Its the end of 2010 and its been a mixed year. I have ditched the SEOidiot tag after many years of the highs and lows of being known and often introduced as ‘Idiot’.
At the start of the year I set some goals, most of them I have happily completed or at least made decent progress on completing.
But there have been some things to make it a bitter sweet year: -
The sad passing of Jaamit (Please give to the appeal for donations)
I didnt know Jaamit as well as some but in the time I did spend with him he never missed an opportunity to give me some abuse (Rightly) and shame me with his dedication and professionalism. I always felt a wave of guilt passing him preparing his talk at Thinkvis when in fact I was sneaking away for a cheeky Peroni.
We also lost an old friend this year in Gman. Geoff had suffered with his illness for as long as I knew him. He actually got into MFA (made for adsense) spam as a result of having to pay his medical bills when his employer left him high and dry.
Geoff was the man who taught me that ugly sites get clicks, that people click standard blue and that scale is vital once you prove there is margin. He once told me that he had over 80,000 .info domains in play, truly the act of throwing enough at the wall to make it pay.
Ill miss them both.
Its also been a year of adjusting the way I work and that’s still a project that needs some work, changing who I work with and what I work on. I am returning to concentrating on my own work as much as possible and removing any partnerships I have had as they haven’t worked for me.
Now enough of all that. Its time for the positives!
So in one quick stream, this is what has happened since I went 100% by myself in business rather than under contract with people. This is about 16 months of stuff but it all seems to fit in to one post. OK so in that time I have: -
Been to…
Cocoa Beach
Daytona
Tampa
Orlando
New York
Atlantic City
Phillidelphia
Toronto
Las Vegas (3 times)
Los Angeles (twice)
San Diego
San Francisco
and a bunch of other places
Ive spoken at….
SES London, SES New York, SES Toronto, SES San Fran, Thinkvisibility, A4U London.
Some of them went pretty well I hope…
Thinkvis for example -
“he still managed to pack a huge amount into his session which was a real highlight of the day for many people”
Without doubt the most entertaining session of the day
he has more than a touch of genius, his ‘what would a spammer do’ session went down a storm with a lot of laughs
Other stuff….
We paid off our mortgage, 4 years ahead of schedule
I dumped the Idiot moniker
I started 3 businesses (More on the way for 2011)
I gambled in Atlantic City and Vegas, in AC I won enough to pay for the hotel and the trip and in Vegas I lost but got a free t-shirt (woot)
And even though that sounds like a busy year (It was) we also managed to take a month off to travel the USA in August. Through my persistent promotion and belief in the power of outsourcing and deriving your income from largely location independent sources I still managed to turn over 80% of what we would have in the UK whilst driving through the deserts of Nevada.
Now this may seem a little indulgent but hell here goes. Here are a few photos from that trip and a story at the end, the sort of story that happens to me all the damn time (I wish it wouldn’t)
So some great places and one memorable night when I got lost on the Nevada desert. I drove till after midnight and then found the only township for about the next 200 miles. One Motel only appeared to have any rooms, a small independent clown themed motel.
Yes I said CLOWN themed.
I walked in, paid for a room and went up the stairs to see what lay in store. Opened the door and flipped on the light. I swear things scattered…
Every room had a picture of a clown above the bed (Mine was a large harlequin – eeek) and a life sized clown statue. I think it would have made the ideal Stephen King movie if the owner took the place of one of these statues each night and lay in wait.
Ohh and to top things off I later find out that the motel was right next to this old cemetary
Photos: Credit
I flipped the light back off ran back down to reception and said “Erm I’m sorry but i’ve decided not to stay” The receptionist replied “mmm yeahhh” (As is ‘we get that a lot’). I dived back in the car and sped off into the night.
At 2am I finally found the next town and crashed in some chain motel. The roads had been silent, scary and the road signs all had bullet holes in ….
Sorry if this has seemed a tad boastful and self indulgent post but hell if you have a year of experiences you better write about them too. I already have my goals for the coming year down and will publically commit to them in the coming days.
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