1. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 1 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Pricing & Contracts For The Small SEM Shop SES Chicago 2006

2. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 2 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Indemnification – Indemnification is a two-way street. Make sure your contract only agrees to Indemnify your client for negligent acts, errors or omissions. Agreement Termination – A contract that allows either party to terminate it for any reason with 10 days written notice isn’t a good contract. Restrict a client’s right to terminate the contract to you committing a serious breach that cannot be remedied within 14 days time. Intellectual Property Rights – Never agree to relinquish your intellectual rights to anything you create or contribute to unless you’ve negotiated a separate (large) fee. An SEO should not be a “work for hire” consultant. Contract Issues To Never Compromise

3. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 3 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Contract Issues To Never Compromise Confidentiality – Like indemnification, it is also a two- way street. Resolving Disputes – Never compromise on this one. It could cost you a ton of money. Make sure that any potential legal disputes are settled in the your jurisdiction. You might want to also require mediation/arbitration to take place before a dispute can go to court.

4. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 4 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Performance Contracts Establish Proper Baseline Data – Before you can determine if a rev share deal will work, you need to be able to properly assess where the potential client is at. What is the overall search activity for their space? How well do they currently rank for those terms? How many search related sales are they currently making? Always Work Off Gross Revenues – You have no control over net profits Be Reasonable On the Percentage You Ask For – If you know you can remove a robots.txt file and triple their revenue overnight, don’t ask for a percentage that will make you 100k a month in two weeks. Make it based on what you think it would take for you to be making the same amount you would charge for upfront consulting in a reasonable amount of time. (30-60 days)

5. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 5 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Set a Time for the Contract to Expire – Ask for something log-term, (2-3 years) but don’t expect someone to pay forever on a project that is very front loaded for work. Provide an Early Exit Clause for the Client - Establish a certain level of success that needs to happen within 12 months. If you don’t make your numbers, let them out. Performance Contracts

6. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 6 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. Service Contracts What do you want to charge hourly? Triple It!

7. www.rangeonlinemedia.com 7 Copyright © 2005 Range Online Media, Inc. www.webmasterradio.fm/episodes www.seorockstars.com