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Are you Leasing or Buying your SEO Content?

Stefan

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Apr 15, 2009
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Stefan
The #1 question for dealers to ask when hiring outside SEO services : Am I Leasing or Buying the content?

I believe this question is more important even than How much is it?

Here is what is hiding in the small print:

SEO may be terminated by Dealer beginning six (6) months afterthe Effective Date of this Change Order by providing XXXXX at least thirty (30) days
advanced written notice. Upon cancellation, XXXXX will retain ownership to the
exclusive SEO content written for Dealer's website and provided by XXXXX unless
purchased by Dealer for a mutually agreed upon price.

Dealers, read the contracts, if you don't understand it, ask others!!!!!

To me this is BAD Business.

Vendors, fell free to jump in and help us better understand your business and your contracts (Remember TrueCar)!
 
Stefan, I'm thinking you brought this up for a reason. Did this perhaps happen to you? I would sure hope not.

It did. At this point I don't want to make it about me or a specific vendor (I still hope this vendor will do the right thing, will just have to wait until next week). At this point I just want to point out a WRONG way of doing business and hopefully get the vendors to CARE for their customers.

I must say it got me thinking about the $10k per month we spend with this vendor on other products.
 
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Stefan,

That is a poorly written paragraph in a contract so I don't think it is easy to judge out of context.

For example we build microsites and blogs for our clients and that particular piece of the biz that requires content generation made our agreements change a little bit from the experience.

People didn't care much about regular websites because you fire one company and the next can recreate the website for the most part. Once you add unique content then dealers wanted to "keep it". So we found ourselves in a new place:

The client wanted to cancel a blog for example (to reduce expenses, etc) BUT he wanted to keep the blog up and running (so it stays indexed).

So what we did is to change our agreements with several new options:

a) You can cancel and we will BURN the blog in a disc, drive, etc so you can take it anywhere you want. That option cost you $0.
b) You can cancel and keep everything up and running in our system but we will not do new updates (new blog entries for example). That option we will charge you 1/2 of what the monthly fee was for the blog.

But those options didn't exist at the beginning (we do backtrack our agreements to what's best for the dealers once we learn of a mistake/a better position) so a little bit of friction and discontent happened with the first people that joined these programs until we found a win-win approach. We were not evil, we just needed to learn better ways, but what is important for us is always to find a solution that somewhat appeals to both parties.

In your case, and with a $120,000/year account I'm-sure-you-can-find someone in upper management at the company that was work with you in a solution that satisfies both.
 
a) You can cancel and we will BURN the blog in a disc, drive, etc so you can take it anywhere you want. That option cost you $0.
b) You can cancel and keep everything up and running in our system but we will not do new updates (new blog entries for example). That option we will charge you 1/2 of what the monthly fee was for the blog.

Hmm maybe I'm missing something here. Why should anyone have to pay you 1/2 of the cost for a blog when you aren't doing any work? IMHO you should be setting up these blogs with the mindset that they aren't always going to use you for their content generation. That means independent hosting & open source content management. Otherwise, they have to completely re-post all of the blog content with the disk that you give them -- meaning they won't maintain their rankings/possible domain authority.

That being said, it's all a business decision and I'm sure you had a reason for choosing to do it that way. Personally, I would never sign up for someone who ran their services like that, but to each their own.
 
Hmm maybe I'm missing something here. Why should anyone have to pay you 1/2 of the cost for a blog when you aren't doing any work?

You don't have to pay anything, one option is we burn it on a disc and you can transfer it into your own blog account. We could also transfer the blog into your account BUT that has turned many times into compatibility issues (platform chosen, hosting services, etc) so since most dealers that take over blogs is because they hire someone internally they usually have the knowledge to transfer things.

Now just fyi--"1/2 of the cost for a blog when you aren't doing any work?" there is actually a cost of keeping things up and running, payroll, etc. No phun intended but you don't understand this unless you are a business owner just the same way you don't understand where your paycheck goes until you raise 2+ children.

