I feel like a cheater in the RTW traveler club. You see, members of the RTW traveler club share some key qualities: most save up over the course of several years, they quit their jobs, and they (mostly, aside from travel blogging) single-mindedly backpack the world.

I didn’t do that. Not any of it actually.

I worked steadily from the road my entire RTW trip.

My Travel-Enabling Job

So here’s my confession to you: I perform freelance SEO (search engine optimization) work and I worked from the road every single week of my trip –it’s the sacrifice I made so that I could leave immediately (and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!).

So, loyal readers, you might ask, “Shannon, why have you never shared this before?!”

Well, it never seemed necessary and I’ve always alluded to the fact that I work remotely from the road. Plus, admitting it now is a pretty ideal time for me to confess since I’ve already gone public with my job via a new DIY SEO guide I co-wrote with Andy Hayes!

Yep, Andy and I worked together over the past several months to put together a DIY guide to search engine optimization. Don’t know what SEO is? Most simply, it’s the process of improving your site’s organic search results in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc); that’s precisely what this guide is designed to do, help small businesses with SEO.

And here’s the thing – I really hate the “hard” sell. Instead, I’d love for you to take a moment to understand a few highlights of the guide, and if you like what you read, head over to DIY SEO at Travel Online Partners (Andy’s site) for a much more thorough review and an opportunity to purchase the SEO guide if you’re interested.

This DIY SEO guide:

• covers all of the essential aspects of search engine optimization and how to augment your site to place better in organic search results.
• is specifically designed for small businesses in travel and tourism industries (and yes that most definitely includes travel bloggers).
• provides clear, step-by-step instructions implementable all in one push, or gradually over time.
• includes a spiffy accompanying worksheet to keep all of your search engine research organized and help you through the process.
• is incredibly necessary if your site is a monetized business (or if you hope to make it one).

So there you have it! I’m pretty proud of the guide and I know there are numerous bloggers looking to monetize their sites; this Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimzation guide is one piece of the process.

And while I can’t promise you that you’re going to become a millionaire and die happy by using our guide (umm, that’s pretty much up to you), I can say that our SEO guide has a ton a value and will increase your search rankings if you’ve never optimized your site before.  :-)

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Related posts:

1. A Little Recap & Plan…Ah, Saturday
2. A Little Confession…End is in Sight
3. A Little Review…No Debt World Travel