Business Management Consultant - Stuntdubl Search and Marketing Consulting

I haven’t spent a lot of 2009 posting for my little marketing blog, and I miss taking the time to sit down and write about what I’m learning. 2009 has been a whirlwind of projects outside the scope of just SEO, and I’ve realized that talking isn’t doing.  It’s made me realize that over-simplifying what I do on the web to purely SEO is doing myself a disservice due to a variety of factors discussed below. Those of you with years of experience building and improving ever aspect of a website deserve more credit than you sometimes receive. I’ve watched many of my friends and peers write books, develop large communities on the subject, and take jobs at some of the most prestigious companies in the world. Despite all this, I doubt I will continue to pitch myself as “an SEO” for much longer. I know I will always truly “be an SEO” at heart, but I think it’s time to move on (for real this time). I will most likely focus on online business management consulting, and improving business’s overall online profits through refining processes and strategies. What will that look like? Probably something very similar to the services I’ve been providing clients for years, with a more generic label that doesn’t elicit the same negative connotations. Really, how different can our marketing services be from the likes of Mckinsey , Accenture, ECGMC, OliverWyman, or others in the management consulting association?

Through the reflection of writing this post, and months of pondering the subject, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve been doing online business management consulting for years anyhow. SEO impacts every aspect of a company’s marketing strategy, and we’ve all seen it make or break many company’s success in the past. How a site is developed will impact the rankings, and the rankings will very strongly impact the bottom line profit on a company’s balance sheet. Good search marketing comes from teams working together on a project cohesively. I’ve always agreed with Tedster, that SEO is really just good project management.

Over the last few years through self-taught trial and error, I’ve learned to run my own successful consultancy, develop several of my own web properties, and help to create a full blown SEO training curriculum with the help of the fine gents at MarketMotive. During this tenure at MarketMotive, I’ve realized that despite having a different starting perspective on creating websites than Bryan Eisenberg, John Marshall, Michael Stebbins, Greg Jarboe, Matt Bailey and Avinash Kaushik, we all had very similar priorities on what was important in the execution of a site strategy, and the end goals (Avinash and I have a video coming up discussing using analytics data to backup your “gut feel” SEO recommendations with tangible analytics information that I think should be REALLY awesome) . None of them ever claimed to be optimizers, but our actionable recommendations seem to always come out looking pretty similar.

 “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

At the end of any year, we have a nice opportunity to reflect on the year before us, and the year that has passed.  I would like to encourage other SEO folks to consider that now is the time to start rebranding yourselves, if you haven’t started already.  SEO is definitely not dead, but it is changing, and becoming a mainstream skillset quite quickly. You don’t want your skills to become a commodity.

Personalized and realtime search aren’t helping matters any. Anyone informed can’t claim they didn’t see it coming. No longer will there be such an awesome opportunity for a single person to “make it rain” in a few months time with amazing returns on investment through top search rankings.  In a few years time, most good developers worth their salt will have their mind completely wrapped around the fundamental aspects of SEO for web developers (or they too will be out of a job).  Even the Scobelizer is trying to rename SEO to “OM”, (and in proving his points also demonstrates the sustainable nature of SEO) to which Danny responds in his normal eloquent and rational style.

“I came away from this conversations thinking that SEO is getting dramatically less important and that SEM should be renamed to “OM” for “Online Marketing” since small businesses need to take a much more holistic approach to marketing than just worrying about search results.”

The Oilman 5% Rule
There will always be an additional 5% advantage that true SEO’s bring to the table. This advantage, however, is better used in creating your own sites or helping clients than it is being blogged about for your 5MB of pseudo-internet fame.  This 5% is your unique advantage in a dynamic information based economy that is constantly pitching and rolling like a hatteras hunting halibut in a hurricane.  It’s tough to stay on board, and keep up on the scholarly aspects of search algos. It’s even tougher to create sites that succeed in a timely and budget conscience fashion, and take advantage of an understanding of the extra 5%.   This won’t die, but it won’t likely get any easier as the winds of change bear down upon those of us who try to do all three.

So what’s changed in the last few years, and what will continue to change?

Here’s a brief snapshot of the History.

Barriers to entry
I talked about the rising barriers to entry several years ago, and I think the barriers continue to rise.  Large corporations are becoming more competitive with their understanding of search marketing, and are executing real live strategies that work now.  Link popularity is becoming more difficult to increase with fickle webmasters who are now all aware of the true value of link popularity.  The importance of link popularity is constantly decreasing now that user data can be incorporated into algorithms with much less likelihood of being manipulated (the argument that google won’t incorporate user data because it didn’t work for directhit no longer holds any water).

