SEO Resellers

Great info for those trying to resell SEO

Hi there. I hope you are firing up the BBQ like we are this weekend. Here in the US, it will be a great weekend. And it’s family time. Time to leave the computer and Google inside as you escape for some much-needed respite with the family. Sure, your brain may wonder to that SEO reseller program you have been dieing to sign-up with. But there is time for search engine optimization on Monday.  This weekend is about family and taking some time off. Remember that time, not a page 1 ranking in Google, is the most precious commodity. It may not seem that way always, but it’s true. So kick-back, relax and enjoy. If you are working with the right SEO reseller partner, then you know that this is fairly easy to do because you know that your outsource SEO team has the bases covered for you while you are away enjoying the official beginning of summer.

As you know, I am on a daily crusade to find and pull together in one place all the best articles and blog posts on the topic of SEO reseller programs. If you read through everything I have here, you will see that it’s becoming quite a volume. I am working up to some MEGA SEO RESELLER LIST that I can publish that will outline what I think are the critical aspects of each program. But I am not there yet. More work to so. Until then, you can visit today’s article find. This is a well-written piece that talks about how to search for a great reselling partnership for your business. As always – Let me know what you think.

As always, I am watching the airways for new SEO reseller material that you might find interesting. This article floated by today and I thought it was worth a read.  They make the case that joining an SEO reseller program is actually the conservative thing to do when you are just launching. As I think about all the risks involved with starting your own business, I have to say that I agree. There is just so much emphasis needed on sales and marketing that you can easily lose yourself in the depths of product development. In this SEO Reseller article, they basically say that you should not take your eye off the ball. Sales and marketing are key to any business, especially in the SEO space. So let someone else do the delivery work for you while you work out your sales process. On other words – Outsource first. Sell. Then you can consider bringing the SEO services back in-house if you are not happy with the quality or think you can do it cheaper. All in all, good advice for those headed into the SEO reseller maze. Give it a read and see if you agree.

As always, I am on the look out for blog posts and other websites that talk about how to evaluate a program for a good fit. Here is the article I found today.  This is another in a series I have located on the topic of helping people sort the good SEO reseller program from the crapy. And make no mistake, there are a ton of bad programs out there. It really is the wild west when you start to see what’s going on. Everybody sees that the land is available in this SEO markeplace and they are all scrambling for the stake. There is really some crazy stuff out there.

As always, I advise people to go with what feels right. Find an SEO reseller program that seems honest. They shouldn’t be too hyped up, but will also be confident. They should seem like the know what they are doing, but they should also admit that nobody completely knows how Google works other than Google. The only way you will get to this level of understanding is to spend some time with them and discuss strategies. Share your SEO stories. Ask about other resellers and how they have done. What reselling strategies work best? What has not work for other resellers. This dialog will be very helpful both for getting information as well as just learning about each other.

Finding new news in the SEO reseller space is harder than you’d think. There is a bunch of stuff put out all the time, but it is not really new. There are actually only a few big players doing reseller programs. You can find most of the big SEO resellers on page 1 in Google. Beyond page 1, you have only small fish. I monitor most of the activity to see what is going on. I also try to catch as much of the new stuff as possible as it flies out. Here is a new press release on the topic of SEO resellers. It just came out today and I caught it on Google news. Give it a read and let me know what you think. I think there is a point here about transparency. It seems that SEO is so secretive. I know why this has evolved this way, but am ready to see it change. The Internet is  a MAJOR marketing platform. There is just too much business at stake to be running around whispering about it. Google is a major source of traffic for many many businesses – this is just a reality. I like the approach described in this press release and think more resellers will go this way in the future as we let our hair down in regard to SEO.

So many people ask us “can I make money reselling SEO?” And the real answer is, it depends… I mean, can you make money selling cars? Perhaps. Are you a good car sales person? This same line of thinking applies to search engine optimization as well. When people shop for an SEO reseller partner, they focus a great deal of attention on who they are going to partner with. And understandably so. But how much introspection are they really doing on themselves to determine if they are really ready and able to sell SEO? This may be where the real answer lies.

Starting any business is a very difficult thing. You have to have a long-term view. And you need to be ready for set-backs along the way. There really is no such thing as an “easy” start-up. Even guys who have done many start-up businesses know this. So when people head into the SEO reseller space and think they can just sign up for with a reselling organization and sell search engine optimization, I laugh. Why in the world would it be this easy? If it were, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Seriously folks. Think that through.

