mark hawken

Like most I became hooked on the whole internet marketing concept.

My first computer was a commodore 64, then I bought the portable commodore "SX-64 Executive" which I used to plug into my TV.

I learn't to write simple database programs and then I ventured into the website design arena, not graphics mind you. Man I suck at graphics, I focused on website structure which then led to optimization. I was lucky in the early days mainly because when I built a site I used a logical approach based on content rather than flashy visual impact. Back then very few undestood the value of building a content structured site, everyone was focused on the "wow" factor so when google started changing their ranking system my sites were looked on favorably even if they were to put it blunt ugly.

Okay so what made me use this approach, simple I just wanted a logical approach and decided thet websites should be structured the same as books. The only real difference is the internal link structure, books don't link back to other pages/topics, So all I had to do was create an internal link structure which took visitors on a logical path through the site. I don't know if any of you remember "Treasure Hunt" a game played as children where you leave hidden clues which lead you closer to the treasurer. Well I used this same approach by creating statements links.

These days there are literaly hundreds if not thousands of ebooks out there teaching how to build structured sites based on content. Plus there a plenty of online marketing courses you can sign up for which teach the very same thing.

I honestly beleive that a site built for organic search will return better results in the longrun.

So what am I up to these day, well my main focus is still optimization but I am venturing into the world of social networking. 

I have two main goals, the first is to learn as much as possible about traffic generation through social networking.

The second and most important to me is to apply what I learn to help volunteer organisations increase their online profile.

Now I am not talking about the large mutlinational not for profit organizations, but the smaller ones, those who are usually understaffed, lacking resources and generally struggling. The only real criteria I have is that they must be focused on stratergies that clearly demonstrate a benefit to small impoverished communities.

So there you have it, me in a nut shell.

I welcome input and am always keen to learn.