How I can help you now
That’s me in the picture – not there to prove that I could never have succeeded in a modelling career, but to show you I’m a real person and not a cog working within a faceless business machine.
I’m an independent website success consultant with full control of my time and who I work with.
So here’s how I can help you now …
I’ve spent at least 12 hours a day over 20+ years studying 6,000+ business websites, marketing for those websites, and a level of website analytics that would make your head spin.
In short, my super power is the ability to look at any website (and/or marketing to that website) and instantly know what needs to change in order for it to get bigger results.
But I could be some disillusioned fool just giving you my opinion.
So I back it up with website visitors analytics data (either via Google Analytics or the software I provide, which goes into more depth).
A typical interaction with someone like you would evolve like this:
I’d say:
What (on your website) do you want to sell more of?
You’d tell me.
I’d look at that part of the website and quickly form a view of why it’s not working.
You’d have doubts about my response and need more proof.
I’d say that website visitors data would prove my views are correct so we dig into that data.
You would then see that the website visitors data backs up my initial view, and so maybe I’m not so much of a disillusioned fool.
After implementing changes that I recommend (to both websites and the marketing that drives traffic to them) – changes based on data plus my interpretation of that data – you gain more business.
You’re happy and tell everyone else about how I can help them too.
OK you don’t have to do that last bit, but it’s always appreciated and it happens a lot because most of my clients come from personal recommendation.
Why so much free stuff?
I firmly believe that giving lots for free is important to build trust.
That’s why you’ll find tons in my free stuff section.
Many people say I’m mad to give away enough to let people go off and do their own thing without paying me for anything.
I say: if they fully benefit from that, then it’s facilitating growth in businesses, but if they want more than that, I’m here to help.
Read on to find out more about my history …
What led me to where I am today
I’ve always worked for small businesses.
From my first low-paid job in 1985 (IT support for a PCB manufacturer) through to better pay doing the same and then more (10 years at the Chartered Institute of Bankers), and finally earning a lot more (at netimperative, a dotcom in London) … they were all small businesses.
What I learnt most was that I couldn’t conform to the concept that those in management shouldn’t be questioned.
I questioned everything – particularly anything related to getting results in the most efficient way.
At the time I didn’t realise that I wasn’t cut out to be a cog in a machine – I needed to be more significant, but not in a corporate career climbing way.
When I was 34 and netimperative disappeared along with so many others in the dotcom boom/bust in 2001, I decided that I didn’t want to be an employee anymore. I wanted to feel that I was in total control of my life … but what would I do that made a difference?
Ahead of my time but didn’t know it
After the dotcom crash (2001) there was one thing in my mind:
Why do businesses advertise websites when it’s clear that they’re not strong enough to convert visitors to sales?
That came from an insane time (late 90’s/early 2000’s) when advertisers would throw lots of money to get traffic to their websites (these were the days of banner ads, before SEO really got going and Google Ads etc. hadn’t been born) … but those websites had no focus on conversions.
So I created a small website consultancy business that worked hand in hand with web developers, designers, and others.
My passion was in identifying holes in websites, and how to fix them and I did this for many clients who paid a monthly fee for my ongoing input.
This was at least a decade before the phrase ‘conversion rate optimisation’ was known, but what I was effectively doing. It was a time before Google Analytics, when all I had was my view of what worked and what didn’t on websites.
I was very much ahead of my time, but didn’t understand that until years later.
Then along came Google Ads (or Adwords as it was then) – at the time, a great system that worked very fairly in the early days (but has since unfortunately gone to the dark side and makes billions of dollars at the cost of wasted budget for advertisers who deserve better). Tip: don’t get me started on Google greed – you’ll never get away!
I threw myself into Google Adwords because it was complementary to my recommendations on strengthening websites (which were in themselves helped by the availability of analytics such as Google Analytics).
I found that there became a problem though – companies would come to me to create Google Adwords accounts for them but their websites were too weak (in my view) to convert them to business.
I had to get tough: I turned down any work from people who weren’t prepared to make their websites better because I had no interest in people who would then link failed advertising with my involvement.
Many of those I turned down came back later – normally after making Google Adwords mistakes themselves or via others who quickly took their money to set them up.
By the late 2000’s I was getting frustrated because I’d worked myself into a problem: 40 retainer clients who took up all my time. Yes, the money (around £10K/month with low overheads) was good for the time, but I wanted something that took less of my time but still generated income.
I had long been frustrated with Google Analytics, and found some software that was better but not good enough. I approached that company asking if they could improve it in various ways. They declined and that led me down the path of software …
Rose-tinted glasses
In my mind, Google Analytics was hard to understand and weak in its level of depth (it still is).
I wanted something that would show the page by page movements of every website visitor, where they came from online, and, where possible, identify them as a business.
It didn’t exist so I got it (A1WebStats) built.
At the time I firmly believed that this software would revolutionise things.
I thought that people would jump at the chance to use intelligent analytics to identify the weaknesses in their own websites and marketing, helping them to gain more sales and enquiries.
How wrong I was!
Yes, they bought the software, but mainly to identify companies that visited their websites, so that they could follow up on them.
They mostly missed the whole point, which is to understand website visitor patterns in order to make websites better so that visitors actively chose to make contact.
But over time, I accepted that it’s a specific mindset that’s needed to use website visitors data as the basis for brilliant insights that lead to website and marketing strengthening … and therefore to more sales and enquiries.
In the 11 years since creating that software product, and the 6,000+ websites I’ve been involved with, I found very few people in businesses who thought the way I did.
That put me in a stuck place …
Software vs consultancy vs something else
When dealing with customers over the years (whether for purely consultancy, or the software), I’ve kept hearing the same words to the effect of:
I’d never seen it that way – thank you!
I guess I’ve made recommendations on so many websites now that it’s become second-nature to instantly spot the problems, but then to ensure that the data backs up my observations (which it normally does).
I knew I didn’t want to go back to just consultancy, but I equally couldn’t face having software customers who didn’t utilise the software effectively (even when encouraged to do so).
So I decided to create a new business – Web Success Insights, which is something that allows me to utilise both software and consultancy, but that attracts people who fully embrace the idea that strong websites and marketing are what lead to success.
The difference this time though is that the consultancy is limited in scope. I only take on very few customers who need several hours of my time each month, but I take on a lot more customers that need less than an hour of time each month to keep them moving forwards. I also have offerings that can be accessed by multiple people (many of those are free), which helps me to impart my knowledge to those who will act on it for their own benefit.
So here I am in 2024, helping as many companies as possible via mostly small amounts of consultancy that help them to push forwards.
If you’ve read this far:
- You deserve a medal.
- Please feel free to look at the range of services I provide, which includes many free offerings.