pay rate for SEO work

I've been learning quite a bit from your forums, so thanks for the great info. I've read threads releated to my question but could still use some guidance.

Six months ago I met a guy who just started a web design company. He couldn't pay me much to write his SEO copy for his clients, but said down the road (which is now) he'd devise a monthly payment plan for my work. Since I'm just an SEO rookie, I took this time to learn as much as I could and saw it as a great learning opportunity.

Now that I've written 5 sites for him, he says he hasn't posted any of the SEO copy, and he still hasn't figured out how much to charge his clients for SEO. He's asked me for a fee structure per site, which seems difficult.

How much should I charge for just the SEO copywriting? Is this guy a joker or is it really difficult to put a monetary value on SEO work? Thanks for your help!

Let's say it's an e-commerce website fully featured:

Ad-Copy: 250.00 per page (depending how many pages)
Optimisation 250.00 per page (depending the work involved)
Set Up fee: 1500.00
Ongoing work (paid monthly) 250.00
Linking n(submission of links) 80 directories PR 4 and up: 2000.00

Complete SEO to the top - Priceless... ;-)

Just a very rough idea. SEO is really based on many factors including the build of the webiste etc etc.

Thanks for the guidance. As it looks right now, this guy never really planned on paying me anything. This was really helpful. Thanks!

about 100 dollars for each legal size page of text or 75 a page for a 8 and 1/2 by ll.

I've turned down many "I'll pay you later" contracts. There are just too many variables to definately count on any real money.

They may have the best intentions in the world, but if you accept that you will be the last to be paid any dividends, usually you will be putting in a lot of hours for no money.

[ Message was edited by: yellowwing 04/27/2005 02:47 am ]

"Is this guy a joker or is it really difficult to put a monetary value on SEO work?"
The guy may be a joker but more because he has held back on you & his clients by not even posting the work done!

Is it difficult? Well yes it CAN BE but how the heck can either you or he get a gauge on the value of the work if it was never put into action?

You should have got 50% up front for the initial layout, then cash on delivery for the rest of the work.
We work with a fantastic copywriter who knows us quite well and she writes well for the search engines and visitors, but we still pay her up front even with the 'know-each-other' relationship it's still that way. Here is a sample of her work. NO we are not promoting anything here as her name is not on it and giving the website address serves no purpose but to highlight good SEO copy: ((url removed))

Admin note: Although you're not promoting anything here and giving the website address serves no purpose, we generally don't allow links in posts. If anyone is interested in the getting the link then please contact the poster directly via PM.

[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 04/26/2005 03:18 pm ]


[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 04/26/2005 03:19 pm ]

Admin note: Although you're not promoting anything here and giving the website address serves no purpose, we generally don't allow links in posts. If anyone is interested in the getting the link then please contact the poster directly via PM.

No worries!

I've found that you can hire copywriters from certain freelance writing websites that can write decent SEO copy for you. You might want to Google it and see what you find.