Brokerblogger

Pay For Actions = Performance

My "partnering" type of compensation/pricing option for SEO services is based on a principle that I have made a living by, and believe in.  In the About biography section of this blog there is a link to the results of my six hour "The Personnel Labs" personality test that I took a while ago.  At the very end are "Comments:" on my "straight commission" beliefs.  For most of my business life I got paid on results only (Pay For Performance), and not on efforts (Pay For Time/Perceived Talent).  But, this does not work with everything that is sold, as is the case with attorney contingency fees in certain kinds of law.  In my case, though, I "partnered" with the publishing company that my company was contracted to, and certainly shared some of the risk to get a fair share of the reward.

Considerations Of Buyers Of Search Marketing

Nothing takes the place of "Due Diligence" in consultant, supplier outsourcing.  First, SEO-SEM buyers should educate themselves as much as possible to SEO.  For a good explanation of search marketing terminology and abbreviations check out Webopedia.  A good overview of the subject is "SEO 101", but it is commercialized across the top of the page to promote a website design, hosting, e-commerce company that also does "Links to your site". 

A great unselfish, and non-commercialized buyer's information web site is "Honest SEO".  The anonymous author starts off by saying "Due to the commercial nature of the web and self interest of marketers it is difficult to get marketers to come together on a solution to help people out. This paper was designed to help consumers learn about SEO without being attached to any centralized body."  That last point is especially good, in my opinion, since my next suggestion has to do with lists of SEO-SEM Consultant companies. 

Search Marketing Value versus Just Price

This post is in behalf of the prospective clients that realize the marketing need for an effective SEM program.  A great 7/22/05 article by Stoney de Geyter makes the valid point that SEM prospective buyers need to look at the quantity and quality of services they are buying along with the prices they are quoted.  How true this is for any professional service you buy.  Stoney goes on to say that "If you want a cheap service, you'll get cheap results."  Not only cheap, but if that consultant takes shortcuts the search engines say not to, your web site could be severely penalized by some of those search engines.

The above concepts involve wisdom and fear that the prospective SEM client has to use and deal with.  Now for the discernment that prospects need to use. Stoney says "With SEO, however, you usually get what you pay for."  I'm glad he said "usually".  Because, how is a prospective buyer supposed to know for sure, before the SEO or SEM consultant weathers the test of time?  One of the ways I know is to get a personal referral from a friendly competitor who knows a SEM consultant, who knows your industry. 

SEO-SEM Relationship Selling

Recently there have been two good articles on how both paid search advertising ( part of SEM ), and SEO are becoming more complex.  This trend will probably continue.  Today, Kevin Lee writes about "AdWords Changes to Affect Google Advertisers". Jim Hedger says in his recent article on "SEO Sales and Services - Consulting Cuts Complexity" that "While there has never been more business for good SEOs with strong reputations, the amount of work needed to be done to provide a strong campaign has never been greater." 

This is true, but I hope that all this "easy come" business doesn't turn into "easy go" for everybody's sake.  Advertisers (Clients/Buyers) need to be constantly educated, but, I believe, so do Consultants/Sellers in how to build long term customers through "Relationship Selling".  This is a book by Jim Cathcart that came out in 1990.  Maybe the timing is right in this emerging growth phase of the Search Marketing Industry for all the good SEO's and SEM's, with their many diverse backgrounds, to embrace this concept, if they haven't already.

Do You Know What Is Advertising On a Search Engine Results Page?

Studies have shown that most people using search engines don't know the advertised sponsored links from the "natural" or "organic" results on the results pages.  On June 9, 2005 Consumer Reports WebWatch held an "open to the public" conference on "Trust or Consequence:  How Failure to Disclose Ad Relationships Threatens to Burst the Search Bubble". 

At that conference was a representative from Google, Matt Cutts, who said openly that he would pass on the suggestion to make "Sponsored Links" a live link that leads to a disclosure page explaining what the different sections on the result page represent.  Yahoo has this now at their Sponsor Results link on their results pages.

 

General Broker Philosophy

Since this is my first post, I thought I'd start off by giving some general principles: 

#1:  In order to get a long term "win-win-win" scenario, the end user-consumer has to come first, and be happy with the overall value.  Then the client-buyer will be happy.  Last, but not least, the ethical seller has won, since he has a happy, long term customer.

#2:  Open, Honest, Upfront, and Good (O'HUG) Communication combined with empathy for the other party is imperative in having all go smoothly.  Good communication, by the way, should be clear, conspicuous, comprehensive, and most importantly, completely comprehended.