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« Reply #30 on: March 03, 2010, 12:41:56 PM » |
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Unfortunately I did a quote for them a while back when they asked me for a critique for the new site they'd had built (they'd also asked me to 'make sure the new site was working properly'...not quite sure how that was my responsibility, as I hadn't built it and wasn't getting paid anything but there you go...).
I'm probably undercharging as usual anyway, but I'll definitely be asking for my %40 deposit! To be fair though they usually pay on time. They're actually ok as clients go, but seem to have had the wool pulled over their eyes by a completely clueless business adviser and an even more clueless 'SEO and Marketing Agency', or the shiny suit brigade as I call them.
Then again, I bet the suits got paid for the crap they produced, probably more than I'll be getting.
I've asked for their new branding material which they had done by this new agency, what's the betting there isn't a vector version of the new logo or any branding guidelines available?
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Mr Anderson
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« Reply #31 on: March 03, 2010, 01:06:40 PM » |
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Unfortunately I did a quote for them a while back That doesn't matter. You're allowed to adjust your prices and quotes can't be considered valid indefinitely. We state that our quotes are only valid for 30 days, but that's just to be clear about the matter. If we didn't do that and someone came back 6 or 12 months later we'd still tell them that we'd have to requote. |
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net-curtains
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« Reply #32 on: March 03, 2010, 01:48:51 PM » |
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Unfortunately I did a quote for them a while back That doesn't matter. You're allowed to adjust your prices and quotes can't be considered valid indefinitely. We state that our quotes are only valid for 30 days, but that's just to be clear about the matter. If we didn't do that and someone came back 6 or 12 months later we'd still tell them that we'd have to requote. This was only a few weeks ago, unfortunately. Doesn't matter though, it's not a difficult job and they're not getting any discount (apart from my usual undercharging). |
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Haze
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« Reply #33 on: March 04, 2010, 11:36:12 PM » |
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I lost a client a few weeks back. I did a lovely site for them, worked really well. Despite being slightly scary people I bent over backwards to keep them sweet, giving hours of free advice and fixes to their site which continued to perform well in the search engines despite it's increasing age.
A few weeks back they told me they'd been contacted by various SEO 'experts' and that the site could be doing better in the rankings. I agreed it could, but rather than spend the money on dubious SEO techniques I recommended updating the CMS, content and layout so they could update more areas of the site, benefit from social networking etc etc. and gave them a nice cheap quote for the job.
Despite all that they informed me a few weeks later that they were using company x to build a new site for them as they were also 'seo experts'. I checked company x's performance in the listings, being 'seo experts' they should be performing well, and of course their table based, framed and hideously designed company website was nowhere to be seen as they hadn't added any keywords, or description to their metatags. The website examples (all hacked table template jobs with the aesthetic credentials of a pile of splat) in their portfolio also made me gag slightly.
I checked to see if I'd done anything wrong - 'no Mr Curtains, your service has always been excellent, really helpful, wonderful support, we love the design of the website and you're much cheaper thanthe other companies'. So why are you getting this other lot to build your new website then? 'Well they were recommended to us by ...dodgy business advisory centre link here... and they also do seo'.
My advice? F### em, they'll be back once they've realised they were onto a good thing. And when they do return, put your prices up.
Just an update to this post, they've now asked me to rebuild their new website as they 'weren't getting anywhere' with the new company. Ho hum. Well done you..... and I'd do as Mr H says..... Charge them double, or by monthly recurrent billing.... |
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net-curtains
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« Reply #34 on: March 05, 2010, 10:00:23 AM » |
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Well done you..... and I'd do as Mr H says..... Charge them double, or by monthly recurrent billing....
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Haze
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« Reply #35 on: March 11, 2010, 02:43:38 PM » |
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Just had a client email me to say he's going to use an SEO company to optimise his site, but he'll use me for updates.... Well I'm not holding my breath....
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net-curtains
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« Reply #36 on: March 11, 2010, 04:55:41 PM » |
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Just had a client email me to say he's going to use an SEO company to optimise his site, but he'll use me for updates.... Well I'm not holding my breath....
