SI Now - Trigger warning

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I really appreciate it and it's very sweet of you!

So in response:

Digital marketing includes email marketing, SEO, PPC (or paid advertising), social media marketing and PR -- or all things digital that includes marketing.

I've heard of those two sites you sent. I do have my own blog, and I do apply SEO to my site. My articles are ranking and are getting some amount of traffic. You have to have lots of other high quality sites linking to your site to rank high in Google, which I do not have yet. I have tried to monetize my blog by adding affiliate ads from Amazon but I am not a web developer, so I am having trouble.

I have done affiliate marketing (or similar to CPA marketing) in the past (I worked as an online entrepreneur for nearly a year), and failed at it miserably. I did not make any money, except for the sale of one of my websites. :/ I made $160 in the nine months that I did this, lol.

I'm not necessarily looking to make money on the side or become an entrepreneur again. I just want a full-time job with health benefits.

What I need is to get better at SEO & to be involved in all aspects of SEO. My current job is limiting, and I am stagnating. I need to work with and learn from a team. I am a solo practitioner in my current job, which makes everything that much harder.

So, gaining a full-time job is my primary goal, but I fear that because I am not involved in all things SEO right now, that it is hurting my chances... hence why I have not been hired. :/

Anyways, thank you again.... you're very sweet.

Thank you for your reply! Much appreciated!

It is great that I interviewed with them -- they're where I want to work.

I did send my thank you letter already, and I addressed his concern by saying I consistently study best practices and apply the tested and proven strategies that I've learned.

I did not mention working or learning from a team because they want someone who has proven experience with content creation and content marketing. I can only rely on my past experience, and not experience from my current position (mainly).

So.. either they take a risk and want to proceed, or not. Or there is someone better than me that they will want to hire (usually the case).

What is truly maddening right now is my current role is hindering my progress and success (as mentioned above to darkness). My boss ignores my suggestions around content, as mentioned, and I am not gaining critical experience I need for a job in today's SEO world.

So, the most I can do is tell employers that I've done these things in past jobs.

If I can make it to the next steps in the interview process and win over the team members, I may be able to get the job. I just need to pass with flying colors and get them to love me, somehow!!!

Thank you so much again for all your input on my threads -- it's truly appreciated and it helps to also speak with someone who knows about SEO, too.

When my H does not have a full time job--he works full time on side projects (mostly creating database services on the "cloud"--Microsoft Azure, etc.). The money earned has been a real disappointment but some of the things he has created likely helped him obtain some very good positions. The projects helped show that he was technically competent despite the fact that he rarely works at one company for more than two years and takes time off between jobs.

Having watched my H navigate his career, from my POV, it is easy to burn out/ hit road blocks in your career area. Many times nontechnical managers do not understand the work in takes to make things happen and fund things unrealistically. A good example of this is when companies fire high level people exchanging them for entry level specialists (which the high level people train right before leaving) and wonder why things go wrong.....

Golden_eve--Yes, looking for a job is a nightmare when it goes on and on. The only reason I am not in your shoes is that I did give into my SI. My attempt was so serious that I am now on disability. But I should be trying for a higher level job. I commend you for continuing to shoot for high level jobs and that you are still studying your craft.

You know, I have found and learned that when I present my case to back it up with experts' articles on the topic, and/or case studies that prove my point for best practices. Once I've done that, the evidence and my points are irrefutable.

When working in Wordpress CMS and when using the Yoast SEO plugin, Yoast rates your article for it's "readability" score. You're supposed to write on the Web at an eighth grader's readership level. This is a well known fact within SEO.

So, you can argue and make this point next go around, and support your point with best practices documentation.

Kudos to your husband for his efforts while in between jobs! It's hard to stay motivated when unemployed, but I know employers love to see productivity like that.

Usually when I have been in between, I've taken certification courses in my field, which then usually have landed me my next job.

Right now, I do have a part-time job... but I need a full-time position to live.

I am sorry to hear of your serious attempt. :/ That is tragic. I am trying very hard not to give into SI... during times like these, it can come and go.

I have no choice but to press forward, really. I cannot hurt my family and friends, and I do not wish to end up in the hospital again. I've already been hospitalized twice for other reasons, and yes, I've attempted a few times previously. UGH.

The pressure that is on me to get a full-time job and move out of my parents' home ASAP is propelling me forward. But it's stressful to say the least. :/ I have to do this not only for me, but for their sake. I do not want them to have to delay selling their home and fulfilling their dreams because I can't move forward. Because other people are involved in this effort and a lot is at stake, I cannot just think of myself.... so I must keep going.

Then why not try again but use different tactics in the meantime? At worst, you are refreshing your memory and skillset and building upon a portfolio that could prove to a potential employer that you know what you're doing. At best, you could get lucky and make a killing and not need to work. I know that there are people who make the equivalent to 6 figure salaries or 5 figures a month even off internet marketing so who knows what's possible?

I've personally been self teaching myself a lot of this stuff because I ultimately want to transition into being an online entrepreneur because I desire the freedom and independence that comes with it. I strategically picked my web design major in college because I plan on eventually using those skills alongside internet marketing or ecommerce to be an entrepreneur and gain my independence so I don't ever have to work a regular job and be miserable ever again. If I do need a regular job, web design is one of those careers that you could build together a portfolio of your work and use it to prove yourself to employers without having to deal with a complicated job interview since many developers and programmers are introverted and employers don't expect us to be particularly charismatic

Also, as my knowledge of a web developer grows, I may be willing to help you with your affiliate ads or whatever else you need.

You are being very smart with your approach! Learning web design and web development alongside the internet marketing and ecommerce. GOOD FOR YOU, I say!!! KUDOS!

