For the most part, SEOs and Internet marketers seem to be a fairly collaborative bunch, especially in the social media realm, where so much of your success is predicated on strong relationships with other like-minded people. However, it seems like there is always a bit of a disconnect between the people who work with clients and the people who spend the majority of their time working on independent projects. The main question usually is, “If you’re truly an expert at something, what incentive do you have to teach others? Wouldn’t you want to just work on your own projects and make money for yourself?”
Well, if money is the main motivator it’s hard to argue with that logic. But, in taking a look at a few of the other factors, it seems like there’s a lot more going on here than just looking at which path can make you the most money. First, let’s look at a few of the reasons a person might choose to teach someone:
1) They’re a Saint
I’ve been told that for whatever reason, there are some people who legitimately enjoy helping others. These are the people that typically make me extremely uncomfortable and leave my inner monologue pinging, “What’s your game…? No one can be this nice,” while I politely thank them for going way beyond what I ever would have expected. These are the born teachers, and the people who just can’t help but pass along a quick pointer to someone if they know it’s going to help make their life easier.
Strangely, they almost never seem to expect anything in return. They actually want to see other people succeed, and are rewarded by knowing they helped contribute to someone else’s prosperity.
2) They’re an Ego-Maniac
These teachers fall on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and typically just want to pass along enough information to make sure you understand they are a genius. Usually they are extremely knowledgeable people, but when they pass along information they tend to be less concerned with whether you understand what they’re saying than they are about making sure you understand how brilliant they are for saying it.
3) It’s a Relatively Safe Option
These are the people who choose to teach primarily because it offers some form of a safety net. For some it’s purely financial, and for others it equates to being able to place the risk squarely on someone else’s shoulders. Either way, these people have enough expertise to be a valuable resource, and are able to carve out a successful career being exactly that. Also, a fair amount of the people in this group probably pull some traits right out of group 1, and take a tremendous amount of pride in seeing their clients succeed. That’s what makes them good consultants in the first place.
Obviously these categories are a bit simplified. But, I’d definitely argue most search marketers that do consulting are at least leaning heavily toward one of the three, even though they may have characteristics from multiple groups.
There are bound to be some people who can’t comprehend why anyone would choose to take a different approach than they do. And sometimes it seems like the more entrepreneurial individual has a hard time understanding the in-house SEO that works a set schedule and is required to put in the same long hours day after day while being inundated with internal meetings. And, on the other side, the more risk averse person can’t always comprehend how someone could pour countless hours into a project with no guaranteed ROI, or have the confidence to pursue their own ideas as a sole source of income.
But, as with anything, there are plenty of pros and cons to both pursuing individual projects and choosing to work with clients. Here’s a quick list I threw together with some of the obvious ones:
My feeling is that neither one is more “noble” than the other. And, whichever side a person feels more comfortable on is almost certainly going to be the right choice for them. It seems if you just examine the reasons behind why someone would choose to teach in the first place, and the basic pros and cons of consulting versus working on your own projects, certain people will just gravitate naturally to one role or the other.
However, I’m interested in hearing whether or not other people agree with this philosophy.
Is there more merit to one than the other, or is it really as simple as “do what makes you happy?”
