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Commission SEO plans are no new thing, but not many SEO companies will actually go along with them since it's not usually the brightest agreement. Now with that being said, I've had a few great commission SEO plans go well because I did my research about the website and company prior to actually agreeing to performing the work and hoping to get paid.
Over the years I've noticed that companies are getting more head strong when it comes to talking to a company like my own. I don't know if it's because they were previously burned by an SEO company or if it's because they read an ebook the morning of and now think they can tell me what's going to be done about the work that is needed lol.
Anyway, below I'll go over a few things about commission SEO plans that you should think about before jumping in and doing work for free at first.
1. Partners
I know I said this would cover commission SEO jobs, but this part needs to be out there just so you know When it comes running any successful business you will need a partner. I don't care if you're doing SEO or if you're selling blankets out of the trunk of your car lol. Having a good business partner will not only help you with all of the tasks needed when it comes to the daily grind but they will keep you level headed and tell you that you're being dumb when it comes to some business decisions. This being said, they will be able to assess the situation when it comes to a potential client wanting to pay a commission for every sign up or sale and not a monthly fee. I've been talked out of business deals because my partner pointed out key flaws in a company that I did not see, and I've done the same with him.
You need to find someone that thinks a little differently than you do. My partner has an engineering degree and knows the business side of things but isn't a huge marketer while I'm all about online marketing, website traffic and SEO.
Think of it as finding someone that compliments your skills, or like a puzzle piece. If you have a certain set of skills (marketing, SEO, websites) and your friend has a set (Engineering, great at math, business oriented) then you can be successful and stay out of bad deals... Usually lol.
2. Contracts
The contract part actually is one of the easier things to do. Just write up an iron clad agreement that says you will be doing compensation work for the specific company and you will be getting paid XX% of the profit per sale generated after XX/XX/XXXX (that's a date, not weird X rated code lol). You will need to put other things within the contract that go over how you can track sales and profits as well as traffic to the website. You will also need to have something in there that states all the work done while under contract is property of the business itself and you will take nothing or remove anything if you and the company were to part ways. This is mainly due to some SEO companies getting pissy and removing tons of high authority links after a deal goes south. Withing the contract you'll basically cover the points that allow you to embed yourself within this company for a determined about of time and you will take XX% of the profits for doing so.
3. SEO Time Frame
A lot of companies don't understand that SEO and Online Marketing isn't an overnight type of thing. Because of this you MUST explain to them that it could take months before they see an increase in sales. They will usually get hesitant about you, but if you explain how SEO works and that any company like yours will say the same thing except the ones that just want your money.
A ton of times I'll get someone come to me and say "I'll pay you $50 if you can rank me #1 for (keyword) within a week" and I'm thinking "This person is insane" lol When it comes to contract work that is commission based you won't have to worry too much about how long the process will take because it's really up to you to pull in sales and you know what has to be done in order to do it safely. Sure you can just burn their website to make a quick commission, but your name will be blasted across the internet as a shady company that gets it's clients penalties.
After the contract is signed, be sure not to get angry when the client calls or emails you saying it's taking too long. You will have all the cards and you don't have to argue with them. Just simply let them know that this does take time. Tell them they you can get them 100 sales tomorrow if you ramp up their campaign, but it will most definitely get them a penalty and then they will never get traffic again. And tell them that if they want it done right while being safe, it takes time. It's not a drag race to the finish line, it's the Indy 500 but instead of cars racing it's turtles lmao
4. Payments
When it comes to getting paid for your work you will need to know exactly how much you're making. If you're going to be getting paid 10% from the total profit brought in, you will need to be able to track that. If they're not allowing you to track it at all then you'll not want to work with this company and carry on your happy way lol.
You can do a few different payment types, and I'll list those below:
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Cristian
As you said, most experienced online companies are very reluctant when talking with an SEO they don't really know.
The reality is very shameful in the SEO world, a huge number of SEO are basically scammers, that give little or no help to the websites they are doing SEO for and in essence, those sites end up paying a huge sum for nothing in return.
In recent years I've noticed more and more somewhat educated clients in terms of SEO but they still tend to believe that SEO is just a magic coding trick one can apply overnight to make them reach the first page and first position.
You talked all about the plans and type of contracts/negotiations you need to have as an SEO when talking on commission based work, but I would be really interesting on how exactly you find your clients in this niche. I never did commission based SEO but it just sounds an awesome way of earning some extra cash. As you said, most experienced online companies are very reluctant when talking with an SEO they don't really know. The reality is very shameful in the SEO world, a huge number of SEO are basically scammers, that give little or no help to the websites they are doing SEO for and in essence, those sites end up paying a huge sum for nothing in return. In recent years I've noticed more and more somewhat educated clients in terms of SEO but they still tend to believe that SEO is just a magic coding trick one can apply overnight to make them reach the first page and first position. You talked all about the plans and type of contracts/negotiations you need to have as an SEO when talking on commission based work, but I would be really interesting on how exactly you find your clients in this niche.
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