5 ms·

I do a lot of metric analysis for other companies. It's actually one of the ways that my company starts engagements and eventually leads to selling other servi

I do a lot of metric analysis for other companies. It's actually one of the ways that my company starts engagements and eventually leads to selling other services. We start by analyzing what data is already collected. I love looking at data and now that I've seen dozens of Google Analytics properties and a handful of MixPanel/Flurry/Apsalar/misc. It's really easy for me to dive in and provide actionable recommendations. Unfortunately, most sites don't have goals with conversion rates or Webmaster Tools (to see SEO) or have their eCommerce transactions hooked up. So it's a bit of a pain to try to teach a new business how to set that up. We're happy to do it for a small fee, but it takes time to get the clearance or work with the engineering team. Then it's a matter of waiting to collect that data (if we're talking startups or smaller businesses). Also, it seems to be a low margin business because many businesses already don't value their existing data so they aren't going to pay much to have someone collect even more data they won't look at. However, when the data is collected, you can start making easier pitches. If we can increase your total revenue by X% we get Y% of it in the first year. If we don't, you don't pay us. I'm happy to provide an initial consultation for free to anybody on Hacker News. If you find value in it, we can discuss on-going work. Contact info is in my profile.

heliodor 14y ago
Getting a cut of the revenue increase would be great, but how do you prove how much influence you've had on the revenue increase/decrease as compared to other steps the company took to change their fortunes? Are there any methods that can be used to tease apart each cause and effect?
- PaulMest 14y ago
  Generally the businesses that we have pursued this path are ones who neglect to treat their online selling motions like a product. For example, we are working with a client who makes "99%" of their money from physical retail. Their focus is on opening new physical locations and their eCommerce side is an after-thought. Their offline business is booming, but their online visits and conversion rates have been flat for 6+ months. My team will be taking over their site. There is certainly a bit of faith that any change to visits will be from our SEO, though we can specifically target long-tail terms and build reports to show that they previously received X visits a month on these highly convertible terms now they receive 5X. However, with conversion rate optimization, the split-testing makes it pretty clear which changes performs better. When the business gets an increase in highly convertible traffic after a flatline and additional $50,000-$500,000 in online revenue, they are very happy. This type of contract only works with businesses that bring in millions. For smaller businesses or startups generating $50k-$100k/year, there are generally smaller budgets or not enough traffic to make split-testing possible in short-term engagements. So we'll do fixed bid consultations and short-term contracts for $1k-$20k and possibly do a follow up 3+ months down the line. Or we will use the split-testing and CRO service as a feeder to build trust in my team and then try to cross-sell our other service (build a custom mobile app, web app, or immersive advertisement).
brianbreslin 14y ago
Paul, I would definitely pay for this kind of setup/consultation. Even reporting. I'll shoot you an email.
- PaulMest 14y ago
  Sounds good. Looking forward to helping out!

heliodor 14y ago

Getting a cut of the revenue increase would be great, but how do you prove how much influence you've had on the revenue increase/decrease as compared to other steps the company took to change their fortunes? Are there any methods that can be used to tease apart each cause and effect?

PaulMest 14y ago
Generally the businesses that we have pursued this path are ones who neglect to treat their online selling motions like a product. For example, we are working with a client who makes "99%" of their money from physical retail. Their focus is on opening new physical locations and their eCommerce side is an after-thought. Their offline business is booming, but their online visits and conversion rates have been flat for 6+ months. My team will be taking over their site. There is certainly a bit of faith that any change to visits will be from our SEO, though we can specifically target long-tail terms and build reports to show that they previously received X visits a month on these highly convertible terms now they receive 5X. However, with conversion rate optimization, the split-testing makes it pretty clear which changes performs better. When the business gets an increase in highly convertible traffic after a flatline and additional $50,000-$500,000 in online revenue, they are very happy. This type of contract only works with businesses that bring in millions. For smaller businesses or startups generating $50k-$100k/year, there are generally smaller budgets or not enough traffic to make split-testing possible in short-term engagements. So we'll do fixed bid consultations and short-term contracts for $1k-$20k and possibly do a follow up 3+ months down the line. Or we will use the split-testing and CRO service as a feeder to build trust in my team and then try to cross-sell our other service (build a custom mobile app, web app, or immersive advertisement).

brianbreslin 14y ago

Paul, I would definitely pay for this kind of setup/consultation. Even reporting. I'll shoot you an email.

PaulMest 14y ago
Sounds good. Looking forward to helping out!