Whiteboard Friday - How to Get an SEO Job

 Guess who's back. Back again. Danny's back. Tell a friend. (My co-workers hate me ;-p) This week's Whiteboard Friday is about how to get an SEO job. In it, I divulge the secret of how I suckered my way into how I earned this job. I also do the worst impression of my life and finish with a shocking twist that I guarantee you won't see coming!

Apply for an Internship

• Leverage Start-ups - Start-ups are particularly well suited for interns because most of them can't afford to pay people :-)
• Use the "Godfather Approach" - Make the company an offer they can't refuse. (Try working for free and provide your own laptop in exchange for an internship,)

Dive Right In

• Build Test Sites - After reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO, try building simple sites to target long tail terms.
• Offer to Help Charities - Like start-ups, charities tend to not have a lot of extra resources. Take advantage of this by volunteering.

Create a New Niche

• Leverage What You Already Know - Combine your current knowledge with what you want to learn to become the best in a given niche.
• Educate Others For Free - Earn links and share the love by teaching others about what you learn.

Join the Community

• Participate in Blogs/Social Media/Conferences - Get your name out and build your network by participating online.
• Take Advantage of Osmosis - Get into an environment where you learn simply by being in the right place.

If you have any other advice that you think is worth sharing, feel free to post it in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. All of my contact information is available on my SEOmoz profile under Danny. Thanks!