Simon Ward

I am Simon Ward.

I am a father to 2 amazing sons. I’m also a guitarist, bassist, pianist, singer and web developer.

I build and sell websites on Flippa as a super seller, with over $130,000 in business since becoming a member nine years ago. My profile is quite influential, boasting 100% positive feedback from all my clients. I’ve connected with many people from around the world, all of whom have bought websites from me. My theory is that when only short-term support is offered, clients often lose interest in the product once the warranty expires. I provide lifetime help and support for every website I sell, which results in a much more relaxed, loyal customer with no stress about a warranty. I offer these customers additional services, including SEO (backlinking, hosting, MySQL/PHP/NGINX optimisation, WordPress optimisation, and further website building/support).

This journey has been rewarding. I started with a small social network that peaked back in 2012. It was an incredible time—great fun and good money with minimal effort. Google took away my dream lifestyle, financial growth, and security in one single update about “spam links.” I had never placed a single spam link; my website was doing well because it was genuinely good. It grew through word of mouth, becoming one of the first popular video chat sites. Many people connected and even married, but it wasn’t a dating site; it was a social network (with a few enemies made along the way!). In fact, I met my ex-wife on my website, and without that, I wouldn’t have my amazing sons. So, Google didn’t just hurt me financially; it shifted everything I had built up in favour of its own rankings, Hangouts, and Facebook.

After some time, I gave up on trying to fix the website and decided to explore different niches. WordPress became my choice, and I had considerable success with it. However, I was always anxious about each website potentially losing rank due to another search engine update. My approach was to build a website, develop its traffic and on-site SEO, establish genuine backlinks via social sharing, wait for good traffic, gain Adsense approval if possible, and then sell the website. This strategy worked out far better than I expected. I’ve met some incredible people and am still in touch with those who bought my first websites a decade ago. I’ve built a small, brilliant clientele who provide steady work, including third-party projects. It’s enough to pay the bills and allows me to focus intently on my clients without unnecessary interruptions.

I’ve also started a YouTube channel, which has been more successful than I anticipated. In just one year, my followers grew from under 300 to 12,500 as of 30 October 2024. I began by restoring old black-and-white movies—some over 100 years old—into colour. It hasn’t been easy but has been really enjoyable, along with creating time-lapse and drone footage. Much of what I do now is quite automated, though going out with my son to shoot drone footage is incredible. Unfortunately, it’s often too windy, rainy, or cold for drone videos, and time-lapse videos take a long time. As a result, most of my channel features my four songs and over 300 restored public domain films, with occasional drone and time-lapse videos.

I’m also attempting to write music again, something I’ve been dabbling in for about 20 years. This time, though, I have a few solid song ideas—maybe thanks to the Lion’s Mane supplement I’ve been taking. I think I might finally get a few tracks done.

I am no longer accepting new clients. While I enjoy my work, with my sons growing up, Leo’s cerebral palsy, and homeschooling Daniel, I need to free up more time. I’ve dedicated my working hours to my clients (as I always will) and to building a YouTube channel, which has become monetised and has grown faster than I anticipated. I’d also like to spend much more time with my sons.