The idea of Pay For Performance Internet Marketing is coming to fruition here at our firm. The year of 2010 was fantastic as we helped our client base grow their businesses and in turn our business has grown exponentially.
Some highlights:
1) Our firm has been named and ranked in the pay for performance SEO companies rankings by Topseos an Independent Authority on Search Vendors.
2) We built our team from 5 full time employees to 13 Full time staff & 2 part timers.
3) Our client base has experienced growth rates of 57% to 322% year of year growth while we have been able to provide our clients with an average of 228% monthly ROI based on what we invoice.
Moving Forward to 2011:
1) We will be extending our one to one coaching program from 10 clients to 15 as this program has been very successful, it has not been advertised to the public and allows clients that do not fit the performance model still take advantage of the knowledge base. Watch out for an email explaining this program.
2) We will be introducing a new “Pay Per Ranking” performance model for those seeking ONLY an organic ranking service. The pricing is based on competitive analysis of your chosen keyword(s) and is paid based on ranking. Look out for an email sometime in January explaining the model further.
3) We will continue to work hard to locate profitable sources of traffic for each and every one of our clients. This is the main point of performance based online marketing. We are not interested in just traffic & visibility we are always on the lookout for profitable traffic & visibility streams as we make more money when you see results.
We are very proud of our accomplishments and want to thank our clients, our employees; our readers & certainly Google for making us all sweat every once in awhile… 
As we are closing down till the new year we just wanted to wish You & Yours,
A Safe, Happy & Prosperous New Year.
In whichever order you choose…
Cheers,
Uri Lederman
Google+
GooglePlus
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
I have always felt that the PPP model may appeal to clients but never to SEO providers who are not unjustified when they insist on long term contracts on a retainer and/or % of revenues. This also brings to surface several 1-man startups who stay away from making long-range organic commitments for obvious reasons. It seems that it is these type of clients who have been pushing for PPP model.
The Pay for Ranking model is also not a fairy. It gets murkier when a combination of ‘long tail keywords’ is used. Together long tail keywords may yield almost fifty percent of entire site traffic while individually they may pull sparse traffic.
Here, any client would surely argue to pay for rankings of only such keywords that push higher traffic & sales.
The Traffic Pricing model, in contrast is also no better as unscrupulous SEO providers can often rake up unqualified traffic for a client leading to fall-from-grace situation for SEO practitioners.
The bottom line is PPP model can burn your fingers at some point as it’s not you, but the client who is in charge of site and execution of business. Other details are reference in my Dancing Thoughts Inc. blog post on Riding the Accountable SEO Marketing Bandwagon-Part 1
Intangible factors like customer service levels, product quality, site makeover etc also make or mar profits, something SEO provider can’t influence to his advantage. Other issues like pricing, profit margins, sales training, content updations are also important determinants that run as an undercurrent in a PPP model affecting its success.
Making something billable and work, I feel, may not be an index of its popularity and acceptance among SEO folks.
The Pay For Performance model does work.. and works very well for the clients & providers who are transparent enough to CREATE a win/win scenario.
As far as a pay for ranking services. You are correct it is murky at best. The issue with pay for ranking services is that MOST clients do not understand that value of the keyphrases. I would suggest to clients who are looking at these types of services to:
1) Understand the value of the keyword prior to starting service
2) Do not take on monthly ranking services as you will end up paying allot more then your standard SEO packages.
At saasaffiliates.com we have been contemplating with a new model that is based on ranking, NO monthly charges, No minimum keyphrases and a shared risk scenario.
At the end of the day, if you don’t have the data to know which keyphrases work for your business.. Do not purchase pay for ranking services.