Finding an SEO partner?
-
I'm diving into SEO and finding it's a daunting task with only me, myself and I. I was looking for someone who may be interested in helping me out. The catch is that my site, although generating income, is not generating enough to pay upfront. I have a great URL, been in business quite awhile and have a solid foundation. Maybe someone would be interested in working on SEO with me for a return of profits from conversions. Could be a lucrative offer for both of us.
-
What is the Url?
-
How many ukalaies do I get?
-
Gary,
Very entrepreneurial and creative way to get some good SEO while bootstrapping. It seems like a great idea if you have some way both parties can track and see total conversions. It might help you attract someone if you define conversions and how would it be tracked. Seems like lots of folks would be interested in something like that....especially if lucrative!
Good luck.I would also not dismiss hanging out around here and picking up bits and pieces of SEO gems. This is a great site and could be very "lucrative" for you to gradually learn a few things here and there. I have learned a lot in the past 60 days and it has paid off huge dividends so far! Very happy with the SEOmoz product and services.
Boo
-
Lol. How many do you need?
-
Yes, I like it too so far. I am slowly learning about many different aspects of SEO. The main trouble I'm having so far is focusing on one or two because there are quite a few angles to approach. That's why I was figuring if someone was helping it could pay off well.
As far as tracking, I would work that out to a satisfactory degree when I find someone who is honest, enthusiastic and interested. I'm sure we could figure something out.
Thanks for your input. I think I will stick with SEOmoz but not sure if the $99. per/month is worth it for me right now. I'm on the 30 day free trial.
Gary
-
One of the issues with partnerships is that it takes hours of work to even determain if you are a good fit.
Although I do understand that the 99 a mo is a bit much for a small business.
I might be more interested in a smaller SEO plan rather then a profit sharing one.
At the same time you don't have to pay thousands up front.
One concern I have is when people say they don't have the time...
SEO takes time, it takes time to update the site, go to local music festivals, join local Novato business groups. Those are the things that take time as well that your SEO person can't do for you as well.
However a good SEO person can help you with the tools and give you actionable items for you to do
-
True about the partnerships but I think it's possible to find someone who may work well with you before putting in hours of work.
The $99/mo for SEOmoz isn't bad and I may opt for that PRO feature but for me, at this point, the information isn't what's needed as much as the time and energy. Link building, keyword optimizing, etc. can all be done fairly intelligently without the SEOmoz pro membership. Once the conversions start to come in then I can opt in for the PRO membership to drill in a bit more.
-
You seem to have a nice site and a great domain and products that people use and buy for their kids. You are probably an enthusiastic person and a nice guy with multiple talents.
Don't sell yourself short. You need somebody better than good.
Anybody who is superb will not have trouble finding clients who will pay them up front. Thus why should they work with the hope that you will pay them.
They have no control over your prices, your inventory levels, your skills at serving customers, or your work ethic or even your health. They have rent and employees to pay. Why should they fund you and assume your risk - when clients who pay do not have that risk?
If you don't have enough faith in yourself to sell your baseball cards, get a second job, or get a loan to finance your dream then why should they bet on you??? That puts you pretty low on their list of clients.
I am not trying to be mean or arrogant. Just saying what anybody who is worth anything is going to think about your offer.
Competition on the web is escalating and is getting more difficult every day. If you delay the barriers of success will be higher.
Before the SEO starts working hard on your site be sure to have something done about its ability to convert. Work to improve that first and that will get you maximum value out of ALL of your traffic from here on out.
You say that your site is generating income so improving the conversion rate will boost your income immediately. Then as the SEO is done the amount of new money that you need to come up with will decline every month. In time you might be able to fund the SEO with the increase in your profits. The sooner you start the sooner you will be there.
It might cost less than you think if you find an SEO who will guide so that you can do much of the work yourself. That way you get SEO and education. Good luck. You can do it.
-
You make some good points.
I'm throwing the idea out there. The products I carry I am knowledgeable and enthusiastic about. It's the SEO I'm diving into which is throwing me for a bit of a loop. I'm feeling there is so much information out there that it's hard to slog through it on my own.
Finding an SEO to guide me and showing me how to do the work would be a great scenario. For example, the ability for my site to convert...I'm not sure where to begin to improve something like that. Google A/B testing is a start I'm looking into it . I'd be happy to entertain the cost of an SEO who would be more of a guide than a doer. I'm open to all possibilities.
Thanks for your input,
Gary
-
It's the SEO I'm diving into which is throwing me for a bit of a loop. I'm feeling there is so much information out there that it's hard to slog through it on my own.
Exactly. You get it. Instead of spinning your wheels trying to decide what is important, cut that out completely by getting expertise in your corner.
When I started I bought a good SEO book, read it several times taking notes and comparing it to my website, then tweaked my site, and then paid an SEO by the hour to study my site, develop a plan and coach me by phone to implement.
-
**...develop a plan and coach me by phone to implement. **
That's exactly what I need. I find one SEO technique and that leads me to another and another and..... it goes on and on until my focus starts to wain. And I'm normally a fairly focused individual!