The sum total of these barriers results in a wall that will take world-class mountain climbers to scale (or just millions of dollars to market).  The glory days of creating sites from scratch by work-at-homers is being replaced by corporate budgets, long-term timelines, spreadsheets, timelines, and large scale data mining of keyword data.  Everyone is quickly figuring out what the keywords are worth, and more and more people are now all trying to rank for credit cards and online education, because they see the giant revenues these terms can bring in. 

While we maintain competitive advantages for ranking in the search results due to years of hands on experience with the algorithms, this experience only goes so far against giant budgets when corporations start to execute on the understanding of these same concepts (and here we thought they’d never listen!). There will always be opportunities for those grass roots marketers who do things faster and smarter, but I doubt these opportunities will be large enough to drive large dumptrucks full of cash through like the opportunists of the last decade have been doing.

The Algorithm is a Capitalist (and I think it’s from Mountain View and not Jersey)
According to the SEOMoz.org Search Ranking Factors:

·  24% Trust/Authority of the Host Domain
·  22% Link Popularity of the Specific Page
·  20% Anchor Text of External Links
·  15% On-Page Keyword Usage
·  7% Traffic and Click-Through Data
·  6% Social Graph Metrics
·  5% Registration and Hosting Data

If you’ve followed the algorithms over the years, you can already see how they’ve changed.  In the near years ahead, I think the distribution of importance will look a little something more like this:

·  25% Trust/Authority of the Host Domain
·  24% Traffic and Click-Through Data
·  20% Social Graph Metrics
·  12% Link Popularity of the Specific Page
·  10% Anchor Text of External Links
·  7% On-Page Keyword Usage
·  2% Registration and Hosting Data

These variables become a whole lot harder to game for small operation, and therefore are ultimately much more effective with creating search relevance (aka reducing search “spam”)  It’s a whole lot more difficult to create a successful viral marketing campaign for improving your social graph metrics than it is to go and buy a bunch of text links. I don’t know if this is good or bad for those who have been doing it for years (if you evolve with change it is neither), but it certainly changes the expectations and strategy that you will need to employ for success. Taking a site from nothing to top ten rankings for highly competitive phrases will become much less of a reality.  That being said, the game will switch to taking sites in the top 100 (or 1000) for a competitive phrase to the top of the charts.  Let the land grab for sites in the top 1000 begin! Since I’m a big fan of hunting for sites, website appraisal and valuation, and negotiating acquisitions, I’m really looking forward to the rush:)

Ad Agencies
My favorite SEO liars. The ad agencies that were complete morons that hated and didn’t understand SEO’s throughout this decade, have now fully adopted search marketing as an important school of thought, and have the budgets at their disposal to buy the last 5% FTW!    They also have the credibility of having impressive large client rosters to use as case studies and dispel the myths of “SEO Voodoo” to properly set expectations during the sales process.  Ad agencies have always known how to market themselves, and charge top dollar for outsourced services.  Marketing professionals have always optimized media, and are fully embracing anything that will deliver value add to the rest of the services (print, media, etc.) that are declining in value. SEO complements traditional media extremely well when it is adopted into marketing company culture, and this adoption is now well under way.

Large Corporations
The corporations finally get it (well some at least), and are fully embracing search.  My friends and search industry veterans Marshall Simmonds and Matthew Brown (the most patient SEOs on the planet), even talked the New York Times into dropping the guarded wall to enjoy the benefits of search traffic! Now that everyone finally has analytics incorporated, and understands exactly what the traffic is worth, the land grab can commence.  The discrepancy between spends on PPC and SEO must balance out at some point, likely with the top ad agencies getting the budgets for the top corporations as they always have.  Despite only understanding 2 or 3% of the fabled 5% of SEO, ad agencies have a whole lot more resources to delegate on the execution of SEO strategies, and can consider optimization best practices in their other endeavors. One bit of great news for 2010 is the very high likelihood that spending on SEO services will increase (See prediction #6 from Mr. Moz)

Google
Oh the Goog.  I remember when you were just a little search spider with grandiose ideals forming your little garage band.  Now you are a super-group on an epic multi-country tour trying to rule the world with your siren’s song promising access to the world’s knowledgebase in less than milliseconds.  You have assimilated even the most paranoid anti-google tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists into google gospel preaching fanboys, or at minimum, ambivalent late-adopters who can’t resist the lure of your free and wonderful web applications that save us all thousands of dollars per year. I really hope I’m around to see the “behind the music” special one day after John Connor sees to your demise. 

