Damien Finlay is the Managing Director at Epiar, a search engine optimization, marketing and copywriting firm. Originally, Damien worked at Oracle in database architecture. In 2004, on a visit to Edmonton, Alberta, Damien saw an advertisement for a Search Analyst and Account Manager for young company called Epiar. Damien says that from the day he was hired, he commenced lots of learning, especially from Ken Jurina, Epiar’s President. His learning included listening to individuals like Matt Cutts at Google, Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, and Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz. He read many SEO newsletters from MediaPost and Marketing Sherpa. He subscribed to blogs including Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Forums, Rand Fiskin’s at SEOmoz, and Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch. He also mentions his liking for BlueHatSEO’s blog.
Four years since starting at Epiar, Damien explains that Epiar has tripled in size. He encourages new SEOs to realize this is a young industry and many opportunities exist to find your niche. If you can, he explains, that many good speakers come to the various SEO conferences, so it is best to find one nearby to attend.