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Excerpt
Since you started your business at a very young age, how did you make your clients trust you? Does age discrimination still exist?
I think so. When I was younger, I think that when they ask for my age and I do say that I’m in my twenties, that it does affect their decision. I do believe that. But then again, SEO is a very blue ocean before. Not a lot of people knew what it was and those who wanted to do it during that time, early 2010, those people were forward-thinking. They were early in the market, early adopters. So they were ready to try out someone who’s in his twenties.
So I think that it was there, the age discrimination or the lack of trust because you’re young. But I also think that they were willing enough because they know that it’s the younger generation that’s really tech savvy. And it’s the younger generation that’s really going to be knowing what SEO is and how to do it.
How I made them trust me is, whenever they have questions, I’ll make sure to answer them with integrity and honesty. You just look them in the eye and say what the answer is and how you get to that level, you study a lot. You experiment a lot. I was extremely obsessed with ranking and SEO. And I studied the ins and outs actually from way back when, up until today. And whatever it is that I learned then, I think that a lot of them you can’t learn deeply now because there’s a lot of stuff now that they will tell you, but the foundational truths are not being pronounced.
So there are a lot of things that I know that are valuable and they saw that and they felt that, and then they saw the results as well. And I was able to partner with the biggest brands here in the country and produce results for them as well. So that kind of snowballed into other clients trusting me, even if I was in my early twenties during the, I’m 32. So I just turned 30 a couple of years ago. So I think that the portfolio did me a lot of good. So you have to build that portfolio.
How can a hobbyist increase his or her credibility to their potential clients?
If you have a portfolio. I think that is the best way. You have to have a portfolio of past projects that you’ve done. It has to be impressive. Of course, big brands or good brands would help a lot. And case studies. How you helped them and took them from point A to point B.
So with SEO Hacker, our case studies are usually, this is where client A was. They were making like 200 sessions a month. And when we came in, they’re now making 200,000 sessions a month. And that’s huge and they’re making millions out of that when they were making zero before. So that kind of case study and how I wrote it and how I had it designed is a big deal. And we close deals that way. So that should help you out. Especially Sarah, I know that you are very good with graphics and video. I’m a hundred percent sure you can do a portfolio.
If you’re finding it difficult, then get in touch with me. That is why we have the discord channel. I can help you out. Just let me know if you want to check out our portfolio as well, that could be a template for you, and you could do an easy one. No problem.