The Good and Bad Points about being an SEO Service Provider

The Good and Bad Points about being an SEO Service Provider

Well, as this section of the forum is called the "pub" and as it's Friday night here in Thailand, I thought it would be a good time (and place) to talk about the subject above.

THE GOOD AND BAD POINTS ABOUT BEING "A" (yes that's correct) SEO SERVICE PROVIDER

The setting;
As I am writing this, I am sitting on my own in quite a nice Thai/Chinese restaurant in one of the private air-con rooms doing my work. There is just myself and the Thai waitress in this room of 15 tables and all she keeps asking me is if I would like more beer..."nair norn" (for sure) is my only answer.

[The Good and Bad Points about being "a" Seo Service Provider]

So... working on-line full-time in Thailand; what's it like?

I think the first thing people think when you say you work on-line, AND live in Thailand is "you lucky ba$*Ard". As much as I laugh and say, "I know, aren't I lucky", the truth is that working on-line is just as stressful, if not more so, than many "off-line" jobs that I had before I started discovering SEO.

Now don't get me wrong, if I really considered a day job better than my SEO services, then that's exactly what I would be doing now; however, as much as I LOVE SEO, there are two sides to this coin so here in this thread I'm going to talk about my own experiences, and hopefully help answer a few questions for those "up and coming seo-supertstars".

Positives;

Choosing your own hours (to an extent)

Even though I work maybe 14+ hours a day on-line (often more) and still never feel like I have done enough, the great thing is that I don't have anyone dictating my hours to me. I can get to the bank before it closes, get my car fixed while I wait, and even treat the wife to a cappuccino now and again (lol). In the days before SEO, I was actually a Toyota technician and although the money was quite good, not being able to make simple trips to the bank or even the local bakery was torture for me! Working on-line allows you these simple freedoms and for me, this was 90% of my inspiration to become good at what I do, and continue to develop myself under my own rules, and in my own time!

Being your "true" self

When you work for other companies, no matter how much you try to fight it, you "will" become part of their plan to a certain extent. What I mean by this, is if you are a teacher for example, the "controlled" behavior that you are expected to adhere to in the workplace will slowly start to creep out into your "outside" persona. The great thing about SEO is that y0u can literally be yourself...whether you are a scruffy slob, smart and slick or even something in between, as long as you are skilled at SEO, you can be successful!

Helping Others

I know a few people here might be raising eyebrows, but when you sit in-front of a computer for as long as I do everyday, when someone reaches out for "help", I genuinely feel like I want to help. After all, there was always a time when we didn't know what proxies were, or why 1 link might be worth more than 100 links, so it's nice to have a bit of human interaction now and again (in fact that is half the reason why I am writing this post).

Negatives;

The Best Jobs Are Seldom Rewarded

This is probably one of the most frustrating and disappointing things any Seo professional can go through. You work especially hard on a job, and get great results with a page 1 rankings for a pretty difficult term, only for the client to turn around and say that they are "disappointed" because they are not number 1. In fact, just this evening this exact thing happened to me here on Seoclerks; the client rejected my order for a number 1 rankings because I didn't provide enough information to give to his client! He may even give me a negative rating for his number 1 ranking and there isn't much I can do about it! Depressing!

Scammers Are Everywhere Online

Even if you don't have any money to invest, opening a web 2.0 site is pretty simple and is completely free. So, if you want to rank this site and make money, you need to build links but then again, if you have no money or tools, how do you build these links??? The answer is unfortunately, have other people build these links and then just don't pay (or reject gigs/services)- for the most part, your newly built links will stay even if you don't pay for them.

*Advice for both Scammers and Seo professionals alike

Since the Penguin update, a lot of people lost their ranks for over-optimization of their target keywords (deemed spam by the Penguin) and a number of other things. What this means for scammers who are trying to get free links, is that the Seo professionals with the right tools are able to get most sites completely de-ranked with some "nasty- a$$" links if they want to get revenge.
Although this does leave innocent people vulnerable too, scammers will ALWAYS lose if they want to try getting free links; all it takes is xrumer and scrapebox (great tool if used properly) and it's game over!

To be continued....