It was good to sit back and take time away from the rat race. Watching my new ventures take shape whilst sitting with my French doors wide open and soaking up the sun reminded me of how much I want to become self employed; slowly but surely I’m getting there.

So, here’s a few snaps from the week…

The View From My Flat

Chinese Takeaway!

Walking The Dogs in Glasgow Green

BBQ King Chef at Christy's Parents

Christy's Parents, the Dogs and Me!

Christy and I

I hope your week was as good as mine.

Good luck with your pursuits,

Khalid.

Fraser’s got two cracking domain names with a lot of potential (note to wine sellers / wholesalers / business owners get on the sites!) and I thought his cool advertising was effective.

I passed the red bottle over to the girlfriend’s parents as I’m not refined enough to enjoy warm liquid.

However, last night the mrs and my mate’s partner enjoyed the bottle of chilled white and didn’t have a bad word to say.

The labelled wine was certainly a talking point and the people I told were certainly intrigued. It is a cool way to market your brand, especially if you’re in the domain industry where half the folk love a good bevvy.

If Fraser can continue churning out quality articles his twitter following will certainly go up and I’m pretty sure that’ll convert into a nice trickle of wine buyers through any affiliate programmes he hooks up with.

I wish Fraser the best of luck with his sites and if you’re cheeky enough to ask on Twitter he’ll probably send you a bottle!

Fraser Edwards, a well known affiliate organised another cracking event in Edinburgh recently, attracting Elaine and Dave from All Kids, The Hodge (a man who loves legal letters), Clarke (who has recently joined the HBOS blowjob club), Jonathon, Geoff, Mark (the hashtag addict), Fiona (the alcoholic) and Chris (the shark man) from Big Mouth Media (who I like to call “Gobshite Solutions” as it sounds better).

We started at the Voodoo Rooms, with Paid on Results buying a few beers for everyone (must be all those sex toys they sell). We then headed to Grand Cru and had a good munch and plenty of banter. The most notable story of the evening was how Clarke acquired his first employee, although I won’t go there – they have lists for people like him.

The Hodge wouldn’t give anyone discounted tickets to Think Visibility without a Burger King as he wanted a free toy, so he got a bit of a pasting which he didn’t mind as he revealed he regularly comes into contact with legal bullies through the opinion he airs online – good on ya!

Big Mouth certainly sent their best employees; Fiona dropped drinks on two people and Chris took the conversation in a whole new direction talking about sharks!

As a responsible individual I didn’t dilute my sanity with alcohol and played driver, which I was quite happy about as it gave me automatic rights to write this blog post without the worry of being able to defend it.

Much love,

Ethan

p.s. (this post is a complete joke, the people who attended the evening will understand!)

p.p.s photo courtest of Mark, showing how crap the camera on the iPhone 4 is.

We combined our move with purchasing Ollie, a purebred Bichon Frise. If it was up to me we would have got a bigger dog, however Christy got her way and it makes sense as we’re in a flat and I can just imagine driving home to find her being dragged along the street by some 15 stone beast! I’ve always wanted a dog and both Christy and I have both had them in our families previously, so we were both aware of the commitment involved.

Ollie was a fantastic edition, and got us out walking a lot more. Every evening we take a stroll down the to the quay it is lovely. Coming home and being eagerly greeted is an amazing feeling and Ollie has really added to our lives.

Ollie is extremely close to us and if either of us go to another room he always follows. We figured he’d be a bit calmer and overall happier if he had a buddy to keep him company, so we purchased a Lhasa Apso named Brodie.

The great thing about the dogs is that they’re completely different in nature but both fantastic pets and enjoyable to be around. We regularly get stopped, purely because they are both so small, by people who just adore them.

Having been around a variety of dogs I have to say smaller breeds seem to have more personalities. Ollie and Brodie are like two little men, and are hilarious to watch when they’re having fun.

I don’t want to sound like a weird dog lover who is insanely boring so I’ll keep this post short, but I have to say I feel like I’m enjoying life much more with them in my life. They say “a dog is a man’s best friend”, but they never had the internet when that term was coined haha! Really though, they are great and if you can look after one properly I’d recommend them over any other expensive purchase! Getting away from the computer and taking in some fresh air on a long walk is a great way to relax.

At least 80% of the names have ranking websites, however I’ve never approached anyone to advertise on them. So, I got off my arse and made a few contacts with people I know, and as they believe in what I do, I’ve got some deals setup. There’s nothing life changing in these partnerships, however money is money!

I know the likes of Yell and uFindus have bought up a large proportion of keyword and geo names, and the money they charge to rent the minisites on them is extortionate! They have the infrastructure to do this on a massive scale and the sales staff to ensure it is profitable. If you run a business chances are they’ll have phoned you offering it for just £xx per week…I would charge that for a month!

So my little geo-jaunt has me working on partnerships for Edinburgh Taxi, Edinburgh Nightclubs and Edinburgh Hairdresser mainly, as well as continuing my day job in the double glazing market.

Happy days, we’ll see how it goes. Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

The first analysis was on Dave Naylor, a quite well known name in the SEO world. Now I don’t know Dave personally, but I do know his SEO company – Bronco – refused to show me an example of quality links they wanted to offer me. Fair enough, NDA’s and all that, but then I asked myself how Dave was getting business if he couldn’t showcase his work? I do know he’s done work for some well ranked sites, like Elaine’s All Kids, and I don’t see her complaining, so maybe Dave is worth his weight in gold. But, for someone that doesn’t know him and was steered in his direction, he didn’t do much to attract me. Perhaps it was because I had a specific requirement – quality backlinks – but isn’t that what most webmasters need?

The problem I have with public figures e.g. John Chow and such is that they gain a reputation for being amazing by posting how amazing they are. I have no doubt John Chow is making money, afterall his blog earns him thousands due to the number of followers, but what about all the other fake entrepeneurs and “seo experts”? I think they make money because they say they make money because they say they are amazing – if that makes sense?

I’m not saying Dave is a fake, he clearly knows what he is doing, what I’m saying is that I’m questioning how much of his success is down to his results and how much is because he is perceived as amazing? Dave this isn’t a dig, you just ended up on the above site first so I chose to use you as an example!

I have been learning SEO continually for years and had the opportunity to pickup tips from some great webmasters with fantastic sites. But, they only shared this information to me because I helped them in one way or another. We’ve shared resources, tested methods, trialled outsourcing and even today, we’re still learning together.

It’s no shock that the best of the best buy links, and whilst search engines frown upon it, Yahoo openly sells directory listings which is a link, so they must tolerate it! The key to SEO, in my opinion, is to have a quality site filled with hundreds of quality pages, fresh content daily and links built over time from multiple resources.

One year ago I began working for my current employer, and after battling for 12 months we’ve just reached page 2 in Google for our chosen keyword. The market is extremely competative, but we’re succeeding, only through doing the above though. There’s no magical secret in seo, it is how well you adapt the above to your website.

It may surprise you that as an SEO consultant myself, I’ve employed two companies who rank on the front page for Google.co.uk for “SEO services” to work on websites for me, and they both returned with link farmed crap. The cost to me was £x,xxx but I learned one lesson – if you want a job done properly do it yourself. These links get cached, but how long will they last before Google ignore’s them or they get removed as the company has a new client that needs the space.

By outsourcing I learned what the competition were doing, what to do myself and what to avoid. By analysing rival websites, ranking websites in other niches and cross-comparing with my own, I also learned how the higher ranking sites were doing better. Now, I do little bits here and there for myself and some clients, and I’m not afraid to show my current and previous work.

I’ve never pro-actively promoted myself as an “SEO Guru”, nor have the few people I choose to share information with, but we’re doing well because instead of shouting about how amazing we are, we just get on with the job in hand.

I really commend people like Dave for being able to get some of the contracts he does, and as I said before I have no doubt he’s good at what he does, I just think the media spotlight shines a light on these people that blinds others into thinking they’re better than they actually are.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

I began teaching an under 16′s class the basics of boxing training by taking a fitness and sparring class twice a week. Just shouting at them was exhausting enough, so I started doing mini workouts before and after the class as I knew my fitness was not what it used to be.

