Interview with Mark Hodson [markhodson]

Mark Hodson [markhodson]

INTERNET

What is your specialty in the interactive world?

I run a consulting business Travel SEO which offers online marketing services for travel companies. I am also co-founder and editor of 101 Holidays, a series of travel inspiration websites. My background is in travel writing.

Where can we see some of your work online?

In my previous life as a journalist I had hundreds of articles published. Many are now behind the Murdoch paywall. You can see some of my writing on the 101 Holidays websites. As well as the main site, we have 101 Honeymoons, 101 Short Breaks and 101 Family Holidays. I also have a personal blog and you can find me on Twitter.

What is your professional background? What did you do before?

I left university and went to work for a local newspaper. When I was 23 I landed a job as a sub-editor on The Sun. Later, after a few years travelling, I started travel writing. I spent 12 years full time freelancing for The Sunday Times. Then I got interested in the web...

With which technologies do you normally work?

I'm a big fan of Wordpress. I've not found a better CMS. Fortunately some of my clients - including The Healthy Holiday Company - now also use Wordpress, which makes things a lot easier. Mind you, I like the N2 CMS used by Selective Asia. I'm not so fond of Typo3 which is used by World Primate Safaris and World Big Cat Safaris.

Lessons learnt on user interface design

Designing newspaper pages and writing headlines for The Sun taught me a lot about web UX. About how the eye navigates around a page, about being immediate and capturing the reader's attention.

Do you work by yourself, or in a team? how is that team?

I pretty much always work alone, except with the 101 Holidays team. My various personal sites include When to Book Flights.

What was your first computer, and which is your current?

I had a very old Apple Mac. I still use Macs.

Online virality: isn't it the same as traditional word-of-mouth?

It's similar but can be exponentially faster (then disappear just as fast).

Do you think the digital gap is a social problem? What would you do to accelerate digital literacy?

Yes, I'd like to see more efforts to get old people online. Getting basic computers such as the Raspberry Pi into primary schools is going to be a great idea.

What were you doing in March 2000, at the height of the "dotcom bubble"?

Trading shares. I made some, lost some but still came out in profit.

In the current interactive world, what is the most relevant trend?

The effect of social media on organic search.

Your tips to make money online

Work backwards. Find out where the money is then think how you can build a site to capture attention. Most people do it the other way: launch a site then think about how to monetise it.

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