I get about 10 emails a day asking me for help with a website, not a specific plugin error or something like that, but more general requests for help, often relating to my WordPress SEO article. In the past I just used to give this advice sometimes, for free. Recently I’ve begun treating those requests a bit differently: I’ll email back that I can do a site analysis and tell people what to improve, which plugins to use etc. But… I’m not going to do it for free, so I’ll also tell them that I’ll do an analysis like that starting from $500 for a ‘regular’ WordPress blog.
You see, while it’s of more benefit to one user specifically if I help him or her fix their site, it’s of way more benefit to the community at large if I spend the time I work for “free” by writing plugins or articles here on yoast.com or elsewhere, like my recent article on Smashing Magazine. A plugin or an article like that will help tens of thousands, if not millions, of people. A quick site analysis from me telling you what to improve is of no benefit to the community at large.
When I charge for it, and people pay me for it, I actually make more money (d0h), which allows me to in turn spend time writing those plugins and articles. Sounds fair, doesn’t it?
If you just realized you want me to analyze your WordPress site, and you’re willing to pay the $500? Go get yourself a website review then!
Update: the price and the quality of the analysis have both risen quite a bit, so much that I’m now charging $990 for a site analysis.
I totally agree, the time you are analysis Joe Blog’s Blog is less time writing interesting articles or creating cool plugins or twittering on twitter ;) Time is money. Keep up the good work!
Small Magento eshop + WordPress blog? I guess the price will be tailor made then …
Yeah indeed, drop me a line through my contact form and we’ll have a look, I have yet to establish “rules” for that :)
The price can seem expensive, but the reasoning is sane. I’m regularly hesitating to adopt such a policy regarding plugins, as I get frequent emails asking for a plugin review.
Hey Ozh, I agree, but it shouldn’t be too cheap or I’d have no time left to develop plugins ;)
That’s nothing but the truth, time is the most valuable accents we have online and this earth. So
we can’t waste it by doing free work, I personally try to help more people as I can..but I see now
that my site is growing, and plus the demand from people are increasing.
My things is Joost..if you think your time is worth $500, then I say take advantage and get paid
for the time that you could have been doing other engagements.
“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”
Couldn’t agree more the amount of ‘can you just…’ you get from clients can often go on forever if you do not charge them. The cost can help the client focus and you be paid for your time.
This is totally fair enough. I get so many clients asking ‘can you just’ do this or that. Its not their fault as they’re usually little ammendments but if you do not start to charge for them they could add up to days and weeks of unpaid hours.
Good move! Wrote you maybe half of a year ago. No answer. But – I practically didn’t even expect any. Figured that if you’d respond to every message you’d go broke. Now you know it will mean business. $500 or more. I’ll have more confidence in getting a response, i.e. more reason to write. Soon as I get the new website up, it will need checking ;-)
Cool, looking forward to it, really, this time ;)
I don’t know why people want to hire SEO services for a blog and specially for WordPress. As we all know wordpress are already search engine optimized blogs.
SEO is not that simple. WordPress is a useful tool for achieving good SEO, but that is only part of the process. There is a lot of work in setting up a site for search engine optimisation and the backend software is only part of the equation.
It is also nearly impossible to get good information about SEO via the web. Finding the good SEO information amongst the crap is near on impossible. Yoast’s site is one of the only places I actually recommend for SEO information as the majority of the rest are either wrong, out of date or just plain confusing.
@Yoast – US$500 seems like a reasonable figure. It might help to post an example of the sort of report you will be doing though that way people will have a better idea of what they get for their money.
Hi Ryan, good suggestion on the example report. I’ll have to get permission from someone to do that, but it’s a good idea.
I would love to see such an example report – no need to see the actual data… just the structure of it to see what I get for the order I just now put in :-)
This is a completely reasonable look at the value of your time and the benefit to individuals vs. the community at large. I’ve been enjoying your articles and plugins for years, and hope that your potential customers can see why it is reasonable to pay for your services. If I needed the help, I’d be happy to pay. Continued good luck with your consulting ventures.
I can’t believe anyone would expect you to do a free site analysis in the first place. Does the same person visit a carpenter and expect them to make them a free chair?
Article content is very exciting, very useful for me and I agree with you! Am grateful to share with you!
All very true points. I get a lot of emails from people looking for travel specific information on where I’ve been, tours, guides etc. Which I give out for free (nice guy)
But what ticks me off, is the amount of people who don’t write back after I take the time to say thanks. I am hazarding a guess but I think Yoast.com gets the same.
I’ve included a donate if I helped you button too. But as I imagine here, it’s blowing in the wind.
So yes, though I can’t afford it, I think you are right in charging people for consultations.
Hey bro I want to pay You $500 is you can tell me why my WordPress site can has los tacos.
“los tacos” ? :)
I think this is an excellent idea. Giving away to much for free depreciates your excellent work. Keep up the hard work and develop more awesome plugins.
$500 is a low cost for a in depth site analysis imho.
That’s what I think too :)
I can’t believe that people are willing to pay $500 dollars for one of your reviews. My site is just great without any paid input.
Well some are not as lucky, and heck, you might benefit from one too :) You’d benefit from a real identity too btw, instead of a keyword in your name like that.
I think the price is fair for the service that you provide. Do you have any sample analysis reports to view?
No not yet, I do have an outline of chapters that are usually contained within the analysis though, I’ll email you that.
I completely agree. And in fact, I’ve never heard it said so elegantly before. Very excellent point! Cheers, and I hope this is a prosperous direction for you (and, I suppose, all of us) :-)
For those interested, I did my first “case” on what the results were of analysis, check out the case for the site analysis of Ronen Bekermans’ blog.
That IS interesting. Feeling confident that you’re getting the RIGHT advice is worth a lot. There is much free advice out there, but unfortunately it’s contradictory and it requires expert knowledge to know which advice to follow anyway…
Very nice offering.
I know some owners of Magento-sites who have trouble with the ranking in Google. I will tell them about this service!
Hi Yoast. I also have been following your blog for quite some time. As I have different types of websites, I wanted to ask if you only review WordPress sites or your offer expands for otehr types of sites too:ecommerce, forums etc..
In fact I am interested to know if you offer a review of a business related forum running on vBulletin 3.x versions.
And do your reviews offer only tips about on-page SEO or you also give code modifications (obviously for WordPress sites in which you’re specialized..)
I apologize if my questions seem like I’m interrogating you, but I wanted to know before I decide whether to hire your services.
Thanks.
We’d have to come to a special agreement :) Also, to be honest, my platform knowledge of WP makes a review like this much more valuable… But feel free to contact me and we’ll work something out :)