I often frequent freelance job websites to bid on projects. I rarely win projects; I don’t expect to win due to the masses of idiots bidding at £2.50 per hour.
Tonight I saw a job posting that quite frankly offended me. Somebody was asking for a Search Engine Optimisation expert to provide a FULL-TIME 40 hours per week service for a measly £300 per month. Now, I have a big mouth and could not resist the temptation to contact this person and point out that this budget is, for lack of a better description, absolutely ridiculous.
Here is the job posting:
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*****We Kindly ask Companies NOT to bid on this project as it is intended for individuals only*****
We are Looking to hire for full time job position an SEO Expert to wok on our websites and increase our ORGANIC SERPs for a list of keywords that we be defined later.
We are in SEO/SEM for +5 years so you can have an idea with whom you will be dealing.
You will be either working in our office or install teamviewer on your station if your prefer working from home.
You will be invited to : Elaborate an SEO strategy and Implement it. We hope you know what Strategy means…
In order to apply, you are invited to PMl us the following :
1- Your resume with your full details + Experience
2- The SERPs ranking you have recently achieved (websites + keywords)
3- Your expected MONTHLY salary for full time job (40hours per week from Monday to Friday).
Important : Any PM missing the above details will be ignored.
Our evaluation of your skills will be based on a short strategy plan you will be providing us during selection. You need to convince us through your plan that your are the right person for this job position.
Please do not bid if you are looking for part time job! this is FULL TIME Offer for those who are looking for a stable job and long term relationship.
Our Maximum salary is $750 per month so don’t bid for more.
Start your PM with ‘I am Your Expert’
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At time of writing, this project had over 300 views and 5 applications (unsurprisingly). Below is my brief conversation with this person via the websites’ messaging system:
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Me:
$750 per month for a FULL TIME SEO expert?
You pay peanuts, you get monkey’s. Expect to triple that before a REAL SEO expert touches you with a 10 foot barge pole.
Employer:
your experience is just a peanut if you say this, because you are just seeing your neighberhood. I think you are far from understanding how SEO world is working today..
Me:
well you do as you please, but expect a bumpy ride!
Employer:
I am in this business since 2005. I know perfectly what I am doing 
Just give a look to emerging countries, u will see by yourself that life isn’t so costly for them.
anyway
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So, my experience is just a peanut. Not quite sure he understood what I meant there…
What does worry me, however, is the mention of “emerging countries”, and the fact that this project has gotten 5 bids so far. Could it be that foreign suppliers are working for nothing and providing a good service? Is this a genuine emerging threat to the industry?
I severely doubt it. I was once a shareholder in an online clothing store and I worked the SEO for this site around the clock. After 8-10 months it started to do very well in the search engines, but it is only with this constant love and affection that a website can do well, and I’m afraid nobody is going to put that much effort in for £300 per month.
Matt
October 26, 2009
Of course emerging markets are a problem to those offering SEO, much as they are a problem to those people who want to manufacture trainers, build cars or .. yes, for that matter do technical web development work. Why would you pay a developer 30k a year in the UK when you can pay a developer in India/Russia/Etc less than 20% of that?
I’ll tell you why, because of quality, culture and communication! There are agencies and companies that claim to get away with offshoring their development work – but from my experience of people that have left those companies to tell their tale, the reality is often different from the rose tinted stories those companies would have us believe. It’s very hard to convey full specifications through email, it’s very hard to have people 4000 miles away interpret instructions…
All this being said of course, what you’re talking about Matt is somewhat easier (no offence intended) than building full end to end systems – what you’re talking about I would guess is a good understanding of link building and the kind of optimisation that anyone, no matter their country of habitation can do – and so yes, it’s probably very likely that 5 people in Eastern Europe, India, Russia or Wales are able to put in quotes that are less than what you would be paid for a weeks work in the UK, and yes, LIVE on that money.
As an industry it’s either for SEO peoples to learn that this is the case and find a reason for business to leave their SEO work in the UK (as web developers in my opinion have spent the last decade doing well, and trainers/bar makers less so), or see it all disappear to foreign soil where realistically it can be done just as well as it’s done here at home.
After all, you know Rover is no more right?
matt5409
October 26, 2009
An interesting point about being able to LIVE off this menial amount, but how true is it? SEO, when done correctly, is rarely without it’s overheads. Most Indian suppliers still rely heavily on generic directory submission, blog commenting and article posting. While article submission is the most effective, there are only so many decent directories out there. A good SEO will spend their time working on-site as well – improving on-page copy, internal link structure and also working with the site owners in an advisory position.
Link buying, whilst being frowned upon by the big G, still happens, and like it or not it’s an essential part of link building. This is where the aforementioned costs come in. SEO’s will be expected to contact related blog owners and negotiate prices and terms for blog posts and blogroll links.
There is simply too much involved with a good SEO campaign for it to be executed by a non-native speaker, 4000 miles away at £300/month for 40 hours of their lives each week. Personally, I would not expect to pay so little, so much as I would not expect to earn so little. The game is bigger, and prices need to reflect this.
Andy Moore
January 12, 2010
How much? Or should I say how little?
Maybe I should move to one of these developing countries, I would be able to live like a king if £300 a month is a full time salary.
Still it makes a change from the Snake Oil merchants who want stupid money, the last idiot I spoke to from an SEO firm wanted nearly £20k from me, the one before that asked me how I’d got so many pages indexed and a PR of 5 on a site a few months old, I told him he should know……
If its not one extreme it’s the other.
matt5409
January 12, 2010
I’ve recently achieved two very successful SEO campaigns for two clients in the finance industry. My rates range from £400-£800 per month BUT this is only relative to my time and money investment. The clients are made well aware what they’re going to get for that, and it certainly wouldn’t be me working full-time on one campaign.
Over what period was the 20k supposed to work for? For hugely competitive niche’s (fashion, for example) there are companies out there paying 5k+ a month for SEO, because it’s worth it.
My rates are at the bottom end of the professional level (by professional I mean SEO that actually works – not bulk directory submission) and require minimal investment. Which is why I can’t understand the people that would bid on a project like the one mentioned above.
Andy Moore
January 12, 2010
About six months, then they wanted a couple of grand a month to continue, the money term I’m after is ‘mp3 downloads’ what really peaved me is that the proposal they sent was utter detritus and din’t mention much other than blog comments and forum posts.
Whaaaaaaat 20 grand to spam some forums!
I won’t degrade your site with the profanities that sprang to mind!
I’m now page 3 (UK) and page 5 (.com) for the term I want and know I still have a lot of work to do ‘on site’ before I get better rankings.
I’ll get there because I’m not giving up!
matt5409
January 12, 2010
this is why SEO has a bad name, because of all the shady operators out there that use out of date techniques.
the reason SEO costs so much is because to get truly valuable backlinks, you need to pay for them. adding on top of this your hours and link cost markup, the end payment to the client can be quite pricey. of course the real achievement is establishing if the investment is worth it, which is all to do with the planning done at the start.