Unfortunately I don’t think “Don’t be evil” holds up against billion dollar market caps, foreign policy, privacy issues, data mining, stock prices, and investor pressures.  While most folks I’ve met that work at google are absolutely wonderful people with very strongly held ideals, I don’t think the corporation is always the sum of its parts.  The algorithm and the need for more ad dollars and growth have set google on an inevitable path based on the capitalist model that demands growth and more money.  As arguably the most influential company of all time, it could also easily become the most destructive (I hope my googler friends understand the important responsibilities of their roles in organizing aka controlling the world’s information). I haven’t decided who I will root for when the Goog squares off against the government, and it is a commonly held belief that G probably IS better than uncle sam. When the algorithm becomes self aware, I for one, welcome our new silicon based intelligence multi-colored "don’t be evil" overlords. Your logic is undeniable like that of VIKI from I, Robot.

Public opinion
The public opinion of both google and of SEO’s will continue to affect our craft.  Search is “good enough”, and I doubt bing will be swinging huge market shares anytime soon in the US. 
I think the public pretty much despises SEO.  We get blamed for nearly as much as email spammers by the mainstream media.  Even my own brothers halfway joke that I’m busy ruining the web all the time. I suppose with some of the things that go on with negative billing, malware, blog spam, and other shady tactics they’re probably quite right (*note, I’ve never partaken in any of these things)  It’s very unfortunate.  The SEO folks I know are wonderful people, and work hard to make an honest living.  Most of them have really awesome success stories of how they fell into the rabbit hole that is SEO, and how it changed their life for the better. Sure, some should probably be set out to sea never to return, but it’s a shame that their the ones who have gotten the credit for "being SEO’s"

What Will Change?
I am with Rand on this one – probably not much. Nothing earth shifting is going to destroy your career unless you don’t keep up with the changes.  The skillsets you’ve developed as SEO’s will lead you into a career that few will get to enjoy. Unfortunately, you are doing yourself a disservice if you brand yourself as an SEO. Whatever you call it, the process stays the same, and stems from an understanding of the top ranking factors:

1. Make pages accessible
2. Target with keywords that searchers employ
3. Build content that users will find useful and valuable
4. Earn editorial links from good sources

So What Do We Do?
I think the answer is different for everyone.  For myself, I will move towards offering online business management consulting services that will be remarkably similar to the SEO services I’ve always provided.  If we can learn anything from the marketers that have come before us, it is that packaging and perception is hugely important.
I tend to look to guys like Lee Odden, Neil Patel, Chris Winfield, Brent Csutoras, and others like them who (at least in my mind) are SEO’s at heart, but have branded themselves as much more than that to create very successful companies and careers through using an “optimizer’s mentality” towards everything they do. 

There are only a few folks (Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall, Danny Sullivan) who have fully embraced being SEO’s and have really had great success with it.  I’ve always found it odd how many SEO’s (who are excellent marketers) have faced this branding challenge of being SEO’s.  As a group, I doubt it’s something that will be solved, due to the parasitic nature of those jumping on the bandwagon to offer shady services with the same name that we hold so dear. To all my respectable SEO brethren, I hope you have a wonderful 2010, and find new and exciting ways to adapt to the changes this wonderful career will throw at us.

A few more links (just in case you didn’t get your fill):

• http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/12/emarketer-predictions-2010/
• http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/12/internet-marketing-tips-for-2010/
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/8-predictions-for-seo-in-2010
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_ways_social_media_will_change_in_2010.php
• http://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/12/28/design-predictions-for-2010/
• http://www.searchenginejournal.com/2010-a-new-age-for-search-marketers/15711/
• http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/david-lavenda/whatever-it-takes/10-marketing-predictions-2010
• http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-10-wireless-predictions-for-2010-11375/
• http://searchengineland.com/five-search-marketing-predictions-for-2010-32014

See who was right about the predictions from last year:
http://searchengineland.com/big-list-2009-marketing-predictions-16009

How have I done on my predictions?

• 2005
• 2006
• 2007

1. Pay extra for premium domains (if you develop them)

If you can’t find and buy a good aftermarket domain and get creative - you need some marketing classes

2. Don’t skimp on hosting

Such a painful expensive lesson to learn.

3. Respect contractors, but don’t overpay

Don’t ever talk down to anyone you work with, but don’t allow people to tell you how smart they are without them proving it.

