Swimming Pools, Death, and Link Building

Since Julie has asked me to write about how my other job affects my link-building techniques, I guess I should first explain what else I do. Outside of the office, I partially own a small business with my father servicing and cleaning swimming pools.

My father

It isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, but it isn’t too awful. I rarely get to swim in the pools that I take care of, unless something is broken. My clients don’t make sexual advances towards me, but I have seen some of them naked on accident. My days are often filled with chemical burns, sunburn, and multiple bug bites. While cleaning and servicing pools, there is a lot of quiet time to enjoy the weather and think. But occasionally, I run into strange problems that require me to imagine every possible scenario in order to form appropriate solutions. This usually leads me to think of something really weird.

Is this the work of water wizards?

Upon encountering a green pool that was previously in perfect condition, one of the questions I first ask myself is, “What did Mother Nature do to you?” This is a question that you can ask when thinking of new search ideas for your link-building. For instance, if you are working for a client that is selling inexpensive security cameras, maybe search for amazing nature footage caught on tape. Lightning storms happen to affect swimming pools in ridiculous ways. The ozone from lightning zaps the chlorine right out of the pool causing the chemicals to change significantly, which will turn the water bright green with algae in a single hot day. How do your client’s security cameras hold up in lightning? Do they have some kind of protection? Does ball-lightning specifically seek out security cameras and does Zeus have anything to do with it? These are all things that may bring you new, interesting search results.

Another thing that could turn a pool green is a dead animal that has been floating in the water for days, decomposing and releasing all the wonderful chemical reactions of death. I encounter drowned creatures almost every week because most animals will never get used to our highly advanced technology, like stairs. You can ask yourself, “How do animals negatively or positively affect the product of my client?” If your client sells replacement auto parts, you might search for sites about the frequency of bears hit on roads each year. Maybe you can find pictures of animals nesting in old cars. You might even think of more creative questions like, “What does Smokey the Bear drive?” or “Where is the Batmobile right now and who is driving it?” Animals are everywhere and constantly causing problems, so maybe mixing them into your searches will give you interesting results.

On that note, let’s take a second to consider how death affects everything. Most of my job is making sure that all the little parts that make a pool run (including the pumps, water features, chemistry, lighting, and everything else) won’t kill you. Death is the one experience in life that we are all trying to avoid, but it’s everywhere. You can attach death, murder, or suicide to anything and find some great search results, even if your client’s product is just some obscure online software. However, you may not be prepared for what you find.

Editor’s Note: This was a guest post by our link builder Nathan Lee, who enjoys hats.