IMHO you should be setting up these blogs with the mindset that they aren't always going to use you for their content generation. That means independent hosting & open source content management. Otherwise, they have to completely re-post all of the blog content with the disk that you give them -- meaning they won't maintain their rankings/possible domain authority.

Like most companies we strive to offer the best of each service we provide so in this case we hire the best content generators, fine tune the blogging platform, etc. I don't think I can be the best at one thing if within my primary goal is to prepare everything that I do for the day I lose a deal.


That being said, it's all a business decision and I'm sure you had a reason for choosing to do it that way. Personally, I would never sign up for someone who ran their services like that, but to each their own.

The reason is that we run a business that we try to grow and get better at not a consulting company that helps you jump start things and then the leave with you back in command of maintaining the stuff. Different approaches to a service match different customer's needs.

Now, to keep things in perspective--the money:

If the blog was, lets say $1,000/month I would somewhat agree with you. Build me something I have flexibility to work in different avenues in the future.

But what we do is build a fully custom blog (design wise), we integrate it with reviews, Facebook, Twitter, videos (via custom PHP code), etc--you name it. We bring the inventory in. We link it to our national network of blogs and RSS all the entries on your blog so we automatically build 3-4 pages per day. We also custom write and deep link one professionally written blog a week.

We do that for $299/month (there are $150+/month in content and link writing).

I can't do that if you hope for me to set this up and cancel it in 4 months so you can take it over.


Back to the original question:

This doesn't mean that you are wrong in your approach, but that what I offer is not for a quick build and take. This would need to be discussed BEFORE we sign the agreement so we both understand where we are and maybe we can agree to a set up fee if you tell me before hand what your intentions are.

So back to Stafan, the issue sometimes is not in the evil contract nor in the dealer's intentions at the time, but in the change of priorities and how the programs may have been set up for a marathon when the dealer was expecting to be in just for a quick race.
 
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Yago,

First let just say thank you for jumping in. It sounds like you offer a great product and service for a very reasonable price.

As a business owner you know that not every product or service you offer is going to be a money maker. For most dealers, the new car department is loosing money, should this dealers stop selling the new cars? Some products and services that a company will offer to its customers are simply as a Value Service or product.

Most of this issues come up due to communication or lack of.

Lets take a look at vAuto. No long term contracts, not the least expensive, not the only company offering similar services, ok sales team, however, GREAT account managers/baby-sitters that will call and email you every month to train and retrain the same mangers over and over on the same basic stuff and also remind you how great their product and service is and how you cant really run a successful car dealership without their product. The result: very happy dealers (that still dont know how to truly use or understand vAuto) and a very low cancelation ratio (their sales team actually brags about that...good for them).

Let me just ask you a question: Who should be taking the loose when a dealership calls and cancels a service prematurely? Let just remind the people reading this, that at some point in time the dealership believed that service to be of value, otherwise the dealer would of never signed up for it!

Should I call you (the vendor) every month and ask how are we doing, or should you (the vendor) call or email and show me the great progress we have made? Let me just say this: Just because I dont call you it dosent mean I dont pay attention!

Personally, I think nobody should loose money. If it takes a company 12 months to brake even on a product they offer, maybe they shouldn't offer it directly, maybe they should work in building relationships with some other vendors that found a way to provide that service and also make money... refer them and maybe make a small referral fee.

Wile I paid $300.00/mo per make, totaling $1,200/month, I can tell you I did not get the kind of service you describe above. Once again, it sounds like you offer a great service to your customers.

I must say, I did received an email today, letting me know that the 75 pages of content that were removed, will be restored. Thank you DP & DR.
 
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Yago,

First let just say thank you for jumping in. It sounds like you offer a great product and service for a very reasonable price.

As a business owner you know that not every product or service you offer is going to be a money maker. For most dealers, the new car department is loosing money, should this dealers stop selling the new cars? Some products and services that a company will offer to its customers are simply as a Value Service or product.

Stefan,

Thank you for sharing the experience. I'm very interested in contracts/relations because it is the fine thread that links vendors and dealers.

