Back in Stamford

So, here I am, back in Stamford, just like I was 2 years ago - jobless and just sat in my room. There are some differences, though. First of all, I have more shit in my room, there's plenty more stuff that I've accumulated over time. Secondly, I resigned from this last job of mine, a calculated decision and one that weighs very heavily on my heart, such is my affection for my previous role. And finally (because all good lists come in 3s), I have my new life/adventure to look forward to - I'll be working in Hong Kong, fulfilling an ambition to live and work over there.

It's amazing thinking about how far I've come over these past two years. I'll never forget my time at Crave, it really gave me a head start on life in online and allowed me to cut my teeth in the harsh retail world. But it's my time at Comet that has seriously sculpted me into what I am now. Under the supervision of so many good managers, colleagues and friends, I had learnt so much and developed into a strong, competent marketer that the job that I loved so dearly became a bit drab. And now, based on that experience, I've been offered the best opportunity that could have possibly come my way. I can't wait.

It's been far too long again....

Ah ha! Well, it's certainly something that I've not been paying much attention to, but I do plan on cranking up blogging activity. Why? Well, for the simple reason that I'm going to be embarking on a new adventure.

Yes, I'm going to be leaving the UK, moving to Hong Kong where I will start a new job and new life. I reckon I'll keep a diary, so I might save myself some petty cash and just write on this blog instead. I don't know yet, I might just keep everything private instead. But 1 thing is for sure, and that is that I'm dead excited and scared in equal measures. I just need a bit of courage, but once I'm out there, I'm sure I'll be just fine.

It's been a while

Well, I know it's been a while since I last posted anything on my little blog, but there has been good reason for it. I've been busy, not only with work, but with my course as well.

I recently enrolled in a course with the British College of Journalism and by the end of it, I will have a diploma in Freelance Journalism. I have so far had 1 assignment, with another one on its way sometime this weekend. I'm really enjoying it, although all I've really done is research topics to write about. I'm going to be writing up one of my follow up ideas with the next assignment, 800 words to be precise and I can't wait. I've made a start on it already, racking up about 600 words already, so I guess I'm nearly finished. Not quite sure about what I'm trying to say with it, but I am trying to make it as professional as possible. Going to have to give the tutorial a good read through before I submit it, as I'm sure it'll give me an indication of quotes and stuff like that, and maybe basic interviewing techniques.

I shall let you know how it goes.

Beef jerky addiction

Since getting back from their cruise around North America, my parents have been lavishing me with gifts. Typical tourist style clothing, an endless supply of playing cards, a wooden yoyo, a set of Russian dolls and holiday snaps and video footage make up the treats. However, the only one to really catch my attention is the beef jerky. Oh my, it's wonderful, it's tasty, it's almost wrong, but it tastes sooooo good! I've gorged myself silly on two flavours, teriyaki and smoked. I can confirm that both are exquisite and urge everyone who has never tried beef jerky to give their teeth a good work out and take the plunge.

PS3 withdrawal symptoms?

Since I completed Metal Gear 4: Guns of the Patriots, I have found myself both relieved and a little bit at a loss. Having spent a good month or so playing the game for a couple of hours every night, I’ve now come to realise just how big a part of my life the PS3 is. I now spend a lot of my time working out instead as there’s almost always nothing on TV to interest me. This isn’t all bad. In reality, it’s probably a good thing as now more parts of my body get a work out instead of just my thumbs.

It’s certainly an impressive console. For those who like to justify things before purchasing, you might want to also consider the implications on your life. Once you find a really good game to play, you may as well say goodbye to a lot of the past times you had before. Maybe I’m just an addict, but I like to throw myself into these things and fully absorb myself in the action. So, whilst I spent a large portion of my life playing Metal Gear Solid, I never thought about what I’d do after it, in this post MGS period I now find myself in. I’m thinking that I should probably invest in a new game to lose myself in, but at the same time, I can’t really afford it. Justifiers, take note – once the grip of the PS3 takes hold, you need money to feed your addiction. I’ve got a few games, but maybe it’s part of my all or nothing personality that makes playing so many a bit of a chore. I have to be really up for it, really want to play it to get me to stick the disk in and go. I know that once I start, I’ll be lost for a few hours, which is never a good thing if you want to sleep. Always try to wind down before hitting the hay.

