About the eRocket SEM Blog

This is a blog primarily about search engine marketing. In this context we use SEM to refer to any discipline aimed at growing business attained by search. This might include search engine optimisation, online advertising, social media marketing, online PR, affiliate marketing and more. So thats what the blog is about, but what about the ethos behind it?

There is a radio variety-show in Canada called The Vinyl Cafe. The name refers to a fictional secondhand record store, billed as being the world’s smallest. But it’s modest size becomes a virtue; the motto of both the ‘store’ and the radio show is charming: “We may not be big, but we’re small”. This blog shares similarly humble aspirations.

In recent years the Internet marketing industry is witnessing no shortage of pundits jockeying for the title of ‘thought leader’ or having it placed upon them. In a world where people have started to measure and obsess about their ‘social influence’, we see this label as just another example of celebrity-creep. So please be assured that your host is an avowed thought reader, not leader. In search marketing we believe no one should allow their thoughts to be led; rather they should look for credible consensus, disseminate both the wisdom of crowds and of individual opinions, apply common-sense thinking and ultimately to learn through personal application and experimentation. Oh, and to measure. And analyse. And then share.

This blog is born out of that desire to share, both our own ideas and the most useful and reliable resources, commentary, tools and techniques shared by our peers. In this process your constructive involvement in the comments section of our blog posts will always be welcome, even when you disagree with our ideas or opinions.

We also aim to take a relatively UK-centric view of search engine marketing. We are UK-based after all, and whilst we find the UK industry commonly looking to our US cousins for steerage, we recognise that there is a wealth of talent and experience on these shores too. But the web largely demolishes boundaries and we will certainly reference US (and international) commentary as appropriate.

Ultimately, we hope you gain some value from the stuff we author or link to here.

About the Editor

Dave Fowler is an in-house e-commerce SEO and occasional affiliate marketer.

A daydreamer at school he left as soon as it was humanly and legally possible, in order to join his father’s business, a saw-servicing firm in the Cotswolds. But after 10 years of graft learning the Saw Doctor’s trade he started to witness the world of levelling, tensioning and sharpening bandsaws and circular saws begin the death throws of an increasingly redundant industry. Cheap imports of pre-sawn timber started to flood the UK market, and the round timber stocks started to disappear from sawmill yards. Inevitably, the skills of both Saw Doctors and Millers started to lose their value and the long-term prospects began to look increasingly bleak. Sensing the walls closing in, and with his father’s blessing, Dave left the business to return to education and ultimately to secure a degree in marketing.

As a side note, Dave’s dissertation was on the subject of ‘Shopping as a leisure activity; is there a future for home shopping services?” This looked at the emergence of home teleshopping and concluded that yes, there was, but he had no idea of just how broad and pervasive ecommerce would become. This was 1995, and the completion of the dissertation pre-dated the appearance of Amazon by a matter of months.

His degree secured, Dave moved into a managerial career in the contact centre and telemarketing/telephone sales industry. Specialising in outsourced financial services marketing, Dave supported clients including egg, Royal Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Axa PPP Healthcare and others, before moving away from sales and into customer services management, working with BT Openworld and then latterly a food wholesaler.

Corporate life never fully suited Dave, however – see egographic – and around 2005 he started toying with an idea to develop new skills and a new career in web design. But as his skills and experience developed, he found himself increasingly drawn back to marketing, this time in the shape of Internet marketing. Mid 2006 saw the beginnings of a voracious appetite for knowledge about SEO, and the first steps into it’s professional application.