Comments on: The problem of free pitching and how to overcome it

By: Chris Boswell

Chris Boswell — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:33:50 +0000

Carly has a very good point here about SERPs, but it is still a mine field out there. I think the worst scenario we ever got was from a guy who almost begged for his website doing then 2 days after work commenced emailed to say he didn’t have any money and he’d have to ask his business partners about whether it was ok to go ahead. Lesson learnt for me. Now we always get a deposit of at least 30% for web design and SEO is paid upfront.

By: WTL

WTL — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:29:29 +0000

Unfortunately, I think if the (potential) client is asking for a freebie, you’d darned better be sure there is a tangible reward in the near future. Otherwise, you may want to gently turn them down, and suggest they go to someone lives in their parents basement and works for free.

I’ve gotten a few clients this way. Sometimes they just have to learn the value of spending money after not having spent money.

By: SEO Carly

SEO Carly — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 12:44:35 +0000

Very true Marc, it happens in SEO also with every second customer. The “If you get my keyword to top 10 i have 50 other friends who will want work done”.

That’s also a good tip about non-profit sites too Gary. The little known fact is doing this can benefit you greatly, alot of these non-profit sites have alot of authority/pagerank so if your design has a small provided by footer link, it can boost your domains SERPs and in turn get you better rank and more customers.

By: Marc Levy

Marc Levy — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:31:52 +0000

Hi Gary, great article (as always) - I couldn’t agree more! I think every web designer at some point feels like he (or she) is in the only industry where people don’t want to pay the respected rates.

Everyone wants free samples and cheaper prices and the best advice I can give, is to back up what you originally said “Don’t work for free, and don’t work for less than your worth!”. Quite often I will pass work onto smaller (or less talented) web design firms who charge far less than I do and that’s fine as it is the same in any industry, the client will pay less, but also receive less.

Also another tip for new designers… Don’t do a project for cheap because the client promises you more work in the future, I think many web designers have been burnt on this one! So just learn from my mistakes Tell the client you will do the project at your regular rate and then discuss discount when the other projects come around.