I’ve been blogging for 10 months now, and have yet to do a CEO Post (A “Sales” Post). I’ve been happy not having to “push” my services onto other people, but to rather just “give” information “freely” (and as a side result, it’s brought be more qualified leads than even webuildpages.com brings in – really a Very pleasant suprise!).
But We Build Pages has 2 new services that we’re about to be coming out with, so I thought I’d do my first CEO Post and show you one of these new service. I’ve got a page with a rough draft of writing I’d like to show you (maybe with your imput I can write a good sales page that answers questions people might have) (can you help me out by at least adding a “sales” suggestion for me?)
We Build Pages will “officially” be offering “SEO Content Creation Services” in the coming days. (So as a blog reader you’ve got the chance to get in before it gets crazy busy, ensuring you the best service 😉 )
So I’ve got a first “rough draft” of the writing – perhaps you’ve got ideas or questions.
You’ll also get a peek at the new design (still under construction) of the new webuildpages.com (coming in a few weeks).
Here’s the SEO Content Creation Service we’re about to be “officially” offering. We’ll also be advertising on many other SEO sites, piping up this service so the world knows that We Build Pages is not only the link guys, but also has the best content writing services on the web, at the best prices.
Stay tuned for the Threadwatch ad where I’ll also be giving away some content writing packages so we’ve got some public reviews.
Hey, our name “We Build Pages” now makes sense again!
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[tags]SEO Content, content creation, webuildpages, we build pages, content writers, content writing, website content [/tags]
25 Responses
I like the idea. It’s a well defined product that companies need. I think a Good Idea would be to create several pages on various topics completely unrelated to search, site them as examples of your work, and host them on we build pages.
Build up a few links to the examples and then (perhaps) show how you can rank for these types of terms on a site that otherwise has nothing to do with the topic on the strength of the articles and SEO.
Quadszilla – great idea – I think I’ll do that – thanks!
If your writers have expertise in specific technical areas where they shine and produce faster, it probably wouldn’t hurt to state those areas of expertise either.
Never thought I’d see Jim hooking on his blog, proud of you 😉
IncrediBILL – I was thinking of actually showing the list of people and the topics they know about…just coding the name of the people, and clients could actually say “I’d like writer #28 to write this content”….but not sure. But actually the topics areas cover almost everything you could image. I’ve got a few who enjoy gambling (nice!), and even a few who enjoy more risk-ay topics like sexual ones. I can’t think of a topic that at least one writer doesn’t cover.
Understandable statement Peter, but I like the social aspect of this idea. It seems to be the new wave of the internet… getting everyone’s imput to provide something of value rather than guessing what people want and wasting money.
I suppose Jim should gather ideas for a sales page but have one of his copywriters actually write it up for him…
Not a bad idea at all Jim, I did notice however that you are locked down to bundles as in:
“Sold in bundles of 15 pages ($1500)”
Maybe becoming slightly more flexible in the amount you must take. It would be more tempting and somethign we would certainly look at getting on certain projects in the future.
Tony, I think it’s all about professionalism. If you are providing a free service, e.g. delicious, digg, et. al., this approach works fine. If, on the other hand, you are planning to sell this product/service for $1500+ you need a more professional approach.
I’m all for market research but it shouldn’t be carried out as part of the product launch.
The sales page should have been tested and finalised ahead of the launch announcement – preferably in isolation to the company involved.
Sales is all about generating confidence in your customers and this approach does little to inspire that confidence IMHO.
Peter….ya know, I deleted you first post earlier today, but if you’re going to continue and blog about it (so you feel that strong about this) then I’ll carry on this conversation.
I thought it was clear that this was not a official release and that I was asking for ideas. I respect a lot of my readers, and place a high value on their ideas, and was asking for their input….but I wasn’t asking them to write my page for me. What you see there is my “chicken scratch”…it’s even on a page of our new design for webuildpages that also has tons of broken links. That page isn’t linked in with the rest of the webuildpages.com site yet as well. On the top of that page are the words “Under construction”…does this look like a “official release”?
Want me to go through your blog and point out things that “don’t inspire my confidence in you?” My blog is a conversation and not an “end all” like a page on webuildpages.com. I was asking for advice, but I find your thoughts silly – lighten up man.
I think Peter misunderstood what you were saying about writing your sales pages. The way I understood your statement is you were doing a bit of MARKET RESEARCH here before you went live with the site and your statement was misconstrued a bit.
Let Peter be critical, criticism is good because if you learned one thing the word ‘market research’ would’ve cleared up your intent immensely and avoided Peter’s misguided post. Peronsally, I never delete criticism, and I get some nasty criticism all the time, only spam and people posting obnoxious things completely off topic and not relevant get deleted.
