The self-congratulatory titled thread at Cre8asite - When cre8asiteforums rhymes with generosity... - is producing some interesting material. Many folks, myself included, note that they use Cre8asite as a place to send potential clients who have more time than budget to take on their SEO or webdev project.
On the reverse of that argument, phaitful notes:
I'd say most clients aren't interested in spending the amount of time and effort searching the forums to find the "free" information. Many clients simply would rather pay a set fee.
Just like any other consulting service or outsourcing, you can probably do most of the tasks in house... but do the costs and time justify doing it in house or is it simply easier and faster to outsource it.
Ammon Johns chimes in with similiar experience:
In addition, a number of SEO companies over the years have employed me as a consultant. One of the first to do so explained the reason perfectly: "We could devote 30+ man-hours each week to keeping up with all the stuff you do, or we can hire you for one hour to chat with us and get the same info."
So long as it is cheaper to talk to me for an hour or two than to employ a reasonably skilled researcher to trawl through forums, papers, studies, and run their own studies and test sites just to get the same qualified answers, I'm guaranteed to be the smart businessman's choice.
The SEO forums, including Cre8asite, are where a majority of my initial knowledge and ablity to do SEO work comes from - those 30+ hours a week spent reading blogs, forums, news articles, etc. certainly do describe my surfing habits and probably the reason so many folks are anxious to get a few consulting hours. It's just interesting to have it put into words.
I used to work for a government agency, which I thought was a very well run place at the time. The director always said...
"The most valuable asset of an organization is the accumulated knowledge of its professional staff."
Nice quote EGOL! That's how you differentiate good SEOs from bad SEOs. The good SEO will charge higher but never disappoint his client, and always keep a good relationship with him.
The bad SEO will charge them less, but will do a shallow job, disappoint the client, then blame it on the sandbox or Google algorithms, and then avoid the clients calls.
I agree Egol,
There are way to many SEO snake oil salesmen out there. You need to educate yourself to a level where you can tell the difference. At my company, it was a bit like deprogramming a person who had been a cult member. SEO just doesn’t work they would tell me. We tried it before and it’s a waste of time and money. They obviously worked with the wrong consultants.
The wise person gets educated, gets a good plan started and then consults with an even smarter person or two to kick it up a notch - or get an even better idea.
Second rate SEO earns the second page and is almost as bad as none at all.
I can't believe you can even write about anything right now, rand. If my team was less than 24 hous from a super bowl appearance, I would be going crazy!
anyway, I think you point out a great way to not only help "pennyless marketers," but also to educate those that may need to better understand the value of the consultation they'll be buying...
On the other hand, however, some will read the forums and suddenly become the experts themselves. We used to call those types "sea lawyers" when I was in the Marines.
Time is money, and big companies know it, that's why the time spent in doing research on many SEO sites are very valuable and extremely important if you want to deliver outstanding SEO consultations to companies who need to understand that field.
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