Branding David

Recently, I was asked if I would be willing to donate a prize to Blogging Tips’ Forum competition, run by a good friend of mine, Kevin Muldoon. Of course, I said yes, and donated two hours of my time towards his contest.

Contest Details

There are two parts to the contest. One is points based and you’ll gain points by posting on the forum, referring other users, and other forum related actions. The person with the most points will earn themselves a quick $200.

The second part is based around a weekly challenge or question in the forum and each week a winner will be selected. The prizes range in value and run the gamut with e-books, WordPress premium themes, premium plugins, copies of the Problogger book, and of course two hours of my consulting time.

My Prize

The winner of the prize that I tossed into the pool will have access to my talents, services, and knowledge for two hours in any way they see fit. If they want to talk over the phone, instant messenger, Skype or have me go do some streaming video on Ustream, that is their choice, and I will be happy to accommodate.

I will be helping the winner with their blog, from suggesting helpful plugins, promotion techniques, content ideas, networking suggestions, and more. At the end of the two hours, I will have transferred over three years of knowledge into the winner as quickly and usefully as possible, and give them many actionable items that they can than use to build their blog bigger, stronger, and if they so choose, more profitable.

If you are looking for a chance to have me help you out for free, this contest will be the only time I give my services away for free in such a manner, so I suggest you join the Blogging Tips forum contest, and keep an eye out for the question relating to my prize.

A blog that I really enjoy, ReadWriteWeb, recently surveyed some bloggers and consultants to see what the upper limit people are earning for their work.

They seemed pretty much on the money regarding blogging as a job, but it surprised me to see what consultants are earning.

No one we surveyed named an hourly consulting rate below $150 per hour. $300 per hour was the most common rate named. Some listed monthly rates of $2k to $4k per engagement, which we assume probably means 20 to 40 hours per month.

It is even more interesting to me, as I set my rate below the $150 an hour mark, despite creating value far beyond that rate.

I also find it funny as Jim Kukral, a very successful consultant has decided to give away, for free, a half a day, each wednesday, towards local businesses, entitled Bail Out Cleveland, in hopes of helping them to deal with the current market conditions.

Are consultants worth hundreds of dollars per hour? Well, it really depends on their experience and ability to distill and transfer their knowledge in a useful and actionable way.

I do think that some people might want to adjust their rates to make their knowledge easier to access during these rough times. I would also love to know how other consultants in any industry calculate their hourly rates, so if you are or have been a consultant, please comment below with the factors that you built into your rate sheet.