So the real search strategy when you are trying to find the perfect search engine optimization to resell is to look both within and around. You need to be ready to sell. Sell, sell, sell. You need to know that this will be hard and that you have what it takes – both financially and emotionally – to stay with it. Then you also need a great SEO reseller partnership with an organization that delivers high quality search engine optimization you can rely on. These two things together will get you where you need to be.

So, people in the SEO industry are all looking for that quick buck. I have bad news on this topic. There is no quick buck. Not in the SEO reseller game or any other. The idea that there is “easy money” out there somewhere is just a fallacy. The sooner you understand that concept, the closer you will be to actually making big bucks.  But don’t hear me wrong, there are many great ways to make a business in the SEO reseller world. There are solid reseller companies out there than can set you up with top-notch search engine optimization services. They know their delivery and can do a great job. But you have to sell.

So the big question for you is: Do you have what it takes to sell SEO? This is a competitive space. There are a bunch of SEO resellers running around doing the same thing you are doing. Are you better? Do you have a great pitch? Do you know how to do the follow-through. Do you understand the biggest part of sales is the follow-up? People think of sales in terms of the pitch or the hard sale. But it is really much more about follow-up and organization. Can you run 400 leads at once and not loss control of your process?  These are the hard questions for you. Think them over. Also read. Things like this.

Today’s post is about the HubShout SEO reseller program. We’ve done some digging to understand exactly who HubShout is and what is involved in their SEO reseller program. Specifically, we wanted to know the background of the founders, client results, and the typical search engine optimization tactics used by the firm. We were also interested in the overall SEO reseller approach they use. In short, is the SEO reseller program any good?

In summary, it is fantastic. The HubShout co-founders have extensive Fortune 100 experience and it shows. As you read about their backgrounds, which are extensively outlined on their website, you will see big Fortune 100 companies like General Electric, AOL, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Ford, Nissan Motors, Chevron Texaco, etc, etc. In other words, these guys have been around the corporate block. They are not some basement operation or an off-shore outfit.

In terms of the substance of their SEO reseller offering, it is rock solid. They say their two founding principles are transparency and business results. And as you learn about their SEO reseller technology you see that they put their money where their mouth is. Their SEO technology is not some download / install junk like you see around the Internet. It is a business-to-business platform specifically designed to help clients see the value you are bringing them as well as openly show the work being done on their behalf. In short, HubShout has designed their SEO reseller white labeled portal to match their corporate philosophy: Transparency and Accountability for business results.

I don’t know any other programs that have this type of approach. I certainly don’t know of any other serious technology platforms that an agency or business can use so easily to jump-start or augment a SEO delivery. I think I mentioned that their offering is completely white labeled.

If you are really attracted to the idea of selling SEO services, then there are a number of factors you should consider. First, nice job for doing some research. If you reading this it is because you’ve realized the importance of a proper survey of the players before jumping into any relationships. In business they call it due diligence. That’s appropriate.

The first thing to realize about the search engine optimization space is that it is much more competitive than you think. There are simply very low barriers to entry. And if you remember anything from Adam Smith – you will understand that this will put downward pressure on prices (remember supply and demand curves?). The other thing to recognize is that SEO services today don’t mean just changing someone’s title tags. That’s very 2003. And those days are seriously over. If you don’t have a clear handle on the difference between on-site SEO and off-site SEO, you have more work to do than I thought.

If you do have the knowledge and desire to really offer SEO, then becoming an SEO reseller might be the smart first move. The reselling model is not unique to SEO. There are resellers in many many different industries. Many well-known ones are in technology. And the same trend is developing in search engine optimization. Here’s a quick overview of how it works.

Someone decides they want to be an SEO reseller because they want to be in this space but don’t current have a search engine optimization product to bring to market. So they look around for organizations that are specifically set up to offer the services. Most good programs offer a private label, or white label SEO, approach where the customer is not aware that the delivery work has been outsources. This is generally attractive because the customer relationship is maintained with the organization that sold the account. In this fashion, being an SEO reseller is VERY different from being an affiliate sales person.  If all works well, both the sales organization and the delivery organization make a share of the profits. The customer receives excellent value and all are happy. At least in theory.

What is white label SEO? This is when one organization does the reselling of the search engine optimization and another does the delivery work. In this sense, it is a partnership between two organizations. If they work well together this can result in a great business arrangement. A private label SEO program allows the sales team to really focus on selling while the SEO delivery team does the work associated with good, white-hat SEO. This is good for both groups – when they are a good fit. But you need to be sure you have found a good fit before you make a long-term commitment.