22 replies to this topic

[qwerty]

As far as charging someone x-amount of dollars every month to re-submit if it's not necessary, that doesn't seem quite kosher unless they know it probably won't help them much . If they don't care and put cash in your hand, what can you say?

You can tell them it's a mistake to put cash in your hand for something useless. If you don't do that, what's going to happen when they find out for themselves? They'll assume, no matter what other valuable services you've provided, that you've just been fleecing them. And that may mean no more contract, and no recommendations from them to other potential clients.

And Bob, I wasn't trying to muddy the waters. I was directly answering your request to

show me any site that had either been dropped and then restored or that had it's ranking in the index improved through resubmission.

It makes sense to resubmit if you need to resubmit -- like if the site has been dropped due to something other than a ban. Of course I wasn't saying that it's a good idea to just do it for it's own sake.

Edited by qwerty, 29 August 2003 - 04:18 PM.

[darciusrex]

qwerty- I agree. I don't think I made myself clear.

QUOTE
"As far as charging someone x-amount of dollars every month to re-submit if it's not necessary, that doesn't seem quite kosher unless they know it probably won't help them much . If they don't care and put cash in your hand, what can you say?"

Maybe I should have said this, "If the person knows and doesn't care and still pays you to do it for whatever reason they have in mind, as long as you told them and they know and still want to put the cash in your hand and still don't care even though you told them it probably won't help them and they still don't care and still put cash in your hand, what can you say?"

I think the key is disclosure about what they're paying for. I'd say anyone involved with this forum probably wouldn't lead a client down that path. If they do they're BAD:angry: Most reputable SEO's, writers and designers would probably tell their clients the truth of submitting for the simple reason the truth IS out there and it is easy to find.

[qwerty]

Ok, maybe I was splitting hairs just a bit. I think we're in agreement on this (But I still wouldn't take the money. I don't get enough sleep as it is)

[compar]

compar, perhaps you didn't read my full post?

Especially:  "Using paid inclusion from lycos/fast, inktomi, alta vista, etc minimizes or even eliminates the need to re-submit."

I read that. And I know that you are really agreeing that monthly resubmission is not needed. I also know that in trying to give Corey some confidence about the whole subject I was pretty emphatic about "NO NEED TO EVER RESUBMIT".

I also agree that there are always going to be exceptions, but that wasn't her question. So to that degree I didn't think your response and qwerty's were productive as answers to Corey question "Do I really need to resubmit every month". The answer to that question is NO. I'm sure you agree.

I feel we have a lot of newbies on this forum. They generally want a black or white answer. I thought you and qwerty were perfectly correct in your answers but were introducing shades of gray that might confuse and confound the author of the thread.

[darciusrex]

Well, Mr. Gladstein, it's nice to see someone out there that has integrity! Sleep easy!

[mcanerin]

I can see the desire to gain a monthly income from a client - putting food on the table every day instead of feast and famine scenarios is a good thing (at least, that's what my wife and kids keep telling me).

Offering to resubmit monthly is an unethical approach. However, there are things that an SEO could do monthly to earn a bit of a cash flow, and provide a useful and valuable service. If you have a client that is already paying monthly for garbage, then it's clear that they are interested in paying for piece of mind. As long as you can legitimately deliver that, great!

What about providing a monthly analysis of their web logs and traffic? how about routine maintainance? A monthly newsletter on search trends and online buying habits? A monthly positioning report showing trends and recommending, if necessary, further SEO or copywriting? Competition checks? Perhaps another keyword search to see if the keyword landscape has changed. Hey, how about looking for additional sites that may have popped up that would make great linking partners and submitting to them?

How about a combination of some or all of the above? Worth $70? You bet! It would be obvious even to someone who is new to this that the above package is way more valuable than "monthly submissions". Much of it can be automated and some may lead to further work for SEO or copywriting.

The good thing about this is that as you add customers, you continually make more money each month.

Everytime you see someone being ripped off, you also are seeing a potential customer for real service and ethical SEO. These are people who are convinced that they need the help and are willing to pay for it. They can be a very valuable resource.

In my case, I also get no small amount of personal satisfaction everytime I deprive a spammer or con artist of a source of income. The best way to stop them is to stop it from being profitable. And the fact that I benifit, along with my client, is really tasty icing on the cake.

Spouting off as usual,

Ian

[qwerty]

Those are all excellent suggestions. Now how would one go about automating those processes (without breaking any SE TOS)? Even if they can't be automated, it might be a good thing to do, assuming it didn't take up too much time.

[Hippo]

Thanks again to everyone for all your comments. My client has a fairly new website so we did go with paid inclusion to get attention and to keep it being indexed regularly.

I have done a fair amount of learning over the past year about SEO and PPC. Therefore, I was quite confident that there was no need to pay $70 per month to "resubmit". Your comments have confirmed my opinion, even though others tried to pursuade my client otherwise.

In addition, I was able to show my client this string of posts. I believe your honest and accurate answers not only helped me secure the client, but I think she will never go back to the guy that charged her $70 per month.

Thank you again to everyone. I'll be sure to stick around and post some more.

Corey Creed