Working as a Freelance SEO Consultant?

How long will it take, approximately, before becoming a paid freelance SEO consultant?
There is no end to learning and evolving. An average of a couple of months and a bunch of good clients is all you need to start off. And yes, Warriors for hire is always there!


What skills/courses do I need to obtain in order to have a competitive edge over other
online consultants?
SEO webinars, free guides, marketing skills and a dash of luck(for being at the right place at the right time)


What are the transferrable skills involved that may aid me to enter another
career in the future (my ideal is to work in Global/Investment banking)?
Not too sure about this. Since I don't see any tangible connection between the two fields.

How much does the skilled average consultant earn?
Make earning money your aim, and you would never be able to justify your passion. Be passionate and creative and the leader in what you do, forget about the revenue part.

Disclaimer: I am no SEO Guru, but I have observed these trends, hence speaking from my experience.

Step 1: Rank your own pages first.

If you want to earn money, you need to start teaching yourself skills.
University might be a breeze compared to the ongoing learning you will have to do for yourself to make money online. It's not a destination. It's an endless journey because you will never learn all there is to know.

Make helping others your goal and the money should take care of itself if you get enough clients. But you need to be good at what you do and prove to others that you are.

Appreciate the comments.

I am just looking to see if there is a certified SEO course which I can take and then use to build a client list?

Looking at Freelancing jobs, SEO appeared like the 'easiest' and most appealing for me. Correct me if I am not completely right.

Thanks all

I'm not a SEO consultant, although I sometimes do on-page SEO. I've been an all-around web guy in a small advertising agency, so much of this stuff I've just started learning in job. And that's a good place to be in: you can try and do yourself, but if you feel you can't do it there's probably a change to outsource.

How long to become a paid consultant? Well, if you've got the guts to ask for money, you're it. I walked out of my job, and started doing gigs for the company I had been working for. However, I had a client or two, some contacts, BBA, financial support from the state, and 8 years of work experience from a relevant field.

And I completely sucked at being an entrepreneur for the first couple of years. I still do, but fortunately lot less.

There's many niches in SEO, and many freelancers seem to handle only one or two of them well. Competitive edge depends on what exactly would you do, but it's not that different from any other field. What's your USP? Who is your ideal or target customer? Why would they order from you instead of the next company? Etc.

It's always helps you immensely if you're good with people.

Skilled consultant can earn anything, the sky is limit. You can bill whatever you want if your results are phenomenal and customers are queueing to you. You can outsource the work you can't do yourself. You can also take a wild guess how many extraordinarily successful consultants like that are out there. Hint: I didn't use the word extraordinary just because I like it.

That's my long-winded way of saying that the question about earnings can't be answered.

It's pretty likely that the first couple of years are dry. It's usual for a starting businesses to live hand to mouth, and for the entrepreneur to wonder how and when the next big check arrives. You either learn to embrace the stress and the fear of the unknown, or you quit.

Even though I'm not a consultant, I had several clients asking me for consultations. There are many people who are having websites, and no idea what to do, so if you can provide good information - go for it!

I just stumbled across a website that teaches SEO in 48 hours and it is free. In fact, from that, I am now selling myself as an SEO content writer. Making money in it is a function of how persistent you are in finding clients and, of course, delivering on your promise. There is no shortage of clients, but a shortage of good SEO writers.

You need to do a ton of reading and invest in a good SEO course. As far as I know, there is no college you can go to for obtaining a degree in SEO. If there is, everything you learn will be outdated the day you leave the class anyway.

I started by ranking sites for free, as a part of a purchase for me building their website. After getting a couple of things ranked, and experimenting endlessly with my own formulas for what works and what doesn't, you then have a recipe that you can then sell to others. Poof, now you're an SEO guy.

Did you say consultant? Truth be told, your University tenure would be shorter and easier.

SEO is a science and you don't become a scientist overnight! Having said that, you can learn the basics in a matter of months, but to understand how the bots work and how each algo update affects rankings, you'll have to get your feet wet first and learn from your mistakes.

Also, you never LEARN SEO. You have to KEEP LEARNING.

I'm not sure there are any "transferable skills" that would help you in the Banking sector, except for being able to rank a bank's website, but if you do acquire the skills you'll mak much more than an investment banker!

Earnings? Absolutely HUGE if you know your job well.

Hope that helps.

ok, I have read all above discussion, i m new in ths field, and i have work on off page seo and know how off page work for pr1 and trfc, so my questio is ths that, i have study on page seo but not practly work yet, and have get almost all thng relatd it, but i didnt wrk on page seo yet, so how and where can i start work on page? And aftr workng wht is report format which i have to sent to client? Help plz?

Look, at the end of the day, you will need to have some real-world proof to show the prospective customers who would like to buy services and products from you. In terms of SEO, unless you manage to rank your very own website, to show that you do have the knowledge and the tools, nobody would be willing to get in touch, let alone fill out the form and become your customer. Just a recommendation, become an apprentice or an intern in one of the top firms in your hometown to learn the real skills.

Helping other people is best way to make your brand name and after that you start selling it. Just Neil Patel did the same and Now they are as Brand Name in internet marketing industry.

I got started by getting an SEO job, gained a client on the side, quit the day job, and here I am today. Come July it would be 2 years in business. Foundations have been set and time to grow even further. Work hard, you'll get there.

I think if your visit seo blog & forum regularly & within one month you can complete onpage & ofpage seo. You have to follow google webmaster guideline & also help you google seo starter guide.