OK, well, I’m not really one to promote myself ahead of my business, but to establish a small measure of credibility for what I’m saying, here goes :

My name is Mark Stockton, and I’ve been involved with internet marketing for around 7 years.

For most of that time, I’ve run 1design4life - a search engine marketing agency that has focused on ignoring much of the ‘expert advice’ you can find on forums like WebMasterWorld. The upshot of this has been that I’ve maintained a strong level of success for my clients (that #1 for ‘gift’ in Google.co.uk - that’s one of mine).

I’m not innocent of the ‘expert advice’ syndrome myself, however. I have moderated a number of internet marketing and SEO forums (HighRankings.com , AbestWeb.com and others) but I had to stop when it occurred to me that I wasn’t really an expert and, frankly, I’d prefer to run my own business rather than spend a lot of time talking on forums.

PERSONALITY : I DON’T HAVE TIME TO HAVE A PERSONALITY

At some point in the past I was a well-rounded human being, who played drums in rock n’ roll bands, read a lot of books (I still do that, actually) and had a life outside of work.

Every now and then, I like to remember what is was like not to run a business. Such indulgences are mainly left for when I’m on holiday somewhere I would never have been able to afford if I wasn’t running 1design4life and now Reach24.

The irony isn’t lost on me.