Starting out in ORM - Which businesses are best to target?

Hi everyone,

So I don't post here a lot but been a member for a while and read this forum quite regularly to get inspired to make money, however I usually end up losing interest and going back to my day job. Well I have been made redundant from my day job now and funds are running low and I really want to give this a shot and find some success in it. I have quite a bit of spare time right now to work hard on this.

I'm based in Perth, Australia and I want to know some methods of finding potential clients for ORM and general SEO. I'm not looking to hook huge clients but would rather get some low-value clients and succeed with them to build up my own reputation for ORM then look at landing the bigger dogs.

I'm wanting to know who or what businesses or individuals are best to target for ORM services that are known to spend money on such services? Hotels? Restaurants? Lawyers? Small time politicians?

My knowledge of ORM is very low and I admit that, but I am no stranger to getting clients for something I do not know a lot of, then outsourcing the work or learning as I go. This method has worked well for me in my past, fake it till you make it!

If there is someone who wishes to partner up with me on this please get in touch.

Dear mate,

It is a worst time to start a business with "very low" knowledge about it when your "funds are running low".

You'll be doing a lot of stuff knee jerk reactively as, to me, you look like you are motivated by going away from "problems". In my personal experience, it is a surefire way to failure.

Why the heck you want to do ORM? It's a way harder than normal SEO for "plumber in Perth". I worked with shitloads of clients over the years and none of them ever needed any ORM.

Honestly, ORM maybe needed by someone with high visibility who has real troubles, like police arrest newspaper article appear when someone searches for their name. But they will do it rather quietly via recommendations or via their own network of contacts. Do you really think they will go to someone random who is looking to provide ORM with "very low" knowledge about it?

Anyways, ask away. I am based in Sydney. Will be glad to help a fellow Aussie.

ORM: Object-relational mapping?

cash202 said:

Dear mate,

It is a worst time to start a business with "very low" knowledge about it when your "funds are running low".

You'll be doing a lot of stuff knee jerk reactively as, to me, you look like you are motivated by going away from "problems". In my personal experience, it is a surefire way to failure.

Why the heck you want to do ORM? It's a way harder than normal SEO for "plumber in Perth". I worked with shitloads of clients over the years and none of them ever needed any ORM.

Honestly, ORM maybe needed by someone with high visibility who has real troubles, like police arrest newspaper article appear when someone searches for their name. But they will do it rather quietly via recommendations or via their own network of contacts. Do you really think they will go to someone random who is looking to provide ORM with "very low" knowledge about it?

Anyways, ask away. I am based in Sydney. Will be glad to help a fellow Aussie.

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Thanks for your input. I do however have to disagree. I see a market for ORM in the small things, such as offering clients good reviews or replies to the bad reviews they have had against their business. I dont see ORM as just reputation slander management but more of a means to gain respect as a business or individual in the eyes of the viewer online.

restaurants my fav pick

garrido said:

ORM: Object-relational mapping?

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Online Reputation Management.

I would say dentists, lawyers, some restaurants (especially those with delivery that isn't cheap) and remodeling contractors. Anybody who are likely to have money set aside for marketing purposes alone.

I'd say lawyers and doctors are good targets.

If you want to find only in Perth and nearby, one way to begin is to search all the popular scam reporting sites (scam.com, ripoffreport and all others) Be creative. Where would people complain about a scam?

Search the sites with site: operator + Perth (or another city) on Google. You'll find listings of shady people. Find out those who are most messed up.

Prepare a presentation showing how much money they lose every month because of those bad listings showing up on first page for their keywords.

That's the amount you can make them back.

Justify your fee. Profit!

Hey Burds

Just to chime in with ORM I would seriously advice against fake it till you make it instead find an ORMer to outsource to first especially one that already has good recommendations.

Think about it ORM and say the law profession are very similar in that you implicitly trust the professioanl to get you out of trouble or fix something to return life to the normal status quo.

Nothing pisses people and drives them into crazy mode than paying someone to get rid of their troubles only to find they didn't know what they were doing, not mention the effect on your own reputation its defo not a risk you want to take not especially right now.

In addition you will need to able able to know enough about ORM to be able to even explain to the prospect/lead business owners have a keen sense of perception honed by years of fending off all sorts of salesmen since day 1 of their business when they had a phone installed.

So my advice would definitely be 1st find a reputable ORMer to outsource too agree the rates so you know if he charges X you need to add Y to make a profit.

Then in the meantime you can learn about ORM I'm sure just using the search function on this site will put you on the right path.

Secondly in terms of who to go for I know the general rule/myth for Offliners is that lawyers dentist surgeons can afford to pay the reality is no not really its the size of the company that matters.

E.g. a solo practicioner will not have as much disposable income as a Mid size firm for ORM casualties remember ORM is an incidental/reactive expense aka above the line budget expense.

