First of all, Web Marketing is as much an art as a science, and both facets must be learned. This means that good web marketers have a lot of “tire tracks on their back” from mistakes made or learned at somebody else’s expense. Mistakes they can advise you against. It also means their learning process is continual, and involves many formal and informal sources, and hours each week trying to find a better way, or find out exactly why somebody else appears to be achieving better results. The day your web marketer stops learning is the day you stop getting improved search results.

This creates their value proposition: they can get you good results, faster results, and with less effort and third-party expense than you can on your own. On the other hand, they are professionals and expect professional rates.

Should I respond to an email that offers “first page positioning” for $39 / $49 /$69? Not if you want to see results for that money! For that little money you are better off investing is software tools you can use again later. Because that’s all they’re doing. And because some sites list most recently added listings at the top of their home page results, you get “first page listings” for one day. After that… who knows?

Web marketers will look at your needs, your scope, and your budget and make recommendations accordingly. Of course its up to you to agree to the budget & scope of their services.