About Dave

As an Internet Business Coach with 25+ years online, I help people launch businesses, drive traffic, develop products, do keyword research, email marketing, paid ads, SEO, article writing / blogging and advanced strategies like affiliate marketing, and video production on YouTube.

This page tells you all about Niche Money, and my career in internet marketing, startups and SEO. Because Google loves comprehensive information about your qualifications to establish topical authority in your niche, I have provided as much information as possible about my entire career in internet marketing and SEO. I am also updating and adding to this page often during our regular SEO audits.

Optimized and Fast

This site, and this page, is published on an optimized, fast loading website with the best SEO plugins (Rank Math SEO) installed and pre-configured according to Google’s specifications for schema markup, meta tags, and many other ranking factors, to help you leapfrog ahead and start getting exposure right away.

Each page is optimized to keep readers interested with formatting and style elements that make it easy to read.

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You can also follow me on twitter here.

My Marketing Education, Skills and Experience

Business, marketing and technology have always been my focus from the very start of my career. I completed a degree in business, then went on to do further training in internet publishing and web development as the growth of online marketing was was getting between 1998 – 2001.

Bachelor of Commerce in Industrial Relations Management from University of British Columbia (Sauder School of Business).

Business school gave me a broad base of exposure to all the major functions of making money in any venture: accounting, finance, information systems, marketing and human resources. Although, each of these areas constantly changes and evolves, understanding the principles in these areas has given me the tools needed to help others move forward in their ventures.

My major (Industrial Relations Management) focused on training, human resources, organizational development, and labor management relations. So I am well versed in training methodologies and approaches for transferring skills quickly and effectively. This has been invaluable in my career.

Certificate in Internet Publishing, U.B.C. Continuing Studies (now Extended Learning.

Although my degree gave me a solid foundation, I wanted more hands-on skills in publishing, specifically publishing online. So while working at HSBC as a customer service rep, I completed a series of courses in Internet Publishing at UBC continuing studies. I learned how to create a website and hand code HTML at this time. With these skills I launched a penny stock newsletter (mightymicrocap.com) and began doing email marketing and promoting in bulletin boards such as ragingbull.com. More about this below.

Web Development Diploma, Bodwell Internet School

Although I knew enough to use some of the platforms available, I wanted to get the skills necessary to customize websites and create dynamic database driven content. So I completed the 6-month Web Development Diploma from Bodwell Internet School in Vancouver. The course gave me the skills I still use today to do:

HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming
Image editing and creation in Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator
Video editing and creation using Adobe Premier and After Effects
Database creation and administration using MySQL
Creating dynamic websites using ColdFusion
Editing and creating audio content & music
Domains, SSL, and Webhosting administration using FTP, SSH, and cPanel

The skills I learned are too many to list here. Suffice it to say, I was capable of building on this foundation to learn any new technology from the server side to the front-end presentation layer.

About Niche Money: Dave Halmai’s 25+ Years Experience in SEO & Internet Marketing

Content Manager at Elgrande.com e-Commerce Startup

One of the first jobs I had in eCommerce and online business was at a startup called Elgrande.com. I had the privilege of working at a company during the first dot com boom from the very beginning. They raised private equity from their network of investors, and built one of the first online shopping sites selling books, DVDs and videos online. They later went on to go public on the OTC market.

I applied my skills publishing reviews on books, DVDs and videos on the home page and website blog. Although the company was eventually acquired, I value this experience to take part in the founding a technology startup from the inside.

Technical Support and Technical Writer at Telus Mobility

I continued my career in technology by working for a major telecommunications company Telus Mobility as a Data and Network Assistance support rep, and then later as a Technical Communicator in the Internal Web Publishing department.

We maintained a database of 10,000+ support documents for the companies mobility products and services including cellphones, smartphones, and pagers (yes, people still had pagers back then.)

Internet Business Coach at The Internet Marketing Center

I enjoyed the benefits of working for a large international company, but the founder in me wanted more. I knew I was still missing out on the massive growth taking place online. I wanted to apply my technical knowledge and skill to online business and marketing. So I landed a job at the Internet Marketing Center in Vancouver as an eBusiness Coach teaching people how to start and run their own businesses online.

The mentoring program consisted of a Step-by-Step program where I took people through all the phases of researching and implementing their own online business including:

Keyword research using Wordtracker.com to find profitable startup niches with high traffic and low competition.
Registering a domain name with SEO targeted keywords and branding for your startup.
Writing website sales copy to highlight the features and benefits of your offer.
Adding an Email List Management system with an Autoresponder series to keep your visitors coming back to your site.
Writing SEO Keyword targeted blog posts to rank in Google and get free traffic to your site.
Tracking your website visitors behaviour using Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Monetizing your traffic using popular affiliate programs and advertising.
Developing information products in the form of eBooks and content subscriptions.
Promoting your website in a variety of ways including: guest posts, article submission, social media, YouTube videos and more.
Pay-per-click advertising to your website using Google Adwords to get instant traffic.
Bootstrapping your idea using landing pages and buy now buttons to test the viability of your niche.
Implementing website payments using PayPal.
and much more.

During my 2 years at the company I learned and applied the equivalent of an M.B.A. in online business. The mastermind group within the company exposed me to cutting edge skills and techniques from 20 other top internet marketers with skills in all areas of marketing both online and offline.

I also help 160+ clients launch their own businesses online and gain the skills necessary to develop a side hustle and even a full time income online.

The company also encouraged us to run our own side hustles while working there. Pretty cool company. By applying all the skills we were teaching, we would become even better at what we did. So I launched a series of my own businesses while at the company.

