Local Business SEO Journal

Running into an interesting problem:

Basically what I've done for all of my clients (including current machine shop) is just buy a premium theme, hack into it a bit and customize it, and then charge them for the value provided. This CAN'T be a sustainable longterm model because the barriers to doing this are about maybe 10 hours of figuring out how to setup domains/hosting/wordpress and then picking themes that fit with the needs of the client.

Do any of you guys do custom designwork? I figure this is a way to pick off the low-hanging fruit for the time being, get a monthly income going while building REAL skills. Bit of a dilemma, any thoughts appreciated.
 


Missing the gist. 10 hours spent on a paying clients website is a problem / not sustainable because your tweaking a premium wp theme or . . . . ?

In regards to doing custom design work, yes but it is not my forte. I have a couple of people who are worth the time to provide the rough outline and they can run with it. They can do a better job than I can in less time including the on going communication and draft updates. Technically I have the skill set and software to do just about any of the design work but my personal DNA lacks the initial creative gene that turns the end game goal into reality.

If it's quick and dirty I can put a unique twist on any design very quickly with good quality. However it is still a borrowed concept even though the end result would not be considered copying or plagiarism. To me this is where it became more profitable to outsource to someone who has that artistic gene.

There is a guy on here that probably makes more money every 10 mins than a lot of people do in 10 days. You can tell by his posts that he couldn't turn on Photoshop if it was in his startup folder. He can't spell html and probably thinks CSS is an STD. But he can put the pieces of the puzzle together and manage the outsourcing in his sleep. His set of skills will always outrank the geek genre.

I guess I say all of that to say this; Honestly question yourself on how you spend your time and what are the "REAL skills". It is good to know the basics of everything but better to know when it is more profitable to pay someone else.
 
Uptime - thanks a ton for your continued posting in my thread, much appreciated :)

Yea I guess my point was that I was having a hard time connecting that the technical skills are different from the business skills.

Technical are awesome to have, and if you want to be a high-level programmer or designer YES you do need to delve into color theory, principles of design, etc. But the business side of things is a completely different skillset and where I was running into a mental block was the idea that I have no 'real' skill if all I do is orchestrate work to outsources, customized premium themes, etc.

Your point about the guy on here is great - his skillset is entrepreneurial - he understands how the business is run, the service the business provides, and he makes that happen. As opposed to the technical design guy that's getting paid to do the work, he's getting paid to run the business - much more lucrative in general.



My strategy on the business side for now will be to continue offering these services but generally by customizing prebuilt themes, and in the meantime expanding my skillset in the areas that I want to.
 
Pretty much landed the machine shop job - going to be buying a highly customizable theme and building it out from there.

I got a connection to a landscape architect that wants to build a website but has been slacking on getting started - contacted him the day I got his information and sent him a design questionnaire. Talked a bit on the phone, seems like a friendly dude that just doesn't know much about computers. We'll see how that goes.
 
Congrats on the latest client and appreciate your updates. Good or bad gives a kick. Keep talking out loud here. Could be an epiphany for the next guy.
 
Make damn sure your hooking yourself up with recurring income on each and every job.

It's a piece of cake really, just include your hosting contract with your design contract. Get yourself a nice vps, or reseller account and charge each client a monthly hosting fee. It's also the best defense you can have against assholes that don't pay.

I highly recommend a video that was posted a few weeks ago "fuck you pay me." Take notes, it's good shit if you want to be in this biz.

http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/122139-fuck-you-pay-me.html
 
About to start doing local work myself. Anyone mind PMing me their contracts so I can get a brief idea of what I need? How restrictive/unrestrictive do you guys make them?

I really like the recurring income idea, along with controlling the hosting. If they decide not to pay, at the least you take down their site.

Thanks for any input.
 
Yo WhatupG -

Thanks for the information. I have a VPS right now, but I haven't been able to hook myself up with hosting contracts quite yet because all of the sites I've done have already been hosted. I can see if I can get this machine shop on hosting, though they do already have it.

The Fuck You, Pay Me video was fucking boss. Took a bunch of notes and realized I need to take a look at the contracts I use. In fact, I need to actually implement contracts in this next job and get a feel for it, get that learning curve going and potentially have a lawyer friend in Toastmasters take a look at it.

I'll keep you posted on all of that.

Other ways to get recurring income going? I was thinking about upselling a business directories, competition, and analytics "package"
 
Just about all of my clients I host via a re-sellers account. Not so much for a control standpoint but for the server access and somewhat for the $. If it is normal size biz about every 1.5 clients pays my hosting cost for the year for that hosting account. The rest is profit but not much because every 2 - 4 clients I buy another hosting account. I like having several servers on different class c's when possible. I prefer to not bill monthly for the hosting. I give them 1 or 2 year upfront options with the 2 year discounted. Having months left on a hosting contract they have already paid for works in my favor. They have the option for cPanel access but no one ever does. A couple of clients are on a vps and one on a dedi but most get along fine with shared hosting. The biggest benefit for me is I have many servers with a variety of class c ip's that I can use for my stuff at no cost. I usually don't put the money sites on shared hosting but it rocks for tier 1 properties that I own, build and never gets deleted that points to the $ sites.

