Does Your Private Label SEO Provider Have Dashboard Reporting? (Plus the Corporate States of America)

 

The other day, while at the pub, a friend of mine asked if he would count as a private label SEO reseller. He is essentially an SEO who works at home and he has some clients who are demanding. To his knowledge, he is a reseller because when he can't handle the demand, he simply outsources the work to some of his freelancer friends. He outsources the work and he gets a cut from the deal. Pretty much a reseller, right? I told him, "No, you are not an SEO reseller."

The Reseller Model is Simple

The business model involving a reseller is pretty simple, I explained to him. There's a provider who does all the technical work. Then there's the client who needs all the technical work. Then there's the reseller who looks for clients and then outsources the work requirements to the provider. Pretty simple right? And based on this simple premise, my freelance SEO friend could have easily counted as a reseller. So why did I break his heart and told him the truth that he is not one?

 It makes a lot of difference if you answered "Yes" to her question.

There are two sides to my argument. The first one is the flawed business model he believes in and second is the technology/software side, which I will discuss in a bit. First, a private label SEO reseller is someone who looks for clients and outsources work to providers. However, and this should really be noted to clear confusion, that reseller should outsource to an "exclusive" provider. What do I mean?

By exclusive, I mean the provider should only serve resellers, not retail clients. That's what I meant with the "flawed" business model. Sure my freelancer friend was "reselling" services but it does not count as strictly private label because the provider was servicing retail clients and not resellers. My friend's friend is a freelance SEO too and essentially, he is a competitor with my friend. While the two of them are good friends, and chances are they will not work with each other's clients directly, that setup still violates the reseller business model.

Caveat: there ARE businesses that cater to both retail and reseller clients. However, private label SEO should not count as one of them as the whole business model depends on the trust between the reseller and the provider. That's hard to achieve when you know your provider can snatch the client from your anytime.

The Dashboard Difference

The other side to my argument, which my friend considered an eye-opener, is that dashboard technologies set excellent providers apart from the rest. Case in point: my personal provider, Endlessrise. My private label SEO reseller partner has its own dashboard technology that has several functions like project reporting and proposal sending. What makes this dashboard stand out though is the "brandability." I am able to customize the software and put my own brand on it. That way it appears to my client that I own that software because it bears my logo. To me, that alone is a huge advantage over going with other providers, be them white label companies or individual freelancers.

Here are some other features of the dashboard that I really find helpful in my own private label SEO business. The first is the access to reporting tools like keyword research, audit reports, and competition analysis. Another would be the proposal tracking. Finally, I find the access to billing and payments very useful because transactions happen in one place.

Now, imagine if you were in my friend's shoes. Sure you can outsource some work to freelancers. But, would you rather create the excel reports manually or do them via the dashboard just by clicking a few buttons? Would you rather drive an hour to meet a client for a simple update or give them access to a dashboard that lets them search exactly what metrics they want to see? The dashboard is a huge help for me at the moment, my friend is also considering outsourcing his work to a strict private label SEO provider that has a dashboard.

The Corporate States of America

In other news, we spent hours just debating over a map we stumbled upon through online marketing blog Marketing Pilgrim. In an entry, the site featured a work by writer and artist Steve Lovelace called the "Corporate States of America." This is essentially a map of the US with the most popular brand displayed per state. See what I mean below:

Marriott apparently is the famous brand here in the Maryland - DC area. I thought the White House was a brand! Source: Marketing Pilgrim

For SEO resellers, this is just an opportunity to educate clients on the most famous brands in their respective states. What then can they do with that knowledge? There's a lot of creativity you can put to good use. For instance, if I were a small business, I might want to strike an advertising or promotional deal with a local store or branch of these brands. Or, they can just be a pretty good icebreaker when chatting with new prospects.

"Hey, apparently, BRAND NAME is the most popular brand here in STATE."

"No way!"

"It's true! I've seen it on the Corporate States of America map."

Many would consider that chatter a waste but you’ll never know, it might land you your next client.