solost

Honestly, that SEO firm should be taken to court for fraud. The advice is malicious and anyone who knows anything knows it will do material damage to the performance of the website costing the company revenue, branding and opportunity. Just because someone claims to be an expert doesn't make them one and it certainly doesn't make them good at what they do. I would check their references and look for horror stories based on the advice they are providing they must have a lot of unhappy customers out there and unhappy people like to complain on the internet.

I believe that the simple answer you are looking for is scalability. For many businesses, especially online business, to be successful they need to be able to reach beyond their local communities for customers.

All of the companies you mentioned that generate their revenue from advertising and many others have reached a critical mass in their audience size. This allows them to be a viable channel for a wide variety of vertical markets and or an extremely targeted option in a limited set of vertical markets. This is the reason advertising can dwarf manufacturing. Advertising can touch multiple verticals and have multiple customers spending dollars to compete for the same customer.

The real challenge for those companies that generate their revenue from advertising is the ability to identify audience interest and intent. Advertising companies that do well in generating revenue from advertisers are generally able to identify their audience’s interest and intent when it comes to products and services thus providing their advertisers with the best possible marketing opportunities.

I would recommend philosophy. The college of "logic" is in the philosophy department and every great CS professor I ever had studied philosophy. Beyond that it is a great way to sharpen your critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Silverback Marketing

Established in 2007 and based in Phoenix, Arizona, Silverback Marketing is a boutique online marketing firm focused on online customer acquisition through search marketing and other related disciplines. The ideal candidate would be local, however, because this position can be executed remotely we are open to considering candidates outside of the greater Phoenix area.

We are currently seeking an experienced Search Engine Optimization Specialist with at least 2 years of experience at an agency or as an in-house SEO working for an established company. This is a hands on position that requires the candidate to be involved in every step of the optimization process for multiple clients.

Qualifications:

2+ years of experience in SEO with an agency or as an in-house SEO Specialist

A full understanding of all core SEO skills (keyword research, technical audits, etc.) and associated tool sets Extremely organized and deadline drive

Comfortable playing execution roles, as well as driving strategy

Ability to develop, explain, and execute complex SEO strategies

Comfortable managing client relationships over the phone and in person

Strong grasp of Google Analytics and other web analytics platforms (i.e. Omniture)

Ability to analyze reports and communicate findings

Ability to measure the effectiveness of strategy rankings, traffic, conversion) on client goals

Advanced understanding of Excel

Solid understanding of technical SEO (JavaScript, CSS, etc.)

Full awareness of industry trends and comfortable blogging about your opinions on them

Strong written and editorial skills

Inbound link analysis and acquisition experience a plus

Paid search marketing knowledge and experience a plus

What Silverback Provides:

Work from your home office 90% of the time or more

A flexible work schedule

The ability to improve your skill set working with in-house experts and attending trade events

Competitive salary

Quarterly financial bonuses based on the overall

performance of the company

Health Insurance

Generous sick pay and vacation time

We are also seeking a Paid Search Marketing Specialist as well.

Please send a resume and cover letter to roderick@silverbackmarketing.com

Silverback Marketing SEO Specialist - Fulltime - Remote is a possibility

Established in 2007 and based in Phoenix, Arizona, Silverback Marketing is a boutique online marketing firm focused on online customer acquisition through search marketing and other related disciplines. The ideal candidate would be local, however, because this position can be executed remotely we are open to considering candidates outside of the greater Phoenix area.

We are currently seeking an experienced Search Engine Optimization Specialist with at least 2 years of experience at an agency or as an in-house SEO working for an established company. This is a hands on position that requires the candidate to be involved in every step of the optimization process for multiple clients.

For all of the details of the position please contact me at roderick@silverbackmarketing.com

I am working on http://www.shallwecoupon.com - I launched it last month and am continuing to work on the finish of the site (I still have about 600 logos to update) before I go back and start adding incrimental functionality.

It took 30 days to build and implement, I am pretty please with the results so far. Thoughts?

Ooops that wasn't suppose to show. Thanks.

I think it is unlikely, however they might be willing to help connect you with someone that is technical and that they like, but whose idea is potentially not nearly as appealing as yours is.

Most accelerators have made it clear that they prefer to avoid single co-founders and even more so single co-founders that don't code aren’t likely to be using their time at the accelerator efficiently since they won't actually be building the product on the fly.

Not to say spending time each day reviewing the previous nights outsourced work isn't a bad thing, but I somehow doubt it will be appealing. In short I think you are best off searching for a technical co-founder if you really want to make YC or one of the other accelerators out there.

I think you are taking the wrong approach. You don’t want to manipulate the people you are working for you. Instead you want to educate them. I think the easiest and most direct route you could take is to prepare mockups using the font they want at the size it would be on a mobile device and the font you suggest.