Make sure you don't get blamed for any problems they cause. These companies tend to barge through the HTML like a bull in a china shop. |
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SLEE
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« Reply #37 on: March 11, 2010, 06:16:49 PM » |
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WHS! some just get in and get out and don't worry about the site at all so be careful
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Haze
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« Reply #38 on: March 11, 2010, 06:58:23 PM » |
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His site is well in need of a total overhaul, and I have told him that when he mentioned seo companies in the past. BUt he wasn't prepared to pay anything to have it done. His site is around 8 years old or so. But he's prepared to pay £50 a month or so to this SEO bunch....
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net-curtains
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« Reply #39 on: March 11, 2010, 08:06:48 PM » |
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His site is well in need of a total overhaul, and I have told him that when he mentioned seo companies in the past. BUt he wasn't prepared to pay anything to have it done. His site is around 8 years old or so. But he's prepared to pay £50 a month or so to this SEO bunch....
All sounds very familiar. |
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Haze
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« Reply #40 on: March 11, 2010, 09:22:36 PM » |
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The company is based in manchester, and I've been googling them this evening and it doesn't make for comfortable reading. I would post their name but don't want to do them any favours...
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« Reply #41 on: March 11, 2010, 09:31:55 PM » |
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The company is based in manchester, and I've been googling them this evening and it doesn't make for comfortable reading. I would post their name but don't want to do them any favours...
I get quite a lot of enquiries and questions about my SEO services now from old clients, since promoting them better. All I have to do now is to get them to pay for the advice...rather than them thinking I should provide it for free... |
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suedenem
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« Reply #42 on: March 12, 2010, 10:38:10 AM » |
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The company is based in manchester, and I've been googling them this evening and it doesn't make for comfortable reading. I would post their name but don't want to do them any favours...
Is it these guys? http://forum.netmag.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=41422If so, naming them will be more of a warning to others than doing them a favour, given the general ill-will exhibited towards them. |
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So this SEO copywriter walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish bar, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor...
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Haze
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« Reply #43 on: March 12, 2010, 11:24:42 AM » |
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NO it isn't
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Haze
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« Reply #44 on: March 15, 2010, 10:52:44 PM » |
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Well I sent the chap a few links I found about the seo; he's been a customer for years and I'd rather point him in the direction of someone on here or a recommendation from you guys, but he's going to give them a try. They are mentioned extensively here. I have been asked to set up an email account for the seo to allow them to submit my client's site to directories, and they would use this email address for it, and have the emails from my client's domain forwarded to their own email address. Is it possible to have the incoming emails from the directories bcc'ed to my client as well as forwarded to the SEO company through Cpanel....? He wants to monitor what they are doing but on the fly.... EDIT: guess it is just 2 forwarders.... tried it and it seems to work that way.... |
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« Last Edit: March 16, 2010, 12:03:16 AM by Haze »
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Haze
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« Reply #45 on: March 23, 2010, 11:03:11 PM » |
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Checking the ftp, it looks like the seo company has added a link to a YSF Directory http://www. yfs. co.uk/. Anyone heard of it? Look too me as though owned by the seo. |
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« Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 11:38:15 PM by Haze »
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net-curtains
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« Reply #46 on: March 24, 2010, 08:20:10 AM » |
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Checking the ftp, it looks like the seo company has added a link to a YSF Directory http://www. yfs. co.uk/. Anyone heard of it? Look too me as though owned by the seo. Some SEO companies provide a link building service and charge for adding links to x number of directories. I guess it's that much easier if you already own them. |
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Haze
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« Reply #47 on: March 24, 2010, 12:28:53 PM » |
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Definitely.... guess it's time to build a database of sites and charge £50 a month for putting customers on it.... oh and a set up fee of £300...
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Ben
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« Reply #48 on: March 24, 2010, 12:34:41 PM » |
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Definitely.... guess it's time to build a database of sites and charge £50 a month for putting customers on it.... oh and a set up fee of £300...
