What is the ideal SEO reseller program? Well - You probably want one that zooms clients to the top of Google and is really inexpensive. Am I right? Sure you do. But let's return to earth for a minute and continue with a rational discussion.
I've said it a million times: The Internet is a near perfect marketplace (ala Adam Smith). There are very low barriers to entry on this world-wide commerce platform. This means that any search phrase that carries significant economic value (due to strong intentions to buy, or expensive products, what have you), there is immense competition. While this competition is healthy for the SEO reseller (without it, who needs an SEO) it has a dark side as well....
Yes, many many people have very irrational expectations when it comes to SEO. Chad and I talk about this every day. Seriously - Just about every day. And the reason it comes up is that our customers hit us with unrealistic expectations in the same fashion that the members of our SEO reseller program get hit. Here's how it goes: A reseller's phone rings and it's a customer who just received a monthly bill for SEO. They spent approximately 3 minutes reading the bill, went to Google and typed in a single search phrase, scanned the page and didn't find their website. They dialed their SEO reseller in a state of anger vowing to "get to the bottom of this."
I am not making light. I know how hard it is to be on the front line receiving these phone calls. I feel for our SEO resellers, these are difficult situations to defuse. But defuse we must. Like it or not, SEO is not something you can't really rush. Search engine optimization requires time. And no matter how many times you tell your customer this, they will probably not get it at first. In our experience it takes them several phone calls until it starts to sink in.
If SEO itself is difficult, SEO customer management is really really difficult. As people join our SEO reseller program we make it a priority to assess their understanding of the "time factor" in SEO. The reseller certainly needs to have a solid grasp on this concept if we have any hope that the customers they sell to will. Even with this pre-screening, it is very likely that the first few customers will be impatient.