Brokerblogger

SEO Consultant Compensation Based on "Knowledge"

When you insert a dollar into a slot machine in Las Vegas, you could get back a very nice return on your investment (ROI).  But, if you put a dollar into a vending machine, and get an unsatisfactory product, you have no guarantee to get your money back.  Click on image to see the dollar disappear.

First, let me restate that I am in favor of all ethical, professional SEO's who provide you with proof of productive results (click-throughs that are "actions-traffic of good intent" or online sales) getting compensated fairly and well.  In my opinion, just getting increased "clicks" or "hits", or "rankings" alone is not a good indicator of ROI or the quality of the SEO Consultant firm.  Offline sales, on the other hand, should NOT be a factor in compensating an SEO, as he has no control over what happens offline after the initial online contact. That's called "Pay For Performance" (offline & online sales), and I believe that the SEO seller should not be held accountable for what does or doesn't happen offline, but the SEO buyer should be!  But, I will write more about that in another post.  For now, I want to address an SEO buyer compensating an SEO seller for their "knowledge" through hourly rates or "pricing packages".  This is what I promised in my last post.

SEO Consultant Selection Based On "Knowledge"

In my last post, I ended by saying that I would be trying to help the Search Marketing Industry grow by giving some options that potential SEO buyers and sellers could choose from in the process of both buyer and seller trying to achieve the goal of a "Win-Win" situation for the long term.  Of course, any "Win-Win" situation starts off with "O'HUG" Communication (Open, Honest, Upfront, and Good = clear, conspicuous, comprehensive, and completely comprehended).  These keywords, if taken seriously by both SEO buyer and seller, will greatly help avoid many possible misunderstandings in the consultative relationship process!

OK, I mentioned, previous to this post, a Search Engine Watch Post that analogized the type of compensation of an SEO to the "Lawyer game".  Again, I'm not judging what was said, as much as I am looking to enlighten the SEO buyer and seller.  Actually, I think "Lawyer" is closer to reality than the Doctor or Stock Broker analogies, as Lawyers do, many times, work on a "contingency fee" depending on the kind of law practiced.  This same poster also says: "To me there are two business models worth pursuing, charge for traffic and charge for knowledge."  I agree, with the clarification of "traffic" meaning "Traffic Of Good Intent" (somewhere in the "buying cycle"), and "knowledge" being split into "hourly compensation", "pricing package", and "Pay For Some Kind Of Performance" compensation.  For this post, I will focus on "charge for knowledge", and deal with the compensation issue in the next.

How Is An SEO Like A Doctor?

The cartoon shows (click to enlarge) a "Doctor of Psychiatry" about to consult Google for answers.  Both good Doctors and SEO's diagnose what is wrong with their patient (website), and try to "fix" and improve them.  My last post shows how SEO sellers and buyers may have to use lawyers to evaluate contracts.  This post will be about analogies of SEO to other professional careers.  The goal is to bring enlightenment to both SEO buyer and seller.

I got the idea for this post from an April, 2004 post on SEO Chat Forum.  The author meant well by trying to make himself, and other SEO's, feel better about how it is possible for an SEO client to lose money (or worse).  He analogized an SEO Consultant to a Doctor or Stock Broker in the sense of "no guarantees".  The big difference, though, is that there are no standards, government regulations, or oaths that an SEO has to abide by to keep doing SEO.  This doesn't mean that all SEO's are Worthless, Shady Criminals.  To the contrary, there are many professional, ethical, value driven SEO's with different levels of sophistication (personally, I dislike the word "sophistication" as it carries an implied, condescending elitism with it).  But, let's get back to the analogies.

SEO Contracts & Client Contracts

Contracts can be offered to you (click on image to see), but you don't have to sign them.  This is what Jill Whalen implied in her recent article entitled "SEO Contracts" when she said: "Sometimes I would allow the client to provide me with their standard contract, but that wasn't very smart because then I (or my husband) had to carefully read each one to make sure it was fair and accurate."  Jill was advising someone who had asked her what sort of information should be in an SEO contract.  I respect Jill's SEO knowledge, and I'm hoping that Jill realizes that Clients have to "read carefully" each contract, along with the major tasks of educating themselves to SEO, and trying to figure out who's trustworthy, and will give the best overall value for the price.  Contracts are just one aspect of "Considerations Of Buyers Of Search Marketing".

Jill warns other SEO's that "...many corporate contracts are extremely one-sided."  I'm sure Jill is right when it comes to "generalized" vs. "specific" vendor contracts.  The key is to have customized contracts from either the SEO Consultant or from the SEO Client, or, better yet, one contract from the SEO that has everything in it to protect both the buyer and the seller of SEO services.  What Jill advises next is very interesting to me.

Shopping-Comparison Sites Help Santa

Click on the image below to see Santa trying to get down the chimney. He could be struggling this Christmas for many reasons.  While Search Referrals are Skyrocketing For Shopping-Referral Sites online, Consumer Reports WebWatch said: "one-fourth of adult Internet users have stopped buying things online out of fear of identity theft. In its survey of 1,501 users, WebWatch also found that 30% say they’ve reduced their use of the Internet in general to combat identity theft."

This post came to mind while doing my post on "WebmasterWorld PubCon Las Vegas 2005 Review".  The session that concentrated on e-commerce tracking was "Tracking, Logging, and Conversion Rate Measurement".  However,  tracking may be disappointing to some retailers this Christmas due to another reason Santa has to struggle to get down the chimney: "CNN/Money says "holiday return policies are becoming even more tricky and nasty."  This is elaborated in "Herb Weisbaum: Store Return Policy Tips".  Wait, the best is yet to come.

A "Realtor" For SEM - Both Buyer's & Seller's Agent?

