Marketing and SEO consultants set their own rates for paid advice; illustrative starting points are $10-50 for one asynchronous paid question and $30-150 for a defined audit or teardown. Those are editorial examples, not observed market averages or guaranteed earnings — the final price depends on scope, research time, and experience. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling.
- Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found the average SEO hourly rate is $111, while SEO consultancies average $171.18 an hour and SEO freelancers $71.59 an hour (Ahrefs SEO pricing study, updated 15 August 2024). For Paid Questions, you set your price and reply in writing on your own time, within a window from one hour to five days (how it works). What Brillay takes from each sale is set out on the pricing page.
Every “can you look at my site?” message has a real time cost. You post a useful growth or SEO breakdown, and the replies arrive: “Why isn’t this ranking?”, “What would you do with my budget?”, or “Can you review my landing page?”
When a question requires your judgment about someone’s landing page, keyword, or ad spend, answering it is consulting work. If you provide that work for free in DMs, the time never appears as income—even though it uses the same expertise you would invoice a client for.
How much can a marketing consultant charge for SEO advice?
There is no universal rate for SEO advice, so anchor to a published benchmark and price the actual scope. Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found the average SEO hourly rate is $111 and that $75-$100 an hour is the single most popular bracket, charged by 24% of respondents.
The top of that market is thinner than consultants assume: 90% of the 439 SEO service providers Ahrefs polled charge $150 an hour or less, only 4.1% command $201 an hour or more, and 47% sit between $75 and $200 an hour.
Track record moves the hourly number more than specialism does. In Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers, the average hourly rate is $73.05 for SEOs in business two years or less, $97.11 at 2-4 years, $102.03 at 5-10 years, and $118.35 at 10 or more years.
Three free landing-page reactions each week add up to 156 answers over 52 weeks. At an illustrative price of $20 each, the same volume would equal $60 a week or $3,120 a year before Brillay's platform fee and card processing. Not everyone who asks for free advice will pay—and they do not have to. Redirect only the personalized questions that take real work, show a fixed price before checkout, and let the client pay as a guest without creating an account.
What the buyer is paying for is judgment, not placement: Google Search Central states that "Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results" and that "it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results" (Do you need an SEO?). Price the diagnosis and the prioritised fix list, because the ranking itself is not for sale.
These figures are examples, not a promise of what a client will pay or what you will earn. Turning free DMs into paid questions explains how to redirect personalized requests without making the interaction feel like a hard sell.
What do broader SEO consulting benchmarks show?
SEO consulting is benchmarked in whole engagements, not single answers. Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found SEO consultancies charge $3,250 a month and $171.18 an hour on average, against $3,209 a month and $98.90 an hour for agencies and $1,348 a month and $71.59 an hour for freelancers.
One-off project fees sit an order of magnitude above a single answer. Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers puts the average per-project fee at $9,507.84 for agencies, $8,685.53 for consultancies, and $2,348.63 for freelancers, with $2,501-$5,000 the most common bracket at 21.2% of respondents and 60.6% charging $1,001 or more.
The typical monthly ticket is smaller than the averages imply: Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found SEO costs $2,917 a month on average, local SEO $1,557 a month, and that 68.8% of providers charge $2,000 a month or less, with $501-$1,000 the most popular retainer band at 20.4%.
Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers also reports how those fees are billed: 78.2% of respondents charge a monthly retainer, 48.9% charge per project, and 34.8% charge hourly. A private, no-call paid question is a fourth option that suits a scoped request needing neither a live conversation nor an ongoing engagement.
Demand for that advice is not shrinking. Search Engine Journal's fifth annual State of SEO report, based on a survey of 371 SEO professionals in 52 countries, found that 77% worry AI answers will reduce website clicks, 59% name algorithm changes their top challenge, and 43% of companies cut SEO spending in the prior year while 65% expect no cuts in the year ahead (State of SEO 2026, published 10 September 2025). Those numbers describe exactly the anxious, budget-holding audience that sends "why isn't this ranking?" DMs.
That gap between published consulting rates and a single answer is arithmetic you can do yourself: at the $171.18 average consultancy hourly rate reported in Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers, 10-15 minutes of attention equals roughly $29-43 of billable time and 90 minutes roughly $257. That is why the $10-50 and $30-150 illustrative ranges on this page sit below a full consultant hour rather than above it.
