Becoming THE Expert. John W. Hayes

ection>

      

      Publishing details

      A Brightword book | www.brightwordpublishing.com

      HARRIMAN HOUSE LTD

      3A Penns Road

      Petersfield

      Hampshire

      GU32 2EW

      GREAT BRITAIN

      Tel: [phone]

      Fax: [phone]

      Email: [email protected]

      Website: www.harriman-house.com

      First published in Great Britain in 2012

      Copyright © Harriman House Ltd

      The right of John Hayes to be identified as the author has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

      ISBN: 978-1-908003-35-5

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.

      All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publisher. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior written consent of the Publisher.

      No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining to act as a result of reading material in this book can be accepted by the Publisher, by the Author, or by the employer of the Author.

      About the Author

      John W. Hayes has been helping small and medium-sized companies develop their business strategies online for almost as long as the internet has been in the general public’s consciousness. Working alongside some of the biggest names in ecommerce and online marketing (including Amazon, eBay and Google), he has dedicated much of his career to demystifying the web and highlighting growth opportunities for a diverse range of businesses. As the author of numerous white papers, blog posts and guest editorials across a wide range of trade and mainstream publications, he is widely recognised as an influential Thought Leader in the SME online marketing arena.

      He divides his time between his office in London and his home in northeast Lincolnshire where he lives with his partner Sarah and two daughters Rose and Dotty. When he is not at work or hanging out with the family, you can find him on his bike, cycling along a route by the sea and dreaming up his next big idea.

      For updates on this book and future projects you follow him on Twitter: @john_w_hayes or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/becomingtheexpert

      Preface

      I started my career in the newspaper industry, working as an advertising sales representative for a small regional publisher owned by the British-based Northcliffe Media Group. It was while working for Northcliffe (around the mid-1990s) that I was first introduced to the internet. At the time, only one computer, in an office of approximately 100 fellow employees, had access to the web. The connection came via a 14K dial-up modem and you can believe me when I say that this did not provide the superfast broadband experience that we expect and enjoy today.

      I had to ask permission to use the single internet-enabled PC, which was located (but never used) in the Sales Director’s office, after being asked by a client to take a look at his website. The site turned out to be little more than a logo and a telephone number (not even an email address – so few people had them at the time) but still seemed to take forever to download. Little did I know that this request would soon take me away from the drudgery of advertising sales and start me down the path to a whole new career in an industry that, at the time, I didn’t even know existed.

      My curiosity about cyberspace (as we called it back then) led me to be singled out as the office geek and I was promptly promoted (without any consultation or wage increase) to the newly created position of New Media Manager (or Internet Champion, as it was referred to internally).

      Armed only with a HTML for Dummies guidebook, I started planning, building and monetising online editorial and commercial platforms. The internet speed was slow, editors and journalists were reticent to have their articles published online, and advertisers laughed at the idea of spending money on a medium that virtually nobody had access to. It was a time of great uncertainty, but also one of great opportunity for those willing to take a chance; I loved every minute of it.

      My work with Northcliffe took me to live in Budapest, where I continued to build newspaper websites for the company’s portfolio of titles in central and eastern Europe. During this time I also began writing a weekly technology column for an English-language publication aimed at the expatriate business community who had flooded into the region after the fall of communism.

      After five years I returned to live in England and continued to work for Northcliffe as a consultant. Alongside this work I helped a number of small and medium-sized businesses take their first steps online, lectured in online journalism and online marketing, traded on eBay, managed a series of affiliate marketing programmes, and began writing for a range of publications including the Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post, the Sun, News of the World and Traveller, easyJet’s inflight magazine.

      I had no formal training in any of these disciplines – it was just a case of reading up on a subject, making a few educated guesses and then giving it a go. You might say I studied at the Online University of Thought Leadership. In this respect I owe more to carefully crafted blogs and websites from the likes of Econsultancy (www.econsultancy.com) and AuctionBytes (www.auctionbytes.com), thriving community forums like A4uForum (www.affiliates4u.com), and the virtual bookshelves of Amazon.com, than any schooling. I’m not sure if it could happen today, but the early days of the internet were carved out by enthusiastic amateurs (of which I was very much one).

      While helping a struggling catalogue company to reinvent themselves as an online retailer, I was introduced to ChannelAdvisor, a US-based technology company that had recently set-up shop in the UK. Although impressed with their software, it was the Thought Leadership presented by ChannelAdvisor’s CEO Scot Wingo in his book eBay Strategies that sparked my interest in the company. Wingo’s style of Thought Leadership, which extended through his blogging and speaking appearances, made what could have been a dry and data-heavy experience entertaining and informative.

      I joined ChannelAdvisor in 2007 as their UK-based Product Marketing Manager and started producing a wide range of Thought Leadership content for the European and Australian markets. Encouraged to experiment with distribution channels, I produced whitepapers, blog posts, PR articles, podcasts, webinars, a pioneering series of videos for YouTube, and hit the road with the touring series of Insite events.

      During this time, I formed strong relationships with some of the biggest names in ecommerce including eBay, Amazon and Google, who helped add credibility to my Thought Leadership campaigns and distribute them to a much wider audience.

      While at ChannelAdvisor, I started using iContact, an email marketing application primarily targeted at small and medium-sized businesses. I had used several other email marketing tools in the past but never really felt like a valued customer of any of them until I discovered iContact. What made me feel so welcome? They picked up the phone and talked to me. I was dealing with humans