Fitting in with my busy schedule wasn’t easy, and so I bought a cross trainer for the missus and I to use. I absolutely hate using a teadmill as running is boring and bad for my dodgy knee, so a cross trainer was the best option. I must admit it upped my cardio, and with the boxing training I was getting back into the swing of things.

Having moved out of Edinburgh, I was no longer able to continue training the kids. With the move taking priority and my business taking off, I stopped training for a while. I’m happy to announce I’m back into it, and recently purchased a bike for the missus and a rowing machine for me!

Having exercised every evening this week, combined with walking the dog for around 45 minutes every evening, I feel much better and it really helps get me off to sleep at night. Whilst my business persuits are very much a priority in my life, I need to learn to relax and take time out. When I’m rowing away with the iPod on business does not come into my head so it is mental rest at least! I often found my self restless at night before I took up training again.

In the future I hope to go back to martial arts, particularly Ju Jitsu as I loved learning how to fight and defend yourself whilst on your back, something no other art really teaches you.

So, if you’re like me and are dedicate to your work / business, take a break and get some cardio done, it really helps!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

After debating over Twitter, Duncan asked me to write an article to highlight my points and I hope he’ll recognise them in this article. As a fellow Scot I like the guy, but our heads collide on taxation.

To you and me, in a simple sense Non Doms are rich folk who register themselves offshore in a bid to avoid paying a hefty tax bill, however there’s a £30,000 fee per annum for doing so.

You see, the greedy government are always the first to knock on your door wanting the public pocket lined with the pound notes you earned from your blood, sweat and tears. And, the more you earn the more you pay.

I recently experienced this when filing my first annual accounts. I’m not shy to say I had a small, yet painful, tax bill of circa £600 from £4,000 profits. Around £3,500 was reinvested in a generic domain name, leaving me with £500 which is actually -£100 after paying HMRC.

So, in simple terms I’ve bought the shop unit but can’t fill it with goods as I’m down £100. How are young entrepreneurs like me supposed to create opportunity in a country where you have to grease the hands of a greedy government just to operate?

What bugs me is that I made my own profits, never used a single government resource, work full time and thus pay tax & National Insurance, yet I’ve to pay even more because I worked in the evenings and weekends building a future for myself?

Whilst I’m not in a position to choose the Non-Dom lifestyle, I can relate as I know how it feels to give away a proportion of what you have to a government that never once helped you get there. Ok, so I was educated at primary level in a state school and have used public services such as the NHS, but that is what my personal tax payments are for. Why should I make a secondary payment?

Take James Caan for example; why should he pay up to 50% of his earnings to the government when he doesn’t need too? He worked hard, created opportunity (i.e. jobs) and writes a cheque every year for £30,000 to avoid being “shaken down” by the HMRC. Why should we tackle him and take everything he is worth.

James did us a favour, and if anything we should thank him and similar public figures too! In fact, Non Doms like him contribute £4 billion pounds in UK taxes each year…I wouldn’t be pissing him off if I were in charge.

James used to own Alexander Mann, a global recruitment company whom employ 1,000 people worldwide. Say 10% of them worked in the UK, with the UK average wage of circa £20,000. Yearly, each person pays £2,705 in tax and £1,570.80 in NI contributions. Do the math and you’ll see a total of £427,580 is pumped into the system every year as a direct result of James…shouldn’t we be thanking him?

This debate has a Robin Hood theme surrounding it where the likes of Duncan Bannatyne want to steal from the rich and give to the poor, yet the poor are actually quite rich. The problem is, unlike James Caan, we’re not managing our money well and the state is run worse than a charity, with a general debt of £950.40 billion at the end of 2009. Yes we are in the midst of a recession, more reason to thank the likes of James for creating employment opportunities!

Oh but I hear you say, James lives in the UK and uses our services. What, the NHS? I doubt it, he’s probably never stepped in a public hospital in years and I’m sure his kids are privately educated, so what service is he actually using except the emergency services? Even at that, I’m sure he’s pretty safe in his London pad so rarely needs the local constabulary to pop round as part of his neighbourhood watch scheme.

We should be thankful James is in a position where he is today, because not only are young entrepreneurs now able to seek investment where the government has failed to lend a hand, for the ordinary 9-5pm folks James has created jobs, thus pumping millions in revenue back into the system every year.

I’m not here to tell you how and why we should save money, we all know it needs to be done. The problem is we’ve got crooked MPs – the very people we empower as our united voice – stealing from us and now claiming legal aid to fight against us! So after getting over this hurdle where do we go from there…?

Each year we pay £350 million to the BBC to watch the same crap every Christmas, or to give people in Iran a chance to watch us at a cost of £15 million per annum.

Let’s cut the crap, nobody wants to pay the license fee so why not make it all private and pay for what you watch. Quite frankly, aside from Dragon’s Den I rarely watch channels 1-5 so I wouldn’t miss it, especially with Sky offering a plethora of programmes that are recordable.

Or what about the fact we spend more on benefits than we do on our own healthcare system? I fully support helping people get back into work, but let’s not forget the millions of dole scroungers we all moan about yet are too scared to tell them to politely get a job.

Don’t worry about them though, because if they turn to a life of crime and get caught we offer Playstation consoles in prison to keep them occupied, as well as a weekly allowance for the tuck shop. Quite an enjoyable stay I would imagine.

Britain has turned into a nanny state and I cannot help feeling angry that the millions who work their fingers to the bone to get by end up funding such bullshit. So, if I were in a similar position to one of the Dragons, and hopefully one day I will be, I’ll definitely be choosing the Non-Dom route. I’m not just defending Non-Doms though, I’m defending everyone who gets a raw deal because of the way this country is run.

It sickens me how, as a population, we’re intent on taking other people’s money, even when they’re dead (i.e. inheritance tax). My father moved here in 1980, never taken a penny from the state in his life, worked every day and contributed even when he wasn’t working!

Yet, when he passes away I won’t only be thinking about the loss of my father, I will have to deal with dividing his assets so the government get their share. You never know, I might get a condolences card along with their demand notice.

Agree or disagree, if you end up in a similar financial position to one of the hardened Dragons, let’s see how you feel about being financially raped each year.

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

Complete Minisites, a new service I have offering minisite development, is getting weekly orders which is great and keeping the cash flowing so I can pay for my own project outsourcing. Continually setting up WordPress blogs can be a bit mind numbing but it is worth it!

I recently invested £x,xxx in a generic domain name that I have an NDA on as I am partnering with someone. Things are going well and sales are becoming a daily occurance which is exciting! I’m just waiting on things to calm down before SEO will commence and hopefully sales will rise.

Working hard at my employers is paying off, with their websites doing well and the future looking bright, so bright in fact that competitors are beginning to copy our tactics! I guess it is a compliment but it doesn’t make my life any easier, especially when I’m a one man band here and battling departments!

Competing for the main generic term is an unusual battle as the rankings are changing daily, so I’m working on a few new strategies to help and will monitor the results.

I’m still building my own little affiliate sites like Football Beanbag, Claiming Bankruptcy and Vibrating Rings (NSFW) as they bring in revenue and are assets I can sell should I need to raise cash.

That’s all for now, good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.

So,  to make our lives easier and ensure there is an efficient process in place, I’ve setup FreelanceContent.co.uk. Word of mouth has already got the ball rolling and orders are trickling in with 100% positive feedback.

At only £1.30 per 100 words, we’re cheaper than the industry leaders, and there’s no minimum or maximum order so anything can be catered for, providing it is not too technical! Having struggled to find efficient yet affordable writers myself, I’ve even got her doing work for me now!

Payments are taken in advance via Paypal using the online ordering system. So please help my bum of a girlfriend stay in work by ordering through Freelance Content today!

Good luck with your persuits,

Khalid.