Damien (Damo) joins the Seeker team as a digital copywriter, with a long background in writing online content.
He moonlights as Music Editor for an online music magazine, Songwriting Magazine, for whom he has written numerous articles and contributed to a paperback book, How I Wrote…
Damo joins us at an exciting time and will be producing top-notch content for Seeker, using his editorial experience to review the work of Seeker’s contributors.
We took Damo to one side and asked him to reveal a bit more about himself. He jumped right in…
Who are you?
I’m one of Seeker’s new digital copywriters and I’m delighted to be here! I’m originally from Frome (the hometown of Jenson Button) but have lived in Bristol since finishing my MA in Russian History.
Why Russian History?
It’s a topic that has always fascinated me and one that I selected for my studies at every opportunity throughout my education. This course incorporated history, politics, literature and philosophy, and it just seemed like the natural progression for me.
Do you have a favourite Russian writer?
Dostoyevsky. He’s my favourite writer full stop and the author of my second favourite book, The Brothers Karamazov.
And your favourite?
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It’s brilliantly written, philosophical, and absolutely hilarious. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
What brings you to Seeker?
I’ve always had a real interest in writing and while studying for my MA I wrote for the music section of my university student newspaper. One of my pieces won ‘best article’ at their end of year award ceremony and that made me think: ‘I can do this’.
What writing have you done since university?
Since completing my studies, I’ve continued to write constantly. For the last five years, I’ve been the Music Editor for an online music magazine, Songwriting Magazine, with a weekly reach of over 65,000.
My responsibilities for Songwriting are: writing news pieces, original features, music reviews, editing the work of our staff writers, uploading content to WordPress, sharing our content via our social media outlets (which have a total following of over 48,000) and engaging with our social media followers.
I was also the sole copywriter on a project that involved me contributing 24,000 words to a website. The project was to a very tight deadline. It meant that I had to get all of my content completed in two weeks, which I did.
So I’ve been creating and uploading content on a daily basis for the last five and a half years.
So do you already have experience of SEO?
I do. The content I’ve written for Songwriting has always been optimised for SEO – it’s crucial that we rank as highly as possible and on-page content plays a huge part in this. I’m aware of the importance of things like alt-tags too.
I also have experience using Google Analytics, so know my way around that pretty well!
SEO is something that I’ve been increasingly aware of, but I appreciate that so far I’ve only touched the tip of an enormous iceberg. I’m looking forward to going a little deeper and everything I’ve learnt since I started at Seeker has just increased my enthusiasm for SEO.
What do you find most fascinating about SEO?
The thing that has always struck me is its power. For those of you who have seen House of Cards, specifically series four, there’s a storyline that involves a presidential candidate using a search engine to try and aid his campaign. I won’t spoil the rest for you!
SEO is so important to the decisions we make in our lives and I find it fascinating how it can predict, assist and even direct our behaviour.
What are you most enthusiastic about?
It has to be getting up in the morning and knowing that I’m going to spend my day writing. What more could I want?
Your knitwear has caused a stir in the office…
What can I say, I love good jumpers and cardigans! It’s something I’m well-known for amongst my friends – one of them calls me “king of the cardigans” – and I’m forever having my knitwear pinched!
Haha! Do you have a favourite one?
Yes, my Dennis the Menace. And no, you can’t have it!
That’s me! Are any questions you’d like to ask? If so, please leave them below and I’ll get back to you.
