sorry to ask this again, but

[jimhankmom]

I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how much to charge a small web template company for seo. All they want me to do is optimize source and alt tags, and also do a beginners' seo manual for them. This would be my first "real" seo job, although I've been doing it for friends and family for over a year now.

How much would you charge per page? And how much would you charge for the manual? Thank you in advance.

[robotsdobetter]

First off, I would never create a manual for them because they would never need you again. :) You should not have a set fee for all customers, instead base the charge on their current ranking, the keywords they choose, how large their web site is and number of other factors.

[flood6]

But in this case, it doesn't sound like they are judging his work on any improvement in their SERPs, just that their code is cleaner with alt tags. So I don't think what keywords they are targeting should have too much of a factor on pricing.

In this case it might be easier to just charge by the hour. Figure out what your time is worth and keep track of how much time you spend on their site and on the manual.

The SEO manual: I'd require some healthy pricing because instead of just doing some work for someone else, you are going to be selling some creative, intellectual property-type stuff when they buy the manual. You might do some research on what (and how) copywriters charge, and try to base the manual's cost on that.