subject: Charllottesville's newest SEO Firm Owner and founder Starr Earnest speaks candidly on her rise to where she is today [print this page] Charllottesville's newest SEO Firm Owner and founder Starr Earnest speaks candidly on her rise to where she is today
June 15th, 2010 marked the beginning of a new day for Starr Earnest, owner and founder of the Atlantean Internet Marketing Firm, located in the foothills of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, more specifically in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Asked what brought her here, and she will tell you about the quaint town and its lovely surroundings, the rich culture and rolling hills of the many horse farms dotting the area.
"I have always loved the energy here, it is quite an eclectic mix with all the students from UVA and the richness that all the citizen's contribute to. I love walking down the Downtown Mall and seeing what the vendors have to offer, and I think that we have many top rate professionals here, and I am just trying to make my place amongst them"
Starr, herself has quite an eclectic computer background. Starting off studying for her engineer certifications back in 1998, she later progressed to web design and 2 and 3D computer -generated artwork. She later served as project manager for a small software company in North Carolina, before going back to school for business management and internet and network security. While in school she worked at a global ISP and domain host providing tech support and doing house calls for computer repair. She credits her technical support era with teaching her a lot about interacting with people who were not necessarily comfortable in their element.
"I really enjoyed working with people who were scared of, or intimidated by the whole process. I drew on a lot of experience I had helping my mother, and I tried my hardest to explain things as simply as possible and in a way that didn't overwhelm them. I am very fortunate that most things computer related come to me very naturally, but I know that isn't the case for many (if not most) people out there."
Starr got her feet wet (in SEO) starting a small online exotic pet business, when she realized she needed more exposure and stumbled across an SEO firm. While hiring the firm she realized from talking to them and doing the research that she put into learning more about SEO, that they were not doing anything that she could not be doing herself. She later put the pet business off to the side and started another website, which shot to number one on Google, and she was instantly hooked.
Working to promote her mother's website and still learning more about the SEO process, this continued for three years until she applied for an internship at a small SEO company based in New York, which carried her until her first big job at SEO.com, one of the nation's top SEO firms.
"Working for SEO.com taught me a lot, and primarily I realized how much I didn't know, but as time went on I was able to polish my skills and I learned many invaluable skills there."
Unfortunately, the company restructured and remote positions were eliminated which terminated her employment with the firm which she had been telecommuting from Virginia to Utah for. Undaunted, Starr made the decision to start her own firm, with blessings from SEO.com.
"SEO is a passion of mine, and the nature of the science being one that continually evolves it is something I stay on top of day-to-day. I love what I do, and it is something that I could never get tired of. I initially started out thinking I would start just a small home-based business, then my plans kept expanding to the point I was looking at office space and a company car, project mangers and secretaries, and I knew I was ready to take this on.There is a real shortage of Charlottesville SEO firms"
When asked about how she plans to compete with the "big boys", she simply states:
"There are a lot of excellent SEO firms operating, today. But there is nothing they can do, that I can not. It really is a fair playing field. All the information is out there, you just have to know where to find it. I am starting out small, primarily working with small to medium sized businesses, but one day I will take on corporate conglomerates. I have to train all my current employees, and as we build our client base, we will continually grow and expand."
Are there any limits to what she has set out to accomplish? Not if you ask her:
"Right now I am renting office space. I want to own my own office building."