-
That sounds like a very workable plan.
It also solves the issues of making sure the Webmaster/Client does his job as well and makes the changes needed to bring the site up to current standards.
-
I agree with Mcarle and EGOL,
You'd be better off hiring an** SEO Consultant** that can provide you with useful insights and develop strategies for your specific demographic rather than trying to hammer out some sort of long term agreement, which in my experience can lead to some definite conflicts of interest... I've got a story or two to tell, believe me.
For me, and this is just an honest reflection of my personality, I would rather spend a few days doing competitive and keyword research and then developing a plan that my client can implement himself, as opposed to actually investing the many hours that it takes to implement the developed strategies. It's a win-win in my opinion. I provide the strategy and direction, you provide the initiative, resources, and time to develop your own business. At the end of the day the client saves a massive amount of money, and doesn't sacrifice long term potential earnings, and I concentrate on analysis and suggestions based on experience rather than building links and so-forth.
You can actually hire some very educated and attractive Romanian women (or men) to handle some of the tediousness that true SEO requires for right around a buck an hour. Why pay me a percentage for life? Hire a pro to develop a plan, and reap the rewards of your own work.
That being said, I'm a lifelong professional musician, web designer, and digital marketing kind of guy, so if you need somebody to help you out, I'd be glad to give you the old "Fellow Mozzer/Musician Discount" and put something together for you that's really affordable. I agree that musicianship can improve the lives of kids... I started playing bass at the age of 8 and it led to a life-long passion/career, so it would be almost pro bono
Hope this helps, and great discussion you guys.
Anthony
-
Thanks for the enthusiastic and insightful responses/discussion. Hopefully I keep getting input. I'm going to mark as answered. I know what I need to do. I believe I will go the direction of finding a good SEO person to help me implement a plan and take care of the plan myself.
Thanks!
Gary
-
@Anthony - I'm over my message allotment. Message me or email gary@musicforkids.com
-
No problem at all man. We wish you the best of luck...
In fact, if you want to send one of those Luna Tattoo Concert Ukuleles my way, I've got next Saturday open and I'd be glad to put in a good 10-12 hours of digging in to your site and competition in order to provide you with a good starting point on strategy and implementation.
I've been in love with the Ukulele since Joe Brown's cover of "I'll see you in my Dreams" at the end of Concert for George.
-
You remind me of me, 2.5 years ago. I had a decent site but had no idea how to SEO it. I went looking for an SEO mentor in the hopes of someone teaching me the ropes, but no one took up my offer.
I was so obsessed with SEO that I spent a good amount of time every day reading SEO forums, every article I could find on SEOMoz and I followed SEOs on Twitter and just read and read and read. At first it's confusing because you don't know what advice is good and what is crappy, but you soon learn which people seem to know what they are talking about.
I then started to get active on forums and asked specific questions about my site. You have to be careful doing this because just because 6 people respond with "do forum sigs and blog commenting" doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. But, when senior forum members (who I learned to trust through all of my prior reading) gave me ideas, I listened...and implemented...and tweaked.
My site is still growing but it is actually profitable now and I can see that it has the potential to be my main source of income one day. When I started learning about SEO I was getting 34 visitors per day. I now average 5000 and I'm learning daily what things to do to increase that number.
One big tip that I would give you is to not get bogged down too much in learning SEO. I ended up spending more time learning about SEO than working on my site. I now see that content I made 2 years ago is starting to make me lots of money. And now I realize that if I had spent more time working on my site and making awesome content I would have more ad income coming in today. Speaking of that...why am I sitting her in Q&A rather than working on my site???? LOL!
Good luck!
-
Marie,
Wow....very nice success story thanks for sharing...Hard for me to see beyond a week right now so it is good to see the fruits of your labors.........I am obsessed with learning SEO too.........but we are also developing the website at the same time. I hope by measuring once I don't have to cut twice but I think I will have my scissors ready just in case.
Boo
-
Boo.....I can't tell you how many times my scissors are used!!!!
You're never going to get it perfect, especially the first time. There are things that I created that were not helpful at all (or even harmful). Then, there are other things that I created that I never thought would take off, but did. I'm learning by trial and error.
For example, I wrote an article last year about a particular type of news story in my niche. I never thought it would go anywhere. But then, it suddenly caught on and went viral. I took elements of that article and applied them to other articles. In essence, everything I create is a learning experience. I am discovering what my readership likes and creating more stuff that engages them.
I could tell you exactly what I did and could even teach you how to do it...BUT...it's not going to work that way for your audience. You need to experiment and learn what works for you!
You know, this post really affected me today. I really realized the truth that I ned to spend the majority of my time working on my sites rather than trying to duplicate other people's stuff. You can read all day long, but if you're not out there trying (and failing) then you're never going to succeed!
-
04935
-
06268
-
1252.2k
-
07927
-
03239
-
03488
-
0113.2k
-
02509