30107.jpgRemember my post on Why I Blog? The main reason was to potentially help people. Well, I think I may have helped one person.

Patrick Sexton (aka feedthebot) has wrote a touchy story about how he became an SEO.

He describes how he had no money except for $20 from selling "paintings on the street" earlier in the day. He then took that $20 and put it into a "video poker machine," where he won $750. That night he flew to Honolulu where he burned through the rest of his money while staying in Waikiki.

In Waikiki he had a few days left for his room at the hostel he was staying at and spotted a "sign that said that you could work for a few hours a week instead of paying rent." So he did that.

In the hostel was a computer, which he used frequently during his stay. He spent a lot of time there learning about making web sites and how search engines work. Here is the kicker for me..

Okay, I wasn’t even aware of the term SEO yet, but by goly, I had an honest to goodness website to play with now. I began researching SEO heavily, very very heavily. The first thing I did was read every page of Barry’s RustyBrick.com . My first two memories of SEO were his tool page and an image that showed the inter-relationship of search engines that I am not sure if it was on his site or not, but I remember that image.

That was my first SEO research which led to me discovering an enormous amount of resources that were out there. The website of the hostel was eventually redesigned and has enjoyed top ranking for years, and I made some good money out of it. That was my first SEO “job”

So Barry, thanks and I look forward to meeting you and saying hello at SMX.

A true touching story. Thank you Pat, thank you for sharing that with me.

Truly made my day.

And I hope to see you at SMX as well!