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Should SEOs Work For Commission?

Went Hot: October 25, 2007 - 7:32 am
Posted By: chriswinfield 620 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.yellowhousehosting.com)
Category: SEO

Steven Bradley asks "Would you offer your SEO services for commission only? As a small business owner would you request someone to market your site based only on how many sales you make?"

6 Comments

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from toddmintz 620 days ago #

Votes: 2 | Vote:

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SEO's Working For Commission = Affiliate Marketing.

I'm not sure any other commission deal would make sense.

from cryptblade 619 days ago #

Votes: 1 | Vote:

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I would never work for commission for SEO. I've had people offer jobs and tie compensation in with commission. I'm like - if you want that, I'll do everything on my own - why work for some base pay and the rest by commission for SEO? SEO is marketing - not sales. Anyone that throws that at me I would kindly turn down.

Also - SEO is doing the actual work, not the results. If I do all of the work of on-page optimization, all of the copywriting, the coding, link-building - all of that - and be paid on commission, then what risk did the client have? Absurd.

I would, however, consider a deal where I do SEO, and ongoing work is tied into active management of the campaigns and tied in with % of revenue.

Face it - SEOs are the ones with the knowledge. Clients pay for the knowledge. If clients knew what to do, they wouldn't need to hire anyone, right?

from toprank 619 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

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We ran a poll at Online Marketing Blog on this recently and of the 35 that responded, 66% said no to SEO pay for performance, 17% said yes and 17% said "Partial" with an explanation.

There are too many variables out of the control of the SEO in such situations, but if reporting and content controls can be put in place to mutual satisfaction, it could be doable. I've yet to come to that kind of agreement though.

from iBrian 619 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

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People who want to pay SEO's on a commission basis only tend to have very slow check-writing hands. :)

People who pay for good SEO get a return that outweighs any ROI via any other method. Any business person looking to make that arrangement more complicated either doesn't understand the process, or doesn't want to pay for it.

2c.

from HamletBatista 619 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

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This is what I do, and I can say that it is far more profitable (and less stressful) than charging per hour.

The trick is that the SEO needs to choose the customers/affiliate deals (not the opposite).

Create your own niche site, promote it and "recommend" you customers via an affiliate links. If the sites don't convert, switch your links to ones that do.

from andrewsho 618 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

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I think a % of revenue could work in the cases where clients have a SEO opportunity that is not a direct priority for them. The consultant could run all aspects of that campaign and give the client a cut. But for stuff that is core to the client's business I prefer getting paid up front for my time and effort.