The Future of Me & ViperChill
Glen Allsopp / 
52 Comments / 
September 14th, 2007 / 
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Some people may know, some may not but before the end of this month I’m going to live in South Africa. ViperChill is a registered LLC in the UK which I will be terminating upon arrival in SA, where I’m going to be working for a large Digital Marketing company known as BlueSouth.
Some of the selling points are that I will be working with some amazing Fortune Companies, just check this page and look at the header for some examples. A few huge companies aren’t included that I would like to share but certain terms restrict me from doing so (shame).
What I will be Doing and How I got the Job
Firstly I just want to say that I was in no means looking for a job. I do / did Internet Marketing for others in all the spare time I had from going out and being in College (I’ve just had to quit college to take this job). I will be heading up the Social Media operations for the company, quite a big step for someone who is only 18 years of age but I’m ready for the challenge and the experience.
I got offered the job around 6 weeks ago, through a contact of mine who is their head of SEO (he is an amazing SEO). There’s no doubt theres some great staff there and the opportunity to pretty much change my life didn’t take much consideration, I had decided to quit college and go and live in South Africa in less than 24 hours, yes…my family were quite surprised.
What about ViperChill?
ViperChill is a company I started at the age of 17 (registered when I was 18, working at 17 as a sole-trader) and I’ve been doing quite well, some achievements can be found here. As stated, the company will no longer be a registered company as of next month and with that in mind and due to the fact I’ll no longer be in England I cancelled contracts with all my current clients, something that wasn’t easy but some were very understanding.
My goal in life is still to run my own company (with others) so ViperChill certainly won’t be disappearing. I wish I had a CEO so I could do all the social media work as it’s pretty hard wearing all the hats and trying to convince others you know what you are doing and don’t need a team behind you.
Final Words
I will be in South Africa until the end of December, working for Bluesouth. I will then decide if i want to stay on and go back to SA or re-register my company here in the UK, take out a loan and make a real go of things now that education isn’t an issue.
Another option (possible) would be to work for another company either here in the UK or in the States. There’s a few jobs available in the UK which would be quite a safety net but I plan on staying in South Africa for quite a while, not only for the experience, people and the weather, but for the opportunity.
I will still be blogging constantly this month but after that I will have no idea how often I can update. I want to thank everyone I’ve spoke too and has given me support on this journey, all help was appreciated and I hope to meet you all at SMX or another industry conference one day.
Special Thanks
Mark McNeece for letting me bug him when I first started SEO
Dean Martin for helping me with ViperChill clients and coding our Client area free of charge (I did get him some great rankings in return though 
)
Tamar Weinberg for Producing some great Digg Content and our Chat on Facebook
Darren Rowse for checking out my content and giving it some love
Lyndon Antcliff for making me think I might be making a mistake (just kidding)
Wendy Piersall for being the coolest mom online and giving me a chance to write for her readers
Chris & Danielle Winfield for our conversations on MSN and their support
Barry Schwartz for being crazy enough to write about me on his blog and producing the Pulse which I listen to
Shana Albert who has been a great listener, not sure where she would like the link though
Danny Sullivan for being one of the few brits people respect (j/k) and for starting Sphinn
PlanetC1 for his support and his great energy around the web
SiteVisibility for being one of the only transparent IM companies in the UK
SEOmoz for leading the way in bringing transparency to the industry
…and finally the BlueSouth Team for giving me something to do over the next few months 
This is just the beginning…
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All the best dude, Its a great thing to do and i reckon u will not regret it
Cheers mate, I might give you a call when things get sorted
That is amazing, congratulations. Can I ask if you are self-taught for SEO and social media? I am wondering because I have similar aspirations, but having never been tested in the ‘real world’ (the only judge is the success of my blogs). I don’t know if the knowledge and skills I have would be deemed professional, but I am dying to find out.
Congratulations again… ϑ
SEO = no, Social Media = 100% yes.
Most of what I’ve learned about SEO has been self taught but there’s some people who really help clear up some technical stuff i Never understanded at first.
I run a few sites and all their success came from social media, by no means is this the site where I spend most of my time but it is the majority of my income.
If you can test things for yourself, meaning that everything you know isn’t just what you’ve read from others then you can be one of the best in the world in my opinion, same goes for anything really.
Ok thanks for the info… interesting. What I really need to find out is exactly what is required in being a professional SEO. I consider myself to have a very sound knoweldge of SEO, but that is only with blogs and not stattic web sites. I’m sure I could do a good job being employed to SEO a blog over several months… but I’m not sure what being a “great seo” entails.
I look forward to hearing about the progress you make!
If you can do the technical like making the URL’s pretty, clearing up duplicate content, improve linking structure (on site stuff) then all you need is to know how to build up the links
If you can build backlinks or at least knoq what you are looking for then you could probably take a job somewhere
I’m not sure where you are based Matt, but i know in London and south-east of the UK in the search firms are crying out for people with the skill you seem to have.
Might be worth going through nma’s search supplier guide http://www.nma.co.uk/Directory/List.aspx?sKeywords=&liTermID=14&SubmitSearch.x=32&SubmitSearch.y=13&SubmitSearch=Search seeing if they have any jobs on their own sites or sending a speculative CV.
Plus if you know anyone looking for a more senior SEO role down in brighton, be sure to point them my way!
