Mike Nott

[alt-title: Ayima hires yet another dirty black-hat spammer]

Anyone who’s trying to run a growing search operation knows how hard it is to hire good SEOs.

Some people like to take on newbies and train them up but who really has the time to do that? And as I have some quiet strict ideas about what makes a proper SEO, its rare to find a newbie who I think has the right experiences and knowledge to build from quickly.

Also, my choosiness makes the slim pickings of experienced SEOs to hire even slimmer and as most decent SEOs are already doing their own stuff, to entice them away can be hard.

So I never actually hire anyone through the interview process, its always by meeting and getting to know prospects at industry events etc. Then once decided, go in for the kill by getting them so drunk they submit to joining us (this really happened with Rob Kerry (evilgreenmonkey) at SES San Jose 2006).

Anyway, imagine my surprise then when I discovered that the infamous spammer Esrun comes from my small little hometown of Southend. Esrun is well known as the author of many spamming tools including DITY (one of the most popular old guestbook/comment spamming apps).

Dave also wrote a blog post saying Steve was one of his kinda guys, but we won’t hold that against him

After getting in touch with Esrun I learned that he (Steve) was wasting away his talents and as an unappreciated SEO for an insurer. Then after a number of pub sessions saying there’s a whole world of opportunity out there and that he’d be a perfect fit for Ayima, Steve agreed to take the plunge and join us.

So I would like to hereby welcome Stephen Hill (aka ‘esrun’) to the Ayima team.

Also, as you can see from the above photo, Steve will also be acting as Ayima’s own personal security guard.