I attended the SEMPO meeting at SES-NY 09 back in March. I met up with Donna DeClemente via Twitter.

Then we heard about the Tweetup where we also met Motoko Hunt, Japanese Search Marketing Strategist.

More recaps will come as soon as I recall them.

I was quoted in an article from Web Worker Daily.

May I mention that I was the only woman led search consultant featured? Learn more about what others say about what it takes to have a career in search.

Read more about how Dana Todd and the Board got to NASDAQ.

I can’t answer for all the Women of Search, but I can answer for myself. As an independent practitioner, conference funds are few and far between, also if on the chance I am offered an opportunity to speak, there are still expenses to be considered i.e. travel, loss of work (client) time traveling to/from said venue, etc.

There are factors to be considered when figuring out if/where/when/and what to speak on.

I’m sure there will be more insights.

The first thing that I tell clients and colleagues alike is that you have to know where you have been before you can know where you are going.

As for me, I didn’t start off in search, or on the web for that matter. In fact I was an architecture student planning to build buildings, but my work-study job was in a computer lab. Need I say more?

So, a few people and I built websites for a few organizations in college. After graduation, I did work for an architecture firm for a few months, but after my great-grandmother’s passing, I realized that life was too short to not to be doing what I like to do, being online.

So I started pounding the pavement. My first gigs were freelance gigs (I should of known something then), but I settled down to a programming position for a year.

I was then laid off. A month later, I worked at a certain Internet advertising company doing the precursor to text ads with banner ads. Two years went by, and I decided to get an MBA.

After getting the MBA, I started looking for work, this was post-bubble 2002. Finally I find a job as an Internet Marketing Analyst. My role was to prepare reports, provide assistance with programming and deal with vendors that provided services for my employer.

Even though the title didn’t change much, the responsibilities evolved. I was first reviewing and deciphering log files (anyone remember those?) As time went on I became interested in SEO and SEM and how they made an impact on traffic.

In 2006, I was laid off yet again, but this time, I decided to start working for myself, primarily due to eldercare responsibilities. In addition to growing personal responsibilities, my business also started to evolve once again, this time to blog development.

Now I focus on not only branding and customizing blogs, but I also focus on making them of course, search engine friendly.

What advice I would give? Don’t be afraid to learn something new. Its just one of those challenges that one encounters on the road to success.

One of the women in search who I consider a mentor as well as a good friend is Laura Thieme of BizResearch. In this video, she discusses the differences in what careers in search people gravitate to.

The book is going to be about Women in the Search Engine Industry. I am looking for women from all levels, from beginners to experienced professionals to talk about being in the trenches of search. My goal is for this book to become a resource for people looking for advice about women in search.

Please contact me if you are interested in being interviewed in this exciting project.