Alex Stepman

Background

About Alex Stepman

As a young man, I solved an array of hardware and software problems in the computer repair industry. I spent sixteen to eighteen hours each day studying how computers work. I devoted most of this time to computer viruses. Many people found my expertise useful: I found myself fixing more and more friend’s and family’s computers. I enjoyed this work. However, I worked for free, and I realized I could not spend so much time repairing computers without compensation. So I started my own computer repair and maintenance company, Stepmans PC. One day, I received a call from one of my satisfied customers. “Alex! We want to create a website, and we want you to do it.” “I am really sorry,” I replied. “I’m not a programmer, or web developer, and I’m not qualified.” “But you are the best at solving computer problems!” “Computers, yes,” I said.“But not programming.” It was hard to resist my customer’s persistence, but I experienced a moral dilemma—a dilemma that, in the past, had made me pause before I agreed to do any work: I did not want to get paid for a job that would not satisfy my customer. I said: “I will create a website for myself, and if you like the website, I will create something similar for your company.” The customer agreed, and I did create a website, a site I maintained for many years. Not long after, the customer asked: “Why is our website not found on Google?” Like most web developers, I had no idea. However, I was intrigued: How does one make a website appear on Google's first page? I offered a compromise. I assumed the price for search engine optimization was equal to the price of virus removal, so I refunded the cost for my customer to hire his own specialist. We soon learned that the cost for an optimization specialist could be ten times more than virus removal. So I had no choice: I had to learn search engine optimization. Today, I am practicing SEO specialist, fluent in all aspects of computer hardware and design.