What You Should Know About Me
I am Althaf Ahmed, your host at this blog. Pretty obvious eh? Don’t read further if you hate timelines!
Highlights
* How I started Online
* Getting Baptized into Marketing
* The Vanishing Act
* The Good Lifestyle
* Back To Square One
* Enter S.E.O.
* Getting Certified
* Conclusion
I started my journey online in 1998. Internet was pure fun then. Emails, Yahoo chat rooms, IRC servers and some more. Yahoo and AOL were the kings then. Google wasn’t even known to the world then.
In the year 2000, I dug deeper into this mess (The Internet), and realized that there was more to it than just pleasure. There was money, mainly in the form of advertising and affiliate marketing. MLM was gaining serious traction online by then.
That's Me!
In 2001, I came across MGR Central by Michael Russell (long gone) and under his guidance, learnt the different mediums of marketing, and how advertising worked online. It was truly a revelation.
Then came 2002, when I met a guy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and life changed. It was an opportunity to put in motion, what I had learnt the previous year. I ran a marketing campaign for Steven’s business, and it was a success.
In the first quarter of 2003, Steven hired me as a full time employee for marketing and business development. Life was good.
Then it crashed. In 2004, I disappeared from the face of the earth (the virtual one). For a year and half, I was away in solitary confinement (long story, another day). No Internet, no emails, no IMs. Nothing. It wasn’t the best thing to happen, as it wasn’t voluntary.
When I came back in 2005, much had changed. There was the powerful Google unleashing it’s fury on the webmaster world with updates such as Allegra and Brandy. Blogging had become mainstream with the advent of platforms such as WordPress and Blogger. The commoner was connecting better and faster.
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In that year, I did something different. I joined a call center in my city, working 11-7 graveyard shift, earning $250/month. Life was simple and straightforward. No promotion, no cold calls (or mails). Until I met a guy from Chile.
It was the last quarter of 2005. I got interested in investments, specifically currency trading. The next 2 years was amazing. A whole new world of opportunities, big money and out of the world dreams.
It ended with the beginning of the recession in late 2007. I was jobless again. Ouch!
Not long after, the Wall Street brokerage firm I traded with hired me in their marketing department. It was a tough transition. I was put on a $850/month payroll. My Lifestyle underwent a massive downgrade.
This is where I first entered the world of S.E.O. and Organic Marketing. The firm was basically interested in spending for long term exposure and monetary gains, and S.E.O. fit their bill perfectly. I had to upgrade my knowledge and skills rapidly. I read every book and blog on I came across on organic marketing. To name a couple books, S.E.O. Mindset by Brad Callen and S.E.O Book by Aaron Wall (a membership program now).
In mid 2008, I took up a distance learning program with Search Engine College and was certified the same year. Immediately thereafter, I quit my job at the brokerage firm and took up the freelance route. There has been no looking back since then.
It is 2011 and I am still an S.E.O, albeit a better one. S.E.O. has evolved and so have I.
So, if your business needs me (I know it does), get in touch with me. If you want a glance of the different services I provide, visit my Services page.
Thanks For Reading!
Al