One of the reasons why I started writing this blog was to earn a bit of profile for myself. Taking my first steps into the consultancy world, I thought it was important for people researching my background to find something by me, about me. It was also an interesting exercise to see how long it would take to get myself on the first page of Google results for my own name.
In actual fact, it was pretty successful pretty quickly: just seven weeks after starting, I bagged the number one slot. I’d done quite a bit of research into (what I would call) ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ search engine optimisation tactics. I knew it would help, for example, to have the words ’simon’ and ‘dickson’ in the URL; and I had been adding comments to various popular blogs, ensuring my name was active as a link back to here. (Hardly rocket science when you think about it, but how many of us do it?)
But on the flipside, people looking for other Simon Dicksons are probably finding themselves here, and ending up a little disappointed. So if you were expecting one of the following - I’m sorry.
- I’m not the Simon Dickson from Crawley, studying Computer Science at Hull University. I guess it’s a typo where he describes himself as a ‘hobbist’ web designer… presumably a missing ‘y’, rather than an extra ’s’.
- Simon Dickson was an up-and-coming British tennis player, but doesn’t seem to have done anything for a couple of years. That isn’t me; I’m rubbish at tennis. I played too much squash in my youth.
- There’s a Simon Dickson who works in documentary programming at Channel 4, and used to produce Tomorrow’s World for the BBC. You can see a video of him at this C4 microsite. I’ve spent quite a lot of time working near Channel 4’s headquarters in Horseferry Road. We’ve probably passed each other in the street one lunchtime.
- I’m not a lawyer in the Cayman Islands.
- I’ve never heard any of Australian ‘musical witch’ Wendy Rule’s music. I’m not a member of her band. I can’t play the didgeridoo, and I don’t think I’d actually know what to do with a djembe.
- There’s a Simon Dickson who is a very successful member of Bangor Swimming Club in Northern Ireland. This is the weirdest one of all for me, as I used to be a member of Bangor Swimming Club myself, a good few years ago. And not anything like as successfully.
Nor am I any of these Simon Dixons. Bane of my life, that is.
SimonD