Jim Westergren is a well respected SEO professional in the DP forums. He is also known for running his company seo-fusion.com which apparently was sold recently for $157,700. We had a chance to chat with him about SEO, seo-fusion, the sale, the future, and Jim as a person. Here is what he had to say:
-Jim when and where were you born ?
1982, Malmö Sweden
- any studies ?
Until age of 17, then I left school to do more important things in my opinion
- any other work experience (other than seo-fusion) ?
From age 17 to 22 I worked in an international organisation in Denmark. It was very tough but I learned a lot. I learned for example that you are yourself responsible for everything that happens in your life and that you are totally capable of doing anything, it is all in the mind.
- when did you discover the internet ? what did you use it for ?
1997 or something I guess. At that time it was mostly used for school to find information. I made my first web site in 1999. Then from end of 1999 to end of 2004 I had no access to internet. At end of 2004 I discovered Google and was totally hooked.
- when and how did you discover you can make money off the internet ?
I learned how to do web sites and so I started a small company offering web design. This was in 2005.
- when and why was seo-fusion conceived ? who was part of it ?
On the Jan 13th, 2006 I opened up that site and blogged about it
. I had bought the site from a person on DP. At that time it was only me and partners. Later on I got a few employes in Sweden. seo-fusion.com represented the english part of my company.
- what did seo-fusion help its clients with ?
Link building
- what was your workday schedule like ? (days/week ? hours/week ?)
Impossible to say. Some weeks I didn't so much other than work and some weeks it was more relaxed.
- how many clients did you get over its existence ?
This is a bit hard to answer depending on how you count. We had over 200 clients using our Directory Submission and perhaps 20-30 clients that bought link building packages.
- how much was seo-fusion making per month, at the beggining and before the sale, what where the expenses ?
When I started out with the company part time I charged $15 per hour. In it's high peak after about 1 and a half year me and my employee grossed around $30.000 a month.
- why was it sold ? how much ?
There is a lot I could write about it but I can say that it is a combination of many things that culminated me to do what I did. Some of these things are in order of magnitude: Wanted to follow my writing dream, not having a life outside the internet, having almost no friends in real life, a complicated big religious conflict, Googles campaign against link selling, the inability to service more as all resources was used up, the services became less effective and gave less results, the pain of always being behind and having backlog, the urge to find a girlfriend, my fathers dominant personality and much more (read about the whole story here)
$157,700 USD
- where did Epiphany find out about your willingness to sell seo-fusion ?
They read this article and contacted me. They were one of my biggest clients who was resellers. They needed the services to continue and so they bought everything. So I didn't even write anywhere that it was for sale.
- was seo-fusion a good experience overall ?
Yes, was a great experience and I learned a lot.
- what where your hobbies before/with/past seo-fusion ?
People, travelling, discussing, reading, writing, thinking, philosophy, metaphysics, personal development, learning, astronomy, sci-fi, future speculations, games, internet, internet marketing, movies, music, history, science
- what things do you do for work lately ?
I am planning my own web site projects that I will invest in, invest some in the stock market and continue work as a internet marketing consultant for bigger companies.
- will you continue in the SEO field ? any details ?
I will continue as a consultant for SEO and internet marketing and I am actually right now negotiating with a big company in Stockholm Sweden. If they accept my offer then I will work for them for some weeks and then part time externally. Otherwise I am not doing so much SEO except for my own web site projects.
- what would you advise people that want to make money on or from the internet ?
You earn a lot of money if you help companies make more money. Don't think about money in the beginning, make something that people really want. Study personal development.
- Is there anything that you would like to share with us ?
At the end of 2004 I returned to Sweden with no education, any kind of money, experience or friends. I sat down in front of my computer to learn web design and SEO and today 3 years later I have a company with assets worth over $300K and I personally own 90% of the company. So IT IS possible!
To read some more, you can see:
http://www.jimwestergren.com/second-annual-report-my-success-online/
http://www.jimwestergren.com/first-annual-report-my-success-online/
Here are 2 great forums:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/
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9 comments:
Great post!
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