Carolyn Shelby is most known for her Chicago SEO business. Recently, I went to her for some SEO consulting advice (perks of having a good network) on pricing for a new client and I wanted to share some of my thoughts from the discussion because I think it’ll help some other SEO consultants out there that read my blog.
Why I went to Carolyn
Last week, I landed a new client that does a very specialized professional service that gets tons of searches in a day. His business pulls down over 6 figures a year and he needed an entire online marketing strategy setup for his business.
Because his business was in a highly searched niche and I know what I can deliver, I decided to quote him the highest amount I’ve ever asked for at once. It was nerve wrecking asking for it. That’s when I contacted Carolyn to get her input on the subject.
So how much?
That’s the magic question. There’s not a set formula for this either. If you don’t like that answer, I don’t care because that’s just the nature of this business. But if you want some sort of number here is exactly what Carolyn told me:
$200-$500/hour is not unheard of… so let’s assume you’re giving him 10 hours a week… that’s 40 hrs a month
So according to that, I could easily charge a lot more for most my services. I’m sitting around the $125/hour mark right now, but as the case studies and experience builds, so will my rate.
What if they say, “NO”
It’s very important to know what you can do and be confident in your abilities. If you have any doubt that you can deliver, then you shouldn’t be offering it. Saying that, personally, I’ve turned away people trying to give me money before and so has Carolyn, which she pointed out below:
I’ve turned people away for balking at my rates, and then they come crawling back after they paid less for crap from someone else and it didn’t help or made things worse
She also reminded me that:
big dogs won’t touch anyone for less than 15-20k a month
If they can get that, then I can definitely get what I’m asking for.
If you want to meet Carolyn, she’s an SEO speaker around the country. I plan on meeting her in person while at the Affiliate Summit in NYC this August.
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