Guiding Light by jurvetson
Patrick Altoft of Blogstorm recently wrote a piece about succeeding as an SEO freelancer. While I like Patrick very much, I even got my writring job at SEOptimise with his help, I partly do not agree with his advice. Patrick’s way is often the hard way. Also he suggests that working for big corporate clients is the way to go. It’s the most annoying way IMHO. Thus I’d like to present the simple guide to freelance SEO the succesful way. This way works for me.
I’ve been doing freelance SEO and business blogging for 6 years now. Before that I was a freelancing web developer. So I’m not new to the in and outs of freelancing. I started out working in a web agency back then in the so called New economy so I also know about that.
OK, here is te actual advice in a somehow chronological order. I begin with the things you have to know and do when you start freelancing in SEO and beyond.
Rank first offer SEO services later
As an SEO you simply have to rank either for SEO related terms or at least for other keywords you’ve been optimizing before you offer SEO services. I the good old days you would try to rank for SEO or search engine optimization itself but nowadays it’s too hard for starters. You could try to rank for your local SEO market, something like SEO oxford as a keyphrase. You need to rank first before you talk with people about SEO services. You have to show them something you’ve done already.
Do not aproach potential clients, let them approach you
In case you already rank for some relevant keyphrases you might already get some people calling you up or emailing you. Then you’re already on the way. Do not cold call. You only annoy people and get frustrated. Cold calling is simply rude. Also try not to reply to freelance job offers like “200 links for $19″ needed. These people have no clue what quality SEO is and you can earn more money flipping burgers. You’re better of optimizing your own site until you get enough people contacting you.
Get a name brand for yourself instead of being generic
I pity all those nameless drones from India and elsewhere who have to optimize for SEO india. Only a few people or rather companies can rank on top and everybody else doesn’t get any significant visibility. By now it’s far easier to get attention if you have a name, a personal brand or any kind of brand. There are a few SEO bloggers from India who have already outrun millions of nameless Indians. Branding is the way to go. Become a keyphrase yourself people search for.
Never call yourself an expert or company (when you’re not)
It’s funny how most SEO noobs with no name attempt to optimize for SEO expert. That’s ridiculous. Either you already are an expert and people call you an expert and by then you don’t need to optimize for that phrase or you are not expert and try to rank for this generic phrase. You have to understand that calling yourself an expert makes actually a noob.
I also doubt that you ever get a good client this way. Those who mistake you for a real SEO expert do not have a clue what SEO is about. Also don’t pretend that you’re a company when you a freelancer. i don’t buy the fake it til you make it thing. You’ll always encounter problems when you fake it. You even may have legal problems with this approach.
Focus on niches not everybody covers
SEO is a thousand things today. It may be local SEO, mobile SEO, multilingual SEO, AJAX SEO, ecommerce SEO. Plus usability, information architecture, PPC advertising and a plethora of other disciplines. You can’t do everything and you can’t compete against too many people. You have to specialize. In case you start out these days you have to focus on a niche to survive.
Aim high
While you focus on a niche you still have to aim high. I aimed to become one of the most important SEO bloggers worldwide and I made it. I’ll probably never match the likes of Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall or Michael Gray but for being late and not even speaking perfect English it’s huge. I would have never reached that goal without trying. Also I’ve seen people starting later, being younger but still getting even better results even in more competitive niches. So aim high, don’t limit yourself.
Blog about yourself and what you do
A blog is the best SEO tool these days. Maybe video or something else will be soon but without a blog you’re like a store without a store front. Some people claim that being a SEO superstar for the sake of it is no goal for itself. They may be right but in the attention economy only those few get attention we already trust. Or at least those who get trusted by others. Without a blog people don’t know you. How can they trust a complete stranger?
Get acquainted with your peers
As a freelancer you can’t compete against millions of others. It’s impossible. Your peers, even those in the same business selling exactly the same services are your friends by design. Thus I was never afraid to link out to other SEOs. In fact linking out to my peers in the SEO industry helped a lot more than everything else. I even got clients through them. Get acquainted with your peers. Your peers are those who are almost the same as you. Industry leaders can’t answer your emails or socialize with others all the time. Freelancers similar to you can.
