“Every time I cross one of our Saskatoon bridges, I look both ways and utter out loud, “Ah…there it is.”
The idea of teaching web design and SEO in Saskatoon didn’t come from a business plan or marketing trend. It came from osmosis. It all started way back in 2003.
The Prairies were angry that day, my friend...
I chose to leave Saskatoon for Calgary in 2002 because I had little choice. Canadian Airlines was bought out by Air Canada, and they closed the Saskatoon maintenance base. (Up until 2003, I was an aircraft mechanic working across western Canada in cities like Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and eventually Saskatoon. When I first landed in Saskatoon, I was a young man under 30 years old, and I fell in love–with my first wife, her daughter, and the city. It was the trifecta. Still to this day, no city or town makes me feel more at home. Every time I cross one of our Saskatoon bridges I look both ways and utter out loud, “Ah, there it is.”)
But only 6 months after I had arrived at Air Canada’s Calgary maintenance base, management from Montreal sent word they were going to close the base. Me, and most of my coworkers, were shocked. Considering we were explicitly told the Calgary base would be staying open “FOREVER”.
So there I was. Like all my commuting coworkers. Recently uprooted from our sweet home Saskatoon, and being given pink slip. Most of my coworkers chose to stay in Calgary and/or in Western Canada’s aviation industry, but I did something very risky in the eyes of everyone I knew…
I quit.
And it felt great! Scary as hell. But still great!
We were free (we, being me and my second wife, Betty). Free to fail bigly. Or free to succeed.
“And man…WORK was the primary keyword.”
Just a few weeks before we all got our pink slips, I was talking to the guys and gals during lunch break. We were all musing on what we were going to do. Someone asked me what my plans were, and I told them I was thinking about making a change. I told them I wanted to do something on my own out of the house, maybe — maybe something to do with computers.
That day I searched Google on one of the office computers, “I want to work at home on my computer”.
Up popped a bunch of American websites and gurus offering get-rich-quick schemes and wild dreams of boat drinks in the Caribbean. But somewhere down on page three of Google’s search results (so nice back in those days — just 10 blue links and just one or two ads) was a website by a Canadian fella known as James Martell.
James didn’t promise getting rich quickly or having boat drinks. He talked about creating a reasonable and achievable passive income with affiliate programs. He had an ebook he was selling for $150 so I bought it. I trusted James because he was a Canadian (living in White Rock, British Columbia at the time).
Before our last day at work in the hangar, I gave my toolbox to a fellow worker and my old rusty 1978 Chevy truck to another. I was turning my back on aviation forever. I couldn’t wait to get home and get to work.
And man…WORK was the primary keyword.
Phase 1: Building and Monetizing Websites
I had trouble.
I was never the sharpest stick in the shed. Or the faster reader in the class. But once a concept finally gets through my thick skull, it’s locked in. And I put in the hours. Some days I worked around the clock. Stopping for a few hours’ sleep, then back to work. I had to learn basic HTML from scratch, and I was building my websites in Adobe Dreamweaver at the time — no CMS (content management system). I wasn’t introduced to WordPress until 2008.
During my first website build, I found out my guru, James Martell was coming to Calgary to work on his custom car. So I reached out to him to see if he wanted to meet while he was in town. Not only did we meet, but he stayed with us at our house in Lake Bonavista. I was over the moon! James was living proof that my dream wasn’t just a fantasy. He gave me the encouragement to stick with it.
Over the next couple of years, between 2003 and 2005, I started to get a little bit of traffic. I remember my very first organic hit from Yahoo and Google. I had spelled “Golf Apparel” wrong, and people were searching for the misspelling. Eventually, we were making 20 dollars day in Adsense revenue, then $40, then $50. I remember the thrill when we hit $50.
I was freaking out. In a good way.
From 2005 to 2012, we built and managed dozens of websites that generated a lot of traffic. Our revenue came from Google Ads and affiliate marketing. That was our full-time work. We were successful. At our peak, we earned over $25,000 USD per month in commissions and Adsense revenue. The video below is an audio interview with James Martell during these hay-making years. You can hear the excitement in our voices.
