Our Princess Leia – an interview with Dazzlin Donna!

Its not a secret that the SEO-Chicks are big Dazzlin Donna stalkers (ermmm fans..), so we begged (erm asked) if we could interview her for our blog.

For those of you that don’t know who Dazzlin Donna is, shame on you! Donna Fontenot (aka Dazzlin Donna) is a SEO guru from Southern Louisiana, she has been in the SEO industry for a very long time, she runs the excellent SEO blog SEO Scoop as well as the blog Dazzlin Donna. Donna is an SEO Chick of the highest class and someone we very much look up to.

If Donna was a character from Star Wars we think she would be Princess Leia!
princessleiaedit-9635421

Here are the questions we asked Donna and her answers:

1. What do you see as the primary motivation for SEO bloggers?

In most cases, an SEO blogger establishes credibility, which leads to social networking and links, which leads to traffic. Once the blogger has credibility and traffic, she can do whatever she wants with it from there.

I originally started SEO Scoop long before social networking was a thing, and I started it as a reference point. Instead of constantly answering the same questions over and over again, I wanted to be able to just point to a blog post that had the answer. Turned out to not be such a great idea, because it was just as much work to find the relevant blog post, as it was to just answer the question again. But luckily, I discovered that blogging had many other advantages beyond my original plan for it, so it went from there.

2. Why is there such a celebrity cult in the SEO industry?

Is it just the SEO industry? I think human nature tends to make us seek out the celebs in any field of interest to us. What I think is even more interesting is looking at what kind of person becomes a celebrity. In the entertainment industry, one might assume it’s beauty, but of course there are millions of gorgeous beauties who never make it to celeb status. In the SEO world, is it outspokenness? Integrity? Most visible?

But if you’re looking for a reason that might be unique to SEO, it’s probably that the industry is still shrouded in mystery. We can’t simply open up the Encylopedia Brittanica to find the answers to ranking in the top 10 for our selected keywords. Instead, we begin by reading and listening to others who claim to have accomplished the goals we seek. Once we find someone who appears to have the magical answers, we wrap that person in Merlin’s cloak, put a wand in her hand, and call her a wizard. Or maybe we wrap her in a long white robe, shave her head, place her atop a high mountain, and call her a guru. Whatever status we bestow upon her, she is now an official celebrity, and we wait nearby, hoping she will look upon us favorably and throw us a magic token or a profound truth now and then that we can use for ourselves. The more tokens and words of wisdom we receive, the higher our opinion of her.

3. How can we better use social media?

Use? Or abuse? LOL, j/k. I’m not sure I have any profound answers for this question. It takes a bit of work and skill to be able to remain consistently attractive to the social hounds, and there are some that are far better at it than I. Tamar is a great example of someone who has an incredible knack for playing social media like a skilled violinist. I think everyone probably starts out by trying to use more social networks than they should, and eventually figures out that there isn’t enough time in the day to really be able to keep up with them all. Once you figure that part out, the next step is analyzing which networks are most useful to you and your topic, and focus in on those. You’ll get farther quicker that way. But I’d go ask this same question to Tamar, if I were you. icon_smile-3356456

4. Why dont more good-looking men wear kilts?

Silly preconceived notions of what manhood is prevents many men from doing things that would otherwise attract women to them in droves. Or at least that’s my theory, but I’m no authority on such matters. icon_wink-3927025

5. With the rapid popularity of SEO, why havent we yet seen a major movie/sitcom/novel about it?

I remember getting all excited when Sandra Bullock starred in The Net, way back in 1995, when only a few of us (relatively speaking) had actually used the Internet. It was still a mystery to much of the world, and that’s still how SEO is. We think it is popular, and it is certainly gaining in popularity all the time, but it is still a mystery to the world at large. I’m not sure everyone would really get it if it were turned into a major entertainment piece just yet. Then again, it might be educational! icon_biggrin-3497390

6. What actor would play you in a movie?

Now that’s a really tough question. I spent more time on this one question than all the rest combined, but I finally made a decision. Jodie Foster.

7. Which SEO is your Obi One Kenobi?
There isn’t one. When the SEO Dream Team meme was going around, I had a heckuva time trying to cull it down to 7, as the rules stated. There’s no way I could narrow it down to one. Instead, I’d rather expand it to include several dozen. So many people out there have strengths that I look up to and strive to emulate. To choose one would require that I place them all into a mixing machine, shake them up, and magically turn them into one SuperSEO.

8. Whats your favourite movie?

As silly as it will sound, I’ll be honest Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. What can I say? I’m a big fan of chicks kicking butt movies.

9. What is the last thing that really made you laugh?

The look on my grandbaby’s face when she opened up a present, revealing her first real laptop on her second birthday. She’s already a major gadget geek, and she’s constantly trying to sneak time on any of our computers. (She’s 2, remember). When she saw her very own laptop, complete with mouse, she went wild. Totally cracked me up.

10. If you went to your last ever SEO conference, who would you hang out with and why?

I haven’t yet been to one of the women’s luncheons, and I’m jealous as all get out that I haven’t been able to attend one yet. Nothing against the guys…I love ‘em all…but I really, really want to spend an hour or two just hangin’ with all the gals. All of you inspire me every single day.

Donna, thanks very much for a great interview. You rock!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *