Hi, my name is Jeffrey Kirk. Working on the internet for almost 30 years, I have helped hundreds of businesses with their online presence, earning a BizTimes Top 10 Small Business Award in the process.
Now I am known for getting businesses seen online and making internet marketing concepts easy to understand and implement for traditional, offline businesses looking for online success. My ideal clients are service-oriented businesses that are having difficulties showing up in the search results.
Let’s Take a Step Back
I started my career as a computer and math nerd by working as a software engineer at GE Healthcare (formerly GE Medical Systems) from the mid 1980’s to early 1990’s. I helped create calibration software for x‑ray machines and coded image reconstruction software for MRI machines.
But feeling rather entrepreneurial, I left GE in 1993 and decided to learn all I could about international trade. This was part of an effort to start an international trade business with some contacts I had met in Kazakhstan, part of the former Soviet Union. In the process I discovered I could use the internet as a strategic advantage to source products from SE Asia and deliver them into Kazakhstan, part of the former Soviet Union.
This was my first “ecommerce” business, started before most people considered using the internet for anything serious.
Where Was Your Business in the Mid-1990’s?
Ecommerce was different then. Yahoo and Google did not exist. And we weren’t really even using the term ecommerce at that point. It was more a hybrid system using dial-up internet along with a fax machine for communication, and wire transfers and letters of credit for banking needs.
But going through this experience helped me realize the power of the internet to benefit businesses, and so I continued to move in that direction.
In 1995, needing more reliable internet access, I started a new business, the first dial-up internet service in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Initially I wanted to offer internet access and website development and hosting to area businesses. But it was too soon. Local businesses were not ready to embrace the online world. So I opened up to residential dial-up internet access.
Businesses Jump For Online Positioning
Within a few years, by the late 1990′s, many concepts that you’re familiar with today began to exist. For example, the development of websites that both looked good and worked good were starting to appear. Search engine optimization was simpler then, but appearing on the radar for those who wanted to show up at the top of the search results.
My company stayed in the mix; experimenting with new technologies, learning what businesses needed, what customers wanted, and how to make a difference for our clients. In the years that followed, I helped hundreds of businesses with their online presence, while slowing transforming myself from a technology person to a marketing person, but still with an engineering mindset.
Then, with more than 20 years of online experience behind me, I wrote a book called Dominate The Top. (Go ahead, click the link and order a copy! I’ll wait.) As a follow-up, I put together a step-by-step, easy-to-follow training and coaching system for businesses that wanted to develop their own online marketing expertise in house.
The idea was simple… I do not want you to spend money on a new website you don’t need, or waste money on search engine optimization from companies that can’t explain what they’re doing for you. The training is intense, but it goes through everything I did to help a local business show up 7 times on the first page of Google search results. You can still get a copy of the case study here.
Processes and Tools Continue to Change
The problem with my training was that parts of it continued to become quickly obsolete. To keep the training up-to-date for our clients I was continually updating the information and training videos. To do this, I had to always be testing new things. In the process I learned even more effective ways to generate leads for businesses, especially by increasing the number of key search engine positions for which they could appear.
I also found that businesses often preferred hiring an expert to implement the methods for them rather than burdening someone on their staff with the job of search engine optimization and other online marketing. By doing the work for them, they could save a lot of time.
All of this led to my discovering some processes that work consistently to produce results faster and better than traditional SEO. In time, I was able to package it all up into a cost-effective program that works great and allows me to effectively implement for many businesses, saving them hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars compared to what they might pay a search engine optimization company.
This is called the Authority Visibility System™. Due to some recent changes in the online market space, the timing to get started with this is perfect. I would invite you to learn more about it here.
I am always happy to answer questions, so you are welcome to contact me using the contact Up At Dawn form.
