As SEO Factor is concerned, I haven’t really taken the business aspect seriously. SEO Factor started as just a blog to share a little information to a small group of people. Over the years, business owners would often contact me for services. Though I was all to happy to accommodate, I never sought new business. Over the last few years, I’ve been contacted more and more, and so as increased my desire to take SEO Factor to the next level.
2008: Year of the LLC
I decided in late 2007 that I was going to take SEO Factor more seriously as my means of income and living. A few months ago I filed for an LLC, evaluated my budget and gave SEO Factor the outlook that it deserved; that of a small business.
The One Burning Question
As an SEO, especially one that offers SEO services, I am often asked the same questions about my services. There is one that always changes the tone of the conversation:
“May I see some of your past clients, and what successes they have had?”
Why is this such a tough question? For a number of reasons. You see, the majority of my clients don’t want to share a part of their strategy. They don’t like the idea that a competitor could become privy to a new method of gaining on them. So, I often sign a non-disclosure and non-compete clause (all too happily as I can understand the reasoning behind it). However, I can also understand the question that brings this conversation (I am never happy to fork over money for a mysterious service myself).
There is also a stigma, however dying as it may be, that SEO is like cheating. That anyone that uses such tactics to grow their business is setting themselves up for some sort of penalty.
The answers to these concerns are always the same:
“Well, my previous clients don’t allow me to give out who they are (for the reasons above)”
or
“Well, there is always a level of risk. I’m what is considered “white-hat” so those risks are incredibly low (with a large amount of education following)”
Until this year, those answers were just fine as I wasn’t in the position to treat SEO Factor like a business. If I got a gig, neat. If not, that’s OK too. But I don’t think a business should be OK with turning away perfectly good business, especially if I can indeed provide a quality service. So, you can see why this is a tough topic. What am I to do?
No Problems. Only Solutions.
I think I have a solution to this problem. I need to build a portfolio and some testimonials. I won’t need to do this forever, but at least until I have a good range of varying business types, sizes and models for reference. I also understand that this is a benefit to me, and it would mean that a client would have to be willing to forego any non-disclosure agreements, so I’m going to offer a compensation.
Discounted SEO Services
Here’s the deal. If I feel that I could use your site as part of a portfolio then I will provide my services at a discounted rate. If not, I will still provide a proposal of services and options that may be of interest.
The Catch
There’s always a catch; I’m not just going to give my services away for free after all. In order to take advantage of the discounted services, I will be asking for a few things in return. One being a testimonial nearing the end of service (good or bad), a conservative link at the bottom of your site (small and neat is fine), and the permission to use your site as part of a portfolio.
Contact Me Today
So, head over to the discounted SEO services page and see if your site qualifies.
With this, and any other post, please read the disclaimer.
Well, it was an interesting week. Seems everyone is at the SMX Advanced this week, so it was a little slow. I thought I would wrap up a few bits of news for a nice Friday informative. I haven’t been blogging a lot lately (seems less and less every week), but that’s just a sign that SEO Factor is doing well. Catch 22 I guess.
After my hotel reputation management post yesterday, I received a lot of emails about the subject, and how a hotelier goes about finding an Internet marketing firm for their hotel. I couldn’t answer some of those emails too directly, as there would be a conflict of interest, but I thought I would create a decent post to help you out.
It seems that almost every conversation I have about SEO with someone new to the idea includes some common questions. With answering these questions, I am then asked the exact same question, every time. “So, what sites do you read?” Well, let me tell you.
I recently wrote an article for Skellie of Anywired.com on 7 Signs of SEO Scams. It was posted yesterday, and I would like to direct my readers to it. It was a post on SEO offers that should be noted as signs of a scam.
I mentioned in my last post that I had a story about reputation management. This one is a story about 2 hotels. One charges a lot less than the other, but learns that price is not the only thing people want.