

Ask HN: If a person was a SEOgod, would he be the king of micropreneurs? - somedude1234abc

Hello Hackernews, I have a question for you guys.  I've been doing a lot of reading lately about SEO, and started to wonder: why aren't all these SEO experts super rich?  With the skills they have, they could probably make a living without working for anybody!&#60;p&#62;So anyway, if I were to become super good at SEO, would I be able to make a full time living off of it?
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patio11
There are some SEOs that do extraordinarily well for themselves. Think of an
industry awash with cash, like say consumer finance. Does there exist an
affiliate program in consumer finance? Does there exist advertising in
consumer finance? If so, is there _any_ space for a new entrant in this field?
If yes, there exists at least a few SEOs who are probably doing pretty well
for themselves.

There are many reasons why someone who is really good at SEO might not be
rich. That goes for any white collar profession, like say lawyering. See that
unrich lawyer, what's wrong with him? Maybe he's not good at lawyering, but is
good at writing about lawyering or playing a lawyer on a social network, which
describes quite a few SEO "experts." Maybe he's good at lawyering but not good
at extracting value from it. Maybe he works in a sector where money does not
naturally concentrate, like public interest law. Maybe he doesn't really care
for money. Maybe he's rich and doesn't feel like talking about it. Maybe he's
playing a different game or one with different time horizons.

As to whether you can make a full-time living doing SEO: yes. People do. Nota
bene: most of the SEOs I know have diverse skill sets -- some understand
broader marketing well, some have deeper technical abilities, some have ready
access to capital, some have domain expertise or industry connections, etc
etc. The field is quite like programming in that regard.

~~~
somedude1234abc
YES. Patrick. FUCKING McKenzie. I don't know this if this is appropriate for
me to say, but it is 2:18AM where I am at right now, and I've kind of been
hoping you'd answer. Why I haven't emailed you instead I don't know.

I'm only getting into the whole marketing thing now, and I gotta say it's
pretty interesting, and studying it is not a grind at all. I am a programmer,
and I thought search marketing would be a nice skill set for my new hobby of
micropreneurship.

It's really interesting how you mention that there are people who are good at
teaching SEO, and people who are good at actually executing SEO. I guess I
should start applying what I've learned!

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matdwyer
You can do very well for yourself, but you have to commit a significant amount
of time, research, and be constantly monitoring/changing.

It doesn't just "happen" for everyone. A SEO god is pulling in millions per
year, but so is everyone in the top 1-2% of their industry. The money is
there, but you likely will not get it.

Remember the barriers to entry here are zero - anyone with the desire can get
in that game. It is crowded. Your first idea has to be to find a market/niche,
and then go full out. Then you have to repeat. One a week while keeping up
everything. Once you have 52 hooks in the water you'll start to do OK,
assuming you've done everything the way you should. It is a lot harder then
you think!

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kingofspain
I personally know of one SEO who earns upwards of $50k/month. While not
exactly super rich, I wouldn't complain about that kind of money!

~~~
deleo
And how is he doing it? What's special about him? Does he have industry-
specific knowledge, does he know how to get big accounts?

~~~
kingofspain
He gets results & it's all white hat (the only thing that could be considered
a bit dodgy is the content writing but it's generally of good enough quality
to be useful to a human).

He can point to previous clients whose traffic has jumped 2, 3 or 4 times over
after he went through their sites.

People will happily pay $50,000 to make an extra $200,000. If he just said to
them "give me $50,000 and I'll do your SEO", he'd be laughed out.

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frommers
Like the others have said if you are really good at it you can make a very
good living. A lot of the very successful SEO's aren't the ones speaking at
conferences all the time or writing books, why? Because they are busy actually
doing SEO or aren't they type that need public recognition to be happy. Just
like in anything else you need to be at the top to make good money. In my case
I only work with companies in a consulting role instead of doing affiliate
marketing because I get more satisfaction in working with other people and
being part of their success.

