I was looking at a few profiles today and thinking it a shame I didn’t have a bit more detail about the individual as opposed to their SEO services or product he/she was selling/marketing.

It then got me wondering about how everybody else here got involved with SEO ‘n stuff. Do most of us come from technical backgrounds or are most people more ‘self taught’ like myself? Considering that an estimated 90% of websites belong to small businesses or individuals, I suspect that the majority are more in my bracket?

I have been involved with the internet for about ten years now (wow, how time flies). It was literally about ten years ago that I got my first ever proper PC…although I did have a zx81 at one time, but I could never get it to work and then the spectrum came out that was beyond our means and nobody would help me any more with my low spec machine, so my ‘interactive media skills’ got directed down the Atari 2600, sega, sony playstation route.

Once I had the new PC I discovered it actually had the internet on it and I was starting to find my natural habitat somehow (one that naturally fitted into my nocturnal body clock). A great discovery that would swallow up 10 hours a day of my time whilst still working 9-5, yet didn’t actually show me anything for all that time invested?!

Forums came to big prominence at some stage during this and I was learning a good deal from websites like the highrankings forum that I still read today. I started using SEOmoz 2 or 3 years ago when it was first released. I can’t even remember what user name I had then, if I even had one at all (I have only very recently been more consistent with those types of things and can actually remember how to log into a million places!). Wow, SEOmoz has come a long way in a short amount of time, huh?

I had very little knowledge of SEO, of course, but had dabbled a little and built one or two fun websites that did reasonably well, in so much as I could find them for a particular search. They were just hobbies really, and sometimes added a little extra income.

After being bored with my real office type jobs (in event planning ) and general doom and gloom of the UK I emigrated, like many sun chasers, to Spain, and whilst doing some crumby jobs I dabbled in websites a little more.

Through circumstances I became involved in a similar work theme I had been doing in the UK and decided to join together the forces of my (lack of) website skills, my (non-existent) design skills, and my work ethic (for a job where I could sit on my ass all day being the brains of the outfit).

Well, about 6 years on I have probably invested the equivalent, average working man hours of twenty years into all things SEO, analytics, usability, social networks, publicity, press releases, articles, links, zzzzzzzz you get the picture.

I have never implemented black hat tactics on my business website, have never cheated, and never intentionally spammed (although technically, leaving links on on various topic forum posts out of habit may be open to debate).

I have no relevant qualifications as such, but due as much to the success of the website as anything else I now own an event planning company out here in sunny Spain (far from the maddening crowd). It’s still a small business in most senses, but is a genuine success story by my standards. I don’t actually organise many events myself though; from the start I have been and continue to be the webmaster and bring in the sales leads. That takes up, as fellow ‘students’ will know, every available hour (never been so unfit in all my life!) and I have people doing the events and conferences that actually do a ten times better job of it than I would.

Over time I have gained so much knowledge from people on these type of forums and blog sites, people like Rand, Rishil, Avinash Kaushik and Jill Whalen, whose opinions, amongst many others, I generally respect even if not always agree with. I like to think this knowledge has been passed down to others from myself as I have learned and implemented things, learned to test and re-test, and have the genuine knowledge that I can assist friends and families get a few more sales from their own websites.

Of course, often you are too swamped to do things to the best of your abilities but it creates other business opportunities. This in turn opens up new avenues of interest, new niches, new found hobbies all built around this one entity. Websites have in a way become what all business is or should be about.

Now I’m another SEO expert selling his wares? Ha ha. (Actually, I do to a very small degree — for a particular niche I will lend my skills and advice to small businesses out here in Spain, often targeting their local English speaking community.)

I’m not sure there is any moral to these ramblings. If there is I would like it to be quite simple things like ‘enjoy your work’ and ‘treat others as you wish others to treat you‘ in the general sense. In the internet/SEO sense? Well, seek out the advice of respected people in the business, don’t cut corners, and make your website the best it can possibly be within your budget/resources.

I recently realised I actually do ‘live it’, I guess, with hindsight that is the secret to success, be it financially or in a more personally rewarding way. I’m glad I discovered mine even if a little later than ideal in life. I’m now admitting to myself that I will ‘probably’ never win the Tour de France or score the winning goal at Wembley for Nottingham Forest.

Heyho. Can’t have everything, eh?