So choose very carefully and create the perception of an expert and you have a big brand behind you.
You'll need to understand how to also write a proposal and to show the value of what you are offering.

In choosing prospects to go for my number 1 advice is go for what you know 1st if your job was in accounting then go for that, if it was in retail then go for that.

If you feel that what you know isn't where you want to start at then well
Restaurants, Hotels and other B2C establishments with bad reviews could be good places to started.
Think outside the box e.g Vets,Care homes and hospices rely solely on a good reputation otherwise nobody will place their elderly parents in their care but again you need to find the ones who have the bad reviews and can afford it.

Hope this is a good action plan to get started.

Good luck with it all.

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone recommend an ORM'er who would like some more clients? I feel I will be able to bring in clients quite easily. What is a fair commission?

garrido said:

ORM: Object-relational mapping?

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That's what came in mind to me first too.

burdsthawurd said:

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone recommend an ORM'er who would like some more clients? I feel I will be able to bring in clients quite easily. What is a fair commission?

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Its more than likely going to based on the job for instance there are two types of ORM technically 3 as I will show below
Personal/ Individual, Business ORM then there's cyber bullying which is not exactly ORM but still has ORM connotations.

Here's an example I wrote in another post about someone looking for some help in ORM

Dr.Reed said:

Yep its called Online Reputation Management or Online Reputation Repair.

In this case your friend is looking for Personal Online Reputation Management or Personal Online Reputation Repair unless its him/her and her company which is a whole different approach.

Here are the free options
1. Do nothing (not advised)
2. If the negative properties are slanderous, racially aggravating or the like,defamatory in nature and untrue then it could cost you simply your time to compose a cease and desist letter to get it all removed whereas you can write one yourself its better to look at example templates for guidance.

Now if its a case that the source of the negative properties are credible or do not fit into any of the above categories then you need an ORMer.

It all comes down to money really so Ill tell you straight if there are less than 4 negative results and they aren't right at the top of the page then perhaps you ''might'' be able to get it all sorted for say around $1300/per month(very generous) for about 3-6months duration.

If its a 1st page clearance i.e more than 5 that are all over the first page then your are looking at round $2500 basic for a 1st page clearance and again 3-6months duration for a successfully completed and cemented campaign these durations depend entirely on how good the ORMer is.

However other factors that will need to be considered include
1. Freshness factor/sticky factor which is essentially how long the negative properties have been in existence.
2. The sources of those negative properties is also another important factor.
3. Use the free GAKT with your friends name and surname and then also name middle name and surname (Only Leave Broad match ticked)this will give you an indication of how often people are seeing the negative properties the higher the numbers the more its likely you will need ORM. As a general rule 10ppl a month so 120ppl a year is the minimum average I always use.
4.O.R.M is NOT just SEO so don't get burned thinking your reputation will simply be cured by SEO, SEO is part of the equation but its not just that easy.


Now that you have these tidbits in your arsenal you have some knowledge and an idea for your friend to arm himself with and hopefully not get burned.

If you need more help let me know.

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You can see the prices can vary and really spiral depending on the problems and the budget of the client so you need to know the lowest job that can be done by your outsourcer and how much it will cost but then you also need to know a bit more about ORM so you can make better judgements all ball park figures when you are in a meeting or even over the phone.

Although over the phone you can always say let me run some numbers and get back to you but if you cold/warm called them they'd expect you already to know the numbers then again cold/warm calling should be used in my experience to get a meeting as that leads to higher close rates.

So if your low end ORM client is worth about $4000 minimum, would a fair commission be 10%? How come the likes of reputationdotcom only offer $30-50 for bringing in a client? Seems low?

ORM? Hunt for PR firms who has access to big brand companies in your area. These clients are much concern about their brand images online.

OP, I'm interested in knowing more about your partnership proposition... What did you have in mind?

Please skype me at: porcupinehub

Regards,

Audray

burdsthawurd said:

So if your low end ORM client is worth about $4000 minimum, would a fair commission be 10%? How come the likes of reputationdotcom only offer $30-50 for bringing in a client? Seems low?

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If Rep.com are still offering anything its simply a finders fee I think they did it primarily when they started out.

But yea essentially its a finders fee.

In terms of commission 10% -15% is always what Ive known to be the going rate depending on the level of the work done by the person sourcing the contract and level of work they do in fulfilling the contract e.g are they part of the team working on the job or are they simply a referrer/supply of work to the ''talent''.

Good example look at football agents and their roster then look at people who refer personal injury claims or that sort of stuff Fees are very different.

I landed my first rep management client almost ten years ago. Coming up with that first retainer price wasn't that hard, they were losing lots and lots of money due to negative search engine results.