SEO is rough, let’s face it. One minute, you feel like you’ve found the key to long-term wealth and high keyword rankings. The next minute, you read an article that makes you rethink your entire plan. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional roller coaster — changes in attitude that can disrupt your business plan and leave you feeling stressed out and constantly panicked that you are missing out on “the latest thing.”
To top it off, no one really knows “everything” about this industry, and every industry certainly has new ways to pull in traffic and conversions. To succeed at this game, you need to persist through inevitable failures. But how do you find the motivation?
#1. Slow and steady wins the race
Remember the old tale of The Tortoise and the Hare. The hare sprints ahead, assuming an easy victory. But he gets distracted and meanders off course. The tortoise, meanwhile, slowly plods ahead, ignoring the hare’s progress (and his lack thereof). Eventually, the tortoise passes the hare and wins the race. SEO is a marathon. By acknowledging its marathon-like nature and refreshing and reviewing your business plan and process regularly, you can keep yourself on course and beat all of the hares that are currently miles (and search engine rankings) ahead of you.
#2. Do it for the love, not for the money
Studies on motivation suggest that entrepreneurs who pursue their passions tend to do better in the long term than do entrepreneurs who pursue goals strictly for financial ends. If you don’t love what you do, the bumps in the road will destroy you. True passion is the cure.
#3. Keep an even keel — emotionally and financially
As your SEO practice gets underway, expect ups and downs. Protect yourself by buffering your budget. Build a stable income stream (preferably more than one) to support your venture, and save up for “rainy days” that for some can last many months. If you lack this anchor for your budget, you will feel more pressure to act “quickly” instead of “intelligently” and this can lead you to make costly long-term mistakes.
#4. Take care of your health
Get exercise, eat healthy, take time to be with friends and family, meditate, get enough sleep, get some sun, and don’t spend too long at the keyboard at one stretch. Remember, you are in it for the long haul. If you burn out too quickly, or push yourself to meet unrealistic deadlines, you will exhaust yourself and your business will suffer.
We all have the spark of success inside us — awakening this spark requires showing compassion towards yourself and towards your business and planning realistically and conservatively.
