Sante, I believe you are just the type of a consultant I was describing in the post. Good to meet you. Truth be told, I could consult the dazed clients too ;)

Bill, SEO is a very specific industry. Without being a SEO or knowing enough to be an expert, consulting will be much more dangerous, than otherwise. Not to mention that even if you are not a professional, but know SEO, - and there are multiple examples of business owners, who have learned SEO, - they will still know good SEOs from the bad and the inquiring minds will always try to imagine commissions going round.

What if we make the SEO consultant financially responsible for the work the SEO company, he referred the client to, does. If the company succeeds, the consultant gets a boost of reputation. If not, he either has to pay the services cost along with the damages, or consult the client to gain reasonable rankings for free.

Did you notice the above is lopsided? If all works well, the consultant gets almost nothing. If not, he loses lots of money and time. There needs to be an incentive to refer clients to good SEO companies and commissions - or even part of the income - is a good thing to balance the equation.

But still, I don't think being paid on results is the best method. There are many ways things can go wrong, including the client, and the SEO company/expert will lose. Not to mention a case of building a new website, which will get results in months. That's why there are many other SEO payment models.

Btw, Bill, you can use the a tags to insert links.

Thanks for stopping by, Sante and Bill.