I am now doing SEO...

most pilots don't own airplanes...

Cost is the barrier to entry on airplanes.

This is what LinkedIn is for, damn. Never seen anyone using it for testimonials!! Cool!

Congrats..what is your email...

loooks good

The O G King of SEO. Bow down bitches.

Interesting. Good luck on the venture!

Kill it dood! Stoked for you!

Best of luck buddy

I use to think that but I've since changed my mind. If you know SEO and can sell, taking clients is the smart thing to do.

And those who really "kiss ass" have been doing so for the past couple of years.

Best of luck

On Mainstream SEO agencies:

All mainstream SEO companies use automation. I've had at least ten of them try to pitch me for one thing or another. I don't tell them that I know SEO till the end. It's awesome to blow their mind with all the jargon and SEO space acronyms. Every one of them cops to using GSA/SER, etc. etc./ Blackhatting tactics when it's all said and done.

I've learned that the "ignorance of the client" is essential in them keeping the story going long term. They'll automate some tiers and set up some WP PBNs and show some ranking movements, maybe put the clients on the first page for some terms that aren't competitive.

The second thing that is important is to not take clients in super competitive verticals, and if you do, you better not promise them the moon; and have performance clauses in your contracts. Automation is only going to carry a term so far. Google will catch on eventually and the sites are cooked. Automation should only be done on domains you don't want to keep long term.

The bottom line is that building organic links that are NOT spam, and NOT designed to trick the algorithms is a challenge these days. It's time consuming, it's expensive, and it takes a hell of a lot more links to overcome the rest of the spam that is out there currently ranking. 301ing expired domains with IBLs from authority sites still works, but is another challenge in itself.

Trying to SEO white hat is a uphill battle that few will still even attempt. There are only so many hours in the day.

The thing that really puts the 'link spammers" cap on them is when they only want to charge you 800 bucks a month. There are at least 300 of these agencies that I could point out in the LA area alone.

It's gotten VERY challenging as of late. Spam still works though.

My stuff is still ranking in mainstream, and it's ALL automation. It's pure luck. Can't believe that Google hasn't caught it. They will though. When they do, I will start over.


Good luck Jay. Always do shit that you are passionate about. Everything else will just suck your soul dry.

Congrats!

SER is like a musical instrument. You can make it sound like a cat dying, or you can make it put out something beautiful.

That's a pretty good idea of what I thought SEO agencies were about and what I thought SEO was these days - an uphill battle. I remember thinking to myself that it is almost impossible to get as many 'natural,' non spammy links as one needs to rank first without spending 25 hours per day in work and $5k in link buying.

You seem to know more than I do and I thought it was a well written post.