What can I charge for a paid question?
Price a paid question as a fraction of a consulting hour. Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers puts the average SEO consultancy rate at $171.18 an hour, so a focused 10-15 minute written reply maps to roughly $29-43 of billable time.
Paid Questions are one private question, one written answer, paid upfront. The client checks out as a guest, so there is no account to create between reading your price and paying it, and you can decline a request you would rather not take. The money is in before you look at the site, which is the opposite of the audit you write first and invoice for afterwards.
Possible questions and illustrative prices include:
- “Can you review my landing page copy and tell me what’s killing conversions?” — illustratively $15-40
- “Why isn’t my SEO ranking moving for [keyword]?” — illustratively $20-50
- “Which paid channel should I start with—Google, Meta, or TikTok—for my budget?” — illustratively $15-35
- “Is my email subject line or sequence any good?” — illustratively $10-25
- “What’s wrong with my Google Business Profile or local SEO setup?” — illustratively $15-35
- “Should I hire an agency or do this myself at my stage?” — illustratively $15-30
Those examples bracket the benchmark: at the $111 average SEO hourly rate across the 439 providers Ahrefs polled, 10 minutes is about $18, so a $15-50 paid question ranges from slightly below that time-based figure to well above it while remaining below the $171.18 average consultancy hour. A paid question is best when an honest answer requires only a few focused minutes. It avoids the calendar slot, invitation, no-show risk, and rescheduling associated with a consultation call. How to price a five-minute creator reply offers a practical starting framework.
When should the ask be a custom request instead?
Use Custom Work when the client needs a defined deliverable rather than a quick answer. Google Search Central states that an SEO audit "should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved" (Do you need an SEO?) — which is exactly what a scoped, fixed-price teardown delivers.
With Custom Work, you state what the client gets, what you need from them, and what is not included, then set one fixed price and a delivery time of up to 5 days. Delivery is one-time; extra work requires a new order.
For comparison, Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found that $2,501-$5,000 is the most common per-project fee at 21.2% of respondents and that SEO consultancies average $8,685.53 per one-off project. A single fixed-scope teardown prices far below those brackets because it delivers one output, not an engagement.
Scope the inputs as carefully as the output. Google Search Central advises site owners that when an SEO offers to run an audit they should "only grant read access to Search Console (at this stage, don't grant them write access)" (Do you need an SEO?), so ask buyers for read-only access or exported screenshots rather than account credentials.
Examples to adapt include:
- 5-Point SEO Teardown — a written audit flagging on-page issues such as titles, headers, speed, and indexing for one URL — illustratively $40-90, 48-72h.
- Landing Page Conversion Review — annotated screenshots plus notes on copy, CTA, and structure — illustratively $35-75, 24-48h.
- Ad Copy Rewrite (3 variations) — three alternate headline and body combinations for one ad — illustratively $30-60, 24-48h.
- Keyword Gap Mini-Audit — 10-15 keyword opportunities competitors rank for that the client does not — illustratively $50-100, 72-120h.
- 90-Day Growth Plan Outline — a written roadmap covering channels, priorities, and milestones — illustratively $75-150, 72-120h.
You can shape the deliverable as a written document, annotated screenshots, or a short recorded video note. State exactly what the client receives, what inputs you need, and what is outside scope. How to write a custom request offer covers naming the deliverable and setting expectations before payment.
What about the moments that are not an audit?
Some requests are celebratory rather than analytical, and a short recorded video is the right unit for those. Personalized Videos let a follower pay your price upfront for a custom video that you record and deliver through Brillay; you set the delivery time and can enable or turn off the offer yourself, with no live call, no scheduling.
For a marketing consultant, that could mean a congratulations video for a client who reached a launch or revenue milestone, a “roast my ad” reaction to submitted copy, or a shoutout for a small agency team celebrating a win. There is no monthly fee, so an offer you enable for one launch season costs nothing to leave switched off the rest of the year.
How can I earn beyond questions and audits?
Beyond questions and audits, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries can all live on the same Brillay link. Tips and Goals are one-time payments, not memberships; Brand Collaboration Inquiries take no payment.
Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.
