I decided to write this today because I was recently ripped off by a client who was also a partner of mine. I am not identifying the client here by name because I have pending legal action against them. But I want to share my experience so that you can avoid having similar issues in the future.

HOW I become a partner

Back in early July of 2011, I was engaged for seo services by someone on Craigslist. I was told that if I was good at seo, then he wanted to hear from me. We proceeded to correspond through email, then setup a phone call.

In the phone call, this co-partner in the company promised me 10% of all future sales when the site became established. I told him that it’s a brand new website, and could take awhile to start selling products, so I would need to be compensated a minimal monthly fee on the front end in the meantime. He agreed.

My mistake was that I never got the agreement in writing. It was 100% verbal. While that is binding in court, the client is now denying that the agreement ever took place. This is not stopping me from suing him for defrauding me out of thousands of dollars in fees that he would have been charged if I wasn’t a “partner”.

HOW I was ripped off

My most recent invoice to the client was ignored on the due date. This wasn’t the first time though. the previous 2 months, the client waiting a week or more each time before he paid the invoice. I started smelling something fishy at that time, because he previously paid on time every invoice.

This time, 2 days after the invoice was due and payable, the client emails me late at night and tells me that he hired 4 more people to take on the seo from here forward. He told me that my services were no longer needed.

When I received this email, needless to say I was surprised that:

1. He no longer needed me. There was no previous discussion that he was considering leaving my services.
2. He made no mention that I was getting any compensation for his cancelling of our agreement.
3. He assumed that because he was no longer using me, that he didn’t have to pay an existing outstanding invoice in the amount of $400. (I would have charged him $1,000 per month for the amount of work rendered if I was not a 10% stake partner in the business).

It’s no surprise to you that I responded to his message and demanded additional information, as well as explaining that his invoice was due and payable. There were 2 issues at stake here.

1. I did not get paid for my current invoice.
2. You can’t just walk away from a partnership without compensating the partner.

The client refused to respond to 2 emails requesting a conversation, and multiple invoice reminders. It was on the 5th day of being late, and 3 days after him breaching our agreement that I decided to send him a final notice to respond or I would have to get my attorney involved.

He finally responded… which I knew he would at that point. He claimed that I was a work-for-hire, and he was not satisfied with my results. Mind you that I not only performed as agreed, but also got him tons of top 10 rankings which he did not have on a brand new website (which I can prove in court), along with many traffic sources and backlinks which are showing up in Google’s index on a daily basis.

Regarding his new “seo resources”, I advised him that they added a reciprocal links page which is now damaging his website. He did not need the reciprocal links, as he has many one-way backlinks and growing, and reciprocal would take away from his PageRank and bleed to whomever he is linking to.

The client now owes me $3,400 which includes the amount I would have charged for my services, plus the existing outstanding invoice. In addition, because he refused to settle, I am pursuing damages and legal fees which will likely go into the 6-digit range…. all because he refused to pay me an exit fee of a minuscule $3,400 fee.

HOW you can avoid being ripped off by a client

When you decide to go in for a percentage, make sure you not only charge a minimal fee monthly to ensure the client is “serious”, but also make sure you get something in writing.

You do NOT need a written contract. You can simply type up the terms of the arrangement in an email, and require him to respond with “agreed” in the body all while leaving the original text in the reply. This will be a serious plus for you when compiling evidence.

If you are like me, and you didn’t get this agreement in writing, then you are still in luck. You can compile all of the “proof” that you not only performed according to their expectations, but beyond by providing evidence that they have the many top 10 rankings, or whatever other work you performed. Make sure you go to court with enough paperwork to make the judge and jury blush. That’s what I;m going to do, and it’s going to be fun…

A personal goal of mine for many years has been to learn Visual Basic.Net and a few other languages. Another top language goal is C# (C Sharp). The end goal is to develop many useful Windows applications, and eventually some games.

I know I have a vast readership here, and a very supportive one. So my intention here is to find someone that not only knows the language, but feels comfortable teaching it to someone.

In standard creative style, I decided to do this in a barter relationship. For sharing your wonderful knowledge, I am willing to provide you with graphic design services. In addition, as long as we are in a working barter relationship, I will provide unlimited seo consulting services to you, even if you are being paid for the seo.

I hope that you will share this post, and pass it around frequently until I can find someone to work with.

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It might sound like bad advice for me to tell you to live beyond your means, but I assure you that it’s not. For many years, I have gotten things on barter that I did not have the money for at the time. Now-a-days, I barter for fun, and out of habit. And often, I barter for things I simply do not want to spend my own money on, but would not mind spending my time providing a service to get it.

If you haven’t noticed, check out my barter page and see what I have received (not a complete list by a long-shot) and items I am still looking for.

Bartering is a powerful thing, and can result in your acquiring items that you simply cannot afford. My kids have always had a great Christmas, and if I can cushion the blow from gift-buying by bartering for gift cards (which I do), then all the better!

Do you barter?

There are plenty of outlets online to allow you to barter for goods or services. One of them that I use is Craigslist. They have a section for barter, and even better, a free section, but that’s beyond what I am talking about right now.

You have things to barter, and you probably don’t even know it. Perhaps you can write resumes like a pro, or you can do internet research like nobody else. These are barter-able services. You may have something laying around the house, and you don’t want it. As a matter of fact, I traded a non-working Cadillac a couple of years ago for a PS3 with a 320 gig hard drive.

Bartering is something that has been around since before technology existed. I just wish I was around back in the day when they were trading wives for meat producing animals Ok, before my wife makes me sleep in the cat litter box, I was just joking.

Bartering Resources

I thought I would kick you off on your path to bartering by providing a few resources. I will link to my city if these sites require a destination, so feel free to change it to your locality before you jump in head first.

• Craigslist – Probably your best choice with millions of daily users. Check them out, and post something if you are feeling froggy.

• Backpage – A craigslist wanna-be, but it is a decent sized site.

• Kijiji now known as Ebay Classifieds – Probably the biggest knock-off out there because Ebay got jelious of Craigslist and wanted their own classifieds site.

• BarterQuest – A free bartering site exclusively for… ummm…. bartering. I have used them.

• Labor Trader – This is a bartering system for services.

• Favor Pals – Trade your goods and services on this site.

• U-Exchange – A large bartering site where you can trade anything. Even houses.

• UISwap – Barter your stuff man! ( or woman )

• Swap Treasures – Another good site for bartering items and services.

• Swap At Home – A good site, and nicely formatted one, to barter. Although I always hated the word swap. It feels dirty to me.

• Trade Attic – The name says it all. Smaller, but good site. Help them build!

• Swap-Online – There’s that swap word again A simple interface for bartering.

If these aren’t enough resources for you, then feel free to google it. There are tons of places to get your barter on. You might end up vacationing somewhere thanks to a barter!

Are you bartering?

Let me know if you take bartering seriously, and how long you have been doing it. I would love to hear about all the goodies you received and what you offered in exchange. Tell me your story below!

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