I'm one of the few search engine marketers that can still remember when Yahoo! was beating Google in search market share.
I started my career as a web designer in 2001, giving up my construction job, and starting web design classes at TechSkills. I obtained my i-Net+ certification and the first of 2 CIW certifications. I interned at a Company in Anderson called Cincy Web Design before landing my first web deisign job. In 2003, I began a job at DNA Diagnostics Center. I was taken under the wing of my IT Manager, Scott Butler, now President of iTech Professionals.
Scott taught me everything that he knew about search engine optimization. I became fascinated with search engines and began joining online SEO forums to learn everything I could about how the search engines worked. We watched this small startup named Google grow from a college reasearch project called "Backrub", to the internet giant that it is today.
A surprise phone call one Thursday night forced me into starting my own business
The phone rang on a Thursday night. On the other end of the line was Eric Burdette, an ex-employee of Cincinnati Bell who was now managing a company named Data Suites in downtown Cincinnati. Him and his business partner, David Krikorian, had a start-up company named Parody Productions. They were looking for a web designer to make their website e-commerce enabled so that they could begin to take orders online.
We spoke for over an hour, and I told them my background and all about SEO and what I was doing at my current job. We met that Saturday at a small coffee shop and on Sunday I was offered a job with them as a freelance web designer and SEO. The pay was more than I was currently making, and with 2 children at home, I couldn't pass it up.
When I returned to DNA Diagnostics Center, I put in my two-weeks notice. I was excited when the manager asked me if I would consider working as a freelancer for them as well. Now I could work from home and have 2 companies paying me to work on their SEO. The next logical step was to open my own web design business.
Growing..... a little too fast
Did you ever see that UPS commercial when the company launches their website and began taking orders? It's very exciting at first, but then the reality sets in, and.... well, you can watch it for yourself
This was what happened at my first company, Altherr Web Design, in the first 5 years. I grew from 2 clients to over 150. I got an office, hired subcontractors, but was still unable to keep up with the demand. Eventually I was forced to sell my company to Atomic Computers & Design, another web design agency located across the hall in my office building that I was using to keep up.
I stayed on at Atomic in an internet marketing only role for the next 2 years. I soon began to see a shift in SEO, when the Penguin and Panda updates hit, and was ready to move on to a more content-focused agency that specialized in search engine marketing.
My short-lived agency life
I got a job as the search marketing manager for a mid-sized agency in downtown Cincinnati. The original agency was located in New York, and had offices around the country. My first job there was to train the PR team, who also ran social media accounts, on SEO. I flew to their headquarters a few times and tried my hardest to fit in, but the pace was slower than I was used to working at. Every step of every job seemed to go through 5 different people and we were having meetings to book other meetings. The whole experience was bad and I soon left to try out another agency.
The next agency was worse than the first. This one was e-commerce focused, so the clients were more fun to work with. I learned a lot about running shopping campaigns, product feeds, tracking Return on Ad Spend, etc. and soon developed a base for how I track projects to this day.
This job only lasted for a year. I put in my 2-weeks notice and started out on my own again as a freelancer.
This brings me to where I am today
With everything I learned from my first company to now, I put together a plan for my next company. I established some rules for the new company that are unheard of in this type of business.
- No Contracts If you're not happy with the service that I provide, then you don't have to continue.
- No Nickel-and-Diming You have a flat rate monthly fee, based on hours that I assume it will take me to work on your website. If I go over one month, don't expect to be charged for it.
- Don't Take on Too Much Work I can comfortably work for 10 clients at a time. There's just not enough hours in the day to do more than that, and still provide the service that they deserve.
The image below is from my first office. Keep in mind that it was only me, and you can see my to-do list on the whiteboard. I soon learned that living behind a computer for 16 hours per day was no way to live my life. I've since began coaching football and taking up other hobbies to give myself a break from the constant work. Returning to work, with a fresh set of eyes and a clear mind, allows me to achieve more than I was able to do in the past.
The new home office is smaller, but a lot more comfortable.
