How did you get into SEO?

[I, Brian]

I'm actually an aspiring author, who thought that being able to market his work well on the internet would be a great help in helping my getting signed up with a publishing contract. So I built a basic site for the work, and then looked at marketing options. Soon enough, I realised the potential of SEO for getting the word out, even just for building traffic to wave at prospective publishers - and because it only took time and effort, rather than real money, I was able to afford to learn my way around it.

I am still an aspiring author, and one day I shall be a published novelist - but in the meantime I have somehow ended up running a full time SEO business.

Anyway, a general thread for people to introduce how they got into SEO/SEM and the general world of search engines. :)

[seobook]

I had a career in an organization that was IMHO "less than stellar."

I wanted the world to know what a bad organization said organization is.

Also know of lots of messed up legal type situations and want to eventually be able to use the web to shape social policy.

[Nick W]

I had nothing better to do ;)

We moved to Denmark in 2000 and I had quit my sales job in London with a vow never ever to do sales again. (im good at it, which makes it hard to leave hence the vow)...

My wife suggested i learn html and build some hobby sites, then i got into a debate on 'cloaking' over wmw and the deal was done! Full time webdev, yay! ;)

Nick

[sugarrae]

I built a little homepage in 1998 about my son that had turned into a national support group/non profit site by 1999. By the year 2000, it was the largest site of "housed" information on the topic on the Internet. Funny thing is that I never really paid attention to SEO back then. The site had a lot of traffic and I wasn't looking to make money - it was all a "non profit" thing.

A few years later, I was burnt out on the volunteer site owner thing. I found a new director for the site and went about my merry way. But, I soon missed having a website. Then I found affiliate marketing. From there, I learned HTML (previous site was with an editor), SEO and the like. Been full time at it since about 6 months or so after I started and have no intention of ever stopping, so I'll have to evolve as the industry does. ;)

[rcjordan]

I started acquiring domains when they were free. After they set up the registrar system soon after, I started building a themed network of domains for the towns in the region. I literally begged the towns to get involved, to provide content --they thought I was crazy. Who would EVER use the internet to look up travel and real estate? Man, that guy is nuts! (To be fair, this was the Mosiac era and you surfed by going through a site's 'other links' page.)

One of the towns (I owned the type-in of the town name) had been involved in a scandal a few years earlier. As Yahoo and then Altavista became somewhat more known, the old scandal surfaced bigtime on Altavista, fed primarily by students' personal pages. The local chamber of commerce president called me in a panic and asked if there was a way to delete the other listings. I told him "No, but I might be able to push them off page 1." And I did.

[critter]

Well I had been a webdesigner for years, and at one particular job, I had a mentor, who was a seasoned SEO. I made sure to listen very carefully to what he had to say and began reading every night, learning SEO.

Web Design created little challenge for me, so once I felt I had a strong enough knowledge of SEO (1 year of constant reading and experiments) I began to dabble in some SEO myself.

The rest as they say is history!

CRITTER

[St0n3y]

I designed my dads web site and he bought me a copy of Web Position so I could get him ranked. That was in 98.

[greenleaves]

My dad saw potential in the internet. I wanted to earn money before/during colledge. He bought me a course in web design (New Horizons). I learned about html, photoshop, dreamweaver and quite a few other programs. When I looked for a job, I got an SEO job in a gambling company who trained me quite well. And the rest is also history :)

[dstew]

I went to work for a web app builder back in '97. They had an existing client that wanted some SEO work done. I had a very little experience previously, but what I had was more than anyone else had. So, I was handed this project with free reign (what a mistake on their part), and ended up cutting my SEM teeth on that company. From their, we took on more and more clients, and I learned more and more.

In 2001, I got laid off, so I went to work for myself for a while, then got out of SEM for about a year working for another company, and since the beginning of this year, I've been doing it exclusively as the SEM manager for the company I currently work for. All I do is manage the work on our own marketing sites. So far, so good. :)

[yellowwing]

I was a Data Base programmer when an SEO company hired me for a term contract. Their SEO techies and I exchanged knowledge and experience.

I tried SEO on a few domains as an affliate. The sites did well so I got a few more going. Then a web design company hired me for SEO. They had the sales force and proccess to open up a new division.

After a year I decided to go it alone. I quickly found out that SEO was the easy part. Sales and management is a whole new ball game!

[dstew]

I quickly found out that SEO was the easy part. Sales and management is a whole new ball game!

That's the truth! This is why I prefer making a decent salary with benies,and not having to worry about paying the light bill. :D

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

I broke my ankle many years ago and could not work, yet could not sit home and do nothing, so started dabbling at SEO for fun on the side - then got hooked.

After I got one of my 1st part-time clients #1 on Altavista for "new cars" out of 10 million pages, decided I should get serious, quit my J.O.B. and start a company.

Now I'm an Affiliate Management Consultant but still optimize all my own sites, plus get top rankings for most of my client's on their affiliate program review pages. Plus I am always advising all my affiliates and giving ideas to better optimize their sites. So even though I don't get paid to do SEO any more, it really helps my current business in numerous ways. Plus I make a lot more now than I ever did at SEO.

But I wouldn't be where I am today probably if I had not broken my ankle and started SEO. I maybe would still be selling Dental Lasers. YIKES! Don't remind me. :rolleyes: