About Me

I came to realise that I don't really offer a great deal of information about who I am, what I do, where I've come from etc. So this post aims to inform people about all that personal and business stuff.

Background:
I've been working in Web Design and SEO for ten years. I started building my first site in 1997 and it was called "McCoy's Financial Links" - a forerunner of MoneySupermarket. But the costs of maintaining it and running off with a young lady meant I couldn't look after it any more. But the good times were to come later.

I built my first client e-commerce site back in 1998 called "Rugs R Us". I moved away from Somerset up to Warrington in 2000 for personal reasons and took a Job with Top Jobs. I was managing their SEO and internet marketing and was responsible for an online budget of £60k a month, which I mostly spent very wisely on ppc with Google, Oveture etc as well as working with our Media Agency (MediaVest) to buy anchor tenancies and exposure across a wide range of niche recruitment sites.

Those were certainly my formative days. I learned a massive amount about white heat SEO. There were massive technology constraints given the site's architecture etc, but everyone was massively impressed. In fact during the downturn and the company being taken over by a German company there were 2 rounds of redundancies before I went in the last phase. I could get large amounts of very cheap traffic relatively quickly.

When the Germans sold the company off, I went and consulted. I was headhunted by a very large company down south and offered very stupid money, but I turned them down. I went on to consult for some very large plc's, Government agencies and small companies with pretty good success.

I then started to dabble in affiliate marketing thanks to some comments from my mother about some domain names. I bought some of the ones she suggested and built up some good niche sites in the financial and travel sectors.

I hit it big with some uber-seo and enjoyed a good few months earning £xx,xxx per month from work I did in just three days. I sat back and watched the cheques roll in. Thankfully I saved most of it.

Then came a few relationship issues that distracted me from work. I basically took 18 months off and just travelled and played cricket with my mates in the garden. Those were great days.

I decided that enough was enough and moved back up to Warrington, paid my ex-girlfriend several £k to get the house back in my name and started slowly back into work.

I was doing well with a few odds and sods sites, nothing that really brought a smile to my face, but they kept the bank manager happy.

I then started leveraging social media sites back in the beginning of 2006 during one of my six holidays that year :-). I was doing very nicely indeed with natural SEO and PPC as traffic drivers. Money was rolling in and the bank manager was still a happy boy.

Recently I got a call from an old chum from my TopJobs days asking me to help out at her PR company so, always wanting a challenge, I started consulting for them. I've brought those ten years of trying stuff out, putting my own money where my mouth is and making a great success of my growing list of clients.

I think it's really important for SEO-"professionals" to put their own money into what they're recommending. In fact, it's one question I'd recommend that all potential client's of marketing agencies ask: "Do you do affiliate marketing?" If they don't, then why should they expect you to back them?

My PPC bill isn't the largest in the world. At my height I was only spending around £11k a month - nothing serious compared to Keiron (hats off to ya), but I do put my own cash where my mouth is.

So that's where I'm up to now. Waiting to present about Social Media and how affiliates should be using it to the biggest affiliate gathering in the country.

So they question I've asked myself is: "Why?". Well I suppose it's because I know what I'm talking about and I do it passionately. As Fraser kindly commented on the Dfinitive site:

Original McCoy was trained in economics so obviously understands the way in which business works, although he also has detailed knowledge of SEO, Affiliate Marketing and Pay-Per-Click services. His forth right but friendly manner shines through in his posts, which cover the good, the bad and the ugly of the affiliate marketing.

So, apparently I know what I'm talking about so that be one reason. Another is that I'm as much friendly and open as I am forthright. The great Jess commented:

I came across Lee a few years back, he came to my attention as he started turning over some very nice sales for ASOS and went on to do the same for some of my clients when I started affiliateprogramadvice.com

As the years rolled on, my respect for Lee just keeps growing, he is in my mind a model affiliate. He represents everything you could ask for and what you look for in an affiliate.

He is loyal, intelligent, and innovative and has a good business head on his shoulders.

He is vocal on forums, his sense of humour...he may like to know that he has picked me up when the world seems to be closing in on me with his wit, and for the above, I thank him.

Maybe it's because I'm willing to help people, often for nothing, just for the satisfaction of seeing their business grow. Purple (equally as helpful) wrote:

[I] just want to say people like you make this industry great. I remember working with you back in the day when you were at AWIN.
I was pleased to see you cheer up post for Lee, you have been supportive to me loads of the years and I am sure 100s of others would say the same

Chris from Linkshare has also said:

"Everyone tells me you're a great guy Lee, a real "Value Add" affiliate...and now you're getting out before we've had chance to work together!!!"

So I'm looking forward to the A4UExpo, I'm looking forward to meeting Jess and telling her about the past month since we last met up and I'm looking forward to putting my view about social media across. If anyone starts to snore, I'll get my brand-bidding slides out!