We loved it because we could work from anywhere with an internet connection. That lifestyle was incredibly freeing. We bought an RV and travelled in the States quite a bit. Back then, I would get WIFI from random houses and businesses along the I-15. One of the best open WIFI connections was ironically a police department in Idaho. I couldn’t figure out why all the cops coming and going never questioned the 24-foot RV with Alberta license plates parked at the back of their building.
I remember taking all of our receipts to a bookkeeper in Calgary, and the lady who crunched all the numbers was bewildered by all the income coming from the United States. She point-blank told me this was never going to last.
And our accountant wasn’t the only one who took notice. As more people noticed our lifestyle, they started asking questions. It was just a matter of time before I was helping family and friends build their money printing machines. It was a magical time. You could build a website with 20 articles on it around the topic of almost anything, and generate another $500 – $3000 a month passive income stream.
Then it went from family and friends to helping companies and corporations.
Phase 2: Corporate SEO Work Across Canada
“He wanted me to wade neck deep into the darkest CESSPOOLS of the INTERNET.”
Eventually, our experience (I say “our” because Betty worked with me and still does) took us into corporate environments. We started consulting for companies, helping them map out SEO strategies and scale their digital presence. That included walking into boardrooms in Calgary and eventually working with clients across the country, from Vancouver to Toronto.
I remember a boardroom meeting when a CEO asked if I could run a negative SEO campaign against his competitors. (Negative SEO is when you use Black Hat SEO to damage a competitor’s website with thousands of horrible inbound links from the worst places on the internet). I thought he was just testing me to see if I had a soul, so I told him only reptiles would do that.
I later learned he was dead serious. He wanted me to wade neck deep into the darkest cesspools of the internet.
The boardrooms taught me a lot. It taught me that most people in these offices and agencies didn’t have the burning passion for their work that I did. They were all there, dressed up pretty, but simply punching a clock. It taught me that some corporations are run by sociopaths that I want to steer clear of. It taught me that I would never really fit in the high-rise glass offices downtown — even if I bought the wardrobe.
But alas, to this day, I still consult part-time for two large corporate clients—one based in Vancouver and the other in Toronto. I love remote work. God forbid I would have to clean up and be presentable for more than 2 days a week.
Phase 3: Time to Teach
I’m turning 62 this summer. Over the years, I’ve watched more and more young people step into the digital field. It makes sense. This industry offers real freedom, especially when you understand how to build websites and get traffic to them.
That realization sparked the third phase of my career—teaching.
It turns out I enjoy it more than I expected. And it also turns out that people have been telling me for years that I’m a natural teacher. I’ve always loved this work, and that comes through when I talk about it. Students pick up on that energy. They get excited when they see how real the opportunities are.
And it dawned on me….it’s my turn to pass on my passion for online income the same way James Martell had inspired me in my early days. Sadly, James passed away in 2018, shocking the affiliate marketing world. He was greatly loved and now greatly missed. (Tributes to James here and here).
Why Our Backyard?
For the past 12 years, my wife and I have hosted friends and family in our backyard. It has a 20×40 pool, lots of lounging space, and it’s always been a place where people feel relaxed. We call it the oasis.
We’re the kind of people who enjoy hosting others. We don’t mind strangers. (Within reason—yes, we need downtime too.)
So, combining our love for hosting, my experience in web design and SEO, and my love of teaching, it all came together naturally. We turned our backyard and home into a place where people can come and learn web design in person.
This Isn’t a Trial
We’re not “trying this out.” We’re building this for the long haul. Our goal is to consistently teach at least 10 students a month, both in the summer and winter sessions. In the meantime, growth will be slow. Maybe VERY slow with the tariff thing going on around the world and the orange guy in Washington for the next few years.
But that’s OK.
When you know what you want to do, you plant your flag in the ground and grow roots. And there’s no better place to grow roots than our sweet home Saskatoon.
Learn more about our Saskatoon web design course located in the Adelaide/Churchill area.