My name is Mark Flanighan and I got started in e-commerce or internet marketing around about 1998 or so. By 1999 I had set up a very basic shopping site (called Shopam) assuming it would make me a fortune and I would be able to leave my job. It didn't quite work out that way, but about 3 years later I did start to learn the skills to make money off the internet.

I became an affiliate marketer, where I receive commission from big brand companies from anyone who bought any of their products off my website. The only thing I had to do, was to get those looking for those products to my site rather than anyone else's. And so started a learning period of trials and errors, then more mistakes and successes until I fully understood how to get you the right customer to my websites. It was during this time I realised that marketing a site was in my case more imported that the actual web design.

I learned that it is not like the American ads, that say. "15,000 visitors a day guaranteed". I could sell you a service that would get you 10,000 hits in the next 24 hours, but you would get no sales.

Its all about getting the right customers to you, who are looking for your services, even if this is only 10 hits a day.

I spent the next few years specialising in pay per click marketing, with a good success rate and by now was earning a good second income.

In recent years though more and more people have started using Pay per click marketing, making it extremely tough to make a profit in some areas. In fact, 95% of all affiliate marketers do not make any money now, but try anyway . I am proud to say I am part of the 5% who do make money from affiliate marketing, although it must be said, if I had not had those years of experience I also may not have made it.

Now in order to have a successful return from your website you must also have some free traffic from natural listings. For some businesses this is a lot harder than you may think, with the services of a SEO company essential. But for most who are not competing with competitive terms, can after some training get their own site on to the first page of any search engine for the right search terms.

Over the last 2 years or so I have studied the processes of getting my websites high in the search engines. Again I have had failures and success, but now I have strategic plans for all my sites and know how high I can realistically take them. I now have several sites and pages which are no1 for different terms in different search engines based on what my customers are searching for. Ask me for details when you ring me!

I am a businessman who owns internet businesses and makes a profit from them, rather than a web designer who tries to learn about business. I think that is an important statement for any business to understand, the principle of "investment and return on investment" rather than artistic design. My sites are very simple and are not high on the design stakes, but that is deliberate, after all what is the point of having perfectly designed website where no-one visits?

More effective to have a simple site with lots of visitors, that is the strategy of successful internet marketers.

I live in the Teesside area and offer my knowledge to you as a businessman to businessman, to help you realise a profit from your website.

I do this by offering SEO training days where I share my knowledge and experience with you; in your business; specifically aimed at your web presence. You could buy SEO books or attend seminars, courses. But the learning would then be aimed at any site, rather than your site.