Well, there are great things about what I do. I love the work- I have realized I am a complete computer geek, but with more success comes more stress.
I have jumped in the real estate game and the stakes are high [and so is the pay:-)]. I have had clients nationwide and I have not really had to deal with competition between clients or future clients so far. However, real estate is king in Sarasota, Florida. Waterfront real estate is huge- Oprah is building a home here, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill just bought a home, “Arnold” just bought a home here, the list could go on and on. When you have homes going for $30 million you can bet you butt that the competition between realtors/brokers is fierce and I now have the issue of optimizing for one and yet needing to be fair to other real estate clients. In this market this is about impossible.
I have realized that to be fair in such a small market I have to limit the amount of real estate clients I take on and those clients are going to somehow need to be optimized in different ways. I have developed a plan that works, but even then, to be ethical, I have to really think and plan and remember each client with every page I optimize.
The great part about limiting the amount of clients I have in this type of market is that I am being paid to be exclusive and that pay is tremendous. This exclusivity is a per year basis, which is only fair to me. I can’t be paid once and potentially lose out on God knows how much money to not optimize anothers. I am even shocked myself at the money, but the bottom line is if I am doing the work for one and I can’t do it for another I deserve to be paid well.
The best part about building a reputation, especially in a small, wealthy town is that people begin to fight for who gets you. Because this town is small I can only work for one or maybe two in certain industries. For example, plastic surgery. I have a plastic surgeon who wants me to work for him and his practice only, but if I was going to work for one I would want it to be Dr. Braun Graham- not because of his reputation or one is better than another, but because he performed reconstructive surgery on my mother after she had a tumor removed from her neck (FYI, they guy is awesome- you would never even know what they did to my mother and trust me, it was a massive surgery).
So I have exclusivity issues and loyalty issues. I don’t know if I would ever feel right working for another plastic surgeon. Do I wait and hope one day I get to work for this man or work with someone else and feed my family??? I can’t just call the guy up and say, “Hey, your site needs some optimization…(big time)”. I can hold off on that decision, but with more success comes more decisions. I have to pick in choose in this market and I know other SEOs dealing with the same issues.
Today the world is run by the web. Every client I have is telling me they are not getting any return on the print ads they pay for and they know they must turn to the web. SEOs and SEMs have some tough decisions to make. You now need to choose your clients carefully and consider who you are giving up to work with one client. Is this going to be a lifetime client or a one time client? Can you be truly fair to this client or not?
Additionally, SEO is not enough. You need to know how to market and you need to know how to get in the minds of those that read any of your clients’ literature or their web site. You need to up your game and learn more. Take advantage of Universal Search, learn about markting options and learn which advertising methods are losing their effectivenss. When people are depending on you to increase the success of their business the responsibility is huge. We need to do what is best for them, their future and their employees. This massive responsibility needs to be stamped on everything you do for each client. You screw them over and you could not only hurt the client, but their employees and the families of the employees.
I want to do this because I have finally reached the level of success I dreamed about for a longtime and I couldn’t have done it without them. I have a ton of people that I should thank, but lets keep it short…
. I classy lady with so much love and compassion. Another person who kept holding me up my entire life. . So thanks. Some of my favorite SEOs, SEMs, People and Sites are:Melissa- SEOAware.com
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Thanks for the hat-tip and congrats on your success!
Wow … what a great post Melissa! I am really happy to hear about your success … maybe we all should post about our successes more often. Its so motivating and inspirational.
Thanks for the acknowledgement too. Its nice to know someone really reads my stuff (other than my wife who graciously appeases me on occasion).
Save me some waterfront down there … beside Tim and Faith pls
“I have finally reached the level of success I dreamed about for a longtime”
Great to hear Melissa!
This was one of the most enjoyable posts I’ve read of late. Congrats on your success, Melissa.
i also work in real estate but i live on the east coast of florida and it’s the same deal with waterfront real estate. other than the wealthy….the market has tanked over here. still selling the 2 mil & up but the avg $300,000 home could sit forever.
we’ve got alan jackson and you’ve got tim & faith. i guess nashville is nice but they all need a getaway where they can kick back and enjoy the florida lifestyle. so where did the mcgraw’s buy? are they building on an empty lot or did they buy a huge existing home? alan jackson is on a very exclusive private island called ‘jupiter island’…..
continued good luck
Todd, thank you.
Jeff
. Thanks and I would save you some waterfront property, but I am not that successful 
I didn’t know if I was an idiot for writing my thoughts or not, so to hear it is motivating is shocking to me! Thanks for writing. I love reading everything you say.
Chris, thanks and you too need to keep writing. Your avatar pic always cheers me up.
Matt, wow, thanks. You know how I feel about your writing and opinions. I always love reading your thoughts.
Mary, Tim ate at my best friends Sushi restaurant, Pacific Rim, and discussed why he bought here, but of course would not say where
. As with your coast, $2 mil and up is still selling here. The rich just keeping getting richer so I guess they can afford to do anything they want. I may stop by Jupiter Island sometime 