It happens every so often - I’ll get an email asking me to work on a Pay by Results basis. This could be someone only wanting to pay when they achieve front page Google listings, or someone wanting to pay a commission on each sale achieved, each front page on Digg, each mention on Twitter, etc etc etc. On some occasions I’m not even told what the ‘result’ is going to be, but told to only come back with a true figure!
But what 99% of these emails have in common is the absolute belief that the author of the email is doing me a favour. That I should be thrilled to be involved in their dream. That if I’m as ‘good’ as I say I am, then I should be willing to work on results only. That ‘if I can’t hack it’ I shouldn’t even bother replying.
I just received another one today - hence this post.
Well, let’s clear up a few things, shall we?
1 - You want me to work for free in the first instance? Have some courtesy. Don’t presume I see this as you doing me a favour. In most cases you’re coming to me because you don’t have a marketing budget - you want me to help you - I would suggest being nice is a good start.
2 - Working for free at first means that you will be charged more in the end - trust me, there is no way I’m going to put lots of work I’m not being paid for into something without a good return at the end. So don’t come back to me and say my quote is ridiculous and nothing like what it would cost you to pay me in the normal way. You want the normal prices, become a normal customer.
3 - This is your dream, not mine. If it were my dream, I would be doing it. On a pay by results basis. It’s called ‘running a business’.
4 - Challenging me with ‘if you’re not up to it’, ‘if you can’t hack it’, ‘you daren’t take a risk’ and ‘you’re not good enough’ does not make me want to work with you, it makes me think you’re an arrogant little shit. Sorry to be blunt, but it does. If you were approaching me to be a usual ‘pay a fee’ customer, I probably wouldn’t want to work with you. But then you’d just be a regular arrogant little shit. By asking for special favours and then trotting out the aforementioned quotes, you make yourself look like an arrogant little shit with no money. Well done.
5 - Just because you think your idea is the best thing since sliced bread (although I’m not that convinced that sliced bread was a great invention either) doesn’t mean that I share your belief. You are probably not the first person to come to me with this idea. and won’t be the last. And the fact that you think it is fantastic still isn’t enough to make me want to work on it for free.
The above makes me sound like a grumpy cow, and well it may, because that’s how I feel right now.
However, at NikkiPilkington.com we DO take on Pay by Results clients. But we only consider them if:
1 - They are courteous and honest in their initial approach
2 - The results are easily measurable
3 - They agree to pay our (admittedly higher than the ‘normal route’) fees upon results
4 - They don’t try and emotionally blackmail us into working with them by using reverse psychology
and most importantly
5 - They have a product or service that we believe in too
So, feel free to come to me with ideas, websites and blogs that you want promoting on a Pay by Results basis, but be careful of your approach, or you could end up in a blog like this