While providing hosting for a client might give you another hook it does not give you total control. If they have the domain name registrar credentials they can be on another server in a couple of hours and cut you out of the loop. Good communication and making their phone ring with targeted customers cures all.

BTW where is that "fuck you pay me" video at?
 
Uptime said:
Missing the gist. 10 hours spent on a paying clients website is a problem / not sustainable because your tweaking a premium wp theme or . . . . ?

In regards to doing custom design work, yes but it is not my forte. I have a couple of people who are worth the time to provide the rough outline and they can run with it. They can do a better job than I can in less time including the on going communication and draft updates. Technically I have the skill set and software to do just about any of the design work but my personal DNA lacks the initial creative gene that turns the end game goal into reality.

If it's quick and dirty I can put a unique twist on any design very quickly with good quality. However it is still a borrowed concept even though the end result would not be considered copying or plagiarism. To me this is where it became more profitable to outsource to someone who has that artistic gene.

There is a guy on here that probably makes more money every 10 mins than a lot of people do in 10 days. You can tell by his posts that he couldn't turn on Photoshop if it was in his startup folder. He can't spell html and probably thinks CSS is an STD. But he can put the pieces of the puzzle together and manage the outsourcing in his sleep. His set of skills will always outrank the geek genre.

I guess I say all of that to say this; Honestly question yourself on how you spend your time and what are the "REAL skills". It is good to know the basics of everything but better to know when it is more profitable to pay someone else.
Click to expand...

^ Easy...THE best advice around.

Keeping rocking phoenixrising and BTW, huge swell hitting south facing beaches mid week
 
Dude, how do you deal with clients that seem driven to make sites as ugly and non user friendly as possible?

I've been saying stuff like "Yes, we could put a giant "L" in every text box but I think it would potentially turn off your users from getting the content they need" and he will come back with "but the customer is always right...."

Then I want to shoot him.
 
Things are moving along, working on building some niche sites in the meantime while I'm in the process of getting more clients - I've picked up enough knowledge to churn these out. Shooting for $10-$25/day per site on these.

Obviously still enhancing my design & development skills at the same time.
 
phoenixrising said:
Dude, how do you deal with clients that seem driven to make sites as ugly and non user friendly as possible? . . .
Click to expand...

I always have this conversation when the deal is almost done.

Key word targets have been determined, competition evaluated, website / link building known to rank and the price agreed upon, we have a talk. I always start off by assuring the client this is their website and they have the final word and control. However every pixel has to earn it's keep in order to achieve the described goals they are paying good money for. While they as the customer are needed for input and encouraged, we need to have a common strategy. Should they decide to put a picture of Hemorrhoid their daughters pet rabbit on the home page I tell them it is my job to politely point out the reasons this will not help. We can talk about any points they would like and I will be glad to incorporate as long as it does not inhibit our success. I make it clear that if they insist on an image, text, layout, or content of any type that gets in the way then all bets are off on the projected goals.
 
phoenixrising said:
Hey shawn -

Don't have the hosting auths either, he wasn't able to meet the day I posted that, HOPEFULLY I can meet and touch base this week as it's getting annoying that I can't get this really basic information. Would love to share some ideas with you though, will send pm soon. :)
Click to expand...

If you have access to hosting and your client is the admin contact for his domain name. I would suggest you transfer the domain away from the existing hosting/designer ASAP
 
Well, the machine shop guy dropped out the minute before signing because he heard from his other developer that he had half-paid to do a job. So, he's basically going back to a guy that disappeared for a month to save a few hundred dollars.

I sent an email wishing him luck and subtly referencing the fact that the value of my service is worth the extra price, as well as said I could get the site done extremely fast.

Lame, but now I get to hustle harder and get a ton more clients.
 
Damn that sucks :(, a lot of business owners/clients always get tempted by service providers that charges them less.

In regards to theme customisation, you could talk to the creators of the theme and see how much they charge for doing the customisations for you.. might end up saving money/time that way if they don't charge too much.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates - I just re-got the machine shop job, so there's a $1k score.

On another note, set up an automated Craigslist RSS feed for 9 different searches to automate a bit of my lead generation. I just filter through them and star the ones that look promising, then shoot them all a targeted e-mail, tag it with replied. If I hear back, great. If I don't, I know to follow up after a week and make sure.

Just another way to get people into my sales funnel.
 
phoenix, does your state publish a new corporations list. It's a great source for new and anxious businesses to market SEO to.
 
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