Interview with Benj Arriola SEO Contest runner up

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UK WW conducted and interview with Benj, it was posted at out blog because it could not fit into a forum post. Except below and the url where you can find the full interviews as well:

UK WW: First of all, congratulation on your win. Please tell us a little bit about yourself, how long you have been in SEO etc.
Benj: Thank you. My first career was being a Chemist in 1994 but I did not like the 8 hour work in the laboratory and moved on to teaching undergrad Chemistry while I was taking my Master’s Degree in Natural Product Chemistry, but computers from hardware to software to graphics and design was alway a hobby for me and started running a business selling computers way back in 1997 which eventually led to stopping my Chemistry career in 1998.
From having a computer shop and Desktop Publishing (DTP) shop back then, the Internet was relatively new in 1997 in the Philippines and I was a few of the web designers that started making websites then not knowing that the future of my life will move more into this direction and will be closing my computer shop in the future.
1999 was the year I went full time with Web Design and Development. Closed the computer shop and started winning awards in designing. Although I heard about SEO already in 1999 from a book entitled “Net Results” by US Webs, which was the first book I experienced buying on Amazon, it was not really detailed and it really gave no significant information about it. All I knew about back then was stuffing the meta tags and that was it.
My real SEO experience started in 2004 when I moved from the Philippines to the United States and worked in a company in San Diego called Einstein Industries that did websites for Doctors, Dentist and Lawyers all over the US. Although my main job was a coder, making tableless CSS, XHTML validating websites with some design work, we were told to follow certain rules for SEO purposes. Which got me more curious and started learning on my own.
This then led me to forums, blogs and podcast and in my early days of learning, www.WebmasterRadio.fm was my top resource and the main show I listened to was SEO Rockstars with Greg Boser andTodd Freisen. That show used to be an active show and today, they may be less active and there are a lot of other good shows too like The Pulse, Shoemoney Show and others.
My First SEO client was a free client in 2004 just to test if SEO skills will work. My second SEO client was in 2005 and this time it was a paid client that was super cheap, just $200 bucks one time and was on-page only. Then prices just kept increasing then as my clients grew.
I joined several SEO contest in the past and where in every contest I joined, win or lose, I learn something new and is a good way to gauge your skills compared to other competitors.
Today aside from running my own small business, YDS Web Solution, Inc. (YDS Web Solution – We Make the Web Work – Complete website solution from planning to development and marketing of your website.) for small to medium sized SEO clients, I currently work for BusinessOnLine (Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consulting Firm, Website Usability, Design and Development Services – BusinessOnLine) where I get to handle more larger, popular brand name clients being part of the SEO Team.



Full interview here