I am, however, pleased to say that I don’t miss sitting on my beanbags (I have two for the ultimate in comfort) hammering away with my digits. Getting back into the real world has been a painless process and I’m enjoying it. I will no doubt save up a few quid to splash out on a new game sometimes soon in the future, so don’t worry too much about that. The new Tomb Raider game will be out, so I’ll be extra keen to give that a go. I’m lucky that I’m quite sensible. I’ve never really done the thing where I’ve turned down going to the pub so I can play games. Some people I know have stayed in to play online poker all night, but this could be more to do with a gambling addiction. The PS3 though, is a different animal. Getting hooked on this could be a lot worse to your health.

Having said all of that, it’s still the best ‘investment’ I’ve made in a long time. It’s an all singing and all dancing machine.

SEO, online marketing and what else?

So, now that I've decided that I'm going to be a writer of sorts, I figured that I ought to be writing. But what should I write about? A pretty obvious question with a fairly straightforward answer; I should begin with something that I know a lot about. With this in mind, I've decided that I'll start with my job - online marketing.

I've been involved with online marketing for just over 3 years and over the course of these 3 years, I've ended up specialising in SEO, or search engine optimisation for those who aren't familiar with the acronym. However, my exposure in the general online marketing field has been very broad and as a result, I also have a great deal of experience in affiliate, email, PPC, price comparison and Web 2.0 marketing too. But I'll begin with a bit about SEO.

What is SEO?

It's a fair question. Pre search engine optimisation experience, I was none the wiser about how websites were ranked by Google. Who'd bother thinking about that anyway? Well, I'm assuming that most people wouldn't really dwell too much on the topic, but as soon as I found out about SEO, I was totally blown away. People actually tweak websites to make them more attractive to the search engines and some even try to fool them. It's crazy, but it's true. There are a number of ways of optimising a website for certain search terms. The main bits that you'd want to look at would be the page title tags, the linking structure, the quality of the HTML code and more importantly, the website content or copy. There's a saying in the SEO industry that sums this last point up perfectly: Content is King. It's obvious, a search engine returns results based on something that someone's looking for, so a website that talks about that certain something must be best. That used to be the case and some devious people knew it and took advantage of it, but there are external factors too that affect a website's overall performance.

Inbound linking from external websites is essentially the crux of SEO. In its crudest form, search engine optimisation is a popularity contest. If you're out with your mates and a really attractive member of the opposite sex were to approach you and say, "I think your friend over there is really good looking", you might laugh. But at some point, you might even think to yourself that if this attractive person really rates your friend, then that must make your friend attractive too. Google will look at the sites linking into a website and then determine how good those links actually are and this forms part of the big algorithm that orders websites in the results pages. If an authoratative site, such as the BBC, were to link to yours, you can expect your website to perform quite well.

I've tried to avoid going into too much detail on this subject, as there's a lot of literature about SEO out there already. I don't want to go into the specifics about how you'd go about executing your SEO strategy, just wanted to share an insight into the subject. If you want to know more, don't hesitate to get in touch. Next time, I'll write about a different online marketing discipline. Bye for now.

The beginning

OK, this is it. I'm really going to do this, right now. This little post here, it's the beginning of something (as the title would suggest). I'm not quite sure what it's the beginning of, but it's definitely the start. If you've made it this far, I'll tell you what I'm embarking on. I'm going to become a copywriter. Starting out, I'm going to be a freelance writer. I'm going to get writing jobs, and build up a huge portfolio of articles and blogs, and people are going to read them - and enjoy them.

What am I going to write about? Well, Confucious said something along the lines of "Find a job that you enjoy doing, and you'll never have to do a day's work again". So, I'm going to write about stuff that I enjoy, like sport, music, films, games and technology in general. If you, for some reason, have read some of the previous posts on my blog here, you'll notice that they're about washing machines and TVs. Well, that's because I write these for my day job too. I work for an electrical retailer, so it kind of comes with the territory. I'm not sure if I really enjoy these, but I definitely have interest in them, even washing machines. I'm not just looking to regurgitate the same pieces of information. No, I'm looking to provide another point of view, to add something to the mass of information that's already out there. There's no point in reinventing the wheel afterall, so I might as well provide an analytical and logical take on whatever topic pops into my head.

So, just you wait, keep an eye out on here and you'll see me. I'm going to become a copywriter.