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Learning Good Business Practices Through SEO Consultant Experiences
By Todd Malicoat
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-10-06
1. Pay extra for premium domains (if you develop them) If you can't find and buy a good aftermarket domain and get creative - you need some marketing classes
2. Don't skimp on hosting Such a painful expensive lesson to learn.
3. Respect contractors, but don't overpay
Don't ever talk down to anyone you work with, but don't allow people to tell you how smart they are without them proving it.
4. Always pay on time
Evereyone always appreciates this, and you will lose contractors respect if you don't.
5. Pay attention to cashflow
See above. If you can't balance cashflow and production, you will cut corners and build a house with cheap parts.
6. Price services for yourself - not for your clients
If you do consulting to pay the bills, make sure you take ample time for both, and charge on the value you provide, and provide the value you charge.
7. Take time for yourself
If you don't take time off when you need it, you will end up taking surprisingly more time off than you originally intended.
8. Stay unflinchingly positive
When you doubt yourself you lose. Confidence in failure and humility in success is a trait that exemplifies most true heros, role models, and success stories that I'm aware of.
9. Stick with winners, fold the losers
While you're being positive, maintain enough realism to be a critic and know when you're beat or have a bad hand.
10. Stay well organized
You can never be too organized.
11. Set goals
1 hour, 1 sitting, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 2 year, 5 year are generally good.
12. Track yourself
This is why keyword reports and QBtimer ARE a good idea. Adjust your goals as necessary based on your results.
I almost never live by this one, but I'd be smarter if I did.
13. Take lots of notes
I've pretty much never thought to myself "self, I wish I had taken less notes during that meeting." When you have a good idea, take a note about it.
14. Only consume news media 10 - 20% of the time (once you figure it out)
Only consume media and information at a high rate while you're trying diligently to learn a new skill. Otherwise, it is pretty fruitless and will burn you out if it is beyond your capacity for input.
15. Focus on execution, not research
Do something instead of writing another blog post:) That's why this one has taken quite a while. Build links, write content, learn perl, python, linux, apache, mysql, php, social media, seo, or web design, but don't sit too long reading about it before you DO it. Do something today, instead of learning, researching, or whining about why you can't.
16. Be upfront and honest
Don't bullshit people. Lies will follow you a lot farther than the truth ever will.
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About the Author:
Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl made his first horrible looking website full of animated .gifs in 1997, and after fours years of failure and experimentation ended up in the world of SEO and internet marketing in early 2001. He is currently an independent marketing consultant from the SEO school of thought. Todd earned a bachelors of business adminstration from Northwood University in 2003 while running an web design and consulting firm Meta4creations, LLC. Todd is a speaker at both Webmasterworld and Search Engine Strategies conferences.
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