4. Always pay on time

Evereyone always appreciates this, and you will lose contractors respect if you don’t.

5. Pay attention to cashflow

See above. If you can’t balance cashflow and production, you will cut corners and build a house with cheap parts.

6. Price services for yourself - not for your clients

If you do consulting to pay the bills, make sure you take ample time for both, and charge on the value you provide, and provide the value you charge.

7. Take time for yourself

If you don’t take time off when you need it, you will end up taking surprisingly more time off than you originally intended.

8. Stay unflinchingly positive

When you doubt yourself you lose. Confidence in failure and humility in success is a trait that exemplifies most true heros, role models, and success stories that I’m aware of.

9. Stick with winners, fold the losers

While you’re being positive, maintain enough realism to be a critic and know when you’re beat or have a bad hand.

10. Stay well organized

You can never be too organized.

11. Set goals

1 hour, 1 sitting, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year are generally good.

12. Track yourself

This is why keyword reports and QBtimer ARE a good idea. Adjust your goals as necessary based on your results.

I almost never live by this one, but I’d be smarter if I did.

13. Take lots of notes

I’ve pretty much never thought to myself "self, I wish I had taken less notes during that meeting." When you have a good idea, take a note about it.

14. Only consume news media 10 - 20% of the time (once you figure it out)

Only consume media and information at a high rate while you’re trying diligently to learn a new skill. Otherwise, it is pretty fruitless and will burn you out if it is beyond your capacity for input.

15. Focus on execution, not research

Do something instead of writing another blog post:) That’s why this one has taken quite a while. Build links, write content, learn perl, python, linux, apache, mysql, php, social media, seo, or web design, but don’t sit too long reading about it before you DO it. Do something today, instead of learning, researching, or whining about why you can’t.

16. Be upfront and honest

Don’t bullshit people. Lies will follow you a lot farther than the truth ever will.

As any type of company or consultant, the WRONG clients can destroy your success. It is often very tempting to keep clients, since the money seems nice, but when you drill down to the nitty gritty, they are often not very profitable at best, and a complete resource drain that can damage your pocket book and your quality of life at worst. Beyond strictly fiscal drains, a bad client raises your stress levels, and makes life much more difficult all the way around. In just about any company, the pareto principle applies to bad clients. 20% of clients create 80% of the problems. Breaking it off with a client can be a scary experience, but those that practice "culling the client heard" can attest to just how important it is. If you continue to take on clients that are not great, you will end up in a vicious cycle of doing work you don’t like for people you don’t like. Don’t think twice - break up with them. Here’s some tips for breaking up with the wrong types of clients whether you do design, development, marketing, or ANY type of service based occupation as a consultant or company.

• It’s not you it’s me. We just grew apart
  The goals of our company aren’t really progressing in the same direction, and I can’t continue to help you anymore.

• I think we should see other people
  You would be better served by another company.

• I need some space
  I really can’t continue to work with you due to my current workload.

• Can’t we just be friends?
  I’d rather just answer your occasional question (via email) than charge you money, and be obligated to speak with you (by phone).

• We aren’t right for each other
  My core competencies just don’t jive with your strategic vision

Internet marketing/ web development specific:

• You have changed. I don’t know if you are relevant to me anymore*
• It’s not you, it’s your data.*
• Let’s just be linking partners*
• You know I am afraid of commitment which is why I only do PPC. You are more SEO*
• The thrill is gone. Your time on site is just average.*
• We never even convert anymore.
• We want different rankings.
• Our information architecture is just too different
• Here are your website files.
• I think it’s time you changed your ftp information
• I think that maybe you need a designer with a little more technical knowledge than I can give. You know, someone who has more of the traits you’re looking for. **
• Would you like your contract mailed back to you in one piece or shredded into pieces?***
• You’re website is just ranking a little too fast for me.
• You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s me…I’ve just lost interest in the web.
• I couldn’t ask you to trust me again after another Florida update, it wouldn’t be fair.
• Your links just aren’t organic enough for my tastes.
• Your site just isn’t a priority to you anymore. I really need someone who can fulfill my recommendations.
• If our relationship was a redirect, it would be 410
• You’re just not keeping your code up anymore. Do you even CARE what it looks like?
• I can continue to charge you if you’d like, but I can’t do your work.
• "I’m sorry, but I think I have decided on a new text link advertisement service."

  "What, do you not find our link offerings as attractive anymore?"

  "No, of course not, it’s just, well, I met this other company and, well, they have links with higher pagerank that aren’t as obviously paid"

  "Well, can’t we see what we can work out?"

