Hi everybody, thank you for your interest in me and my services.

A Little Background…

My interest in developing websites came about in high school. I first got online in 1995, and was amazed at my ability to communicate with people in a completely new way. I was a founding member of my high school’s tech club, and helped build my high school’s first website. This experience led me to other projects throughout the rest of my years in high school, and on into college.

The first website I built on my own was hosted on Geocities (Remember them??), and was called “The Teenage Advice Page”. I remember one day when they must have featured the site on their home page, because I got over 20,000 visitors over one weekend. This further solidified my belief that the Internet was going to be huge, and change the way people find and share information (and opinions…) Plus, I was blown away by the amount of influence, a lowly high school kid such as myself could exert with the internet.

After high school, I continued with website development, building my own blog (before the term even existed). It was a neat little site that featured pictures, writing, and opinions about various topics. This would be the last website that I would work on until graduating from college.

College was not a creative dark period for me, however. While I didn’t build any websites, I was certainly thinking about it. In fact, one concept that I came up with while walking around campus has gone on to become a major strategy for my online media business, and is the basis for one completed site, and several more concepts that I have planned.

After college, I took my graduation money, and started an eBay store. While not a pure e-commerce endeavor, it got me into the mindset of running a business, running a website, and providing excellent customer service. My basic idea was that even if I didn’t make any money, I would at least have some real-world hands-on experience to do more of the same work in the future.

I ran with my eBay store for a few years, but ultimately decided that it was time to try doing a pure website again. I built a new website that was about car audio and mobile electronics. I didn’t spend much time marketing the site, but after 2 years, it was getting over 75 visitors a day. I considered this a triumph considering that I never advertised the site. With the amount of traffic I was receiving, my site was regularly converting and earning revenue.

In 2007, I was hired as a web manager at an online wine retailer. This job turned out to be the most important moment in my website developing career, as I was managing a website that received over 500 visitors a day. I also began learning more about the various ways that e-commerce sites operate and how to effectively market them. I was especially successful at email marketing, SEO and PPC advertising.

Soon after leaving the wine company, I began consulting a company in the maternity industry part-time, and have been working with them to enhance their website presence, sales-ability, and usability.

Because I only work part-time, I have also been aggressively building my own web presence in my off hours. I am building several websites that are not related to consulting or internet marketing. I also wrote a brief handbook for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) called “The SEO Cheat Sheet”. I am selling it through www.seocheatsheet.net for $35. Every client of mine will receive a complimentary copy. I am currently working on version 2.0.

A list of some of my sites:

Keep an eye here…My big goal is have 100 sites in my portfolio by the end of 2010. People think I’m crazy. I think I’m doing what I want to do with my life.

http://www.alanswineblog.com/ My thoughts, reviews, and ideas about wine.
http://www.alanebayer.com/ This website. My business’s main site.
http://www.macbooksandmore.com/ A site dedicated to getting people to switch to Apple computers.
http://www.vinylrevinyl.com/ A website about vinyl records that aims to get a new generation hooked on this great format.
http://www.mountanviewforsale.com/ (Coming soon) A site that aims to sell eBay products to Mountain View, CA residents.
http://www.cashmeresweatersandmore.com/ (Coming soon) A site about cashmere apparel.
http://www.seocheatsheet.net/ My ebook’s home page.

A brief review of my education:

High School Diploma, 1998
Valley View High School
Moreno Valley, CA

BA Psychology, 2002
University of California Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA.

Outside of website work, I enjoy…

Music, gourmet food, cooking, drinking wine, reading, writing, driving, playing with my computer, talking, and playing with my kitty.