Bartering Services

[stand856]

How many of you have done this in the past? How well did it work out? Etc...

[BlackMediaProp]

I done some bartering in the earlier days of my business. I run an affiliate marketing company and in the beginning I wanted my sites to have atleast custom banners or headers on them and matching twitter backgrounds and so on and so forth. At that point I didn't have the money to spend on graphics or time to do it myself. So i contacted a guy through twitter and had him do my graphics in exchange of him leaving his logo/branding in the bottom right of every banner or graphic he did and also a free ad space for a said amount of time on the site. Worked great. Just make sure you get the deal and writing unless its somebody whom you really trust.

[guidemesingapore]

I am curious on what you mean by bartering services? How does one make a profit by bartering services or do you put in touch people looking for similar services and then charge a fee?

[bousmama]

I have done bartering a few times with great success. I traded personal services (massage, hair coloring/cuts, tattoos, air conditioner) in exchange for web design and some SEO services. This was just some local businesses where I knew the owners though, not random strangers. I know there are IRS rules about bartering that should be followed but since I don't have a web design business, I was ok. It's something you should check into though. I recently saw a website (can't remember what it was) that had a blurb about bartering for services. It can be a win/win in most situations.

[stand856]

@bousmama
How did you "price" your web design compared to the businesses you dealt with? Is it an ongoing effort or one time thing?
@guidemesingapore
You don't profit you try to have your pricing for whatever service you provide in line with the other person's pricing or amount of services they do.

[bousmama]

Because I knew these people, we just agreed on service exchange based on what we thought was fair. If I was to do a barter with joe public, I would figure an hourly rate and how many hours the project would take and then the exchange would be worth that amount.