Yeah I am old and can't develop new skills. Almost 30 I am finished.
That is the biggest load of sh1t I have ever heard. 30 is not even close to too old to learn something new. This 100% makes it seem like your attitude is the thing holding you back. That or you are lazy. Either way, it's not your age.
I'm 37. I love SEO and Digital Marketing, although I do have some concerns about privacy and manipulating people's behavior online. Sure, it makes money but I have been struggling a lot with how consumerism seems to be the root of a lot of BS in the world lately. That being said I worked in SEO for online casinos for years, and sports betting and I guess that is the same thing: I'm introducing someone to something, I'm not holding a gun to their head telling them to spend their money there.
I work in an agency. I'm the team lead of the digital marketing department and the only SEO at the agency. I HATE clients. I hate talking to them, I hate meetings with them, I hate having to explain to them what I do in terms of SEO, especially since my results, 99% of the time, speak for themselves.
Unfortunately, SEO is one of those industries that is just rife with con-artists, scammers and snake-oil salesmen. Any thread on BHW is proof of that. There are so many people out there selling SEO and digital marketing that cannot do SEO or digital marketing. They just throw around the right terms and use industry slag and con people out of their money, delivering sh1tty (or now results) results, causing people to be skeptical of the industry as a whole.
I'm sick of trying to explain SEO (and digital marketing) to people that have no experience on the field. I'm sick of arguing with clients about what keywords we should be targeting for SEO, because they think they know better because of how they personally use Google (or the internet as a whole). I'm sick of clients putting up red tape and insisting on changes that causes my results to suffer and then having to repeatedly explain to the client that "I told you so".
When there is something wrong with my car, I take it to a mechanic and ask them to fix it. I don't ask them to teach me how the combustion engine works before I allow them to work on my car. I also do request "work in progress" meetings every couple of hours so that my mechanic can talk about work rather than do actual work. I can represent myself in court too, but just because I can, doesn't mean I should. If I want to win my case in court the best option is probably to get myself an experienced lawyer and to let them do their job.
After 12 years working in digital marketing, specializing in SEO, gaining more experience than the vast majority of my peers and delivering excellent results for my clients, I'm done. I don't want to do this any more. I am exploring all my options to get the f*ck out of this profession. There is more to life than eating up the BS of dumbasses that don't know sh1t about digital marketing or SEO. I'm also an artist that paints and draws. I have had a solo exhibition and I sold the 80% of my paintings on the night of the show. I have also been commissioned to design tattoos for people and my tattoo artist has offered me a tattoo apprenticeship to teach me the technical aspects of tattooing. I am kind of crapping myself because I'm thinking of a career change at the age of 37, but if I don't I might just do something really stupid if I carry on down this path I am currently on.
Right now I'm considering applying for an art residency in Canada. I've ordered myself a tattoo machine and I'm going to learn the technicalities of tattooing. I don't know how much longer I will be in SEO and digital marketing (might be months, might be a year or two while I work on the needed skills to get out) but, I can't wait to not have to spend the majority of my day behind a computer working any more.