Hi, my name's David and I am one of the new kids on the block here at I-COM. Please be gentle with me as this is my first posting into the blogosphere!

I'm going to talk about something close to my heart, agency SEO'ers vs Freelancers.  Now up until 2 weeks ago I was myself a freelance SEO.  Its a strange world that all of the agency people may not know about, we travel to networking events and pounce upon the unsuspecting; we avoid the pyramid scheme people at the same events (you know who you are...) and we get to work with some truly odd people.

The celebrity lookalikes, the arrogant performance artists, the MANY companies who run off with your SEO proposals and who you never hear from again,  the band who "want a bit of MySpace"....

And when we're not doing the jobs that all the big agencies turn down we're huddling in corners telling each other that the agencies are rubbish and we are much better.

Well it's a nice dream but at the end of the day - and it breaks my heart to say this - it just isn't true.

If you want quality SEO you just have to pay for it, even 5 or 10 hours a month from a quality SEO firm is going to help you over the long term.

If I add up the hours I did and what I was paid freelancing I was getting less than minimum wage as I had to do 3 or 4 times more work than I had quoted just to be competitive and because I couldn't live with the fact that the results I could deliver for so few hours wouldn't deliver much value to the client.

So I say to all you noble freelancers out there, in the current economic climate, start seeking the sanctuary of a SEO firm, I promise you, if you come in from the cold won't regret it!

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Discussion

Posted by Gab Goldenberg on Nov 28th, 2008
Sounds like
a) You needed to learn pricing better.
b) You might have waited before providing services professionally, if you were really providing so little value at first.
Not saying that to disparage you, but just to highlight that your conclusions as to why an agency is better than a freelancer are based on faulty premises.

Plenty of agencies are rubbish :D. Believe me, I get to meet them on a regular basis and often their skills are mostly in selling their own services, rather than online marketing .
Posted by David Taylor on Dec 1st, 2008
Gab,
Your right I did have a problem with pricing, I was working for myself and didn't factor in that I was not just an SEO, I was also a Credit Controller, a Site and Blog Manager, an accountant and all the other stuff that goes with running your own business!
Even when I did realise this I also realised that to factor in the costs of all these different things would:

Put my costs through the roof and no one would hire me for a realistic amount of money to live on!
Make me work 70hr weeks and give up my weekends to work (something that was already happening).

As for providing services professionally, I had been employed in SEO for 2 years before leaving my previous job to strike out on my own - something I managed for 6 months with a fair degree of success.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being a freelancer and pricing was never an issue - people simply couldn't afford me!
However, it was the lack of consistency, combined with all the hassle of owning your own business that I didn't enjoy.
Now I don't have to worry about managing business costs, chasing new business - especially in the current climate, attending networking events, having work stolen, etc.
I can just get on with what I love doing and am good at in a great supportive atmosphere.
Posted by Meaty Petey on Dec 9th, 2008
Have to say I agree with Gab here.

I went freelance some time ago now and have really enjoyed the freedom it has given me.

There are of course benefits to working as an SEO for an agency (the guaranteed paycheck at the end of every month is a big one!), but for me the benefits of being Freelance far outweigh these.

Being a sole Freelance SEO means I have a much closer relationship with my clients than I ever did before. I am part of every aspect, from the initial meetings to the actual day-to-day work of the campaign and monthly reporting and meet-ups. It's great not having to worry about what an over-enthusiastic sales person may have promised the client at those crucial initial meetings.

I have lost count of the times a client has called me in the past when working for an SEO agency (often I would not have even met them before) complaining that they were not number 1 for a term that someone had promised them they would be after a ridiculously short period.

Picking up the pricing point you make, I haven't had any issues so far with any clients and make a decent wage.

Sure I am never going to be mega-rich and cruising round in a big fancy car (I guess I would be starting an SEO agency up if I wanted that), but I prefer to offer a service I know is great that isn't going to cost my clients over the odds – which in my experience happens way to often when they sign up with an SEO agency – Now I am not saying every agency, but out of the 4 I have worked for, in my opinion 3 of them charged too much for the work/time they put in on a monthly basis.

I guess when you are a freelance SEO the client gets to know you as a person - the trust is there, it's much more about the individual relationship. The worry of what a Sales or Account manager may have said who doesn't have enough SEO knowledge to talk about it with any real authority isn't there anymore. It’s great. :)
Posted by Ady Berry on Dec 10th, 2008
One of the big problems with freelancing can be the dissemination of information about SEO and the impact on the ability to research new SEO methods etc.

Working flat out on SEO projects to retain clients (to ensure the pay check at the end of the month) and securing those new clients often means that you simply haven't the time to find out extra info up and above what you already know.

Working day to day with peers in a good agency has allowed me to;

A) learn even more about SEO and implement it effectively for my clients

B) learn new tools, methods and techniques that I probably wouldn't have had chance to access if I had been working alone.

I worked in freelancing for 12 months and enjoyed it, tbh but with a mortgage and bills it can be a hard way to make a living.
Posted by Michael Harrington on Mar 20th, 2009
It was an great blog David i must say that you have all the talent which is needed for an specialist blogger. There were some minor problems but it's fine. David about the article freelancers have to face many challenges and to find out the solution for these new challenges is very difficult.
SEO freelancer have to give their 110 percent. David i would also like to know that what do you think about Web Analytics?
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