Forum Moderators: phranque
He was looking at my stats, seeing the amount of traffic my main site receives (200,000 visitors a month, ~1,000,000 page views per month, and all from organic search results). He asked me if I wanted to work for him doing SEO for his clients.
Yeah, sure.
So he handed me some small-time SEO clients.
Then he got the idea to expand into the SEO market full-bore. And he asked me if I would help him create a separate SEO division within his company. The deal was that I would get half of the income from that division.
Sounded reasonable at the time.
As his plans grew, so did the demands upon me: test various ranking/analytics programs, write sales proposals, and even help design the new site for SEO.
Since February, he hasn't paid me a dime for anything I've done, which obviously means that I'm not exactly motivated.
The answer to all of the above is obviously this: quit.
My problem, though, has been that he hasn't charged me anything for hosting my sites, even the one that gets 200,000 visitors and uses 40 to 60 GB of bandwidth per month. He's told me that he'll consider that bandwidth as "payment." He says that I should be paying him $400 to $1000 a month for that amount of server space and bandwidth, so the work I'm doing for him is a wash.
Well, he advertises unlimited bandwidth to ALL of his customers. What am I, a dunce? (Don't answer that question).
Clearly, it's time for me to walk away from this guy. But I don't know where to go to find a reliable hosting company. For all of his screwy demands, his company provides the best tech support and site uptime that I've experienced.
I know that Webmasterworld.com's TOS don't allow recommending companies by name for various services.
But is there any source for getting ratings on various hosting companies that can be mentioned here?
Another rant: I launched a new site a couple of weeks ago. The Contact and Advertise pages use CDOSYS scripts that I've used for years without problems.
Well, he stuck my new site on a Plesk server, and I have yet to find a script that works. And he's telling me that I should have to pay him to have one of his people re-write the script so that it works.
Add to all of the above the fact that he demands that I accomplish everything he asks for by such-and-such a date, but then doesn't return my phone calls or emails regarding information I need from him, and my rant should be even more understandable.
If this was thirty years ago, when I was a more "excitable boy," this guy would be fish food.
The deal was that I would get half of the income from that division.
At that point it's contract or partnership agreement time. You at least take that away with you as experience.
It's probably happened to most of us at some point or another. Trust and business just don't go hand in hand.
TJ
I'm no expert on bandwidth prices, but $1000 for 50GB sounds rather steep to me. However, it sounds like you might have reached the point where you should consider running your own server - you might even be able to poach a few customers.
Alternatively, don't do any more work, wait for him to bill you (that could take months with some imaginative BS) then switch to a new host.
Kaled.
$1000 for 50GB sounds rather steep to me.
Very steep, and I'm not sure if I've heard such fees for 50GB of bandwidth.
Like kaled mentioned, it sounds like he needs you more than you need him. Even so, this may be a hard lesson learned. One where you need to cut your ties and walk away.
I'm sure you could find something if you looked around. $400-$1000 a month? You have got to be kidding.
Why stop at plugging hosts? We can extend to payment processors as well!
