Comments on: Telling a prospective client, “You’re screwed”.

By: Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » The first 2 months blogging - feedback?

Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:44:10 +0000

[...] Telling a prospective client, "You’re Screwed" Nov 8 [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 05:52:16 +0000

They might want to try some black hat techniques in a case like that. A few Googlebowls or a little redirection fun might help

By: randfish

randfish — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:32:07 +0000

Bravo! Jim. I give you major props for making the right decision. Cases like this would require a minimum of 12 months, and possibly more.

The only way I could think to do it would be if you hired a few programmers to build a crazy cool “web 2.0″ tool or mashup or something and called it - Dr. So and So’s Google Maps meets Skyping Podcast RSS. Then just del.icio.us and digg it and wait for the links to roll in.

It would take some damn creative thinking and a hell of a lot of programming time (and UI time) to make it, though.

By: Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » Damage Control - Recovering your Good Name.

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:47:36 +0000

[...] Jim’s Pictures « Telling a prospective client, “You’re screwed”. [...]

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:48:46 +0000

Jim - I think you were dead right not to make false promises. I suspect I would have pointed him squarely at PPC as well. I know as an SEO I wouldn’t make as much but the client’s money should be spent where it would be most effective. Plus, “evil doctor” - there’s got to be some ethical issues there. Would you really want to take a contract from someone with so much bad publicity. Just the act of association could damage your own reputation.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 06:30:18 +0000

Someone approached us (our SEO site) a while back with something similar. The first page of Google was about the negative things that the company did. The company didn’t care to rank #1 for there site they just didn’t want to see the negative publicity on the first page.

The best thing we could have done was to just raise the rankings of sites that had nothing negative to say about that company. We never signed the client b/c they wanted to accomplish this for next to nothing.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:23:41 +0000

Josh,
realize I was paraphrasing in by post…I did explain more in debth what those phrases meant.I mentioned PPC, but he wasn’t interested. No blog is going to get him to #1 knowing the page that’s #1 already. (at least for several years).

I wasn’t thinking in terms of “how stupid” this person was. Education and giving realistic expectations is “smart”.

but if you still think you can get him to #1 in natural results and you want this guys phone # I’ll give it to you and you can do a follow up on “what you sold him” and “how you did”.

By: Josh Wexelbaum

Josh Wexelbaum — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:09:25 +0000

I think most of us realize how uneducated our clients our. I think if you explain the situation in his language, he would have understood much better. Talk of ‘link communities’ and ‘natural link growth ‘etc are industry terms and he probably thought you were just trying to sound smart and arrogant. I know I would have.

I could think of a dozen ways to get this guy to #1. I mean, optimizating for some small doctor name? First off, I would have informed him that he can start an immediate pay per click campaign. I would have also told him other areas that could help, including creating a blog about the doctor, etc.

Stop thinking in terms of “how stupid” they are, you might have actually gotten the client. I would have.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 20:55:23 +0000

Jim,

I commend you for taking the high road here. Here’s what’s going to happen: Probably his 2nd or 3rd SEO company that he speaks to will respond with, “You’re absolutely right, we can rank #1 for that that term, sign this contract for 6 mo’s of SEO services and we’ll rank you no problem. They’ll tell the client exactly what they want to hear, and will attempt to deliver on their promises. 6 months from now the client will be ticked off, and will be ranked on the 3rd or 4th page.

What would I do? I would explain to them the situation as best as I can, and tell them exactly what you did. However, if they still want me to execute their plan and pay me to do it, I would, and I would do the best I could. My mortgage will be there whether they believe me or not.