Small Miracles in Optimization

It had to happen sooner or later.

Just the other day I was rifling through the pages of my site, seeing which pages need updating, which need to be cut, etc. I paused at the Article Writing/Business Blogging page and, as my index finger hovered over the Delete Page button, I began to reflect on that brief, intensely weird bit of Curriculum Vitae in my career.

As I have mentioned previously, I worked for a web directory firm that shall remain nameless.  They sold domain names and set up rudimentary websites for a nominal fee. Where they made their money was on banner ads and monthly maintenance, in the form of SEO writing that drove traffic in the client’s direction.

Anyway, it was a brief but intense stint. I packed a lot of experience into a short amount of time. When I bailed out at 30,000 feet (read all about it) I was dazed. Dazed, but determined to make something useful come out of that experience.

So I devoted a page of my site to blogging and article writing. Then I sat back and played the Waiting Game. Then, as Homer Simpson suggested, I tired of the Waiting Game and switched to Hungry Hungry Hippos. Then, I forgot all about it.

So, there I was, finger hovering over the Delete Page button, assessing the 7 months of total inactivity this page had inspired. The music swelled urgently, and there was a series of quick cuts between my hand poised at the mouse, the screen, a twitching eye, the screen again, a bead of sweat forming on my upper lip and finally, a super slo-mo shot of my index finger descending toward the left-click button.

Suddenly, the telephone rang , because that’s how it works in these stories.  A client who I had been trying to engage for over a year was asking if I was interested in writing SEO articles on a regular basis for a small business website. And, get this, he was willing to pay my going rate. Clarification…he gave a per-article dollar amount that happened to be my hourly rate. It’s up to me to get it done in an hour.

Needless to say, we are in business. Strangest of all, a half-hour later (I am not joking) a different client who I have also been trying to engage for a year called for the same reason, for some other small business website. Praise be, he was also willing to pay me like a grown up!

Believe me, I am thanking the Lord for this odd bit of fortune…and real SEO types will back me up on just how odd it is!   The moral, which I will attribute in part to a writer friend in the UK, is this:

• Determine your worth.
• Establish and publish a rate.
• Determine how much you are willing to deviate from that rate, and
• Don’t waver!

In the end, you may not get hired…but you won’t get ripped off, either.