We love our clients..not too much, just in that client love sort of way and we appreciate them too. We also care deeply for our friends, but we need to clarify some things with our clients, friends and whoever else out there.
Don’t Hate Us for Saying “Because We Said So!”
Some clients (and friends) love to learn about the web and we appreciate that and it is often good for the client, but the problem is believing everything you see, read or hear. See, we do this SEO and Internet marketing thing for a living. We do it all day and we read it every day (see Twitter). We know what we are doing, so if you ask us a question about something you should do and we recommend “no” it is because we have reasons. If you ask “WHY???” and we say “because we said so” and that is all you get, here is why:
- Often to explain the “why” to you could take up to an hour; that is a $300 loss for us. If you would like to pay for us for that time that would fall under consulting or perhaps training depending on the subject. If we just give that information and time away we lose money.
- We don’t have a lot of time to read an article, or articles, you read and point by point go through them and explain why they are inaccurate or flat out wrong…this takes time and time is money! Both for you and me.
- More importantly, we need to know that your FULLY understand so you don’t turn around and offer your friends similar information that is not particularly accurate (see millions of blog posts online for proof).
- We know what we are doing. We don’t mind questions and I don’t even fault people for trying to learn, but you cannot read some stuff from blogs I have never ever heard of or seen and assume the information is accurate and then declare yourself and “expert”. We also have people that send us posts from the “experts” they have found and guess what? They are not experts…I can send you a list of experts to read if you need them.
- We work for a living, meaning we must work to feed the kids, pay the bills and live. If we give everything away for free we have no food, air and a bad credit rating. We also need to devote our time to our clients to ensure that they are taken care of and this means working. I really do not know anyone that gives free consulting advice away for free…we don’t either.
I Guess Our Point Is…
This is a business. We study this craft and work hard everyday to be really good at it and we would love to tell you everything you want to know for free, but that doesn’t pay the bills. Free advice is great, but what great thing every comes for free?
We do actually deserve to be paid for the time it has taken to accumulate this knowledge and the everyday time it takes to continue to excel at it. We work hard and we need to be paid for it…just as you expect to be paid for your time and expertise. We still love you, we are just saying…