Besides, can you really take a guy serious who blogs about his goal is to make a measly $250/day?
Maybe we can teach Peter a bit about thinking bigger 😉
Hi Jim,
Many universities have online job boards that you can post a “Help Wanted†ad for freelance writers of various styles. (Journalistic, technical, marketing, etc,) It can be a great source of copywriting talent as well as .edu links.
Vicent had a good point about the bundles as the entry level to test your service was a fairly high bar.
I think I’d make a one-time “trial offer” that’s something in the $100 range for either:
2- General Content Pages or
1 – Researched OR Interesting/Expert Topic Pages.
Just to entice people to try the service as $100 is an easier pill to swallow to sample something than coughing up $750.
Heck, I spend $100 on 2 dinners, drinks and a tip several times a month so getting me to part with that much to sample your product it pretty easy.
good points Bill, I appreciate your advice too 😉 …and yes…I don’t like deleting post either…but I don’t like negative “cutting” criticism, as opposed to “constructive criticism”.
Bill Said:
“I think I’d make a one-time “trial offer†that’s something in the $100 range for either:”
Absolutely, or even cut it down to say 5 pages, researched at $500 as a starting point.
Quite frankly, we would then be more tempted to buy this in, 1500 is harder to swallow and leaves little profit margin if you are buying this service.
My first thoughts were when I read this – what a great idea – then I started thinking how would you sell this to pre-existing clients. If you are like me and working constantly with small to medium size enterprises then budget is a big deal. We budget right down to the last link, copy, graphic slicing service and copy. With this service we would either have to figure this into a marketing proposal or go back to a client and say, hey, there is a great idea we think you should take, but you got to hand over 1500 for it… somehow, I am not so sure..
Having said that, come down some in price and I’ll test the waters with it now… 🙂
I’m a little skeptical, but perhaps that will give you some food for thought to sharpen your approach?
I look at this as a simple article writing service with a fancy title and a higher cost. You absolutely have to do something to establish the value of what you provide as compared to articles in general, which are getting a very bad rap these days.
Also, the length of such “articles” is entirely too short. Writing something that small is not really an “article” but instead is a set of keywords on a page that offers little value to an incoming searcher. I know it’s how the world is working these days, but it isn’t something that is helping the Internet, so to speak.
Honestly, I suspect that search engines are going to find ways to spot this type of material and start to discount it.
At the same time, to through you a bone, you may be able to work with large “authority” companies and sell them the service of creating SEO friendly backlinks as you write articles for your own customers.
I feel so dirty.
I’ve contracted content writers before and i’ve never really been pleased. I think it may have to do with the pricing… geting an aritcle for $10 i’ve realized is not worth it. i’ve actually pulled most of the articles beacause the content plain sucks and just used them as place holders until I wrote my own. The writer maybe spent 30 min researching the topic and you could really tell they didn’t know much about it. I honestly feel that the average person would need at least a few weeks of on and off industry research to get a good grasp of it and to pull out a quality article.
Anyways, if this is what Jim’s writers can do then I say the price is very fare…
Grokodile.com
“I look at this as a simple article writing service with a fancy title and a higher cost. You absolutely have to do something to establish the value of what you provide as compared to articles in general…”
That is what I was thinking. Anyone can hire a writer for $10 to $20 an article. That is what most “simple article writing” services are charging. What is the added value?
http://www.webuildpages.com/seo-content.htm
“$100/Page – Researched and Referenced Pages
Consists of 500+ words with 30 minutes of research per page”
An article at that price requires more than 30 minutes of research.
Jim, can you post some samples for us to better understand the quality and the value you are adding?
Jim, have you thought about doing an affiliate program for WBP’s services? I can think of a lot of peeps to refer to you guys… 😛
Jim!
Now this is something I know a little about. Just a little. this comment turned into a post of it’s own… perhaps i’ll have to blog this after all…
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No kidding–a service that actually builds content for people to have on their OWN sites?? I wonder if anyone’s ever done that before LOL.
Seriously, Grok, “Honestly, I suspect that search engines are going to find ways to spot this type of material and start to discount it.”
I’m sorry but that just doesn’t make sense. If Jim provides people with seriously *informative* content, then why would search engines discount it?? They want relevant, informative results–all WBP would be doing is helping companies provide good information to their users where there was not info previously. That’s a favor to the SE’s who rank the pages. CAVEAT: “informative” was the keyphrase–howstuffworks.com & about.com informative, not articleinsider.com informative I’m sorry to say (although we did make some $$ off that for a minute).
