SEO Dave

Update March 2009: I finally had surgery on my lower back, as I write this the lower back surgery was one month ago yesterday (28th Feb 2009). I’m home and still recovering, still in a lot of discomfort so not sure if the surgery was a success or not!

Before the surgery was advised it takes 3 months for the vertebrae to fuse (had two discs fused and pinned) and I should start physiotherapy at the 3 months point.

I have to admit to expecting an almost instant cure (within a month of the surgery) and thought “I’ll not need physiotherapy”, so a little disappointed I’m not better today than I was the day before the back surgery, (actually worse, can’t bend down to tie my shoe laces yet) but my realistic side is much more patient and still upbeat about the future :)

I hope it works.

David

Updated/rewrote July 2008.

My names David Cameron Law (my politics: Labour supporter :)) many know me as SEO Dave on search engine optimization forums and newsgroups (tend to get into heated arguments online :)).

I’m very happily married with three children (all boys) with the eldest in his teens (17 years old July 2008).

I’m a very experienced SEO consultant with SEO Gold Services (being studying SEO for over 10 years and offered SEO services for 8+ years) and at home I’m putting some of my spare time into renovating our new house when I back doesn’t hurt too much (see below), got a website about House Renovation.

Does Working from Home Make What you do a Home Based Business?

I own around 100 domains covering various niches, my first site was a adult lingerie/sex toy store. After leaving University on medical grounds (back problems) I had to start an online business because I could only work from home: built a custom home office that made it possible for me to work, without my home office there’s no way I could work.

My back problems are so bad I can not sit in a chair for more than a few minutes without significant pain, so built a home office around my limitations (I have to work lay down**).

** Interestingly as I can get relatively comfortable lay down I sometimes work for 16 hrs a day (have insomnia as well, it’s either work when I can’t sleep or stare at a ceiling!!).

So I had to find a way to make money online and after a lot of research adult products came out on top (some products have a 500+% markup!). I had no interest and still have no interest in adult products, always amazed me how so many people assumed because I sold adult products like butt plugs and electro stimulation devices that I must also use them. The decision was about money, I saw a products that a lot of people wanted and had a great markup.

Note: I no longer sell adult products and although I used to make a fair amount of money from other adult affiliate sites I’m currently not promoting anything adult (just not into that sort of thing and find it difficult to promote), I have a few adult sites, but don’t do anything with them (content is way out of date).

My first site was a big success due to learning SEO techniques, unfortunately I used some blackhat SEO techniques and the sites traffic dropped from 8,000 unique visitors a day (yes unique visitors, not impressions) to around 1,000.

Search Engine Optimization Saves The Day

Fortunately I knew I’d made a mistake using blackhat SEO techniques and had already planned for the demise of the site/business. Basically I knew the adult business was over in December and by February the next year was already making more money offering SEO services than from selling adult products (hit the ground running :)).

Have stayed with SEO services ever since (8 years and counting) and doubt I’ll stop offering services to my SEO clients (I enjoy the one on one interaction). That being said I like to keep learning new things and though Google keeps moving the goal posts in how to get and keep a site ranked in their search engines I find my day to day work really easy (not much of a challenge).

My original career plans (why I went to University) was to become a research scientist (geneticist), so I really enjoy researching and testing things (I love a challenge). So I try out various affiliate products etc.. and see what makes good money (always nice to make more money).

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Sure, why not :)

I’ve been feeling a little stagnant lately (1st half of 2008) and so created 45 Year Old Millionaire to inspire me to work smarter.

Creating the above site has given me an artificial 7 year deadline to become a millionaire.

I realistically don’t expect to become a millionaire in 7 years from what I’m currently doing: if I didn’t have a mortgage on a house we are also renovating (AKA the money black hole) and saved as much money as possible (got a wife and three sons and all three will have gone or be going through University in that time, the second money black hole!!!!!) I could probably save over $500,000 USD on my current income (assuming I invested wisely as well).

If things go as they are doing and we make no changes to the way we live/spend money (hemorrhaging money that is :)) I’ll probably have about $100,000 to $150,000 in the bank by then.

So I don’t need to make more money, we are doing well, that said I see marketing experts (I’m no marketing expert) making a lot of money online from things I’ve not tried yet: stuff like social networking, list building (I’ve never built a mailing list despite pulling in 20,000 visitors a day to my sites), selling information products etc… and plan to try these and other ways to make money online.

If I can gain similar success I’ve had with SEO in a couple more areas maybe I can make a big dent in that being a millionaire by the time I’m 45 years old, won’t know until I try :)

Until July 2008 I’ve used this site for free SEO and affiliate marketing information with a section covering WordPress themes with AdSense/SEO added (very popular section).

Let Me Review your Clickbank and Similar Products

I’m going to change the sites focus to more of a affiliate review site, plan to review various affiliate products, especially ClickBank products as they have a very good affiliate percentage (up to 75%). This will make me more money from this site through people buying the products/signing up as an affiliate under me.

Speaking of which, since I have to buy the affiliate products to review them, if you own an affiliate product you’d like me to review give me free access (can be for a limited time) and if the product interests me (not going to review something I don’t understand at all) I’ll review it.

I only do honest reviews, so don’t waste my time if your product is some kind of scam. Contact me through any of the comment forms on this site.

David Law AKA SEO Dave