Ok, so after conducting a fair amount of RECON on Orange Soda today I've come up with this conclusion :::
My 8 year old son can do this. (Ok, maybe thats a little too far-fetched)
Anyway, this is how it went down.
Orange Soda, in my opinion, has an excellent name, brand, and USP. I believe that this is a very important concept for anyone trying to do this. So put your creative-thinking cap on people and come up with a unique USP-driven name goddamn it.
Their communication is average - I filled out the info last night and a sales rep called me at around 12:00pm today. However, no e-mails sent to me
I posed as a "no-website having painting contractor in [your city here]" looking for ways to generate leads online.
The sales rep asked a few brief questions about my "business" and then it was * on like donkey kong*
Here's a brief transcription :::
Q: Dumb-ass Painting Contractor - So how many searches do you think I could possibly get per month for my business?
A: Sure, let me pull up one of our "specialized tools" to analyze the current searches on those keywords (painting contractor in [yourcityhere]
* few moments later....Looks like there are approximately 200 searches per month for those keywords
Dumb-ass Painting Contractor - Thats wonderful.
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Complete fucking bullshit. I was already looking at the results and there was nothing CLOSE to 200 searches
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Q: Me - Do you guarantee placement?
A: Them - No
Q: Me - How long does it take to see results?
A: Them - 4-6 months, sometimes faster
Q: What do your SEO services consist of and how do you plan on getting
me to the top of the SERPS?
A. Submitting to relevant directories, building relevant back-links, meta
tag incorporation, etc There are other companies out there who
practice black-hat strategies ( went on to explain that) but if you go
with a company like that your site will most likely be banned from the
search engines.
Q: Me - What are the costs?
A: Them - For a site like yours, we would charge $100 monthly SEO fee.
However, if you'd like to generate more traffic by targeting
more cities within your state we can do that as well. This will
bring you even more traffic. The costs would then be $300
monthly.
Q: Me - How about PPC?
A: Them - Sure, we'll ass-rape you and take every last penny you got.
We suggest you start with a $300 monthly ad budget. Our
managment fee is 30% of your desired budget, so $90 monthly
+ $100 setup fee.
If your monthly ad budget is over $500, we will only charge
20%, over $1,000, 15%
Q: Me - Is there anyway to track vistors to my page, etc?
A: Them - You can log in at anytime to our dashboard
control panel on our site to view all stats, etc.
Q: Me - Will you design my website?
A: Them - We don't do any design here, but we will provide you with a
basic template for $17 a month which includes hosting.
Q: Me - So you don't provide any custom work?
A: Them - One of our affiliate partners can provide you with this, their
name is Logoworks.
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Ok, so to make this as short as possible, as far as what they can do for you is average. Its average SEO work...nothing special at all. They just have a very decent system in place. They have a marketable product and a system set-up.
Two things I didn't like. After I opted into their system, I wasn't sent a "pre-sell" welcome message. Neither was I sent an e-mail after I spoke with them.
After I told the guy I would think about it and get back to him on Monday...he just said...ok.
Thats not a salesman. I would have said : I certaintly understand not wanting to rush into this, however we are running a promotion for new clients today only. If you sign up today, we will waive the set-up fee,
your first month will be 50% off, and we will give you a free opt-in form
for use on your website. (something like that)
There was a bunch of other questions I could have/should have asked but didnt have too much time