Then encourage them to get feedback from family and friends. Chances are if your assessment is correct then your client will get the feedback not only from you but from others whom opinions they respect. In the end this is about all you can do.

Having clients means often having to do your best within the parameters that they set for you. They are the ones paying and you are the one working after all.

The other thing that is very concerning in your post is that you think this one issue is so bad that you don’t want to be associated with it. The truth is that this is going to happen over and over again in your career and you are going to need to learn to make the best of it.

Nothing says you can’t be associated with a project and also discuss, on your resume or web site, how if you were allowed to make the decisions you would have done things differently. I think if you take this approach you can gain credibility with future customers so that it might make it easier for your opinion to count more.

Distancing yourself from too many projects in the long run will make you appear inexperienced and eventually may damage your reputation much more than being associated with a project you are not completely happy with.

Best of luck to you.

I have a professional copywriter on staff, I can also make recommendations on free lancers that I have used. Drop me an email if you want my help, it is in my profile.

I use Paychex to process my payroll and they offer a health insurance service which connected me with Blue Cross Blue Shield, this has worked out perfectly for us.

Most universities offer the option of a mixed teaching load, have you considered that? Also I know when I was a student a number of my classes were mixed with Graduate and Undergraduate stundetns have the opportunity to share the class. Otherwise I think the thoughts by ROG are pretty spot on.

We have done work for companies like yours as well as YC companies. If you need help my contact information is in my profile, send me an email.

I have a much different suggestion that most. Connect with a local group that is already doing work for a start up or major company. Building relationships is far more valuable in my mind then anything else you can do. While having a killer portfolio is good, just like resumes often times porfolios are not as authentic as one would have you believe. Quality relationships that can give you referrals or references are by far the most valuable thing you can develop.

I worked for a large company here in the states that outsourced all of their development to India, we had about 100 full time developers on staff. That team no longer exists however whenever I need to outsource I go to the relationships I established from that team to either contract directly with them or get recommendations from them.

It might not be what you want in the short term, however it is a great way to make connections and reduce the barrier to entry for you.

In my mind the barrier to entry for most startups is time and to a certain extent money. I know I cannot afford to take flyers on developers who I don't have confidence will deliver for me on time and on budget and what is worse if someone fails to deliver not only am I late but I am also out anything I may have paid for the work.

I hope this advice assists you in some way.

http://allthingsd.com/

All Things Digital is the best alternative out there along with of course Hacker News.

A retainer generally implies a fixed fee for up to "x" amount of service time. The company risks part of their investment if they don't use all the time available on the monthly retainer. However that risk is offset by having the service provider generally available as needed.

My recommendation to you is to mentally set your hourly rate and then multiply it by the total number of hours you are willing to give them, regardless of the number of hours they want. So if you are willing to give them 5 days (40 hours) of service a month, then set your rate at that point (This should always be a fixed number, not hourly billing, so you and they know the exact cost every month and you can be prepaid).

Remember when setting your rate, odds are they will use every single hour available and if you are not getting other services, then your rate should be higher than your salaried rate was because the company is no longer having to eat all of the other “hidden expenses” and you will be taking on new taxes such as an additional 7.5% for being self employed. Consider lowering your rate for continued access to services like health insurance or retirement plans.

Decline any financial compensation related to performance, only go for a fixed fee, else you may find yourself distracted or side tracked and working extra hours that you never intended to, to achieve some financial goal or project closure. The hardest part about working retainers is actually limiting yourself to the contract requirements and no more, especially when working with people that you have real personal relationships with.

You say the only reason you struggle with the decision is because of the honor you feel in the validation of your work that Google is giving you by providing the job offer. Well if that is the only reason you haven't turned them down, then you have already answered your own question on whether or not to accept, don’t.

In your situation, based on what you have shared I wouldn't take the job. It sounds like you took the interviews to acquire the personal validation a job offer would represent to you and now that you have it, there seems no real reason to up root your life.

I hope my interpretation of the situation helps and I wish you all the best no matter what decision you may make.

I think there are a number of things you need to consider.

Even if you get in, do you have the drive and intellectual chops to enjoy college at one of the most prestigious universities in the county? College is designed to provide you with an education both in the classroom and outside of it. If you have the drive I definitely recommend attending one of the really great schools you mentioned above. However if making the grades is going to take everything you have and leave no time for anything else then I recommend you reconsider even if you do get in. My take on college was that I got a lot more from the experiences you have outside of the classroom than you ever will in it.

I believe if you are smart enough and talented enough to attend a prestigious school like those you mentioned then you shouldn’t worry about the debt you might graduate with. Smart and talented people can overcome their educational debt and the value that comes along with being a graduate from one of those universities in the long run will more than return.

In my own experience I had a chance to attend Duke, however I know that making the grade there was probably more than I was up for at the time. So I want to a less academically challenging school (Arizona) where I could be on the west coast and excel in the classroom but still have the time to really enjoy everything college had to offer. I think at the end of the day you need to make a decision that feels most right to you. I hope that helps.

