The other night I’m at dinner with a few friends and there was a couple there that we hadn’t seen for some time. The husband had recently left his old job for a new job in event management. I asked him some questions about his new job and the things he likes about it and what he didn’t like about his old job. Pretty common answers came back like his new job is more exciting and more flexible than his old. He then asked me for an update on my business life and I let him know some things that were happening and that I was happy with business. He then asked, “so how did you get started in online marketing and SEO”; that is a very common question I get asked so I figured I would toss this post up explaining it.

I launched my first site in 2001 with a partner that I still do business with. It all started with us sitting around saying…we need to do something that let’s us be in control of our lives and gives us a chance to make a lot of money. We decided on the internet and launched our first site MyLDSMissionary.com which is still online and profitable today. From there I started working with a number of small business consulting firms and eventually decided to work full-time for a company named Prosper Learning. My experience there is what really gave me the push I needed to really dig deeply into online marketing and SEO and while working there I launched 5 additional ecommerce sites, most were successful, a few failed.

Prosper Learning is a company that coaches or mentors small business owners on how to launch, grow, and create a successful business. The specialize in mentoring in 5 major areas of business: Ecommerce, Real Estate, Personal Finance, Stock Investing, and General Entrepreneurship. While working at Prosper Learning I had the opportunity to mentor thousands of small online business owners through the concepts and process of building a website and marketing it. I got to rub shoulders with many extremely successful entrepreneurs including: Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, Anthony Robbins, David Bach, and many more. I also attended every convention you can imagine in the realm of online marketing and SEO including: SMX, Pubcon, SES, CJU, etc. I already knew what it took to build an launch a successful website before working there, but having the chance to hone my skills and work with thousands of businesses really gave me a unique look into ecommerce. Most small business owners rarely start and build more than 1 or maybe 2-3 business during their lifetime, but I had seen thousands of business launch. Of course not all succeeded, but I could see why they failed and learned from it.

After leaving Prosper Learning I have gone on to create my own SEO firm, Dream Systems Media and Utah SEO Firm along with my two partners and have continued to build and create profitable ecommerce businesses. I think my greatest moments of learning where watching a business that I had high hope for fail. It gave me a direct seat to see what should have been done better to make it work. I have been involved in ecommerce and online marketing now for 8 years and like to think I know how to do it well now.

So there you have it…how I got started in online marketing and SEO.