Of course, quality here has to be the real idea. I’m know for a fact that Jim understands the difference between random freelance 300 words & genuinely researched & useful web content. Outbound authority links are a nice touch, and the link combo is nice…once it’s bundled.
Jim, I would encourage you to think about “combo” packages that really show off what your team can do. In other words, let someone have their 10 pages, but it would have to come with 25-50 mid-quality, deep links with pointed anchor text. No one has done that yet, and it would really bring a client on board in a whole new way. Pre-Bundle it for the client!
Cost-effective packages of 40-50 pages should really be foreseen, because 15 just isn’t enough. I know you’ll provide some real quality, and that should cost, but if you get people to do even 25-30, they’ll see much better results. Ultimately, You’ll need to think about larger orders, for sure, especially to e-commerce folks. Deep links to that end are just what the doc orders. This is going to mean $3k, $5k, $10k & $20k packages, sir.
Lastly, of course your sales page wasn’t chock full o’ market research! After all, that’s just not your style. Frankly, I liked it, because it’s always been the way you sell your services. No frilly language, just plain english. That appeals to SEOs, albeit not to the small biz site owner. But then again, you really dont’ want that business, I promise you.
Abhilash, seriously right back at you… 😉
Find me a web site with 500 word “articles” that provide high quality seriously “informative” content. At 500 words we’re talking landing page material.
Providing real information that is valuable takes space. You’ll want several thousand words and backlinks if you want to help someone educate themselves on something.
Ok. but Jim wouldn’t like me blowing up his comments section. I’ve personally delivered thousands of such articles and seen it work many, many times.
Notwithstanding, I cited 2 websites that break content down into manageable 300-500 word sections (or landing pages, if you must), and they rank extremely well because the content pages are complementary and (together) become an authority on a given subject.
HowStuffWorks ranks all over the place because of how they break up good content into complementary pieces. (search for something like “Torque Converters” or “Fog Machines” & see what I mean–300 word pages). About does a similar thing.
On WMW, Brett keeps a chart of “Theme Pyramids”, and when applied to the notion of content, it shows perfectly how different subjects together can be wonderfully fused to create an authority site.
Show ME 3000 words on one subject and I”ll show you a humongous bounce rate. No one will want to read that much at once. And it would cover so much, there would be no way to intelligently rank it for one keyphrase (probably end up on the 2nd page for many keyphrases).
However: intelligent, coherent & even cohesive academic papers are even broken up into sections. By splitting those “sections” into meaningful pages that help each other constitute an authoritative site, you would make not only a more usable body of information, but also create more real estate for cross-linking & more “landing pages” (fine) that would rank highly in the SERPs & generate more targeted traffic (& conversions). (The Theme Pyramid graphic refers to them as the MONEY pages ;).
Lastly, remember that you don’t need to be the Bible on anything–you just need more content than whoever’s on top!
Abhilash, let’s agree to disagree.
I feel that your post illustrates my point. I don’t find that About has much to offer, generally as I’m sure they do have good sections. Instead, these landing pages or money pages draw people to the site, but they don’t really offer the user anything.
They exist to bring them in, but leave them hungry for real content, forcing them to click on the links present… earning Adsense revenue or such for somebody.
I will concede that it works. I will concede that it is a good way to make money. I will concede that people don’t want to see an entire x000 word writeup on one page — but how difficult is it to show it in a paged format anyway?
My contention remains that real information does not arrive in convenient little 300-500 word chunks.
Heck, maybe we are in agreement on most issues, except the desirability, because we are looking at it from different points of view.
In any case, I’m not too interested in blowing up Jim’s comment area either… 😉
Jim, I will say that if your crew is as least writing accurate blurbs of whatever size, as I expect will be the case, that will be a huge step up in service compared to the free article repositories out there, or the cheapie article producers, which are set to be the downfall of Google if they don’t find a way to stop ranking such inaccurate and poorly written material above professionally created content.
Regards,
Grok
Jim,
I wasn’t sure what happened to my original post as I get an error (from my proxy not your site) when I click “Submit Comment”.
I’m sorry you viewed my comments as “cutting” criticism when they were not meant to be. I have found a lot of interesting information on your blog and I hope to continue to do so.
I was just pointing out that you had your CEO hat on and as such were linking your blog to your company.
As you point out, there are some deficiencies in $250/Day but this is my personal blog and a fairly light hearted look at the world of Internet Marketing – $250/Day is my personal goal for automatic income from advertising/affiliate/etc. As MD of a UK IT Company I make considerably more that that from my “desk job” 😉
If you still feel that my post was unwarranted, send me an email and I will delete it – no problem.
Just eating popcorn reading all this.
We’re all good….everything everyone is saying is getting my wheels turning. Thanks!
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