I’m sure you’ve been asked that question before in your day-to-day job, especially if you’re in retail. I’ve certainly been asked that many times in my last 12 months as a freelance consultant, regardless of whether the client is a freelancer like myself or a big, public-listed company. Everybody wants cheaper! What’s interesting is that some are asking not because they can’t afford to pay, but because it boosts their ego if they can squeeze a discount out of me. Some do it so they can show their bosses that they’re great negotiators. And then there are clients who add this and that to the original scope of work but forgot to add more to your pay. ‘Just a small addition, easy job’, they say. Of course, I could always inflate my price and then give a discount to everyone. But that’s not how I work because I happen to be an honest guy. Yup, I know …not a very good trait for a businessman. Heck, I’ve even told clients “…although I’d like to earn your money, your niche is too competitve and you’ll be wasting good money if you engaged me”. Never mind. My conscience is clear and I sleep better at night. At the end of the day, I’m a consumer too and I hate having made bad purchases. My style is to charge the lowest fee I’m willing to accept and then it’s up to them to decide - willing buyer, willing seller. Unlike other consultants, I don’t even have terms in my contract and am willing to be flexible with their demands. I mean why continue because of ‘contractual obligations’ if both parties are unhappy right? That’s the end of my rant. I hope my clients (past, present and future) read this and never ask for discounts again.




I like the way you are being honest to your clients. As web marketing continue to mature in this part of the world, clients will start to appreciate that they have to pay good money for good work.
Comment by Razlan on January 16, 2008 at 2:26 pm
That’s exactly what I do as well. I’ll come down to what I can but if the client seriously is looking for the better deal, I’ll shrug it off.
Comment by Danny Foo on January 31, 2008 at 12:32 am
Hey Larry.
I’m a Freelance SEO in Bangkok, just started up this year and starting to build up a strong client base.
Totally relate to your post. Everyone wants SEO, everyone knows how good it is for their business. And there are so many sharks that will take your money and deliver nothing!
The problem i face is that most of my clients paid a fortune to the previous guy that delivered nothing!….So they are suspicious about SEO and want to pay as little for it as possible.
Time to harden up :P
Stuart
Comment by Stuart McIlreavy on March 30, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Hello Larry,
I am an SEO Freelancer from India. SEO has been a passion for me and hence I am freelancing big time. I am again offering very affordable prices just like you. Its like you want to compete with your peers you have to low down your costs. But with no sacrifice to quality at all.
Regards,
Hemanth
Comment by Hemanth on May 19, 2008 at 11:35 pm
This is so real happened to every consultants I believe! Budget and budget. To me I would think it is always to make clear what type of clients are your targeted audience. Realistically, good quality, good efforts can be cheap. I do not mean to compare cross regions. Especially for SEO is about quality times and efforts required to spend on it. As long as you know your stand, and always act ethically towards your business methodology, you should keep a firm stand, is not just desperately want to get the job by keep lower down your cost.
Comment by seo designer on March 5, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hi Larry, i have heard very good things about you even though you may not know me. And im based in Singapore currently practising SEO.
One thing about Singapore is that the search volume is fairly low (and competition is less keen) in my own opinion as sometimes i cant help but feel it makes more sense to use SEM (in my opinion its fire and forget) while SEO requires constant attention to keep the rankings high.
Comment by seo on October 9, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Thanks.
I beg to differ. The search volume is relatively high, especially for certain keywords, and competition is very keen in those industries. As a result, Adwords campaigns can run up to S$5 or S$6 per click - this is where SEO can help reduce costs.
If SEO was that easy, everyone would rank #1 dontcha think? ;)
Comment by Larry Lim on December 18, 2009 at 5:36 pm