Your history as an "SEO'er" whats your personal background

I'm interested to know about how people have ended up in the B$ job titles related to "SEO" ala programmer/marketeer/technician/sales content writer/creative director/html writer/search conceptualisation/working out a companies marketing strategy/market analyst/researcher/general photoshop and dreamweaver person/analytics/full cyle online sales process conceptualisation/general e-communications expert/web App support services/competitor research/coder/sales person

personally, im from a creative/techincal background not related to the net, couldnt earn enough money doing that so did sales jobs for a few years, then worked for a tech co in a non tech role, moved to my own business online (short time span market-wise) Then did the ebay thing in combo with global sourcing - ie china mp3 players-ebay, put some listings on and made £4,500 net profit in the first 24 hours (yep - not lying - true - soon went sour tho) then learnt the importance of ownership of domain/level of difficulty to market online etc and did my own thing and did well (could still be doing well- but my aspirations were higher than my managment skill levels or cashflow to make like millions.

how come doing SEO (whatever that term means) its an almost impossible job (unless its your own your own business) to demonstrate the time and potential results your actions can have? At what point can companies make their seo/marketing depts scaleable (if in house)?

The problem with the basis of this question is that the assumption underlying the question are to narrow. SEO is just a branch of marketing. The money is not in the job... It is in the product that is sold... If a person/company can show/convince another person/company that they can make that person/company more than they cost them. Then a deal is easily done. The amount that can be made then depends on the product that is available for sale. If that products can generate 000's in sales the SEO is limited to making 000's if 000,000's the SEO can make 000,000's if billions then the SEO can make billions. ie look at youtube.... Marketing a product online is the game. SEO is more about marketing flair rather then technical prowess.

To simpliest way to work for yourself. Look for a partner that has a product that is sellable. Help them sell it... Share the money...

The basic tasks of SEO are five minute jobs compared to the task of content creation and content promotion.

Since content rules the web and SEO is simply a five minute "slap on" anybody who is a strait SEO better start thinking about new lines of work once the hard core content people move into your niche.

well its not exactly diffiicult to create good content and promote it! thats part of an seo role anyway - (in my book)

I started out on ebay as well, did OK, but wished I could do better. I started learning about web marketing because I was always interested in writing and building websites. I kept my ebay thing going, and launched a few different websites all in my spare time. I finally found a job on Craigslist for a web manager at an online wine and spirits retailer. This was my first professional job as an SEO/Web Marketer. At first, I focused much of my time on email marketing and PPC, but soon learned how I could do some on-site SEO with the site (It was not a standard HTML site). I optimized a few of our key products, and soon enough, these key products were showing up on Page 1 of Google results. We went from selling about $6,000 worth of one product over the course of 6 months to selling $48,000 of the same product over the next 6 months. I write all about it in my $54,000 story, but I can't post the link yet.

Since the wine and spirits company was run by an inept alcoholic, I left soon after we had seen such great results with the SEO. I am now working for an apparel manufacturer, where I am responsible for the marketing of the website. I started my work optimizing PPC ads, and re-doing all of the on-site SEO. I am now working on building content and links. We are definitely being ranked better, but I don't feel like we're doing as well as we could be. Of course, all of this stuff takes time, and I know I am making the right choices to get ranked better, so I just need to be patient. Anyway, that's been my online marketing career trajectory.

I started selling an info product on ebay but got really tired of tending auctions and chasing people for the money. Since there was also search volume for that product I decided to build a website to see if I could sell there. I bought an ebook on SEO and had some success. So I walked away from a powerseller level ebay store to put all of my energy into the website.

I still have that website and it still make sales but I am now working on just a couple of sites that are in the same theme as my education and offline career experience.

Take a lesson from EGOL... Most people are more successful doing or selling what they know. To do otherwise is a short-term and/or high risk proposition.

I was a top level executive that fielded a site that offers what I know... That has led to $$$$$$.

Money can be made on the Web, but usually only by those people that truly know their subject matter or products and market.