Pricing: How much to charge for my skills and experience?

General
1

Hey guys!

I joined recently, most of you will probably know who I am from WA :)

But if you don't, my name is Zarina, I'm in the whole content/affiliate marketing game since 2015 and one of Partha's favourite people online HAHHA.

I was curious to hear your thoughts about something:

I have an opportunity to work with a poker champion, and in my interaction we've talked about different things he could do to improve his business and attract more students to his course.

The way I responded (the very elaborate style lol) made it very clear that I'm experienced in:

- writing

- affiliate marketing

- content management

- YouTube

- keyword research

- SEO

And even suggested Twitter ghostwriting which I didn't officially do for someone, but I'm great at writing and could potentially do that.

(For what it's worth, I'm familiar with the poker niche.)

He asked for a pricing sheet, and I have NO idea what to tell him 😄

I know that some SEOs and ghostwriters charge at least $5K-$10K/mo for their services, but I definitely don't plan on focusing strictly on SEO, and definitely not Google as primary focus.

Now...

I did share that I haven't worked 'for someone' in like 10 years, but open to working with him specifically.

I just don't want to undersell myself, especially if he would want me to do several things for his business, hence why I'm here seeking your help/advice 😁

Thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you soon!

- Zarina

2

Hey Zarina,

Good to see you here :-)

That's a tough one. I think I'd decide on an hourly rate you want and then on the pricing sheet, detail the service(s), estimate the time each service will take you and come to a price that way?

Maybe add a percentage on to the price you arrive at so you have some room to negotiate.

I used to work in construction and pricing a job was always the task I found the most difficult ... I invariably undersold myself!

- Rohan.

3

@rohanm Hi Rohan, thank you for your suggestion! I feel like I'd be underselling myself too, especially with the skills I have haha. That's why wanna try to nail it, at least with the pricing that fits at THIS time

And good to see you here too :)

4

@zarina If my experience counts for anything then my advice is to always go higher than you initially think.

I used to work for a guy in the events industry. Corporate stuff mostly. He was the set designer. Really clever man. He'd go through a similar pricing process as above and then double it!

He was always super busy and often turning away work. Sometimes charging more for your services is greater validation for the customer. It's so expensive, they must be good!

5

@rohanm oh wow, interesting approach! Never thought of it that way. Does this apply to 'tier' pricing?

I published the same post on WA, and Partha suggested to do like 'standard', 'advanced', and 'pro' levels and obviously different prices for those levels.

So if I was thinking of $5K, $10K, $15K for packages, should I really double them?

I honestly can't IMAGINE asking $10K, $20K, and $30K for the monthly full management service, impostor syndrome kicking in HARD when I think about these numbers lol

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Hey @partha I am not sure if you're on WA still, so I'm tagging you here.

You suggested doing standard, advanced, and pro.

What do you think about adapting it with a poker terminology? Or specifically the tourney types that there are (WPT = world poker tour, WSOP = World Series of poker, and Super High Roller)

Or am I overcomplicating it? hahaha

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[quote data-userid="71" data-postid="343"]

So if I was thinking of $5K, $10K, $15K for packages, should I really double them?

[/quote]

Hey Zarina, well I'm not saying you should try doubling them. Mine was just an example to illustrate how you can usually charge more than you think. It depends on the industry too. Those corporate events were often money no object :-)

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@rohanm Haha makes sense. I was typing up pricing sheet and I don’t think I’d be able to give crazy prices like that lol. I gave myself some time to think about the prices and packages. Thanks for your input Rohan!

9

@zarina Hey Zarina,

Here's everything you need to know, but delivered "Partha-Style" hahahahahhaha!!

Human beings, we're funny creatures really.

Did you know that when it comes to making decisions we already KNOW what we want, and "gut feeling" is typically right 99.99% of the time?

But, then that little voice in our head takes over, imposter syndrome kicks in, and then that little voice tries to talk us out of WHAT WE KNOW TO BE CORRECT (gut feeling), and that voice tells us we're not good enough, and gives us 1,479 reasons why we're not good enough.

Human psychology lesson over, hahahahahaha!!

