Do SEO's ever work on commission?

I was thinking, if an SEO was very confident with their work, would one work on commission? Say they analyze your needs, get you traffic - and you share the profits based on their efforts. Is this a totally bogus concept or a good idea?

I know a few who do that.
I think Randfish does a similar thing where he gets a cut of all profits.
I would like to do that but its hard to find people that would give enough commision to justify it.

I'm surprised Randfish does it. This is similar to the attorney arrangement "no fee unless we win", which, of you're a really good attorney, you'd never accept.

For a really good SEO, why would they bother messing with this kind of arrangment when they know they can earn X$/hr or per contract? The only feasible arrangement would be if you offered up a substantial amount of the pie, more than the SEO would ever make through a T&M type arrangement. Otherwise there'd be no motivation for an established SEO.

Now if you wanted a young, hungry but unproven SEO, this might work. It also might get your site banned from SE's. But that's the risk you take.

Good luck, and let us know if you get someone to bite.

Small sites = not enough money
Large sites = dont need you (they have a team)
The best money is an harvesting domains in critical areas of need and producing a product for sale. Thats why I think DomainHatching is the wave of the future.

D

I do, for the right clients. Some prefer to pay my hourly rate, and for those that I feel worth taking on a commission basis (and whom are wary of hourly rates), it can work well. Another way to do it is to offer a really really good affiliate program, which will attract some good SEOs.

Cygnus

Wow. You guys all know my business model

Yes, we do work on commission for 4 companies currently and are considering adding a 5th in the near future. We plan the strategy, research the job, create the content, do SEO, host, design, build, and a million other things. For 1 of our clients, we even have a full-time person who answers the web line and takes information. We are a "full-service" agency in some respects and it has been working very well, especially as of late.

It's a super-dangerous business model, though. We have been burned twice and put 6-9 months of development time into sites, only to have the contracts collapse without ever getting a dime - a very risky investment. It's only through excellent relationships and a level of personal trust that is terribly hard to achieve that we can offer this.

We have the kind of relationships with our clients where we know their families, have meals together on occassion and will fly out to see them in NY, London, Hong Kong - wherever they are located. It's a good way to do business for the long term, but it certainly is not for everyone.

Thank you for all of your thoughts. So there are people out there that do this. I think its a great concept. Especially for a business that has an excellent product - but lacking the funds to push things forward. Of course the SEO'er would need to approve of the idea/product and really feel it worthwhile. Long term, the commission could pay out for eternity, where the hourly rate would run out.

If anyone wants to talk about this, pm me

ScandiaSpa dot com

Hmmmm, what is DomainHatching? I think most of the critical domains are already taken.

I've done it one a CPC basis (meaning a commission for each direct search engine hit from Google, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, A9/Amazon/Alexa, Ask, Dogpile, etc). This is a cheaper method for most small companies to get a foot in the SEO door.

This model can work, but I'd never do it without a guaranteed minimum monthly payment. Also, keep in mind conversion ratios when seeing if a commission SEO model works. If you have high commissions and high conversions already, a hybrid model of CPA (cost per action, or pure commission) and CPC might work.

It is pretty much the same as a affiliate program. I do some affiliate programs, make more money per hour than I do doing SEO. The big benefit is that I am the owner of the web site I am working on, I would never work on a outside web site for commission.

When we take comissions it is typically between 5-25% of the sale price of the item - not cheap, but our clients pay no other web expenses, so it can be worthwhile.

Rand are you saying that you pay for everything except fullfillment?
Are you the owner of the clients websites, or how do you protect the investment?

Good point!
Talking about the commission, why not to join an affiliate program, set up your own website and work with it? In such case you may be sure that even if you don't want to keep relations with the main website you may simply stop working with it and switch to another one or set up any other related business on an established website of yours.

I Believe that is what he is saying. The owner of the Content and Domain name is the only way I would do anything, even with a contract. Weeds out the stiffies pretty quick.

Say what?



I guess having one's family as collateral always ensures the bills get paid...