I’ve been a digital professional for exactly twenty two years now.
It all started with my little web design business in September 2000. I’d studied HNC Graphics & Design in 1996-1998 but couldn’t get a design job without the experience, and I couldn’t get the experience without a job – a catch 22 situation. And that’s why I:
- Set up a web design studio, business, and built a website for it.
- Added an existing personal hobby website to my portfolio.
- Immediately attracted two new clients.
So, within just a few months I’d quickly built up a portfolio of four website builds in the design, automotive, health, and leisure/sport sectors.
22i Design & Digital, once just 22i Design, is still ticking over – providing website hosting, business email services, and the tiniest amount of web development. I’ve never out my all into that business and it has never earned very much. But then it’s never been actively promoted, have never really shouted about it nor put too effort into making it rank organically. Why? Because I have always been working full time and dedicated all my time to my employers.
I haven’t updated the website design in over ten years, so it just ticks over, earns a few quid, is my digital playground, gives me alternative things to do, and it’s the thing that forces me to have to do self-assessment tax forms every year.
That’s where I started professionally, where I took the web seriously and decided to do something about it. I was still working in an electronics warehouse at the time, as a licenced forklift driver.
Before that I was in construction, catering, logistics, an engineer, amongst many things… I needed something technical and creative to take me away from the monolithic ceramic chip capacitor business. And so 22i Design was the springboard for my professional life in digital.
But the real boost happened in December 2000, that’s when I started my first full-time job in the industry at the dotcom start-up is4profit.com
Of course, I’d actually designed and built my first web page back in 1998. I was obsessed with traffic counters and geeking out to HTML, getting a buzz from seeing if I could make my web page more popular than the next guy’s. That’s where my digital path through life really began.
I get well paid for what I do. I’m an experienced, hard-working, data-driven, results-getting digital marketer. I don’t consider myself to be the best but I am very good at what I do – I get results even if I can’t match the incredibly clever things that some SEO professionals get up to. Without ever being given any time for continuous personal development (CPD) and having had a family and now being a single parent, life has been too busy to allow time to focus on being as cool at SEO as I’d like to be.
However, in 22 years I’ve learned a hell of a lot just by doing the work and I’ve got a wide range of skills that supplement and support my digital marketing. For instance;
- I was a web designer, a graphic designer and, apparently, I know enough to be called a web developer, to some extent. One of my web developers at Clever Marketing said that and I took that compliment with a big smile.
- I’ve been employed full time to run successful social media campaigns. Not volume campaigns, but quality engagements that have actually connected people and genuinely made their lives better.
- Project management is a skill of mine, for one of the biggest companies in the world. Again, that helped people to lead better, healthier lives.
- I’ve done SEO since 1998 and PPC since 2003.
- Copywriting has always been a big thing with me, I’ve written hundreds of news stories, maybe thousands of blog posts and managed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of web pages in my time.
- I’ve been a webmaster, a SysAdmin and half of an IT department as a Deputy IT Manager.
- I’ve managed online communities, been an MVP and a moderator in the forums, sent out millions of email newsletters to subscribers.
- Once, at Joomla Day 2009 I stood up on stage and talked SEO.
- I’ve worked with some very cool people.
What this all means is that, more than being just “an SEO guy” I’m a really well-rounded holistic digital marketer.
I’ve turned down roles because they didn’t pay enough. I’ve been turned down for roles because I was “too expensive”.
One employer once said to me;
“I could get a regular SEO guy in, instead of you.”
They got a 33% discount on their wage bill by not using me at the price I was worth at the time. But what would they have been able to get for that 33% discount? A specialist in only one subject with just five years experience? They turned down an extra 15 years’ experience in the digital industry, at all levels. They may have “achieved” a 33% saving on wages but they lost 75% of the professional insights I would have brought to their business.
That’s a complete no-brainer. And I’m not a drone either, I have a backbone. I question, I challenge, I see how all the disparate systems fit together.
And that’s why sometimes you have to remind people, because if they don’t realise what they’ve got, they could lose it.
So there you have it, 22i Design & Digital, 22 years in business. If you need any design, website design, development, digital marketing, copywriting, SEO, or PPC, just call me at 22i on 01252 692 765