an other member out with his very intelligent point of view.

Thank you mate much appreciated. Though looking at my spelling I don't know that i would call it intelligent.....oh man I even used the wrong "There" lol. Lucky there is an edit button

 

[monk13]

i use the preset campaign model for my services, i charge a decent chunk of change to develop a multi-tiered solution to improve their ranking, clients MUST pay up front. if he wants guaranteed rankings for 30 keywords on page 1, quote him a price of 30k for setup fees and 1.5k /month, setup fees must be paid upfront.
(at least thats what i'd do) then if he balks at that, find out how much he is willing to spend, and make up a task list that you feel is worth it
protip: never mention the automated software you use to create wikis and web 2.0 sites, or maintain your blogging posts, show them spintax and scrapebox, they'll still shit themselves in amazement, maybe, maybe even show them amr (if they seem savvy) and inflate the hell out of the cost of the tools when describing what tools u use

 

[quelblade]

monk13 - You mean 30k pound sterling? Well this is a little much isn't it?

However I agree your client must pay upfront!

 

[monk13]

if they want guaranteed placement , yes, they are buying a piece of string of interminable length, you gotta cover your ass on that one
and how long do they want it?
it's so much easier to show them 3 different graphics, each being a mindmap of a campaign, and selling them the campaign, a set amount of work , for a set price.
you just tell them that each different campaign type provides a different amount of strength

now you are selling a digital product rather than a service, and depending on local law, it's usually a bit easier to skirt taxes that way
(here if it's not a physical product, and is not writing, as long as it's not writing services, it's not taxable)
to get around that, instead of selling them the articles, you liscence the articles created, claiming the spintax written as your own creation.
with all the derivative articles generated as liscenced digital products