How Do You Determine How Much To Charge Clients?

Dan Da Man · Apr 2, 2012

I have everything else in place and i keep procrastimnating because I dont know what to say to a client when they ask how much it would be. How do you guys determine how much to charge a potential client? I have read from other's here that as a professional, you don't want to undercut yourself. But, you also don't want to throw a huge number out there.

So let's say I have potential clients that want to rank for "city + bankrupcy attorney". Obviously, this keyword can bring the potential client a good profit. Now, say that there is an overall of 500 exact local searches. How would you charge for a monthly SEO service for this client and what do you say?

I am assuming you would charge a one time fee for keyword research and onpage optimization then a monthly fee for seo.

Advice is really appreciated.

squidkai1 · Apr 2, 2012

You might want to check out taktical's method of how he made 15k per month in the offline section. It has great information about business prospecting and what to charge clients.

dankerman666 · Apr 2, 2012

Well you first have to assemble your costs for a campaign like linkbuilding, content creation, time spent, etc..

Add that together and then think of an hourly rate you could charge for your time. I normally charge $25-$50+ depending on the difficulty of the competition you are dealing with and the estimated value of a potential customer and if the client likes to waste a lot of your time over the phone, in person, etc...

But those aren't things you will figure out until after the client signs on with you.

Then considering you are doing something a person off the street couldn't do at minimum wage this makes you a specialist and you stress that fact to the client. So even at 20 hours per month which is a very low estimate this would run $500-$1000 just in your time spent.

Now we propose such a high hourly rate or a set fee to cover costs of outsourcing which you need to figure out after determining difficulty that the keywords entail and if the client needs changes done onpage with their site.

A set up fee usually covers all the initial legwork like onpage optimization, new pages, keyword research, etc...
This can range from about $250(5-10 pages/10-20 keywords) and goes up from there, just do your math to scale it up if necessary.

So coming up with a set hourly rate is a good first start to determine the overall cost, or you can come up with packages that reflect certain tiers of productivity and results.

Don't settle for less than 40% profit after taxes and costs.

Oh and I see you are in the San Diego area, just don't be hassling any of my clients mmmmm'kay.... LOL JK

BigEasy · Apr 2, 2012

I am getting ready to launch my business and found myself in the same predicament. I came to the conclusion that I am going to charge around $75.00 per hour. I feel that it is a good starting point and from there I can estimate the time on a particular project. Even if it takes me twice as long as I estimate, than I'm still making $37.50 an hour

kegnum · Apr 2, 2012

1. Estimate cost of service (what you will need to spend money on)
2. Estimate what you want to make per hour and how many hours you will work on this project.

1 + 2 + 10% = monthly fee

Dan Da Man · Apr 2, 2012

dankerman666 said:
Well you first have to assemble your costs for a campaign like linkbuilding, content creation, time spent, etc..

Add that together and then think of an hourly rate you could charge for your time. I normally charge $25-$50+ depending on the difficulty of the competition you are dealing with and the estimated value of a potential customer and if the client likes to waste a lot of your time over the phone, in person, etc...

But those aren't things you will figure out until after the client signs on with you.

Then considering you are doing something a person off the street couldn't do at minimum wage this makes you a specialist and you stress that fact to the client. So even at 20 hours per month which is a very low estimate this would run $500-$1000 just in your time spent.

Now we propose such a high hourly rate or a set fee to cover costs of outsourcing which you need to figure out after determining difficulty that the keywords entail and if the client needs changes done onpage with their site.

A set up fee usually covers all the initial legwork like onpage optimization, new pages, keyword research, etc...
This can range from about $250(5-10 pages/10-20 keywords) and goes up from there, just do your math to scale it up if necessary.

So coming up with a set hourly rate is a good first start to determine the overall cost, or you can come up with packages that reflect certain tiers of productivity and results.

Don't settle for less than 40% profit after taxes and costs.

Oh and I see you are in the San Diego area, just don't be hassling any of my clients mmmmm'kay.... LOL JK

Thanks for the reply. This actually really helped me! One question. Do you typcially throw out the highest number then work down from there or start off with a pretty strict number? Oh and I won't hassle your clients lol. Its for my hometown city

hamish11 · Apr 2, 2012

I would throw out the highest number. It's not like you can throw out a lower one and negotiate it up! Also I would go with a minimum of 75.00 an hour. Anything else is shortchanging yourself. You may want to put together a business case for the client with a projected ROI based on you price and his potential increase in profits.

sukataetumba · Apr 2, 2012

find out what their budget is and go from there. If it is too little then you simply tell them you can't work with that budget. You might be surprised on what they might be willing to spend.

srb888 · Apr 2, 2012

squidkai1 said:
You might want to check out taktical's method of how he made 15k per month in the offline section. It has great information about business prospecting and what to charge clients.

@OP, Here is that link for you. HTH!

Code:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/offline-marketing/309903-how-i-built-my-offline-search-engine-optimization-social-media-empire-earning-15-000-month-three-months.html

futurestic06 · Apr 2, 2012

Depends on different factors.
first of all try to understand your clients business. how much he can afford? don't ask something that will be absurd to him.
I actually believe in long term relationship. so i always start with an impressive and very low payout. and when my clients become happy then i gradually increase the payout.

7878 · Apr 2, 2012

Moved to Offline Marketing.

Dan Da Man · Apr 2, 2012

Cool, thanks guys. This has been really helpful!

dankerman666 · Apr 2, 2012

Dan Da Man said:
Thanks for the reply. This actually really helped me! One question. Do you typcially throw out the highest number then work down from there or start off with a pretty strict number? Oh and I won't hassle your clients lol. Its for my hometown city

Yeah I go in and capture the clients interest with a ballpark figure , usually higher than what I will actually quote them in the end and it always works out. And don't worry I have clients all over the place but it is pretty competitive until you prove your skills to a couple people out here. They also like the fact that I sometimes waive the set up fee wink wink.

Don't hesitate to hit me up bro, I'm satans little helper around here when I can

rockong · Apr 2, 2012

i def liked to echo the fact that you shouldn't undercut yourself. it's definitely to have more quality clients, than pure quantity. would you rather have 10 clients that pay you $500+ a month or have 20 clients that pay you $250 a month? at the end of the day, the $5,000 is the same, but the 20 clients will take out a lot more of your time!

How Do You Determine How Much To Charge Clients?

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