There’s a lot of scams, smoke and mirrors, and creative material available on how to work from home with your own business.

But some is genuine, and there really are people you can trust, and valuable skills you need to learn about and acquire.

Having a website is the first, followed by getting visitors – traffic.

AdWords didn’t exist yet, so I started to learn about SEO, Search Engine Optimisation. I bought a software program and started to read and practise.

I created some websites and started to actually get rankings, visitors, and clients. I still get a small amount of recurring passive income from these.

But I did make some serious mistakes along the way, like optimising a website for the wrong keywords!

I still have several first page rankings for these, even though now I realise they are not "money keywords" – keywords real people, looking to buy, are using.

Then, along came AdWords, and I tried it. I could get my ads up on the front page of Google in minutes – Wow!

Then, mysteriously they would disappear into oblivion.

In these early days, if your ad got lower than 0.05% clickthrough, it was disabled, and you had to *pay* Google to reinstate it.

Then of course, it would happen all over again.

I couldn’t make it work, and it was proving costly and unproducive. So I put it aside for a while. This was December 2003.

Some months later, I accidently stumbled on a literally life-changing book.

It was "The Definitive Guide to AdWords" by Perry Marshall. It opened up for me a whole new world, and I learned more than just AdWords from it.

Anyway, the internal workings of AdWords suddenly became clearer, and I started to really understand how it worked.

Being an ex-engineer (very much like Perry) means I like to take things apart, understand how they work, put them back together again and if possible, improve the functionality too.

This is just what I do with my AdWords Audits so I can improve existing campaigns.

So the more I studied it, the more addicted I became.

Particularly as AdWords allows you to endlessly experiment with that most fascinating, enigmatic and frustrating of things – People!

Every AdWords ad you write is a psychological experiment. Some succeed, others fail. But all the data you generate is critically important.

What works, what doesn’t. Gradual improvements, sometimes huge.

After a while, I was confident enough to offer my services to others who were at an earlier stage.

My very first client was a lady in Houston, in Real Estate. I had to figure out how much to ask her to pay me, and how to accept payment!

And it’s grown from there. I now have more than 80 client accountsand I work with AdWords all day, every day, in some form or other.

This website is my way of documenting what I have learnt (and continue to learn – AdWords grows and changes all the time) and offering my experience to others.

Read it and enjoy.

Please comment, or go to the Helpdesk and ask questions if you have them.

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I was too experienced and too expensive to get back into an IT career at that time – so what next?

Some major lifestyle changes were ahead, even possibly the loss of our house and maybe relocation to a less costly area to live. We are in the South East of England, which has one of the most expensive costs of living in the country.

So Lynne started to look for work again, and started private teaching part time.

We had to slash our living costs, so out went any unnecessary expenses like take-aways, eating out, entertainment and much more – that’s a whole story in itself.

I started to offer IT and Telecoms Consultancy, since this was a continuation of my former abilities.

We invested a large amount on a Microsoft Certified Professional course so I could bring my technical skills up to date.

But – how to get clients?

I’d always been interested in the Internet, was a Google user, and had published some web pages on our Corporate Intranet, which I enjoyed doing.

So I realised I had to make a website of my own, and figured out how to get a domain name and build a rudimentary website on it.

Then as we all do, I waited. And kept on waiting. Nothing happened. What’s going on?

I tried a different approach. I bought a listing of 1,400 or so local companies with an appropriate profile for my pitch -part-time on-site IT support.

It worked – just barely. I got one client from over 1,000 prospects. One. Conversion rate = 0.1 %. Not very good. But the course began to pay for itself.

We had to diversify. I did what every marketer has to – research.

Find a market, and reach it with something they need, something different to the others out there.

And on a shoe-string budget.

The big thing in demand around here, for a local business, is something that saves time for professional people who are both out at work all day long.

I know, because that’s where we’d been before.

I started a Domestic Cleaning service. We’d used these (and sacked one) before and knew all the requirements to satisfy your clients, which was actually difficult to find.

So we were able to position ourselves just as our clients would need – reliable, consciencious, flexible, customer-driven.

The marketing was some simple fliers printed up in Publisher, cut up small and delivered to our neighbourhood by hand.

But we didn’t pay for anything we didn’t have to. In fact, we ensured we got paid to do our own distribution.

We delivered telephone directories wherever we could and put our fliers in too!

In the fine weather, it was actually very enjoyable and we saw more of our local area than we ever would have otherwise.

And we got clients. Soon, with Lynne’s teaching, my cleaning, and some IT suport work, we were safe from losing the house and relocating.

I also took on some business development work for an old college friend. Then Lynne got a full time teaching job again, and I could turn my attention to developing a different sort of business, online.

So, where does Internet Marketing and Google AdWords come into all this?

Read the next part:

"How to Work from Home – Genuinely"

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Director of IT Europe, Informatica Software: 2001

My final position in full-time employment, a casualty of the dot-com crash and 9/11 which sealed the fate of many IT professionals at the time.

More than 300 people were chasing IT jobs every day.

So I decided not to anymore.

European Information Services Manager, KLA-Tencor Corporation: 1997-2001

Bringing order from chaos!

Merged two company IT infrastructures, grew from 125 European staff to 350, and from 4 sites to 12 – it was a blast! (literally too, ask Doug Mountford!)