The husband is still carrying his new bride, but no longer across the threshold of their new house.  Click to see how lost they are.  The analogy can be made here that too many prospective SEO and even SEM Pay Per Click clients are postponing investing in Search Marketing (or newlyweds in the big investment of their own home), due to the many "pitfalls" they have either experienced themselves already, or have heard about from word of mouth or articles.  Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) along with Ignorance on the part of prospective Search Marketing clients is holding back the benefits these prospective clients could receive, as well as the growth of the Search Marketing Industry.

Some of these prospective client's fears are well founded in many cases though, as Jennifer Laycock says in "Does the World Need an SEM Match-Maker?":  "It's not at all unusual for me to hear from business owners that very much want to invest in SEM but that have simply been burned so many times by bad vendors that they're not sure any good ones actually exist."  This does not even take into account all the SEM prospects who haven't tried SEM for the first time yet!

A "Realtor" Broker For Search Engine Marketing

As the husband carries his new bride through the door of their new house, they quickly learn that they should have utilized a Realtor Broker to find the house and to help with the Purchase Agreement.  Click on the animated image to see a "pitfall" that could have been avoided, due to a licensed broker's limited realistic liability to check for obvious "house for sale" problems.

I had a Realtor Broker's license in California, and I must give a lot of credit to Jennifer Laycock for her Realtor analogy in this recent post of hers on Small Business Ideas Forum.  The topic was based on her 11/8/05 Search Engine Guide article entitled "Does the World Need an SEM Match-Maker?".  I agree with Jennifer about a great need for the SEO-SEM industry to have help in their trust, credibility, and educational challenges with clients.  I especially liked this quote from her post on "Search Return" for the topic "Search Work Referral System":  "I see a true need for this type "match-making" service if search
marketing is going to continue to grow. While the industry is starting to mature, there are still valid concerns from companies about who they can safely hire."

WebmasterWorld PubCon Las Vegas 2005 Review

It was a good conference, held at a great place for conferences.  What surprised me the most in comparing it to Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2005, is that this conference seemed to have more "outsider-buyers" along with the usual many "insider-seller webmasters & SEO's-SEM's".  At least that is what it appeared like to me at the specific sessions that I attended.

I mainly feel this way, because a session on the use of credit cards with E-Commerce sites had many people asking questions about how best to maximize sales with their sites (probably for the upcoming Christmas season - see "Search Referrals Skyrocketing For Shopping-Comparison Sites").  So, the entire conference was, in my opinion, about helping online buyers get together with online sellers.  This is right up my "General Broker Philosophy" alley.

Rather than try to do as good a job of "live coverage" as Rusty Brick of SEO Roundtable fame, here is a link to his conference "Session Wrap Up".  I not only met him for the first time, but I sat next to Lee Odden who did his own "PubCon X Wrap Up".  They are both better than I at taking down the details of conferences.

WebmasterWorld PubCon Las Vegas 2005

In order for anyone to get better at what they do, they have to continue their ongoing education.  So, I will be taking a week off from posting here to go "BACK TO SCHOOL" (click to see those words DANCE!).

I'm enthusiastically "dancing" about it, since the "SCHOOL" is in Las Vegas.  This WebmasterWorld PubCon Session Planner is another reason to "DANCE".  There will be a "Super Session" on "Blogging for Fun and Profit, and "Coffee Talk with Senior Google Engineer: Matt Cutts".  I expect to see and meet many webmasters, sellers of search marketing, and even some buyers of search marketing.

Also, since I was in Las Vegas last December, the new Wynn Las Vegas Hotel & Casino has opened for business.  I'm curious to see how it compares to Steve Wynn's Bellagio Hotel & Casino that is now owned by MGM MIRAGE.

Animated words courtesy of www.artie.com.

"F" Stands For "FiOS" & "Frustration"

(BE SURE TO READ THE 1/4/06 & 1/8/06 UPDATES NEAR THE END!) The "F" keeps on dancing (click on it to see), as "My FiOS New Customer Experience" continues from my first call to Verizon on 7/18/05.  I say this because at the end of my last FiOS related post on 10/30/05 ("Update On My Overall Verizon FiOS Experience"), I said: "I also await the answer from Verizon on a more fair, in my opinion, compensation for my time, trouble, Buffalo tech education, and my detailed, time consuming, customer feedback."

Well, on 11/9/05 that FiOS tech support supervisor finally called me back from our 10/28/05 phone conversation that included her having to talk to a manager about this request of mine.  I had left a phone message for her on 11/6/05 and 11/8/05.  I now specifically asked for a "more fair" compensation of two Verizon FiOS D-Link devices. One of these (Verizon's wireless router) was already offered to me by her.  But, I thought there would be a Buffalo wireless compatibility issue, and so I previously declined the offer.  I must interject here that I have also previously said that I would keep the terms of my "more fair" compensation confidential.  I am not going back on my word as I was only offered (and given) that previously offered D-link device (the "special firmware" D-link wireless router).  There was NO "MORE FAIR"  compensation offered! 

So, I can only assume that Verizon FiOS believes that my, now, over 20 hours of time spent on tech support phone conversations, and trying to deal with FiOS wireless connectivity and 1.5 MBps to 3.5 MBps (out of a possible 5 MBps) speed issues, is only worth about $95 (full retail pricing on device and one month's free service).  Let's see, that works out to about $4.75 per hour.  Of course, that's  just for my time, and has nothing to do with my FRUSTRATION in trying to tell numerous Verizon people from the beginning, that I had a UNIQUE SITUATION with my 9 Buffalo Tech wireless devices (a unique access point bridging set up).  I kept being told what I wanted to hear; "no problem, we have experienced tech reps in the engineering dept. who will call you."