Webmaster of 5 Profitable eLearning Niche Websites

This story About Startups Gold would not be complete unless I told you about some of my fist niche marketing websites.

While doing keyword research for the word “how” I discovered quite quickly that there was massive traffic in the adult education niche. At that time, there were only a few sites offer products to help solve peoples problems in their intimate lives.

I decided to test out the most popular keyword search that was getting 40,000 searches a month in google. After making my first sale in the first 3 days, I knew I was on to something.

I applied all the marketing techniques I was teaching, and started to make a significant side income in addition to my salary at the time: about $2700 USD/month.

So I continued to develop niche products related to adult education over the next two years. By the end of my time at the company, I had built 5 profitable eLearning niche websites.

Founder, CMO of MightyMicrocap Small Cap Stock Website

Built email list to 5,500 subscribers
Published weekly stock reports
Sold website and business for a 5 figure exit

Community Manager for 3 Crypto Startups

Telling you about startups gold would not be complete until I included my experience designing, promoting and managing a number of publications in the crypto space.

AltClub.co
Starcash.co
Peppermint Shiba Token Community

Affiliate Marketing Programs & Tools

Along the way, I have usually monetized my sites using products and services that I have created myself. However, in order to begin monetizing faster, or to diversify your income streams, affiliate programs can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.

Some the of the top affiliate programs I recommend for readers of “about startups gold” post are listed below. Each of them offers partners great support and ready to go marketing materials you can use right away to start making money.

Clickbank offers courses and content for numerous lifestyles and business niches. It is easy to use, and contains a powerful filtering search feature that allows you to find some of the best offers on the marketplace. A good place for beginner’s to start affiliate marketing.

MaxBounty offers high quality affiliate products drop-shipped to your customers for a variety of niches including weight loss, health and fitness.

Shopify eCommerce Shop platform. Who hasn’t heard of the eCommerce platform provider that makes setting up an online store easy and fast for almost any product you can imagine. Has features for drop shipping products so you can test demand, as well as advanced design and payment integrations for PayPal, Stripe and more.

About Niche Money: SEO Blogging Skills & Tools

SEMRush.com

Great for keyword research and competitor analysis (and a whole lot more). It has so many advantages for SEO blogging and affiliate marketing, I can’t begin to list them all here. Some of the uses I have discovered with this tool are so powerful, I don’t even want to share them or my competitors might find out. Visit SEMRush here and browse their tools.

AHrefs.com

A great all-in-one tool for SEO keyword research, domain research and analyzing your competitors. Again, too many uses to go over in a short summary. The site also has an excellent blog (and YouTube channel) both of which I highly recommend. Take a look at AHrefs.com here.

WordPress RankMath SEO Plugin

I used to use Yoast SEO plugin, but I switched to RankMath for a number of reasons. The user experience is top rate. Features are easy to read, pleasant to look at, and the plugin is feature rich, all for one low price (as opposed to Yoast SEO which is a la carte and much pricier.) If you haven’t switched to RankMath SEO plugin, do it here and now.

ChatGPT for Research and SEO Article Generation

This tool can help you in many many ways. So many ways, they are growing in number every day it seem. ChatGPT is a natural language Artificial Intelligence model with a chat based interface. You can use it to summarize text, articles, write articles, generate ideas and analyze content. Great for SEO, paid ad writing, research copy writing, AI prompt writing, video scripts and much more. Signup to ChatGPT here and start using it.

About Niche Money: WordPress Hosting & Development Skills & Tools

Webhosts for Affiliate Marketing Sites
During my career I have hosted sites with GoDaddy, Namecheap, Wix, WPEngine, BlueHost and more. The majority of my sites have been wordpress sites, however I have also been the webmaster of classified ads sites, message boards (forums) and even an email list management system (Mautic on AWS). Most hosts have cPanel so they are fairly similar, however for speed on wordpress I recommend WPEngine hands down. Although it is pricey, if you are anticipating growth and want maximum uptime use them.

WordPress custom theme development

If you want to have an optimized site and get scores of 100 on google page speed test, you will need to have a fast wordpress theme. This site runs on a customized theme that uses the bootstrap CSS framework and minimal styling. It is fast. I am plan on offering it to my subscribers soon so they can get an edge on their competition. Signup to our newsletter to stay find out when it is available.

About Niche Money: Email Marketing & List Management Skills & Tools

During my career I have managed lists using MailChimp, aWeber, Substack, Mautic and others. For an good autoresponder and a load of other features (including landing pages) I recommend MailChimp. We use it on this site.

Wrote Auto-Responder Series for lists totaling 25,000 subscribers

Email marketing comes in second in terms of priority as a startup webmaster (after a fast loading SEO optimized website). With email marketing through a weekly newsletter, you can build trust, develop loyal followers and subscribers, increase website return visits and ultimately close more sales while increasing the lifetime value of your customers. Signup to our weekly newsletter to learn more about email marketing for startups and affiliate marketers here.

Conclusion About Niche Money

I hope I have told you enough about Niche Money for you to realize the opportunity for growth that learning more about online marketing for startups represents. My life has been enriched and rewarded by all my experiences working at startups, founding startups and helping people change their lives with the tools and techniques I cover in this site.

Learn More About Niche Money

If you want to learn more about Niche Money and how this site can help you make more money online and learn how to grow your startup, visit these pages, read our blog, or signup to our newsletter: “The Startup Toolkit”.

More Pages About Niche Money

For more content about Startups Gold and the successes I have had building and sharing this site with the world visit:

How to Make Money Online
How to Start a Blog Free
Short Video Tips for TikTok
The Niche Money Newsletter

If you have any questions or comments a