Support your supporters
On the Web it’s all give an take like in real life. I never think about how often a person linked to me before I link to her or him. I just know this person and perceive her as a supporter. I know s/he will give attention, votes on social sites or links. So I may link this person 10 times and it’s OK. Other people act like that as well. Once you are virtual supporters of each other this goes for years and both of us succeed. I always wonder why so few people try this way. I’s so obvious and natural. Support your supporters and they will support you and so on.
Follow your role models
I admire people in the SEO industry and beyond who are often younger than myself. I even admire some of peers who made it faster and better than me. I admire people for their traits. I may disagree with them but still I look up to those role models. I follow them not just on Twitter. When you have no idea how you wan to be like you’re blindly following an insecure path. Follow your role models. They ways they have paved for you are better than those noob has gone before. I have many role modes in the international SEO community and I don’t simply copy somebody. Make sure you stay yourself and not parrot somebody else.
Find your own way of doing business
You can follow your role models only to a certain degree. What worked for them won’t necessarily for you. It was another time, another person with another skill-set. You have to identify your own strengths and weaknesses to determine what’s best for you. for instance I noticed early that I’m not a perfect web developer. I taught everything myself when I was already 20 and older. My brain just couldn’t get used to very complex programming. I tried object oriented programming again and again but I never fully grasped it. Also I knew very early that I love to write so tried to go the content way as an SEO. Back in the days it was rather the exception. to this day many people in SEO are more technically savvy than able to write.
Do not work for everybody
Freelancing means also to say “no”. At the beginning I tried to get every client but it simply doesn’t work that way. You have to choose your clients wisely. Also you have to shun huge and tiny clients. In German we don’t say small business, we say middle-sized business. Also there is an even smaller business below that. As a freelance you should work for middle-sized business, not big business and not other other tiny businesses or freelancers.
You can cooperate with other freelancers but working for them won’t pay the bills. Unless you work for their clients or something. Big business is awful to work for. You have to sign 10 NDAs before you even start to talk and then you have to compromise everything you do. You simply can’t work the way you do usually because corporations limit everything to fit dozens of their departments. Also you’re just a pawn in the game. Nobody cares for who you are and you won’t even know who you work for.
At the end of the day they may not even pay you and you can’t do anything about it because their lawyers will crush you. Always try to keep your integrity. For instance I never work for gambling companies and porn providers. That was particularly difficult sometimes when the cash flow was slow. It helped to get best clients I could imagine though. Right now I work my few clients for years already and they’re perfect business partners.
Charge more than others instead of less
When I was new to freelancing, I did web design back then I did some websites for free for friends to have a portfolio. Later I was charging student rates for my first SEO clients. In each and every case I did this I was appalled by the way these people would treat me. They expected not only higher quality (because I was a friend) they didn’t even say thank you. Instead they would complain more often then clients who paid more. I learned the hard way that money is a measure of respect. When you charge only a few bucks people will always disrespect you and treat you like some servant. Charge more from the start or do your own projects. Also don’t compete with SEO India providers. Compete by quality not quantity.
Venture beyond freelancing
Inherently freelancing is a bad business model. Sometimes you have work overload, sometimes you starve. You sell only your time so you can’t scale. Don’t get me wrong. Freelancing is far better than having a job. Wage slavery is what it is, slavery. Still as a freelancer you can get sick, you need to have time for your family or social life and you can’t work 70 – 80h like in a Chinese sweatshop without burning out. So you need to venture beyond freelancing and offering services as early as you can. Selling a product, a book for example is a great way to do that. Affiliate marketing may work you. Any kind of your own project that earns money and work for themselves even when you don’t attend them for a few days are key to overcome the otherwise never ending work cycle.
Of course in many cases Patrick is right. After all you need to find our own way of being a freelancer. Pick what works for you but keep in mind that you can fare better by avoiding the issues many thers faced before you. SEO freelancing is similar to other subjects for that matter.
This is a really simple guide for SEO freelancers but I have written about freelancing before and I most probably will again in the future so stay tuned.
Related posts:
- 20 Ways to Survive as a Freelancer Working on the Web
- 3 Traits of True Social Media Experts
- What Easter Can Teach Us About Web 2.0, Social Media and Blogging
- How I Outranked Matt Cutts for the Term SEO in 7 Easy Steps
- 10 Misconceptions Why SEO is Better than SMO Refuted
Need help? Consider a world class blog & SEO consultation by the author of SEO 2.0, Tad Chef. For full fledged SEO services like ongoing link building, contact my partners from SEO.com or look up my directory of SEO service providers and checkout reputable companies like Datadial or Redfly.
