Charging for advice?
I’ve been putting a lot of serious thought into this topic, because of the 100’s of emails I get each week from people seeking advice from me. Now, I’ve always stuck by the fact that I don’t plan on ever putting any ads on my site for webmasters, because I don’t give advice as a form of income, but I do want to give out as much advice as possible without any strings attached.
I don’t have any services or ebooks to upsell to anyone, and no requirements of anyone to buy anything (partly because I don’t push anything either), but I have been thinking about charging for advice.
What I’m asking from you guys is do I charge for advice or not. If I charged for it, I would be obligated to answer EVERY email that came my way, whether I was busy with other things or not. There’s no way I would have someone pay for something and then not perform the service for them. I may be slow in the ethics department, but I’m not a prick like that!
I was thinking of one of the two, and mind you, these are only thoughts, not saying I would do any of these, just dabbling with the idea mostly.
1- Creating a service with an affordable monthly fee, where advice was given out on a general and per user basis. Tips and tricks no one else uses, places I use for ideas, etc etc.. Users would be given the option to ask questions about their sites, and get a well drafted response back, directly from me with what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Unfortunately the only drawback would be the 1-on-1 support. I would not be able to “be there” for extra support due to the fact that I do have so many damn sites going on at the same time, and need to keep a priority focus on those.
2- Offering a flat fee consulting service to webmasters, affiliates, and internet marketers alike. I’d probably charge something in the range of $100-$300 for a complete asessment of their site from perspectives of seo, revenue and traffic. I’d answer up to 20 of their questions via email and give them in-depth advice that would help THEM and wouldn’t be such general advice. The answers would be straight forward, without the candy coating bullshit that you can usually find from advice given by consultants (I used to read their reports and think to myself — “What the fuck?? Did this guy go to the University of Bullshit?!”.
I’d really appreciate feedback on this topic and thoughts, comments, or constructive criticism on this topic. Again, I may not even go this route due to time constraints, but if I do end up doing something, it would make it worth my time and effort, because with all jokes and bullshit aside, it all comes down to the fact that time is money for me.
I have a different suggestion.
Would it be possible to create a forum in which one would pay a fee (monthly, tri-monthly, annually, etc.) to register and participate? Individuals would still be able to ask questions about their sites and get a well drafted response, but others would be able to view it as well. So, even if you are busy and unable to repond to several requests at a time the users are still able to learn from other members and the advice you’ve given them. Additionally, I think this approach would reduce the overwhelming number of people coming to you — you don’t want to turn away people because your time is so limited. With the 100s of emails you receive I’d like to assume the forum would have decent traffic and some knowledge people. I would definetely be willing to pay to hear from you and other knowledgeable people.
The only drawback I see is that users lose confidentiality. I understand some people don’t want their site listed in public, which is understandable. However, for most people the pros will outweight the cons.
I’d be willing to pay you for consulting, and I think the flat fee would be the way I’d prefer to go, if it was up to me. I hope you’ll go through with one of these plans, I’m sure it would be useful to many people.
I like #1 the most; perhaps you could combine number one with premium one on one consulting when confidentiality is required. I’ve been giving out a lot of free advice through e-mail, but I usually make a point that general direction advice is free, but if they want detailed specifics they will have to pay.
I see where you are coming from in wanting to charge for your consultations. But does charging a fee for your advice coincide with the values you stated on the websitepublisher.net blog entry titled “Confessions of a Workaholic Webmaster”? Either way, your advice is most appreciated.
My vote goes for the flat fee consulting - You set the guidelines, you set the fee and (most importantly) you can allocate time for this into your very busy schedule (with a waiting list of course).
IMHO the one on one email service again just isn’t feasible - you wouldn’t be able to give 100% advice to all users as I think the demand would be huge - the only way is to regulate it - which points back to “flat fee consulting”
A forum would take up too much of your time as you would need to be logged on virtually 24 hours a day.
I think a forum may be the best way to go. Your time will not be taken up and you do not need to be on the ball 24/7. You can choose when to publish content and when not to. You could also have different price breaks for different access levels.
Screen who can and can’t join. And nothing stops you consulting outside of the forum.
Keep the forum shut to public. It’s not hard. I have a vBullatin license you can have that is full and unbranded. You can even host on my server FREE. Hell, I will even manage it for you. Get in touch.
If you just stick to consulting outside the sphere of a managed forum you might find this in this game you will be in the same situation you are now, 100’of emails and not knowing who the best clients are, and maybe missing some opportunists.
I would be willing to pay for advice… please keep us updated.
I have to agree as well on the message board idea - although I agree it would involve some of us divulging to others what our sites/ideas are sometimes, although maybe we could just use hypothetical domain names or something.
For you personally Jon, I see this method being one that provides you with the least amount of headaches, and you would be more likely to keep it going as opposed to being bogged down with email after email and getting sick of doing it.
M-J,
I think your advice is worth quite a bit. I’d write you a check in a second just to get general advice without a website.
I also think the forum idea is a good one. You could then package up the ideas that come out of the forums and turn them into a case study newsletter that I think would be very successful and profitable.
Matt
agua++. I think with your very busy schedule, the #1 option would take up too much of your time, or some people could feel “cheated” if you don’t dedicate too much time into it. Plus I don’t know if you could get some interesting money from it.
On the other way, the #2 option lets you pick the amount of consulting you can handle and really help people directly.
I would be willing to pay it. Especially considering I was once successful at this, but I’ve completely lost the Midas touch in the past year.
With dwindling resources, I’m now faced with having to go back to a J O B unless I can figure out my traffic problems FAST.
The kind of advice you are offering is perfect for me, since I’m not starting from nothing, and I have a good idea of how to do things. I’m just missing some small, but vital thing that is making the difference between success and failure right now.
Mike