It seems there is a wave of Internship positions for Internet marketers or SEO specialists with either a huge list of qualifications necessary to obtain these (slave labor) oops, I meant “Internship” positions or (on the flip side) positions for Internet marketers where they don’t care if you have any experience whatsoever. What is even more interesting is when I dig deeper and research the organizations seeking this “slave labor”, free, uh “internship” labor and I find that these organizations are either practically giving away SEO or Internet marketing services, or they are charging huge amounts of money for the same “delusions of grandeur” (instant Google page rank) and aren’t delivering results – Sadly the clients don’t even know they aren’t getting results because they are not even sure how to measure results.
After which I dig even deeper to check out these so-called “SEO” organizations, do a Google search for their own keywords and find that they don’t even rank for their own keywords and are nowhere to be found on Google’s first, second or third page themselves. After noting that nearly 90% of these Internet Marketing Sweatshops don’t even rank themselves, I check out their client portfolios hoping that they have at least built you (the client) a functional, converting, aesthetically pleasing website and I am met with websites that:
- Do not rank
- Do not convert
- Have broken links
- Make no sense
- Have serious typos
- Look bad
- Is obviously a template that they probably paid $25 to $75 for once and have used about 100 times
- And In some cases the home-page does not even pull up
One of my favorites is the cookie cutter Silver, Gold, and Platinum packages offered by the IMS (Internet Marketing Sweatshop).
They look something like this:
| SEO Package | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
| SEO Price | $250 | $399 | $750 | $1000 + |
| Directory Submits | #250 | #500 | #750 | #4000 |
| Keyword Research | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 |
| Meta Tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Back links | 500 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 |
| Website Content | Not included | Not Included | Yes | Yes |
.
It all ends with a total price and an order form for you to submit your order right online without even speaking to anyone about your business or your business needs.
To top it all off, most of your SEO is not even being handled by an SEO specialist if anyone at all!
Remember the 80′s hit by Naked Eyes – Promises, promises? It went something like this:
You made me promises, promises
Knowing I’d believe promises, promises
You knew you’d never keep
Sound familiar?
Listen, if you are a business owner and you want to bring in business through the Internet you are going to need to do a few things first:
- Spend some money to promote your business, but spend it wisely
- Educate yourself at least a little about marketing on the Internet
- Have patience. Internet marketing, SEO or SMO results do not happen overnight
- Stop giving everyone you meet or call who offers you “delusions of grandeur” i.e. “Google ranking” all of your money
- Stop hitting submit on those package deals
- Hire someone who doesn’t promise you the world but shows you real concrete results (such as clients contacting you through your website, etc., to purchase your products or services)
- Realize that just because you have a website or website traffic does not mean you are going to increase your ROI through that website. You need the right type of website, social media strategies and SEO.
Last but not least, there is a huge difference between Internet marketing and street/mass media marketing (I have done both). Just because someone has a degree in marketing does not mean they know anything about Internet marketing and vice versa – It also does not mean they do not, but it is entirely different. The Internet is a “pull” marketing platform versus a “push” marketing platform.
If you want more of an idea of how a SEO or Social Media campaign really works or its costs, check out this great article by Mack Collier “So how much will a social media strategy cost?”.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Angela,
You hit the nail on the head with this. There are so many SEO and internet marketing “consultants” who either were not trained in Internet Marketing or have never done an internet or other type marketing campaign in their life. The other thing I am seeing is a great deal of sales persons who are calling themselves marketers, when that could the farthest from the truth.
Reggie
morpheusmirror.com
Thank you City. I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
Mack, you’re welcome! Both your articles and blog have helped me (and I am sure many others) tremendously.
I like the way you break down the process for creating a social media strategy. With any Internet marketing campaign, there are certain elements that need to be in place before you can begin your strategy. Without the “honest” appraisal of your businesses’ situation and goals you cannot and should not proceed to the next step. And this first process (the honest appraisal) is what most of these Internet Marketing Sweatshops are missing.
Fortunately there are qualified experts like yourself out there that are accessible and willing to help! Thanks…
Angela, great article. I found your article quite humorous and got a few chuckles out of it, thanks
You’re also absolutely right about SEO experts and the masses of fake internet marketers that have saturated the online marketing industry.
You’re definitely on the right path to reaching your endeavors. I’ll be back for more
@Mack Collier, cool blog. Will be reading that one as well.
Hey Angela, thanks for the mention! Unfortunately, I see firms that offer a similar price list for social media services. I have companies constantly emailing and wanting to know how much it will cost to get them on Facebook or set up a blog. I always ask ‘well how do you know that’s what you need?’ and most of the time they don’t have an answer.
You need to have an honest appraisal of your situation, your marketplace, your resources, your goal, and THEN you can create a social media strategy for your company. And THEN you can take tactics, once you have the strategy in place. Unfortunately, too many companies think they need to only focus on certain tactics, and there are always going to be people/firms that will target these companies.