Hi, I’m Fabian and this my personal blog where I share everything I’ve learned as a Digitalpreneur and on my journey from starting a blog with zero visitors to now reaching more than 100,000 monthly visits.
Me at the Stirling Range in Western Australia
I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet. Not only because I have the most amazing girlfriend I could wish for but also because I get to do the things I love every single day and managed to turn my passion into my business.
Family first, but after that I am a business man who loves everything related to marketing, business and doing things “the smart way”.
My biggest marketing secret? SERVICE… Want to grow your business? Provide better service. Want to make more money? Serve more people. Want to stand out from your competition? Be different by being a “Servant” not just a company!
Be human. Be helpful. The rest will take care of itself!
Here is what this blog is all about:
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Market Leadership: Becoming an authority in your field
Being recognised as the market leader by providing quality information on your website as well as on social channels is one of the best things you can do for your business. It will position you as the go-to-expert, so you can stop chasing new clients and charge higher prices instead!
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Search Engine Optimisation: Be found online
Let’s face it: What’s the point of having a “flashy” website if nobody can find it when they are looking for your products and services? Provide quality content for humans and then optimise it for the search engines – not the other way around!
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Smart Marketing: Stop shouting start engaging
Traditional Marketing is dead! Yes, that’s right. Just shouting out your marketing message through radio, TV and other mass media channels is not only expensive but also very ineffective. There are smarter ways of getting noticed in a noisy world!
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Productivity Hacks: Accomplishing more with less and leveraging EVERYTING
I’m a big believer in everything “smart”. If I can accomplish more in less time I will do so. From time management to outsourcing I share everything I’ve learned that will help you not only to get more things done but more importantly: Get the RIGHT things done! Believe it or not, trying to work harder in order to get more stuff done is actually counterproductive.
Every week I’m also scanning more than 100 blogs related to the above topics and I share the gems I find on Twitter. So if you are interested in learning more… following me on Twitter is probably the best place to get you started…
My story
Born in Hamburg (Germany) in 1979, I was always a pretty happy child. After High School I worked in the real estate and property management industry for almost 10 years. While working about 20 hrs/week I went to Uni and obtained an MBA with a focus on Marketing and Finance.
I really enjoyed Uni, not that I spend a lot of time in the lecture theatre (in fact that’s where I spend the least time) but because I had a great time with my fellow students and met some pretty cool people who have become some of my best friends.
Once I finished Uni I got sick of the typical 9 to 5 kinda lifestyle and didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life.
That’s when I decided to take a year off and travel around the world. Just to get my mind off things and get a clear idea of what it is that I actually want from life.
This was by far the best decision I’ve ever made and changed my life for ever!
In 2007 I planned my trip, bought my around the world ticket and flew from Germany to England, America (including one month in Hawaii – loved it!), Australia and also spent two months in New Zealand.
Well… it’s not hard to spot that all the places I went to are somehow related to surfing, aren’t they? 🙂
And although my ticket was supposed to take me from Australia to Bali (Indonesia) and Thailand before going back to Germany, I fell in love with Australia and decided to stay!
Why? Because of its astonishing nature, amazingly friendly people and awesome beaches surrounded by beautiful oceans (which is what I had been craving so much ever since I started surfing in 1991).
While traveling around Australia I also met the girl of my dreams. It’s funny how life goes if you just let go and live from day to day without knowing where you will be next week.
I actually met her on a goat and cattle farm, 600 km away from the next city in the the middle of nowhere while shearing sheep and stacking hay! Btw… I highly recommend to go and spend some time on a farm, far away from the big cities.
It’s amazing how much you can learn about yourself just by being in nature, surrounded by animals. Most people these days don’t even know that this is actually the place where the steak comes from that they buy in the super market around the corner!
After we decided to stay in Australia it was like starting a new life from scratch.
New City. No friends. No job. No home.
It was during that time that I came up with the idea of starting a website where I would document my travel around Australia to help others do the same.
When I prepared my trip to Australia I had trouble finding the information I was looking for. The only thing I came across all the time where the websites from all those big travel agencies trying to sell their so called “Backpacking Packages” for $2000+.
I knew I could help others preparing their travels because I had actually done it myself (without the help of a travel agency!). I also saw the need of such a resource for german backpackers and my alarm bells went off:
OPPORTUNITY… OPPORTUNITY… OPPORTUNIY!
The beginning was slow… very slow actually! I spent a lot of time creating content. Mainly writing “How to” type of articles, such as: How to apply for the Working Holiday Visa or how to find a job while traveling around.
More than 8 month passed and not much happened (nothing really). I started to believe that my idea wasn’t actually that great. I was discouraged and thought about giving up and start something else instead.
But then things started to change. After I came back from a trip to Europe visiting friends and family I checked my Google Analytics account and saw a massive jump in traffic to my website.
People started to leave comments on my blog thanking me for the information and asking more questions. All of a sudden Google started to notice me and my website showed up on the first page of Google for my most relevant search queries.
From that point on everything started to take off and my idea turned into a reality.
Today I’m proud to say that I have managed to create the number one resource for german backpackers willing to come and experience one of the most amazing countries on planet earth.
The lesson I have learned
Under no circumstances underestimate the power of “just” being helpful!! Because that’s all I have done…
I really hope you find the information on this blog useful. Because this blog is not about me. It’s about YOU.
Thanks for dropping by and I hope to see you soon on Twitter…. Follow @FabianLinge
Cheers,
Fabian