Information Services Manager, Hewlett-Packard: 1995-1997

The most frustrating company I have ever worked for.

Subsequently acquired Compaq Computer.

UK Systems Manager, Olivetti UK: 1991-1995

A wonderful company to work for, great at product creation, but poor at marketing, left with much regret after my product line died a natural death and I needed frash pastures.

Subsequently acquired by Getronics

Product Manager, Softsel: 1990-1991

Subsequently acquired and became Merisel

Pre-Sales Analyst, Concurrent Computer Corporation: 1988-1990

Manufacturer of proprietary ("you’re dead, honey": The Terminator) real-time operating system computers, clients included UK MOD, financial institutions (inc. Allied Irish Bank), and flight simulation manufacturers (inc. Rediffusion Simulation).

Apochryphal marketing department statement at that time: "We don’t have to apologise for Unix" (remember that one?)

Originally owned by Perkin-Elmer Data Systems (a huge company which ironically was involved with the early versions of Unix).

Later was allowed to be "bought out" by Masscomp Computer – what a joke!

European Technical Support Manager, Plexus Computers: 1984-1988

Early, highly progressive and innovative manufacturer of Unix-based (Version7, before System3, Before System5) multi-user systems based on North First Street, San Jose, California.

Founded by Bob Marsh and Kip Myers.

I set up and ran the UK and European hardware technical support operation, which was a successful profit-centre (as any support operation can and should be).

I am *very proud* (albeit at the time, frustrated) to remember being part of this company.

Other names remembered were:

• (UK) Neil Cooke, Glynn Barratt, Neil Rowlands, Mike Neil, Steve Spencer
• (USA) Mike Smith, Enrique Vargas

Prior to this:

• Senior Workshop Engineer, Computer Field Maintenance (CFM): 1980-1984. Subsequently acquired by Granada Computer Services
• Audio and Television Engineer, Telefusion Ltd: 1976-1980. One of the major national UK TV rental companies of its time

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Lots of people dream about starting their own Internet-based Business. I was not one of them…

It was December 2000. I was European IT Manager for a billion-dollar American company serving the Semiconductor industry. I had been with them nearly 4 years and had a blast.

I had standardised and expanded our IT infrastructure from 4 sites to 12 across Europe, and our company staff had tripled.

I had set up a European Helpdesk service with 4 team members, and I was earning a decent salary, enough so that my wife Lynne, who is a Teacher, could stop work to spend more time with our first child.

In January of 2001 I was hired as Director of IT Europe for a low 6-figure salary by another American firm, to help them achieve similar growth in line with their aggressive European expansion plans.

By May of that year, I was out of a job, my department downsized in the wake of the dotcom crash.

After 9/11, my offical career of employment in IT was over. I have never worked as an employee since.

In fact, I have now worked longer for myself than any other company I have worked for, since my first day of employment at age 16, straight out of school in 1976.

In those (more enlightened) days we had Apprenticeships, and I was learning my trade both in the workplace, and at further education on a full and part-time basis.

I was training to become an Electronics Engineer.  It had been my passion for years and I was always making electronic circuits, even designing and etching my own circuit boards.

I started off as an Audio and TV Engineer, then by a lucky break got into Computers and the world of Digital – very different to analog.

Along the way I worked for computer systems manufacturers like Plexus Computers, Concurrent Computer Corporation, Olivetti, HP, and had experience of Unix servers, IP networks, Client-Server computing, Windows PC’s and application software.

I had experience of engineering, technical support, and sales support in all areas of the channel, from Manufacturers, Distributors, Resellers, End-Users, Corporate and Government customers, and internal company staff.

When I took over European IT single-handedly in 1997 I had to transition to IT Strategy, Budget, Supplier, Project, Infrastructure and Staff Management responsibilities.

Without realsing it, I was effectively running my own business, since what I wanted was always what the company needed – cost-effective IT systems that enabled the company to do it’s work at profit.

When I was laid off in 2001, I then had to try and make my way in a landscape where every IT job was being chased after by 300-440 people.

After a year, I’d had enough and decided that the time had come to do it all for myself…

See the next entry to come:

"What are you going to do now?"

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I tried it out in its early stages, and, like many beginning advertisers, failed miserably to make it work by making all the classic mistakes that this website will tell you about. Just because I failed, doesn’t mean you have to…

In those days, if your keyword CTR fell below 0.05% your ad would be disabled and if that happened three times, you had to pay Google to allow it to run again!

Because I could not invest the time to figure the system out, I put it on one side and concentrated on Search Engine Optimisation to get traffic to my websites.

This was successful, but having my ads on Google’s Search Results pages within minutes was an amazing thing to see – and it still is, even to this day.

Later, I stumbled across some training material for AdWords and decided to try again.

I became hooked and decided to concentrate on this fascinating field, becoming a Certified Google Advertising Professional in July 2005.

I now run AdWords Accounts for over 60 clients all over the world, in all realms and sizes of businesses both Retail and B2B.

I provide a wide range of Services, including

• Articles
• Tools and Resources
• Account Audits
• Action Guides
• Coaching and Training
• Account Management and Optimisation
• Website and Webmaster services
• Search Engine Optimisation advice

… and more

If you need help or advice, please click here to contact The AdWords Helpdesk