Protecting My SEO Work

"Different" situation here. But it's still about making money and keeping money (regular income) through a client. I suppose it's more "client management".

I have a client, he's very hot and cold in terms of work load, sometimes he'll give me a load of SEO work to be done, then he'll go cold, and nothing for ages, because I always get the results and he floats on that, then it's a hard grind back up when he signs me back up.

I have been offered a share of the business and this business has got potential to fly, but I'm a but unsure of the guys loyalty, and I don't work for free, I don't want the hassle of going through a legal battle.

The guy has just asked me to do some more work, but only for a small amount of time, for example 5 months and then stop. As the niche is not too competitive I can achieve what they need within a few months, but there is another issue...

The guy has just got a sidekick on-board, a work monkey who does everything for him for a cheap price and is not very good at what he does, he's full of BS and the guy (my client) buys it all.

I am concerned that If I send all my work and backlink reports then he'll axe me and then get the monkey to just work backwards through my work and copy all the methods, making a two month job hard work and little payback long-term for me.

You may say - "Drop him", but it's great money.

Do you think it's fair to only take on a 12 month contract?

The other thing is the business ownership option - but this could be a gamble.

Feedback appreciated

Keep the work and diversify. Get your own work as well so you're not dependent on him. I started getting my really big SEO contracts from a huge web design firm and now I bring all my own clients on autopilot.

Well if that guy isn't very good, I doubt he'd be good enough to properly reverse engineer your stuff and master it. However, he could BS it out for a few months until the client fails to see results and then contacts you again.

As for the ownership option, always a gamble IMO as even apparently honest people can screw you over but if I was in your shoes and wasn't too comfortable with them, I wouldn't go for it.

ff1227 said:

Keep the work and diversify. Get your own work as well so you're not dependent on him. I started getting my really big SEO contracts from a huge web design firm and now I bring all my own clients on autopilot.

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Golden advise.

How did you hook up with the web design firm?

qu4rk said:

Golden advise.

How did you hook up with the web design firm?

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The biggest one I have I used the "dumb shit luck and be in the right place at the right time method" but there are numerous other web design firms I work with. The bottom line is that I give most of them some sort of up front value before I even ask for anything in return. As a natural consequence, people will in turn feel obligated to give you something back. It's the same way to get top affiliates in real life.

ff1227 said:

The biggest one I have I used the "dumb shit luck and be in the right place at the right time method" but there are numerous other web design firms I work with. The bottom line is that I give most of them some sort of up front value before I even ask for anything in return. As a natural consequence, people will in turn feel obligated to give you something back. It's the same way to get top affiliates in real life.

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As for value, would that be ranking their site, sending the biz or something like that?

qu4rk said:

As for value, would that be ranking their site, sending the biz or something like that?

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Whatever they need really. SEO to their own site, social media promotion, better articles, videos on their site, ideas on how to make their site convert better, marketing strategies, direct mail letters to send out their clients, etc. I don't have a one sized fits all answer but I usually give them something that's going to benefit their business.

For example, sometimes it's really simple. I told one lady that does web design that she doesn't have any SEO content on her site, so I gave her some articles to start with for her to educate her clients on the importance of it. She turned around and said to me, "I don't do that though. Can you handle SEO for my clients?"

Naturally I said yes and allowed her to mark it up $100/month so it's worth her while to sell and just like that, real life affiliates are born. She's not a big time promoter for mine but I get 2 new clients per month from her usually at $500/month and I don't do any direct selling. Obviously this is just ONE strategy but think of all the ways you could create affiliates in real life without actually calling them affiliates.

WebOracle said:

-Get him to sign a 1 or 2 year contact for and use a discounted price to entice him
-If that doesn't work use a 301 redirect, then when he stops paying pull the redirect from his site
-And lastly get his billing info ahead of time and auto-bill him, so you don't have to worry about chasing him down to get paid.

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This is an interesting one, I've given it some thought, but they do have a company lawyer and I'm sure this is illegal, as you're taking away work that was paid for.

It'd be great to get the billing going but they're being a bit tight at the moment, so it's tough trying to push the annual contract.

Maybe, I haven't done it but just giving you options. As for being legal or not, make sure you have a solid contract and then it will be legal. And lastly I gave you to other great ways to get paid and have the money in your account month after month, this is what I do and rake in a nice chunk of money every month.

WebOracle said:

-Get him to sign a 1 or 2 year contact for and use a discounted price to entice him
-If that doesn't work use a 301 redirect, then when he stops paying pull the redirect from his site
-And lastly get his billing info ahead of time and auto-bill him, so you don't have to worry about chasing him down to get paid.

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Can you use this 301 method without getting slapped by google?

I haven't tried it. I just build quality links and that has done and still continues to yield great results. There was a thread here on BHW where a guy was talking about seeing a site on the first page for mega search terms with a ton of aged sites with pr 301 to his money site and he was beating out heavy hitters. Not sure the outcome or how long it lasted post penguin.

as for the business ownership side of things - get a legal contract drawn out.

I know it'll cost a few hundred dollars, but if you're going to gamble at least you're only gambling that the business is successful, not on whether they keep their word.