I hope I didn't sound pushy on my blog thing... there are other things I would love to sell you than my $50 money making site! It justify the example of a product the got twisted between needs and wants and that it became a good learning lesson for my company.

Most of this issues come up due to communication or lack of.

And that is the reason why DR is so useful. If there is one thing that social media (and somehow I consider this blog to be a form of SM) has done is to reach out to people like you and me that would have never meet otherwise and allowed us to grow from the experience.

I often try to remember to communicate better with my clients so this doesn't happen to me, nor just because of the scorn but because it will make me better at what I do.

Lets take a look at vAuto. No long term contracts, not the least expensive, not the only company offering similar services, ok sales team, however, GREAT account managers/baby-sitters that will call and email you every month to train and retrain the same mangers over and over on the same basic stuff and also remind you how great their product and service is and how you cant really run a successful car dealership without their product. The result: very happy dealers (that still dont know how to truly use or understand vAuto) and a very low cancelation ratio (their sales team actually brags about that...good for them).


vAuto is a great example, BUT (not taking anything away from their success) it is a piece of software. It is a much more scalable product where a lot of resources can be taken away from production and added into support. As a mater of fact, I think vAuto production is their support.

I didn't write that to defuse your example but because what I found interesting about your complain was the fact that it is related to unique content writing/generation.


Let me just ask you a question: Who should be taking the loose when a dealership calls and cancels a service prematurely? Let just remind the people reading this, that at some point in time the dealership believed that service to be of value, otherwise the dealer would of never signed up for it!

Should I call you (the vendor) every month and ask how are we doing, or should you (the vendor) call or email and show me the great progress we have made? Let me just say this: Just because I dont call you it dosent mean I dont pay attention!

Personally, I think nobody should loose money.

Why should people lose? Why can't we find a place where I as a vendor get something out of it whether is some kind of comp or another contract, etc. The key goes back to open communication (and willingness!).

From a vendor POV let me say that it is frustrating when the GSM calls me, we put a full plan together (no set up, no this, no that and a good deal because you know--I know you) then 2 months later bounces and I get cut by the next guy without even a phone call. That is when the vendor pulls the: "we had a contract, you know".

In your second paragraph here I see discontent from the service, that is a little bit of a different story.


If it takes a company 12 months to brake even on a product they offer, maybe they shouldn't offer it directly, maybe they should work in building relationships with some other vendors that found a way to provide that service and also make money... refer them and maybe make a small referral fee.
Every product is its own world but... I do have a few rules about that in my company:

1) We don't white label products: I didn't want dealers to think that a product is mine when is not. For example: I resell Sister Tech Videos.
2) We don't take money for a referral (if I catch my employees doing it they will lose their job). We either sell it and therefore invoice it, implement it, and support it, or we refer the business to the vendor and hopefully they will refer someone back if my product deserves it. That way you know I will refer to you what I think is best for you and not whomever pays me the most.
3) If we resell a product is because we integrated it with our stuff (so there is synergy there) and we sell it for the same or less as you can get it from the mother company.



Wile I paid $300.00/mo per make, totaling $1,200/month, I can tell you I did not get the kind of service you describe above. Once again, it sounds like you offer a great service to your customers.

Again, we do screw up sometimes just like anyone else. How we react to it is what makes the difference between us and the other guys.

While the choice of contract that I described above may not be the best approach in the world as Kyle mentioned it is the best one I came up with that leaves an open door to choices so we--dealer and me--don't get backed into a corner.



I must say, I did received an email today, letting me know that the 75 pages of content that were removed, will be restored. Thank you DP & DR.

And so communication saved the day!

Sorry for the long email but I hope that DR still a discussion forum where people like me can share an opinion and it doesn't simply became a Yelp for dealers to rant about vendors.
 
I must say, I did received an email today, letting me know that the 75 pages of content that were removed, will be restored. Thank you DP & DR.

That's great to hear Stefan. I was surprised (sadden) to hear about this to begin with.

If anything good came out of this, you've pointed out the importance for dealers to read their contract(s) for SEO services. If I'm paying someone for optimized content for my website, it better be mine in the end.