You ALREADY KNOW how much you want to charge, I've now seen you mention the figure FOUR TIMES on 2 different platforms in 4 different conversations!!

You want to charge $5,000/month and all you're currently doing is TALKING YOURSELF OUT OF IT by telling yourself, "it's too much", "Am I good enough to charge that?", "Will he run a mile when I tell him $5,000" (YES, if you don't deliver your pricing structure with CONFIDENCE and BELIEF IN YOUR OWN ABILITIES).

Okay, now you KNOW that you want $5,000 per month for your service, use your marketing skills to "steer him" into agreeing to that price.

So, once more, let's say you 6 different services you offer.

You provide a low, medium, and high price range for each of those 6 services, so 18 prices in total.

Example for ONE of the services, 10 articles per month - $600, 15 articles - $800, 20 articles - $1,000

(obviously, you decide on the prices)

So, that's 18 prices for 6 different services you offer.

Then you have your "package deals"

So, 4 of the services you offer monthly - $5,000/month, 5 services you offer monthly - $7.500, and Full 6 services all singing all dancing service - $10,000/month

This way you are almost "controlling the outcome" by steering him towards what you want.

Plus, you've probably seen this on services, tools, or products that have tiered systems of pricing, create a page, well designed, and on your $5,000/month offer, you have a sign - "Most Popular" or "Most Recommended".

You see that everywhere, don't you?

Think about things like ahrefs or semrush pricing, you have different levels of pricing and then one of them has "Most Popular".

Pure marketing, you are being steered towards a certain pricing tier "Most popular".. "hmmm, this is the tier that most people take, well if that's what everyone else is doing, I don't want to be different, so I'll opt for the "most popular" option rather than the cheapest option.

Simple marketing - people are sheep, if everyone else is doing it they don't want to be the odd one out, so they follow.

Finally, "poker terminology" for the different levels of service you offer.

What are you, 5-years-old????

Hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaha!!

I'm sure you looked very cute as a 5-year-old with your little blond pigtails, but NO!!

No "cheesey", No "cliches", you're a Professional SEO Agency Consultant, gimmicks are not required.

Plus, sticking with the "professional image", if you have poker-specific names, this can work one of two ways, either it may come across that you're a specialist in that particular industry OR that you've chosen that industry because you don't know enough about SEO in general to deal with every type of industry or niche.

The latter could be viewed negatively... never allow a client to think of you in a negative light, the second they do is the second you've lost their business.

THE END

Now, go and create your beautifully designed "services page" and then go and pitch your client, and steer him towards the price YOU WANT!

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@Partha Damn Partha, you continue to impress me!!!

Thanks for the human psychology, indeed that $5K price has been stuck in my brain, but then I try to talk myself out of it or overthink about what exactly to provide for this amount without going crazy (I know myself, I tend to go into extremes, especially when subconsciously I feel like an impostor)

But yeah, if I'll "work for someone", then I prefer doing it for this amount minimum.

And thanks for confirming not to act like a 5 year old HAHAHA. After I tagged you and reread my pricing doc, I was like "nope, this is too weird" lol

Thanks for being so awesome, Partha! 🤩

P.S. Off topic, but why is my name letter is with a small z (under my avatar pic here) when I wrote on my profile correctly? How can I change it? It's annoying me LOL

P.P.S.

Jay mentioned this:

"Let them know that what you are offering is a DEAL, and that you are offering the ‘friends and family’ rate because you are confident that you will work together for at least 6 months."

It's a good one to mention. This guy is a poker coach, well-known in the poker community, and generally a great guy, and I do feel like that indeed (part of the reason why I don't want to go too crazy with the prices, but also not undersell myself)

Now, if I mention the 'friends and family' rates, do you think it's ok to ask him if I can include my affiliate links to his course in his posts/tweets to kind of make up for it?

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[quote data-userid="71" data-postid="355"]

P.S. Off topic, but why is my name letter is with a small z (under my avatar pic here) when I wrote on my profile correctly? How can I change it? It's annoying me LOL

[/quote]

That seems to be a bug for some reason, since I've noticed it to. I'll add it to my to-do list to look into here soon. In the meantime, I fixed your issue for you :)