SEO Passions: Making Your Hobbies Work For You

I want to start by thanking Joshua for inviting me to blog as his guest. I treasure this opportunity and thank him for it.

After a summer of unemployment and a ghost town of SEO full-time in-house gigs, I spotted an unusual position at G4, the video game news site. I am a gamer girl, nerdy literature lover, Chicago-born, Los Angelian-ified; sometimes writer, always reader. So my heart burned at the hope of this opportunity, but my head steadied the beat – this could be another cover letter and resume with zero return. After all, I had applied at health care companies, eCommerce positions, a legal product company, and many more, with one interview and only a handful of callbacks from recruiters.

And yet, I’m doing SEO. My burning passions soldered together. I know it’s a rare experience to work on something you usually do for fun. I am very blessed to wake up every morning like it’s Christmas. “I get to go to work!” I shout, while my Facebook feed shows, “Ahh, Monday Noooooo!” by most of my friends.

Keyword research and link-building just got fun! It makes it so much easier when you know your product intimately. There are abbreviations that many folks would miss (even the Google Keyword Tool doesn’t realize that AC stands for Assassin’s Creed).

My competitors are like my former friends I met at my high school reunion. I know their architecture, and I’ve viewed their source code just for kicks. I know their strengths and weaknesses and this puts me ahead. I know what I’m looking to change and which items I need to prioritize to get done first.

The only drawback is the possibility of over-saturation. You just need to keep a balance; remember to pace yourself as SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.

In this economy, jobs have been hard to come by, but I recommend holding out on the opportunity that you will love. Your job performance will excel because you want to do it. There really is nothing like it.