QuickBooks for my accounting and PayChex for my corporate payroll.

I think there are two things our investors provided that were unobtainable before they came on board.

1. Access to their networks. If we need something or someone and it or they did not exist inside of our existing network we have been able to use our investors to help us acquire the thing or person we needed much more rapidly than if we had not had them. This led us to being able to execute and or scale much more quickly than we might ordinarily have had.

2. An additional sounding board of experience to help us avoid most of the common pitfalls many start up businesses make when they just don't know any better. Sometime you have to learn from experience, however the more negatives we avoided by taking lessons from others and by evaluating the advice of our advisors the quicker we were able to succeed in our market place.

Our investors provided a lot of other benefits both tangible and intangible but at the end of the day we probably could have done without their money, however I am not sure we could have done without their advice, contacts, and resources.

I am in total agreement with MindCrime. If you are both technically savvy and business savvy and have solid communication skills, being able to understand and translate the needs of both business groups back and forth is a very valuable skill set.

Project Management is a place that you can leverage all of your skills while contributing materially to a business and still continue to be a generalist, assuming that is what you want to continue to be. In your particular case it sounds like you enjoy being more hands on, so a business analyst role might not be the best fit for you, however it is always something to consider, if the job were at a company that you felt you just had to be part of.

There has been significant demand for technical project managers over the last decade and I didn't see that changing anytime soon, which is always encouraging for those that like to change jobs regularly or are worried about their long-term employment prospects. Plus it is a great way to be involved in many different projects across the breadth of a company.

Project Managers often find their way into upper management over the long haul because of their intimate knowledge of so many different corporate functions. So if long term, senior leadership is something you have a desire for, this is not a bad route to go.

I'd like to contact you directly, mind adding your email address to your profile? Or check my profile and contact me.

Thanks.

My recommendation to you is to decide what type of consultancy you want. One where you are in charge but hire a project manager to do all of the day to day management or one where you are in charge and also responsible for the day to day management.

I run my own firm and I love what I do, however I only do actual client work 20% of the time, the rest of the time I am HR, Accounting, and Business Development. My business is nearly 100% referral yet business development still takes up nearly 50% of my time due to the fact that I feel I need to own and manage the client relationships. However I have an amazing project manager to keep all of the projects on track.

I would encourage anyone who wants to operate their own business to do so, just remember it is incredibly important to learn what it takes to set up and operate a business properly before making the commitment. Even if you think you know what you are doing, nothing can beat having a knowledgeable and trustworthy accountant and lawyer to aid you on your way.

The second thing you have to strongly consider is can you recruit the talent necessary to support the business? One of the reasons I was able to start my own firm is I spent a decade building a dependable network of service providers that I can rely for everything I need. I have used these people for a long time and between them and the people they can recommend, I am never left in desperate need of skills or man power to get the work done.

Finally consider the type of lifestyle you want to have? Operating a consulting firm in its formative years can really erode your work life balance. Many people love the idea of operating their own business but are completely unprepared when they discover just how different it is from being a freelancer.

My contact information is in my profile, contact me if you want to discuss your specific needs.

Of all the options listed in those two articles Kontera is the only one I have seen generate a decent return.

It depends a lot on how you want to implement advertising on your site. I think running affiliate links via CJ is a much better way to go, especially if you have the ability to incorporate them into your site tactically so that they are value adds and not distractions. Keep your eye out for lead gen programs as well, they often pay on sign ups as well as sales meaning they can have significant returns.

A few additional thoughts based on the comments here:

If you liked "In Conquest Born" - Friedman wrote These Alien Shores, which is a true hacker sci fi, absolutely incredible.

The Book of Skaith by Leigh Bracket is a truely awesome compilation of the three Skaith novels. Leigh helped write the initial Empire Strikes back!

Almost anything by Jack Vance will be good. If you've read The Dying Earth, George RR Martin just produced a tribute called Songs of the Dying Earth with some of the best Sci Fi writers contributing.

I started using http://axure.com/ it allows for wireframing and prototyping. It is simple to learn and simple to use. They have excellent support and a free trial, I highly recommend it.

I strongly believe that this should be done too.

I took the survey but I wanted to share this thought here for some additional feedback. I work with some of the larger deals sites and having learned a lot about how they operate I cannot stress enough that if you are going to move into a niche market focus on value. This means potentially less deals and less often but in the case of your audience being focused on hackers, quality will win.

In the survey you offered time with Investors. This is something that I am sure would be in massive demand because this isn't something readily available to most people and could add tremendous value to any start up.

Other things to consider along the same lines would be a service less focused on regular deals but more on opportunities. We have access to Consultants who do x,y, or z. They could be investors, marketers, hackers, business develop folks or any other high value service. You would make those people available to a business for say 1 hour to discuss anything you care to. Now that would exciting!