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This thing has 22 Comments
Nice post Tad.
I do agree in much of what you have written and I apply most of this principles.
I do both in-house and freelancing, most of my freelance jobs were referred by someone else (word of mouth).
Another great benefit of being contacted is that you are the one who sets the rules, since they come to you and not the other way around.
Another thing that I do that you should list is, not to have more than 1 client in the same industry.
Best,
Fred
Heya Tadeusz,
I’ve worked for Patrick for over a year (leaving for new pastures this week actually) but this is the first time I’ve seen your blog! I’d like to say what a great SEO blog you run – I like the variety of topics you write about and will definitely bookmark your site for further reading!
Freelancing is something close to my heart as I’ve been writing a lot about it lately over on FrogsThemes.com – the best advice imo isn’t necessarily getting to know your peers – it’s getting to know people who *don’t* do exactly the same thing as you. Other SEOs are fantastic for advice/exchanging tips, but when it comes to potential clients, I’ve found the best leads come from web designers/PRs/Developers – people in the same industry but without SEO knowledge, who come to you (the SEO) for advice.
I really like your point about branching out beyond freelancing (e.g. into affiliate marketing). Why not use your SEO skills to make yourself money? :D
Great article, not only for succesful seo-s. Thank you!
Hey Federico,
indeed that is very true. I often struggled to comply with this, sometimes two potential clients in the same industry asking me to work for them within days.
This is something that fits best into a code of ethics.
See here:
http://www.bruceclay.com/web_ethics.htm
“No SEO practitioner will participate in a conflict of interest without prior notice to all parties involved.”
Piggynap: You’re right as well. I rather referred to the online collaboration between like minded individuals. Submitting each other’s stuff on social media and lnking to each ohers articles.
When it comes to leads it’s like you suggest. Freelancers from adjacent industries can help even more.
Very good advice on how to succeed as a SEO freelancer! Bookmarked! The SEO business has become very competitive these days with outsourced SEO professionals cutting rates like anything! It helps to learn a thing or two from this blog post about how to stay abreast of SEO competition!
Awesome.
I’d submit this to Sphinn but submission is broken, again.
Nice post. I also think that niche market is the way to go…Branding, branding, branding!!!
Thanks for these great tips as I am also looking forward to do freelancing and I really agrees with you that I want to be my own boss rather than to work for slavery..thanks for this motivating post.
Awesome post. I do agree with you on most of the mentioned points. I think this article will treasure for lots of related concerns. Thanks.
I love tips on this article. I think being an SEO expert needs a lot of patience and being dedicated to the work. I agree that you don’t need to offer low to get a job. Evaluate the quality of work and offer the right amount for them to give you respect. Thanks anyway for the additional things I learn on this post. Keep it up
Freelancing is something close to my heart as I’ve been writing a lot about it lately over on FrogsThemes.com – the best advice imo isn’t necessarily getting to know your peers – it’s getting to know people who *don’t* do exactly the same thing as you. Other SEOs are fantastic for advice/exchanging tips, but when it comes to potential clients, I’ve found the best leads come from web designers/PRs/Developers – people in the same industry but without SEO knowledge, who come to you (the SEO) for advice.
Another great benefit of being contacted is that you are the one who sets the rules, since they come to you and not the other way around.
Another thing that I do that you should list is, not to have more than 1 client in the same industry.
Thanks a lot for this article. I adore SEO and i’m thinking of starting my own company (on a freelance base). I’ve been testing several tactics for more then for years now. I’ve read all of your tips here and I must say, it was a very helpful article! Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Well put Tad. I disagree with you re the size of clients to go after. All sizes of clients can be great or can suck. Instead of focusing on the size I recommend focusing on the type of people with whom you want to work.
In fact this is private point of view based on a real living experience. I do SEO for 10 years and my view is different, as well tips. And I’m sure – there are some ‘secret garden’ which makes SEO freelancing successful, and nobody will tell you the correct location of it. To start swim you need big water.
Great post. Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s very helpful for individuals who want to start on SEO.
Cool stuff. SEO goals are not easy to achieve especially for the newbies. This posthelps a lot. Thanks for sharing it.
Really smart rules , now freelancer seo can earn more money if they will follow above rules . I agree with your view that Never call yourself an expert or company.
