They must be joking, right?

As many of us know who are in the marketing and communications industry, part of our duties and essential to our livelihood is to look for, cultivate and win new business opportunities. And with the way things are in today’s economic climate, it’s been very challenging to say the least.

About 2 weeks ago, I ran across an ad posted on a job listing board as follows.
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Internet Marketing Person (Richmond VA)
Looking for part-time person with professional marketing experience to work a few hours a week with an upscale florist in Richmond VA. Must have internet marketing and search engine knowledge to be able to work with the web site and search engine optimization. Position is flexible for some of the work to be done from home.
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As I read this post, I immediately began to think this could be a good opportunity/project for me. Then, I looked “below the fold” and saw the compensation was $12 per hour.

$12 PER HOUR???? ARE YOU !@#*+-! KIDDING ME???!!!

Obviously, by my tone, you can see that did not bode too well with me. And it still doesn’t. I find the audacity, disrespect and ignorance of the person/”upscale florist” owner to be appalling and disgusting. I guess they do not know or appreciate the true knowledge and skill sets required for web site and search engine optimization work, especially if they want results that will drive the bottom line for their business.

Perhaps, they might understand from where I’m coming if I equate their compensation for such work to their business.

Let’s say this “upscale florist” sells a dozen red roses for $15, and that price is considered the average market value for such a purchase in today’s “undervalued” world.

A quick reference check at www.indeed.com to determine the average salary for a person doing web site and SEO work in the Richmond, VA market is about $42,000, which comes out to $21 per hour. In fact, I calculated this salary by seeing an Internet Marketing Specialist salary of $39,000 and an SEO Specialist salary of $45,000, so I split the difference. And these salaries are on the low-end for this type of work, as well as 6% lower than average salaries for job postings nationwide.

So, $12 divided by $21 results in a 43% devaluation of market value.

So “upscale florist”, to put it in your language, I’m only willing to pay you $8.55 for those dozen red roses.

Kinda’ hits you in the gut doesn’t it?

Well, I hope it does.

And in your pocket too!