About Ian Traynor

Hi!
Thanks for stopping by. I’m Ian Traynor and “Marketing Sparks” is one of my many websites.

What I Do And What I’ve Done

I’ve been in sales & marketing all my working life, but it wasn’t until 1995 that I “discovered” the internet. Since then I’ve been involved in the internet in various ways pretty much full-time.

I was employed in 1996, first as an Internet Business Advisor for a UK Government-backed small business support company, and then as the Webmaster for the organisation.

In my spare time, I built up my internet marketing business, focusing initially on my Marketing Magic website (one of the first marketing websites in the UK) and then slowly built up my list of subscribers to my “Marketing Update” newsletter.

In April 2005 I took the plunge and went full-time into internet marketing.

I’ve never looked back since then!

Currently my emphasis is on helping less experienced people to develop their online businesses.. whatever they are selling. I do this through

• Developing new products (mainly software) for webmasters (and webmistresses!). My “brand” for these products is my Webmasters Cheat Kit label.
• Providing online training for internet marketing newcomers (”newbies”), my flagship product for this currently being my Newbies School of Internet Marketing.
• Researching and testing a lot of the huge number of new products and services that are launched and making recommendations. Whether or not I make an affiliate commission from these is not relevant to me. If I like something, I say so - and why. If I don’t, I won’t touch it - whatever the commission income I might lose! I make these recommendations both to subscribers to my “Marketing Update” newsletter and on my product review website, “Ian Recommends” - and, of course, in this blog!

About This Blog

“Marketing Sparks” has been around since about 2001. At first I hosted it myself, using blogging software by “Grey Matter“, if I remember correctly.

Then, in 2005 I transferred it to Blogger.com, where it lived, being indifferently updated until April 2007, when I did the sensible thing and went down the WordPress route!

Now, with a bit of assistance, “Marketing Sparks” has taken on a new lease of life!

Some Personal Details

I’m __ years old.. fill in the blanks.. look at my photo above!I’ve been married to Ruth since 1966 and we have a son, a daughter and three granddaughters.

I live in the beautiful medieval city of York, in the UK, and in 1999 I set up a tourist website for the city, CityOfYork.com.

Ruth and I are both keen birdwatchers and I run websites for two local birdwatching organisations. We love to travel and have been to every continent except Antarctica!

I’m also interested in philosophy and the cinema.

And I’m not telling you any more about me

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