Client Red Flags

These days I rarely go on Twitter but when I do, I see some of the same posts I have seen since I joined Twitter 10 years ago. The trending posts relate to Client Red Flags and business owners sharing their frustrations of dealing with clients who lack what you would assume are basic manners.

I’ll be honest, I have posted on these topics myself.

Escort Pet Peeves / Client Red Flags are leads that enquire who:

• Don’t read the website before making contact
• Expect additional free services that are not included in a package
• Ask for services that are not offered
• Expect free time in conversation
• Don’t respect your time and understand that you are not available NOW
• Whinge about the cost even though its clearly stated on the website
• Are demanding, rude or lack manners
• Lack appreciation and are disrespectful of you and your time

The correlation between escorting and the client red flags at Agency Atlantic Digital is funny as they are pretty much the same as the list above.

Do as I say, not as I do!

A while back I got mentioned in a thread as being a WordPress guru.

The thread was discussing websites and it was quite eye-opening to see the comments, misinformation, high expectations, and the total lack of respect for professional businesses offering professional services to the adult industry.

The escort industry and adult niche are really tricky for web development and SEO. Many platforms don’t allow adult services or the promotion of adult services. Escort & Adult can make working within it a bit of a minefield.

I was able to ascertain from the Twitter thread that a website development company had designed a site for a lady a few years prior and she was wanting some updates.  

The web developer had quoted an hourly rate for the updates, provided a time frame and the work was to proceed… until the web developer changed their mind. 

The account that posted the tweets slandered the web developer calling them unprofessional and recommending everyone stays clear. 

Unfortunately with Atlantic being tagged into the Twitter thread the lady contacted us with a list of updates and wanted us to start right away.

Website updates are charged by the hour. We can never know what we are going to get when working on someone else’s build. We can’t give a quote but we aim to give a ballpark estimate that is close.

Before I touch an existing website I also need to do checks to make sure that Atlantic won’t end up with legal issues.

I need to see how a website is built so that I can give a ballpark cost for updates that are charged at an hourly fee and also a timeline.

If a job is going to take a 6hrs I also need to find 6hrs in my already full & busy schedule.

Unfortunately being sued because doing unauthorised work on a website is a reality.

Professional Developers have contacts and Terms and Conditions and I had found that this website was using a custom theme with the web developer’s name in the code.

Some website development companies allow others to make updates, some don’t and without knowing what/ who I was dealing I then had to give the lady 2 options.

1. Contact her former web developer and ask for approval for me to work on the website
2. If she couldn’t get approval we could build her a new custom website which would be around the $2000aud which is aprox $1450usd.

Approval for me to work on the site from the former web developer could have been achieved simply with one email.

Rather than thank me for taking the time to review her situation and provide her with some solutions; I got a barrage of emails, many of which made very little sense but the majority were disrespectful to me and slanderous to her previous web developer.

I politely declined to work with this person and by doing so I received abusive emails, being told I am a scammer because Atlantic charges $2000aud for a custom website.

The woman also got onto social media and slandered me and my business.

I started my Saturday offering free assistance to someone and instead of receiving a thank you, I receive a stack of abuse and there was no reason for it. Manners cost nothing!

I have since spoken to this woman’s former web developer & they are lovely! And approval would have been given had they been asked…

Anonymity for our clients is paramount but my company is not anonymous so I must consider what is legal and what is not in our juristiction.

Many client red flags for Escorts are identical to Web Developer red flags

All business owners have client red flags. Things that prospective clients say or do that make you think, no thanks, this isn’t going to work.

As an Escort, when a client makes contact for the first time you ascertain if you wish to meet them or not.   You learn to tell from various things they say if the prospective client will turn out to be a timewaster, no-show, cheapskate, or a demeaning, demanding so-&-so

There are those phrases that guys say during the booking process where you just know that it’s going to be a headache and if you aren’t struggling to pay the bills this month, you will probably decline such a booking.

I am willing to pay

This is what a client says if they believe you should f9ck them for free.  The connotation is that you should be doing this for free but they are ‘willing to pay’ so you should feel bloody grateful.  

I can get the same for less with someone else 

If you get a price and it’s not within your budget there is no need to be rude.   If you can get it cheaper, off you go!

If an escort is out of your budget or a web developer charges $5000 for a custom website, that is the rate you need to pay.

If it’s not for you, move on.

I have the cash and can do it right now

Whilst some escorts take on ‘right now’ bookings, many do not as they require a deposit or screening which may take days so right now isn’t possible.

Web Development works the same but it’s a deposit, then discovery and generally, we can’t start right now as we have other clients.  I have listed our Website Development Process on Atlantic if you are interested in the steps from start to finish of developing a professional website.

Its been a bad month, I can give you half!

Sure let’s do that cause everyone likes to do their job for half price.

Sorry for the sarcasm but WTF? Nobody wants to give a 50% discount to a random stranger who could be the worst client of all time.

I regularly help my clients with extra things that I don’t charge for but that is my choice to do so and often because it’s something new I am learning or want to test.

Do you have a real job?

