Around springtime last year, I was paddling through a rip-tide in Costa Rica with two locals and a website CEO who I am fairly certain was on the run from the DEA for his involvement in a medical marijuana facility in Colorado.

At the time, I focused on these thoughts less for creative or imaginative reasons, and more in an effort to forget that my arms were quickly devolving into spaghetti. But the vision of government agents bursting out of the jungle as I rode a perfectly peeling wave into shore was interrupted by a wall of water that tore my shorts to my ankles, placed me in the rinse cycle, and sent me to the bottom. I came up gasping and paddled back out with a nod to the reminders my dad used to tape to the bathroom mirror reminding me to seize the carp (Or was it carpe diem?).

For the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to constantly evolve both professionally and personally. And my little story about getting thrashed on vacation brings to light a concept I’ve come to appreciate: milking it. I tend to think there’s a bit of value in everything, opportunities to learn, grow, and evolve. Fortunately, my time at Industrial Traffic has helped reinforce that.

Whether enjoying a hobby or working on a project for a client, I really do think that everything can — in some way– be milked. I understand this brings to mind a particular line from a popular movie, butI’ve committed myself to the milking analogy and will stay the course.

Anyhow….

Since this is an SEO related blog I’ll bring the focus away from my surfing anecdote and closer to something a bit more relevant.You really can milk anything, and in the SEO and internet marketing world, it’s no different. One of the most important things I’ve learned over the last few years is to milk our roles as internet marketing specialists. To actively go out and find the opportunities to learn something new and put the experience to work. To innovate, go the extra step, and then look for what’s next.

On my end of things, one project that has received a great deal of focus lately has been writing and link building. The process for developing and distributing content is ultimately aimed at creating content and and using it to create links to a client’s website. This isn’t always that exciting, but I’ve realized that we can always take it one step further to squeeze more out of the entire process. From taking that content and adapting it into a blog post to simply studying its impact and making observations, the job is seldom “done”.

I don’t necessarily think it’s important to focus on what we’re squeezing for. The simple fact that we’re doing it guarantees we learn something new.

Either way, I’m not done milking it yet. So check back again for more.