SEO Freelance work

How I see it there are three types of SEO; you either work at an agency, client side or on your own as a freelancer. Working in agencies and client side are the most common of the three so I was interested to hear that Steve Morgan had recently left agency life and set up business for himself. Mine and Steve’s business paths crossed a few years ago and I thought it would be useful to hear what his experiences have been like so far.

How long have you been working in SEO and where did you start out?

I’ve been working in SEO for 4.5 years (since early 2009), starting out at Liberty Marketing, my brother’s company. I was the second person in and when I left about a year ago, it was up to about 15+ staff, so it’s done well, especially during the recession. Just goes to show the demand for online marketing and SEO, even during times of austerity!

What made you decide to become a freelancer?

I’ve considered self-employment for years. In addition to my brother starting Liberty, my parents run an IT recruitment agency, a Spanish rental property business and my dad’s also a landlord. So you could say that my family’s no stranger to entrepreneurship and I’ve grown up seeing that way of working firsthand. They’ve been a big inspiration. But the reason I decided to do it now (1-2 months ago) and not years ago is simply because I’ve felt more confident now. The timing seemed right.

Did you already have clients established beforehand?

Not quite, but a fair few people I knew through networking, etc. had approached me asking if I did freelance work. While working at my last full-time job, I said no, because I didn’t want to work a 40 hour per week job and then do freelancing on the side during evenings and weekends as well. But it got to the point where I thought to myself: “hang on, if I leave the full-time job, there’s probably enough potential work to sustain this as a full-time, on-going thing.”

What do you consider to be the advantages vs disadvantages of the working environment

In terms of advantages… I love the flexibility, the fact that it doesn’t have to be a 9 to 5 thing if I don’t want it to be. I’m quite happy that I can take a random weekday off but then make it up by working on a Saturday, or something like that.

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