Some clients say this because they are clueless but for others, it’s a demeaning putdown, like escorting isn’t a real job…

Recently on an escort website discovery call, I was asked by the escort what else I did for a job? 

I guess my computer degree, 30 years of web development and the 40-60hrs a week working for the 2 digital agencies I own isn’t a real job?

What can I have for $XYZ?

When a client tries this with an escort they are often told to F*CK off. But it seems that it’s OK for escorts to come to Atlantic and say things like, ‘I give you $200 and I want this and this included at no charge’ .

For $200 I can offer 1.5hrs of mentoring and coaching to help you DIY your website. I am not sure what others charge for their services. From the groups I am in I can see web designers are usually $75+USD per hour, web developers anywhere from $100USD to $250 an hour.

I expect updates to be included!

No web developer does free updates infinitely unless they are a new service trying to win clients or outsourcing to a 3rd world country. Time is money and updates can be very time-consuming.

Optimising images, adding watermarks, changing page layouts; these jobs all take time but often the work that takes the most time is the back and forth approval process with the client.

At Atlantic, we offer website care plans with the cheapest being $70 per month for us to keep a website healthy, it includes 15mins of front-end edits.

Why are you so expensive?

An overnight with a lady in a 3rd world country is around $150.  A Sydney Escort is upwards of $2000.

The cost of living and running a legal business in a country like Australia is expensive so things cost more.    An Australian business has a lot of legal obligations including taxes, GST, and compulsory superannuation.

As a web developer, you receive $0 cash so the tax office knows about every cent.

If you pay a web developer $1000 bear in mind that at least half of that is going to business running costs & the government.

If I am working on something complex that is outside my skill set and I need outside help, the fee for me to hire someone to do this work will be anywhere from $100 – $250 per hour.  

I truly do love my work but sometimes the unpaid hours are a lot! Whilst other people are enjoying their free time, I am spending my time learning, researching, testing, and talking to others in the web development and SEO communities.  

Every month I spend around 20hrs educating myself. Technology changes so quickly and as a solutions provider, part of my work is knowing what solutions there are available in the digital space.

If you want cheap work, freelancer sites are full of 3rd world country workers who will work for low hourly rates because their cost of living is also low.

If you want to utilise the expertise of an industry professional with many years of experience, expect to pay more.   

Business professionals don’t work for free and if they are good at their jobs are often booked up months in advance. 

I will also do my best to fit in work for my lovely clients but for new clients & a new site, I couldn’t start possibly start for at least 2 weeks but sometimes that time frame is longer.

Rates and Pricing Pages are on a website for a reason!

I added a price guide to Atlantic a year ago as I was tired of daily timewasters expecting me and my team to work for free or very cheap. 

I have a lot of new directories or developers of new directories contact me asking for free help with promotion, SEO, and web development? Surely as a commercial business, they would know they need to pay for services and expertise but no, seems not so…

From my website stats, I can see that page is viewed around 200 times per month yet I still get daily contact forms that ask for pricing and more information even though everything is very clearly listed on our website.

Many have not viewed the price guide on our website and often when I mention pricing I am given grief about charging the rates that are clearly listed.

Business being bad due to Covid is a reason we are told we should be cheaper LOL! Guess what?  Covid hasn’t been great for my business either and Atlantic has a lot of overheads such as staff that expect to be paid. 

None of us at Atlantic have trust funds that allow us to work just for the fun of it.  We have bills to pay, just like you do.

I wrote blogs on DIY digital projects to help the people who don’t have the funds to pay a professional right now.  Writing a blog takes time (this one will take around 4-6hrs from beginning to being posted on the website).

Asking an Escort to do free work is classed as terrible but apparently its OK for escorts to expect free work…

Website Developer Obligations

As an Escort, I would say no to clients I didn’t wish to spend time with. 

It could be from the way they wrote their email or maybe they were demeaning in a text.   

I realise it’s a privilege to be able to decline work and I know not everyone can do so due to their circumstances.  I was in a lucky position to be able to say no as an Escort

As a web developer, I say no too.

Every good developer I know declines work as we know that a client who is difficult will cost us a lot of time and we prefer to work with clients who pay us properly and treat us nicely.

I can only fit in so many work hours per week so why would I want a client who is degrading, rude or demanding when I can work with someone else who is polite and friendly and appreciates my expertise?

Everyone in business can decline any work or client they wish that’s one of the joys of being your own boss!

Agency Atlantic provides adult business solutions, SEO, and websites for independent escorts and escort agencies, but I also build e-commerce stores, membership sites and work with directories.

Why pay a professional?

I am a website developer who works almost exclusively with WordPress as its open-source so is less problematic for adult websites than site builders like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. 

In Web Development we call these platforms – building on borrowed land as these platforms can remove your website if they wish.

Last year there was a group of doctors who had their site removed by SquareSpace for breaching SS content terms.  It’s not just SWers who have their sites deleted, with cancel culture anyone can go for whatever reason the platform decides.  

I know of a cigar store that was recently deleted from Shopify as they didn’t want their platform associated with cigars.

Anyway, my rant is over LOL I hope you enjoyed reading my post on client red flags.

Until Next Time,