If the target is a podcast microphone, API and hosting costs for a free keyword tool, or an industry conference, every contribution to the Goal remains yours even when the progress bar stops short; unlike an all-or-nothing campaign, it creates no reward tiers to fulfil and nothing to ship.
When a SaaS company or agency wants a sponsored mention rather than SEO advice, Brand Collaboration Inquiries provides a “work with me” form where the brand can submit its budget and timeline; brand inquiries carry no platform fee at all.
None of these offers promises rankings, traffic, conversions, or revenue. Google Search Central states flatly that "no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google" and tells site owners to beware of SEOs that guarantee rankings or claim a special relationship with Google (Do you need an SEO?), so sell your review as experience-based analysis, not a guaranteed result.
Set the timeline expectation in writing too. Google's SEO Starter Guide says some changes "might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months," and recommends waiting a few weeks before assessing whether a change helped (Google SEO Starter Guide, last updated 10 December 2025) — a useful line to paste into an audit so a buyer does not expect movement the week they implement it.
Which offer fits which ask?
Match the offer to the size of the ask: one question and one written answer for a quick diagnosis, Custom Work for anything needing research or a written deliverable, Personalized Videos for celebrations, and Tips for free work. Each paid interaction is a one-time purchase, with no membership, so followers can pay for the specific answer, service, shoutout, tip, or goal contribution they want. For Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, and Custom Work, you set the price and delivery time; for Tips and Goals, clients choose how much to contribute.
The following prices are illustrative starting examples rather than Brillay averages or guaranteed earnings:
| Offer | Best for | Example price | delivery time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid Questions | A quick “why isn’t this ranking?” text reply | Illustratively $10-50 | Creator-set, no call |
| Custom Work | A defined audit, teardown, or gap analysis | Illustratively $30-150 | Up to 5 days |
| Personalized Videos | Congratulations videos, “roast my ad” reactions, or encouragement | Creator-set | Up to 5 days |
| Tips | A no-reply-required thank-you for a free post | Client-set | Instant |
How do I set Brillay up?
You do not need a large audience, a follower minimum, or platform approval to start. Brillay supports creator payouts in 41 countries. If your country is one of the 41 supported for payouts, you can use the same page for paid advice, services, Personalized Videos, tips, goals, and brand inquiries. Creators choose which offers to enable. For Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, and Custom Work, you set the price, delivery time, and availability; for Tips and Goals, you can provide suggested contribution amounts.
Create your page, enable the offers that match the requests you already receive, and place the link where people find you, such as your LinkedIn bio, YouTube About section, or TikTok profile. Followers pay by card as guests, with no follower account needed, while brands submit Brand Collaboration Inquiries without payment. You complete Stripe setup once to receive payouts, and Stripe processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings. Brillay gives you a destination for redirecting requests that would otherwise remain unpaid. The guide on how to stop giving away free advice in your DMs is a useful next read if the pricing arithmetic is what convinced you.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a landing-page review or cheap SEO audit cost?
There is no fixed rate. Illustrative starting examples in this guide are $10-50 for a focused private answer and $30-150 for a defined audit or teardown; for context, Ahrefs' poll of 439 SEO service providers found the most common hourly bracket is $75-$100 at 24% of respondents and that only 1 in 10 providers charge more than $150 an hour. Set the final price according to scope, research time, deliverable, experience, and delivery time; these examples are not guarantees of demand or earnings.
Can I guarantee that rankings or traffic will improve?
No. Google Search Central states that "no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google" and warns site owners against SEOs who promise rankings (Do you need an SEO?), so present paid SEO feedback as experience-based analysis rather than a promised result.
What is the difference between a paid question and a custom request?
With Paid Questions, the client gets one written reply to one request, such as “Why isn’t this page ranking?” Custom Work lets you sell a defined deliverable, such as a written SEO teardown or keyword-gap audit, with its own price and a delivery time of up to 5 days.
How much does Brillay take from a sale?
No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Stripe processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings and can vary by transaction; check Stripe pricing for applicable rates.
For the fuller picture of pricing async advice, see how to get paid for expert advice online, and paid requests from your followers for how these offers fit together. Startup advisors and sales coaches run close to the same paid-Q&A math, worth a look if you want more pricing ideas. Create your free Brillay page and put a price on the advice you're already giving away.
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