  "I’m sorry, I have to explore this new company and see what happens, to know whats best for me and my site"***

*Courtesy of Andres Galdames of Clicktracks - who sparked the idea for this post
**Courtesy of Reese of DesignbyReese.com
***Courtesy of SugarRae

You might also try some variations of the geek breakup list - I would be particularly fond of variations including:

1. You have been unsubscribed from our client list - click here to confirm
2. You’re a frontpage person, and you know I’ve always been about Dreamweaver. It’s not going to work out.
3. I need a client who understands that 20 hours a day on the Internet is normal.
4. Let’s face it - you agree with Dave Pasternack, and I think it is a marketing school of thought.

Whatever you do - don’t pawn bad clients off on friends, unless you don’t really like your friends either. Don’t waste your life in misery - break up with those bad clients. By ditching the crappy clients, you end up with clients you really ENJOY working with.

More resources on why you should fire bad clients:

• Clues you should fire your client
• Blowhard and bad clients - Aaron Wall
• Top 5 ways agencies and clients piss each other off - Lee Odden
• Warning signs of a bad client - webmasterworld
• Stop procrastinating - fire bad clients - Tom Kane
• Should I fire my client reportcard - Forbes
• Customer responsibility - Seth Godin
• 11 types of clients you should fire right now - Eric Wise
• When clients (and bosses) go bad - Kathy Sierra

What types of breakup lines have you used (or think would be pretty funny if you DID use them)?

I asked Calum Coburn, who is an expert in negotiation training and business leadership to do a piece for the site on helping SEO consultants to be better at sales and negotiation. After all, we are naturally GEEKS, and generally only forced into sales by default. Big thanks to Calum for taking the time to write a nice piece that should help those that want to get better clients or are considering doing SEO consulting as a full time job. Managing client expectations is such a critical component of SEO consulting, that it should be considered throughout the entire process (including sales). Here’s Calum’s take on what may help many consultants to manage expectations more effectively, and acheive higher sales with BETTER clients.

Reverse Selling

by: Calum Coburn

So a prospective client emails or calls you, and asks why they should pay your premium rates rather than get Internet Marketing services across state for half the price - or worse, in India for 20% or less. Assuming you’re putting in all the hard work of keeping up with the forums and blogs and attending conferences when you can, how do you use your in depth knowledge to convince this business person that your services are worth more?

Trouble with SEO / Internet Marketing is that many clients consider your field as black magic or voodoo. So before you rush out and buy a wand and (black) hat (or a white hat) to fit the part, lets step into your prospective client’s shoes for a moment to consider your smartest and fastest route to conversion.

A significant challenge Internet Marketers face is client ignorance. If you have tons of time on your hands, you can educate your prospect. You can explaining the services you offer, you can do a partial analysis of their site, you can get your head around their business model and explain in detail how you could support their business goals, you can prepare a detailed business proposal and hope that they sign on the dotted line. But I’m guessing you don’t have tons of time to chase after prospects. So how should you convert them?

I suggest you stop trying to persuade, you stop trying to influence and convince. Have some fun and increase your conversions with a great new method that’s proven very successful for professional salespeople. Ask your prospect why they think they need your services. That’s right, make it their task to convince you that they need your services. We’re talking about “Reverse Selling”. The structure behind why it works so well owes its success to your subtly and cleverly switching roles. The prospect has to sell themselves to you.

Lets face it, the only people who like being sold to are salespeople - and that’s only if you do it well! What do you do when you know or even suspect that someone is trying to sell to you? Your internal drawbridge is raised, you ask critical questions and are suspicious about the answers you’re being fed. This makes it hard for you to be convinced, and very hard for the salesperson to create the trust that’s necessary for any of his words to be persuasive.

A prospect called me up saying:
“I’m thinking of coming on your negotiation course, so tell me why I should come on your course”.

My reverse selling response was simply: “I don’t know, what was it about our site that you liked enough to call us?”

I’ve also used the more pointed: “I don’t know, what made you call us?”. My conversion rates go up when I use the reverse sell, and the calls take less time. My response is similar when prospects ask why they should go with us instead of our competition, and also when they call up saying they’re interested in negotiation training course.