You remind me a LOT of my former self -- I used to want the same exact things as you about 8-10 years ago, after a horrendous job and job-related wrist injury that put me out of work. I dreamed of being my own boss and of never having to re-enter the workforce, ever again. Well, that changed years later for me, LOL.

I suppose my own failure at being an online entrepreneur making thousands of dollars a month has made me hesitant to try to it again. Now, that being said (!!!), I DO have my own blog with a substantial amount of content that can easily be monetized. Perhaps one day I may just take you up on your offer to help with my affiliate ads!

I hate Web development and was never trained in that area except for basic HTML. Figuring it out is basically the bane of my existence. I want an easy Wordpress plug in that will do all the backend work for me, but I cannot seem to find one easy enough, ie, dummy proof, for me to use, LOL.

Eventually, I would like to add related Amazon books for sale on my blog as an affiliate. I tried yesterday for a couple hours to find a simple Amazon plug in, got frustrated and dropped it.

I also have heard of many successful online entrepreneurs out there. I used to follow their guidance and buy all their "how-to" ebooks. I think I failed because I didn't have a big enough marketing budget, and my sales copy or my products just weren't enticing enough. I built sites around jewelry, internet marketing products, sailboats for sale from ebay and more.

You are an inspiration, I gotta say, and even though I don't know you well, I am proud of you for what you are aiming to accomplish. It's a big adventure, the one you are heading towards, which is very exciting and can be very rewarding, too. It felt really good when I was working on my websites, working towards a goal and a big dream.

Thanks. I fight so hard only out of necessity.

I know that I can't be happy working a regular job. I don't care about having a high paying job with benefits or social status or anything like that because I know that my needs wouldn't matter anymore and I would have to revolve my life around a company's needs (something that I find unacceptable). Money itself is meaningless to me, despite the fact that I tent to talk about money more often than I should in life. All I want is the freedom to be able to do things that I enjoy in life. I love things like video games, technology, and learning how things work. I also want to learn how to make DIY projects with a 3d printer as well and I plan on becoming a member of my local Hackerthon (a paid membership based community that gives you access to tools that you need to make DIY projects and people to help you) when my schedule frees up a bit. I want the freedom to be able to dabble in my creative interests and do things that I'm passionate about and if I can't have these things, I would rather die.

In my mind, I am fighting for my happiness and a fair chance at healing and enjoying life. I know that the only way I will ever be anything even remotely close to happy is if I am able to live my life to my fullest potential; something that I cannot do working a regular job. Don't get me wrong, I will work a regular job only as long as I need to in order to achieve my goals. However, once I have what I want in life, I am never working a regular job again even if I make less money and have to downsize my living expenses a bit.

So yeah, as I gain more knowledge, I wouldn't mind helping you. In fact, I plan on becoming a mentor of sorts to people on PC in the future as I become more knowledgeable and successful because I know that there is a lot of people here that struggle because of poor finances and struggle to obtain or hold a decent job so I consider my growing skillset an asset here.

I also struggled a lot with the interview process. I figured it was a numbers game, and the more interviews I got, the better chance there was to have someone take a chance, and for me to gain more practice interviewing.

One idea might be to join a free public speaking group. Public speaking was always pure terror for me, as well as just talking to people I didn't know in the interview setting. This can help get you out of your confort zone a bit, which in turn might give you a boost of confidence to nab the job.

That is great that you know exactly what you want and are going after it. Sometimes, perhaps even often times, we have to fight for our happiness, and it is WELL worth the effort. Again, big kudos to you for all your efforts and aspirations! And that is really nice you want to help others here on PC who may need it.

Thanks, that's a great suggestion, though I have severe PTSD that gets triggered by public speaking. Something I would worry about. But I agree... the more interviews, the better, and the more practice, the better you get. Guess I am slow to learn as it's been a year. I really need to get better at this..

I actually shared a lot of articles in meetings and explained some of the requirements behind SEO in meetings in the past. At the time I only worked on website about 1/3 of the time and was unable to do a lot with it. Now nearly all my time is related to website so I will be able to spend more time on this. I have a meeting with the division chief later this week and one of the topics is going to be mobile view and SEO. I've already done some research and sent him some links to articles, but I'm also going to pull together a brief report of the common recommendations I found.

We use Siteimprove with our website for accessibility testing, and it also has a section on SEO. I haven't really looked at that too much yet because Accessibility has been my focus, but what I've seen it is flagging as issues doesn't surprise me.

I have mentioned the 8th grade level to the team in the past and they gave me the "deer in the headlights" stare. About 1/3 of our 600 page website is written at college level.

That's good you're using articles to back up your claims and stance.

Oh dear.... they would need to rewrite their entire website for a digital audience! That is a tough obstacle.

I would hope that most of their readership, or direct traffic, is at a college reading level, but in order to attract search engine traffic and to keep that traffic on the site, it needs to be at an 8th grade reading level. People don't want to have to struggle to understand -- they want the content in simple language that is easy to scan and digest quickly. We have 2-3 seconds to capture search engine traffic's interest once they land on a site and a few seconds more to maintain their interest... you definitely have your work cut out for you there....

I wouldn't know what to advise since it's a large site and they probably won't want to rewrite it for a digital audience, but that is what I would probably end up proposing myself, regardless of whether they take me up on it. If most search engine traffic is bouncing off the site (ie, high bounce rate), then you have a partial argument for perhaps why that is happening. (((hugs)))

I think a lot of it can be solved by "chunking" the content more with shorter paragraphs and sentences and using bullet points more. Our news releases I don't see changing, but our product pages definitely need to be addressed. Goal 1, get the division chief behind me.

Good solution - make it more scannable. good luck!