Snowstorm in Montreal, Mile-End

I’m writing these lines out of a notebook*. The internet is not getting through right now – I’ve been disconnected for most of the day. Perhaps it’s because of all the snow that is falling on the city at this time. So for once, I’m sitting at the window, witnessing first hand the slow winter chaos.

I haven’t written anything on this blog for the past few days. I meant to, but my time management skills have gotten the best out of me. Big time. I’m one of these people who buys agendas but never use them, puts things to do in iCal but forget to look at it for the day’s updates. It has never much of an issue before, but lately I’ve been getting increasingly busy. Now my brain can’t keep up with my schedule, and my time management has become chaos. Just like today’s snow.

This is pretty much my first time working freelance. I’m finding out I’ve got a lot of the business side of things to learn. iCal, you haven’t seen nothing yet…

There was a very interesting article on A List Apart last week that I really want to discuss. More about that later on!

*It is now Monday, snowstorm is over.

Less than 2 months ago, I didn’t know what SEO meant. As far as I was concerned, it could have been some acronym for a boring Olympics committee. Or a new STD (a weird one at that).

Nonetheless, it is also around that time that I first met with Justin Evans. My encounter with Justin was like meeting… erh… Jesus. Granted, it’s a bit of a strong metaphor, but let me explain.

This story dates back to 2003 when I was starting university studies. I met CelineCelines (I’m linking to her website, but her Flickr page really deserves a stopover!) while we were both enrolled in Communication Studies. We fast became friends and still are very much so to this day. I moved on to Concordia University afterwards to pursue Fine Arts Studies while Celine was experimenting with different jobs in the web industry. Fast forward 2 years. I was on my last year of studies before completion of my B.F.A. and Celine had just been hired to work in design and social media for Stress Limit Design.

Social media, eh?

We discussed it a few times, but really I never got what her job was about. All I got from it was that she was getting paid to be on Facebook all day, sharing recipes for Startcooking and talking with people. I have to say it sounded quite silly at the time, while still titillating my curiosity a great deal. Was this for real?

Another year passed. I graduated, now have 3 diplomas and own 18 000$ to the government for overeducating myself. Interesting jobs are scarce, art funding is at its lowest and I’m suffering from brain hemorrhages every time I have to show up for work at the call centre. At about the same time, Celine was offered a position at HUGE in New York City. We had been discussing Social Media a few times, and she felt it was time for me to meet with her friend Justin Evans before her departure.

That was two months ago. We met for brunch on a Saturday morning, and he started to tell me about SEO, link building and all the likes. Justin is a passionate guy – his energy is contagious and communicative. Over the course of lunch, I listened to him preach his knowledge. He told me to have a look at Chris Brogan’s blog, and seoMOZ. And then he asked me to report back with any questions I might have.

Boy, did he know.

I was converted. And overwhelmed. I got back home and got reading straight away. The more I read, the more I realized there was so much more to this field than I initially anticipated. Questions were pouring, and looking for answers just brought up more interrogations. After a while though, thinks started to make a bit more sense, just as my love for SEO was growing.

I since have started working on a few SEO projects for a web design company in Montreal. I’m still very much a junior link builder though, and still in the process of getting myself trained. I intend to use this blog to share whatever I learn and find useful to the SEO community.

Alright, time to go build that shrine now.