I Love My Clients
Hard to believe it’s been over five years since I started this gig.
While on occasion I have tried to share interesting stuff on the blog, this weekend, while depositing the above check, it occurred to me that I had never used this public space to share my appreciation for the people who have made the crazy ride over the past few years possible – my clients.
I picked up my first client – LATimes.com – in fall of 2006. I was having drinks with Jason Oberfest, then LATimes.com’s head of Product. I mentioned I was working on building a technology to automate the analysis of tech SEO issues for big websites. He pulled out some pdfs of a site redesign he was in the midst of and asked if could take a look. The rest is search marketing history. So huge thanks to Jason and his team for being SEO Patient Zero (and check out Jason’s new health app start-up – Mango Health).
Over the years I have had clients of all shapes and sizes. They have been a fantastic group of collaborators and it’s a privilege to have been allowed inside so many different companies. For the most part, I think we’ve done some great work together.
People often ask – if I am such a SEO-know-it-all, why don’t I chuck the clients, do my own thing, make a ton of money spamming Google and go off and live on an island somewhere? To which, my answer invariably is something like:
- I am doing my own thing
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No need to spam Google to make a decent living. WWJHD?
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Islands are nice, but the wifi usually is lousy and I can do without the mosquitoes and humidity
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I like my clients. A lot. I like that they’re trying to make something out of nothing. I like that they are willing to put their trust in me to help them achieve their goals. I like that I can help them create and sometimes even save jobs (cue The Star Spangled Banner). Most of all, I just like working on interesting things with interesting people.
For all of the other SEOs who read this blog, I hope you agree that we are quite lucky to be in a pretty fantastic industry.
Sometimes I feel like a golf-pro at a party full of amateur golfers. I’ve never met anybody who didn’t appreciate a tip to improve their swing.
And here’s another tip. Check out Dirty Projectors’ Swing Lo Magellan.
Albums like this make me want to start a fan club…
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