| In 1996 Kes Phelps asked himself what are his natural | | | | and after six months as a freelancer he managed to |
| abilities were and what he enjoyed. He had always | | | | find work with mProvision, then known as |
| been creative with a passion for art and design, and | | | | mGenie.mGenie was an internet marketing company |
| also technically minded. The Internet boom had just | | | | owned by Fox Tucker. Fox was well known within the |
| exploded and so he made the decision to carve a | | | | affiliate marketing arena and helped create the DGM's |
| career in Web Design. | | | | affiliate marketing network. |
| At the time there were no Web Design higher level | | | | This wasn't just an excellent opportunity for Kes to |
| education courses in his home town of Norwich in the | | | | hone his web design and development skills, but also to |
| UK, to which he was committed due to family reasons. | | | | learn about the entrepreneurial aspects of online |
| The most suitable and highest profile course was the | | | | business from his mentor, Fox. After one year he was |
| Applied Computing degree at the University of East | | | | appointed Head of Technical Development, designing, |
| Anglia which, although was predominately a software | | | | developing and project managing internet solutions that |
| engineering degree, did have some modules related to | | | | delivered Mobile Phone Media. It was here that he |
| web design and the programming and database skills | | | | became fascinated by his now specialist area of |
| would stand him in good stead for developing web | | | | Internet development, search engine optimisation. |
| based applications. | | | | After three years at mProvision he went on to join |
| Kes successfully completed the prerequisite Access | | | | WhichPoker.com, a highly successful online poker |
| Course in Engineering and Technology at the Norwich | | | | portal, as Head of Mobile Content. When the company |
| City College and was offered a place on his chosen | | | | realised his search engine optimisation expertise he |
| degree which he went on to complete, with honours, in | | | | became involved with their online marketing. After ten |
| 2000. | | | | months however he was made redundant due to role |
| His first position after graduation was at British | | | | change. |
| Telecom working as a call centre operative. Then | | | | By this time, however, his skills and experience were |
| after six months, a secondment within BT Retail arose, | | | | sufficient to go into business as a freelance web |
| building an Intranet site for a team of project | | | | designer, developer and SEO. This had always been a |
| managers. He put himself forward and his application | | | | dream and something continuing very much in the |
| was accepted. | | | | background but now there was an opportunity to take |
| This short term contract was invaluable in his personal | | | | it to another level. He redesigned and optimised his site, |
| and skill development. Here he taught himself ASP | | | | which you can get to via the link in the footnote of this |
| building a small scale, web based application. He was | | | | article, and slowly watched it climb the search engine |
| also given the opportunity to develop his project | | | | rankings. |
| management skills gained at university. | | | | As it climbed the enquires began to come and now |
| From there he had a brief spell as a freelance web | | | | Kes Phelps has a steady flow of work, specialising in |
| designer but due to lack of experience, struggled to | | | | designing, developing and optimising internet solutions |
| make a comfortable living. It was clear he needed to | | | | for small and medium sized businesses. |
| get back into the workplace to gain more experience | | | | |