I suppose we all have a story to tell of our journey into internet land! Mine started way back in 1998.
I had just started out on my consultancy career and my first contract was with a firm called Viag Interkom in Munich. My career as a software tester naturally led me to the internet. Of course, testing complex software and setting up mobile Telecom's companies for a living gives you TONS of technical knowledge which crosses over nicely onto Internet Marketing, SEO and now Facebook advertising.
So I was drawn into the seedy world of internet marketing and was following the late and great Corey Rudl at the time and dreaming of being an internet marketing millionaire. Donโt we all!
I was so typical like most people that follow this route in that I bought everything and implemented nothing. I bought products and software I didnโt even need, just in case I might need it. It didnโt help that as a consultant your average daily rate is ยฃ400 and upwards even in 1998. Not being short of money is not the best of motivators I have found.
As it is I got Overwhelmed with information.
Of course, you do! Itโs inevitable really if you think about it. Itโs all too much information, too many projects and too many ideas. Itโs even worse now as you are bombarded with ads from all sorts of social media platforms on a daily basis. Nothing gets implemented. You flounder around and achieve nothing.
But I kept at it and launched FifteenDegreesNorth.com in 1999. As is normal for me it was multi-siloed in that I was offering everything. Web Design, Google Ad Words, Internet marketing courses, SEO, Massage, well not so much massage but you get the idea ๐ you name it I offered it as a service.
I forged a partnership with Silverstone CIS a South African Web Design agency, for them to do the web design if I got any clients and I did indeed get clients. Silverstone are now quite large and I still message Laurent every now and then. They have morphed to be yep you guessed it - a Digital Marketing agency LOL. Quite a big one too.
I went on to write some courses and sold them. Courses on SEO, Google Ad Words and Affiliate marketing under the Masterclass title, although not on Massage. I still own those domains today. I then had various life and partnership issues (as we all do) and dropped out of the space for a while and just focused on my consulting career. I Moved to Dubai and helped Nokia NSN setup Du Telecom from the ground up and enjoyed the benefits of not being taxed ๐ I recommend it.
I had by this time changed the domain name of FiteenDegreesNorth.com to 15dn.com as writing out FifteenDegreesNorth.com for email addresses was so long it pi**ed me off ROFL!
Consulting pays very well so you never struggle, and I have been lucky to work on some huge projects the world over for some of the worldโs largest Media and Telco companies, EE, Nokia and DU in Dubai, Virgin, Huawei, Sony, 3, Proximus, Connect One, Swisscom you name it Iโve been there. I still did client work for 15Degrees-North but didnโt really push it until I started chatting with Glen from Viper Chill and decided to join up with him in Marketing Inc.
Anyway; letโs fast forward a few yearsโฆ. where am I and 15dn today?
Well, I dived into the Marketing INC material and thought I must change and push this. I MUST apply this, focus and take it on board. I did my old trick of starting to relaunch 15dn.com but again made it multi-siloed LOL. What the hell is wrong with me?! I just canโt help myself in taking on too much. After a few calls with Glen (he is patient with me) and gradually cutting it back to the basics, we now offer just SEO and Facebook adverts. As with all businesses Itโs a work in progress and improving all the time.
We do have several internet-based businesses outside of 15degrees-North and also have quite a few Rank and Rent sites that are quite successful.
My wife and her sister came up with a product idea for a chocolate product and I came on board with that as a shareholder. This one is called
https://www.tongue-in-cheek.co.uk/
It is currently being redesigned after we noticed a lot of ATC (Add to Cart) dropouts. We took some feedback from a UX expert we know and have had the whole thing redesigned from the ground up, so this is still the old site. We are exhibiting at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in November 2018, so that will be exciting. Come along and we will give you some free chocolates. Chocolate is one of the hardest things to sell, trust me. Storage is a nightmare, as are all the food regulations etc. This is not a business for the faint hearted.
I recently bought a motorhome for motorsport weekends (yes I race cars) and rather than let it sit there parked up when Iโm not using it I decided to put it to use and launched my own rental business called www.Luxury-RV.com
We in the 15degrees-North team learn new stuff every day. If youโre not learning new stuff everyday then youโre standing still really and ultimately getting left behind. There is always so much to study and take in. I pass on what I absorb freely through the blog and also on this page. We improve our processes and devote the bulk of our time to our clients.
All of my team members of which we now have 11 have to spend the first 2 hours of their day on study. We also work with Pomodoroโs and so work very strictly to 25-minute sprints of focused work with a 5-minute break. Phones are on silent during your sprint. Whatโs app messages etc are dealt with in your 5-minute break if at all. We donโt take client calls unless itโs scheduled in and even then, only our sales guy Adam deals with them.
This allows us to be super focused on getting quality work done without distractions. If youโre not familiar with the Pomodoro method I highly recommend it if you want to get anything done.
Honestly did you really believe all those adverts on Facebook selling you this bu****it dream that they are traveling the world doing nothing at all whilst earning 200 grand a month with their auto internet businesses? Iโve got a great book for you โ4 Hour Work Weekโ anyone ROFL.
Trust me I have spent over a quarter of a million pounds on courses, VIP trainings and binary crypto trading robots and god knows what else and the only people getting rich off that are the ones selling the stuff. That next secret!
There are no secrets, only knowledge, hard work and then sticking at it until you make it. Yes of course you buy in personal knowledge occasionally or you pay for someone to do it for you. But be mindful that knowledge without action is what pretty much everyone else is doing!
It is as simple as that.
If you want to succeed on the internet with your business or idea Do this:
1. Learn your craft and keep up to date on knowledge acquisition.
2. Start selling by setting up a funnel or get a sales person on board and do it with them; without sales you have nothing just a head full of knowledge.
3. Keep at it until you get your first client or sale.
4. Then improve your processes.
5. DONโT take on tasks that are outside your abilityโs. So many people THINK they can do SEO or Facebook ads or Google ads. If you are selling mortgages then FOCUS on your core business and sales and find and expert to do web design, SEO and Facebook ads for you. It takes years to learn SEO and Facebook ads to be able to master it. Iโve been at it since 1998 and still think I donโt know enough, and I read books every day ๐
A lot of tasks you do will earn you NO money at all. Choosing that invoice software will take you hours and drive you mad and earn you nothing. Thinking you need Zapier so you can integrate and automate will again earn you nothing but will sap your time as you learn it. But as you gradually do these things it will all start to come together, and you will grow.
Invariably those nice shiny software tools that claim to make your life easy will lead to their own headaches when they donโt integrate or take ages for you to learn to navigate or donโt quite do what you thought they did when you read the sales letter.
So thatโs our Story and itโs still unfolding as is yours. Best of luck to you that are just starting out on this journey; Hang in there.
Mark...