Here’s an outline of the thought process and essentials to successfully turning the tables on prospects using reverse selling:

1. You come across as confident, not needing to prove yourself to them.
2. They automatically assume that you know what you’re talking about, and they trust you. (If you don’t believe me yet, TRY IT)
3. They volunteer the core information that motivated them to call you in the first place.
4. You’ve set the “frame” from the rest of the conversation, and if you do it right - for the rest of your relationship with them. This frame is that of you being the one asking the questions and directing and controlling the direction of the conversation.
5. This info gives you the opportunity to talk about their problem (isn’t it funny how it’s usually a problem?) or their opportunity (if they’re enlightened) - the best conversation you could have. You want to talk about the final result, not hold a class persuading them that you know what you’re doing, that others who guarantee them no1 spot in the SERP’s are liars and cheats.
6. They’ll feel comfortable if you guide the conversation with intelligent questions. So it helps to have written down your top 10 questions beforehand.
7. At some stage in the conversation, a few of the prospects will ask you to tell them more about who you are or how you do things. Be very careful, you don’t want to undo your good work here by selling to them. So write down the core areas of your competitive advantage over your competition, and mention them briefly in a relaxed manner. (I use humour to lighten the atmosphere and show further confidence).
8. They may also ask you why they shouldn’t go with India. Keep it short, ask them whether they would mind 2 or 3 typical disasters occurring that can be associated with unprofessional SEO work. You want to focus on risk and the avoidance of loss, this is far more powerful than any blue sky picture you can paint in their mind.
9. If they haven’t given you buying signals by this stage, and you think that they want to shop around still, insulate them against going across state. This is best done by your suggesting that they talk with a number more Internet Marketers before making their mind up. Most folk don’t want to spend more of their precious time shopping around, especially when they feel confident and comfortable with you. They may just think that they should. So by your pushing them in the direction that they think they should move in, they usually don’t do any more homework and will go with youinstead.

Think about the value of the conversation you end up having together. They cut straight to the core reason they’re looking for your service. If they liked a testimonial from a client of yours who praised a result that they would love to have, they’ll mention this and you can then ask them how this result would benefit them.

These just popped to mind - and thought it’d make a good post. Most success on the web is not technical driven - it is still people driven. Here’s some rules I try to live by:

1. Always pay people on time (preferably immediately upon receiving invoice)

2. Be honest and transparent

3. Don’t backbite people

4. Don’t be afraid to say no

5. Answer all your e-mail - even if it’s late or a short response

6. Do things without an ulterior motive (it’s good to do favors)

7. Overdeliver and underpromise

8. Manage expectations effectively

9. Execute, execute, execute

10. Trust people, and put relationships first

11. Make introductions

12. Work with successful people

13. Never ignore a conversation about you or your company (unless someone is trying the attack hook)

14. Don’t pass crappy leads

15. Help people learn, and work with smart people

16. Have an abundance mentality

Please see below for resume submission details - if you can’t follow directions, you are automatically disqualified. I am working on some cool new projects with a few partners, and we need some help.

Required skills

• XHTML and CSS Skills
• Proficiency in PHP/mySQL (ability to customize and write code)
• Attention to detail, reliability and trustworthiness are a must
• Understanding of basic seo
• Strong english skills (and willingness to research, write creatively, and edit)
• Hunger to learn online marketing
• Sense of humor

Responsibilities:

• Website design
• Writing, modifying, and editing css
• Modification and customization of php/mysql based CMS
• Managing content
• Design and linking projects
• General webmastering duties

Required education

I don’t care if you didn’t even earn your GED - but don’t tell me you don’t know what webmasterworld or digitalpoint is.

Pay

$30,000 - $50,000

What you can expect:

This is expected to be a fulltime position - but you can work remotely.

You’ll be working directly for me and some partners as a developer/ operations manager.

You can expect to learn a lot about search and internet marketing, while working on some pretty cool sites.

How To APPLY

Submit ****ONLY***** to stuntjob AT stuntdubl.com - all other mails will be ignored PLEASE do not mail me directly, or submit through my webform (this e-mail will be going to my partners as well)

Include:

• Why you’d be a good fit
• Example of things you’ve written and developed
• Resume

We will likely be making a decision in the next 60 days, so please do not hound us if you don’t receive a response immediately.

The title pretty much sums this one up. I’m not gonna go off on this one here, I just thought it was an interesting parallel after getting off a site that was for a large product manufacturer, had two guys with nice suits on one of the most hideous homepages I had ever seen. I still just don’t get why people want to cheap out on webdesign. I don’t have the ambition to extoll the virtues of proper design to the uninitiated anymore, but it still kinda bugs me on occassion. If you can spend several hundred dollars on a nice suit, you understand why it’s important to make an impression. Why is that so difficult to translate to the web? Any body else got some favorite examples of sites that need a redesign with people wearing suits?