Sadly, it happens like that! |
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Haze
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« Reply #49 on: April 14, 2010, 01:28:44 PM » |
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I had my reseller package transferred to a new server, and now a customer - yes this one, who's now using the SEO company - says he is getting a lot of spam and it seems to coincide with the transfer to the new server, well according to him. But what he doesn't know is the transfer was done a week later than it had originally been planned.... and as he has Pfizer as a client, he can't block Pfizer emails as such.
Oh and he tells me he is now number one on AltaVista for a given search term... Alta-who? I haven't used AltaVista for at least a decade.
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« Last Edit: April 14, 2010, 01:33:51 PM by Haze »
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sarahA
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« Reply #50 on: April 14, 2010, 02:40:15 PM » |
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You can tell him that his additional spam will be due to the link building that his SEO company is no doubt doing. We (as requested by the client's SEO who makes suggestions but does not touch the client's site!) do link building and I have an email account set up under the client's domain to use whenever it's asked for during the weekly work. I get around 80% emails instantly to that email address (most are notifications) but then I get a lot more after and it's just building and building. These sites sign your email address up to all sorts and you can bet that the SEO company won't use their own, they'll have submitted the client's.
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Haze
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« Reply #51 on: April 14, 2010, 02:47:10 PM » |
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They did ask for a new email address, first@customererdomain, so I guess that should be getting all that kind of spam...? Then again who knows...
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sarahA
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« Reply #52 on: April 14, 2010, 09:44:21 PM » |
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They did ask for a new email address, first@customererdomain, so I guess that should be getting all that kind of spam...? Then again who knows...
depends if the client still downloads it or not? could be mixed. could just be that there's been a rise in spam recently (which there has). |
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Haze
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« Reply #53 on: April 15, 2010, 01:12:50 PM » |
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It was the SEO company that requested the new email address so they could use it for their directory submissions.... And I am aware of it.... the number of offers I get for little blue pills embarrasses me... someone been talking to the wife...?  |
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« Last Edit: April 15, 2010, 08:11:15 PM by Haze »
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Haze
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« Reply #54 on: April 16, 2010, 04:53:40 PM » |
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Site owner has copied me in on where the site is being submitted.... indexking.net, linksite.net, domaining.in, the livinglink.net, newwebdirectory.com(offers free entry but 12month waiting list, but get express inclusion in 5 days days for $19.95), freewebmonitoring.com, intelseek.com Interesting..... |
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net-curtains
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« Reply #55 on: April 16, 2010, 05:52:17 PM » |
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Site owner has copied me in on where the site is being submitted.... indexking.net, linksite.net, domaining.in, the livinglink.net, newwebdirectory.com(offers free entry but 12month waiting list, but get express inclusion in 5 days days for $19.95), freewebmonitoring.com, intelseek.com Interesting..... All the 'quality' link farms you can submit to via a bit of free SEO software then... |
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Ben
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« Reply #56 on: April 16, 2010, 06:51:58 PM » |
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Do link farms still work? I assumed that Google was keen to ignore these?
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Haze
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« Reply #57 on: April 16, 2010, 07:18:43 PM » |
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I thought it was a big NO NO as far as Google was concerned, and could actually be detrimental. But as always I am probably wrong. There'll probably be a deluged of them over the next few days as these all came in today. I included the list within code tags as I didn't want to do them any favours, as I thought text within code tags were ignored by google.
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« Last Edit: April 16, 2010, 07:20:58 PM by Haze »
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Ben
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« Reply #58 on: April 16, 2010, 08:48:05 PM » |
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I thought text within code tags were ignored by google.
Nope, it's just plain ol' text to Google. |
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Haze
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« Reply #59 on: April 20, 2010, 08:58:37 PM » |
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So what would you (anyone) suggest to do in SEO tasks?
Perhaps a Beginners to Advanced range of suggestions for us all to learn from...?
I did see someone on YouTube mention socialmarker.com and socialposter.com.... anyone used them..?
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« Last Edit: April 20, 2010, 09:46:31 PM by Haze »
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