Great overview and guide to starting up as an SEO freelancer.
I’ve been working as an SEO freelancer for a good few years and have had some great experiences with clients, on the whole. However, you do get the odd ones who seem above board, at first, only to go completely crazy half way through a project. I’ve been in a situation quite a few times where you start off with all services in place, only to find that the client gets more and more demanding, only to try and refuse payment if you don’t do “X, Y and Z”, which you never offered in the first place. You really need to watch out for those suckers.
I totally agree that, as a freelancer, you should not be scared to turn down a project if it doesn’t end up suiting your personal ethics. It is really easy to start off and fall into the trap of bidding for everything when you first start. Until 10 quality feedback points are on your account, you don’t really have that much of an option to refuse jobs. However, after that you can start to get picky. I have actually been right on the verge of taking work on and changed my mind after speaking directly with the client. There’s a lot out there who don’t know jack squat about SEO, yet profess to be pro’s themselves (if that was the case, why would they be looking for external help). I turn down a lot of jobs now based on talking to such morons.
What I have noticed is that it can be hard for new freelancers to get those first few jobs in. I’m lucky as I started off in the early days of GAF (as it was then), and jobs were easy to pick up. Since it’s grown so much, a lot of newbies are having problems finding clients. Us old timers have a lot of feedback and this gives us such an edge over the new guys.
Also, I’ve noticed that the quality of both clients and pros has slipped since freelancer sites have grown. People don;t understand how the system works too well and this is causing a lot of problems both sides.
One thing to really keep in mind is that a lot of clients and “pros” are addicted to really out of date SEO techniques. Lets face facts, mass link building and articles are out, fresh content and SMO is in. There are still thousands of people who offer bannable services. What really makes a freelancer stand out is being up to date with the latest SEO news and techniques. If you can offer social media optimization as part and package, (amongst other things which I won’t go into…if you’re on top of things you’ll know the services), you’re more likely to get a better rep and results.
Here’s a mini breakdown of things you should offer and should avoid:
1 – Avoid link spam and clients who want their site link built to hell and back. You’re likely to end up with that site in the sandbox and a really angry client…even if that was a service he/she wanted.
2 – Article writing and article site subs are out. If you are going to write articles, it’s better for the client to put them onsite as this will keep the site fresh, along with building rankable content.
3 – NEVER guarentee results or placements. That’s one sure fire way to spot a fraud. None of us work for Google and none of us control Google’s algorithm. We can’t guarentee top 10 for every single term. Those that offer certain rankings generally use inflation methods or PPC, get screenshots and that’s it. Once the cash is out or the black hat is picked up, the listing will be gone. All you can say, as a real pro, is that you will do the best for the website.
4 – don;t be scared to refuse certain jobs. If the client ups his specifications beyond what was agreed, drop him. If the site is really personally offensive to you, don’t work on it. If the client is a jackass, don’t even bother. Those people end up being more trouble than it’s worth. You will end up spending 3 times as long on a bad client as you would a good one. That means that 2 potentially good clients won’t get your services and you’ll miss out on some decent money.
5 – Be honest. If you don’t know how to do something, let the client know. They aren’t going to pay you if you botch a job up.
6 – If you are having a lot of problems with clients or freelancers, report them to the site’s admin. If the admin know that one side is being tricky, this can help resolve any problems which might arise later (obtaining pay for work, etc).
7 – remember that what works for localized engines doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work for Google.com. Some localized engines haven’t caught up with the major generic and thus certain factors (link spam with india Google) works for them. It will NOT work for .com.
Cool, last comment is the best information I’ve seen on SEO / SMO yet. Keep up the good work, Annabel. SK
Good tips for SEO beginners to become perfect in his profession. Covered entire topic very simply to follow and understand. Thx for nice guidance.
Tad! Thanks for an awesome post! My favourite is “Never call yourself an expert or company (when you’re not)”. Did that mistake myself and now bothered when others say it :). So true. Thanks again!
In my opinion you should not work as a Freelancer for eveybody in the field of SEO or Linkbuilding.
Most web companies want to have too fast tops results in Google, do not have regular unique content, and do not want to spend a penny.
The company i am working for (linkbuilding-specialist.nl)is only taking clients for project of a minimum of 6 months, so you have time enough to do your linkbuilding and on-page SEO.
Linkbuilding is a permanent proces!