About
The Web Marketing Outlaw Story
The Web Marketing Outlaw business was officially started almost five years ago on the 9th of August 2007. This was the day Craig had his first paying conversion client and quit his current job (teaching English in Spain) forever.
But the story really starts back before the year 2000. Craig was studying a Computer Systems Engineering degree (which he hated) and had designed a few websites on the side. He had to do a year-long project for his degree and found his way working for a business improvement website... helping them market their website.
He spent the next 4 years working for them part time doing various internet marketing things including search engine optimisation, writing content and creating the monthly newsletter.
Craig Starts His Own Online Business
In 2003 he started his first online business with a friend while still working part time. This business was called efrisson (frisson means a moment of intense excitement) and sold geek products over the internet. These included things like glowing keyboards, lights for inside the computer case and remotes that operated your computer.
While the website ranked well in the search engines they quickly found no one was actually searching for “glowing keyboard” and had to find new ways to drive traffic. After a lot of experimentation they finally tried paid advertising and invested a whopping $1500 (a fortune for them) in banner ads. When it produced no results his business partner quit and Craig had little choice but to shut down the business.
Time To See The World
So midway through 2005 he jumped on a plane to live in London and travel Europe. By September 2006 he found himself living in Madrid, Spain and teaching English just because he loved the country so much. In January 2007 he turned his interest back to business and started another website in his spare time.
However the director of his Spanish school (who mainly taught English speakers how to teach English with a TEFL course) heard him talking about marketing websites and returned out of her office with a big yellow book entitled “Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for Dummies” practically begging him if he could do this stuff. Two weeks later he’d taken their website from about 20th place on Google to position 4 and they then asked the fateful question...
“So What Can You Do Next?”
On a gut feeling he suggested rewriting and restructuring the website to make it easier and more enjoyable for visitors to use. They agreed to try this and on the 9th of August 2007 he was walking out of their apartment with his first paying client.
After changing over the first website and getting an amazing response from potential clients Craig knew he was on to something. The business owners were also great networkers and so soon Craig had started working with many of the English speaking websites around Madrid.
Back To New Zealand
In September 2008 he returned to New Zealand while continuing to work with clients in Madrid and finding new ones back home. He earned his living working from his couch and cruised along for the next two years with the regular ups and downs of being self-employed.
He then realised he’d made a mistake somewhere and in his quest to become a business owner had ended up simply creating a job for himself. So he took some time off to re-evaluate his life and see what the next step was. He spent a lot of time reading and going back through old resources to try and figure out where he'd gone wrong.
Time To Build A Real Business
The final answer was that while he thought he was a "business owner" he had really became self-employed. The entire business relied on him and very little could be outsourced to other people. He then started rectifying this error by examining what the business did and how it could be systematized.
After a lot of trial and error he finally found the right path. This resulted in creating products for the three types of people featured on this website:
He then hired an awesome person called Emily to become General Manager. Emily looks after the day-to-day customer service and runs the entire team of outsourcers to ensure we're creating a top notch result.
Craig now spends his time focused on his strengths which are the creation of new ideas and strategic direction for both Web Marketing Outlaw and other websites including our clients.