Glen I know how to do all those things providing it is with Wordpress.
Kelvin, I live in Cambridge… not far from London! I’ll take a look at that link you put. Thanks for the advice guys.
I should just add, I can go anywhere in the world if the offer is good enough, I’m on my gap year, I’d actually rather go to another country! Bring it!
Come over to South Africa then, send the team an email
Congratulations - looking forward to seeing what you end up doing!
Thanks for stopping by Darren, I’ll be sure to let the world know
I’ll add my name & Site Visibility’s in what i’m sure is gonna be a long list of congratulations.
It’s a shame to see such a passionate talent moving away from the UK, fingers crossed you’ll be back some time though!
Cheers Kelvin, appreciated. I can see your website becoming a great hub for the industry so keep up the good work
Congratulations Glen. I am sure you will be a great success in your new position.
David
Thanks David, appreciate the comment and your hard work over on your blog
Hey Glen,
I am so happy for you and I wish you all the luck in the world. I can’t wait to see where you end up going professionally. But, where ever it takes you I am sure you will succeed. Enjoy the Ride!!
Shana
Hey Shana thanks for stopping by, sorry that I wasn’t sure where to link
Thanks for checking by and leaving a comment
Congrats Glen and my best wishes!
Cheers Seb
Congratulations! You are an inspiration to us “older than 18″ folks. Wish I had your knowledge at that age. All the best!
haha Ive been working hard for quite a while so the knowledge is starting to build up, just takes patience and hard work
Hey Glen -
As I told you yesterday - best of luck with everything and please be sure to keep in touch. And when you’re ready for America…
Best,
Chris
Thanks Chris, I’ll be active as I can be but hopefully I’ll be taking in the sun most of my spare time haha
Will definitely keep in touch mate
As an expat, some words of advice
Do not close your bank accounts as they are a PIA to reopen sometime down the road
Have a chat with an accountant - it may not pay to shut the company down, depending on what tax credits you have for the following year.
I’m going to be speaking to one this month andy so I’ll see what they say, Im going to be keeping my accounts open
Thanks for the advice and stopping by
Good luck at your new job Glen!
I will continue to check this blog
Cheers man, as of next month there wont be much here though
Doing social media full time will be fun. Enjoy maintaining those power accounts over in South Africa.
And drop me a note if you need any help with anything..
All the best, Glen
Yeah It’ll be fun, everyone wants to love their job
Will do mate cheers
man that is really inspirational im in college now and for me to just quit and start a new job would be a huge risk I can’t even imagine how you are feeling right now. That is really good man I hope you at least keep me (us) informed of how the new job is coming along. Maybe a post once every month or so would be fine it will be very interesting to see how this works out for you. Moving to South Africa is soooo far away i really wish you the best of luck dude. I hope you become very succesful you deserve it!
Cheers
Shaun
Hey Shaun thanks for the great comment. You are right it is a huge risk but it’s a risk I think I’m ready for.
For some people college just isn’t for them, maybe it would have been a security for me and having the grades would be something to fall back on but I don’t wanna wait
I’ll be crazily busy out there and probably enjoying the beach on the weekends haha after a hard week of work. Im sure i will be able to keep this updated maybe once a week but not sure how much more
Thanks again
sweet man that’s good to hear this is the right choice for you. again good luck man
Big things expected from Glenn. You be careful in SA. It’s always good to think
haha I know Lyndon and I appreciate the advice, I know you know what you are talking about. Thanks for the kind words
Congratulations on the job in South Africa Glen - and good luck. The country is brilliant, I’ve been there twice and can’t wait to go back there again! Cape Town is fun - you’ll enjoy it.
Adnan
Thats where im working, cape town. Pretty cool that you’ve been there before.
Thanks for the kind words mate, it means a lot that everyone has great things to say
Congrats Glen, that’s really awesome news to us budding types
I left SA 2 years ago, but lived there for the first 22 years of my life… while Cape Town is awesome, try and make some trips: Umhlanga, Drakensberg, Hluwluwe, Cape Vidal… I promise you won’t regret it, and it may influence your decision on whether to stay or leave 
Congrats on the move - hey you’re young, and now’s the time to travel and see the world! I’ll be south africa in march, if you’re still there then I’ll buy you a drink…oh wait..what’s the drinking age in south africa (ah, doesn’t matter, I’ll get ya one anyways!).
Cheers and best wishes!
wow Jim, didn’t expect you to stop by, I’m a big fan of you and your link ninjas
It’s legal in SA to be 18 haha. I’ll definitely let you know if Im around, thanks again!
Congrats on your success and the move Glen - definitely sounds exciting. Like Jim said…I’ll likely be there in march as well…would be cool to say hello and have a chat. Enjoy the ride man!
Thanks Todd, am I missing something that is happening in March or do you guys just like it haha?
Thanks for stopping by
Wow. Congrats, Glen! That’s quite the opportunity. I doubt I could have said no, had I been in your shoes. Good luck!
It definitely wasn’t that difficult of a decision to make, I’m leaving on tuesday!
[...] left out Glen aka ViperChill as he is hiding in South Africa from his [...]
OK, so the mom side of me wants to say, “What?! Quit school?! Heck no!”
But the entrepreneur side of me says, “Go Glen! The best way to learn is to just jump in and DO it! ”
Seriously, though, you have the experience, you have the self-confidence, and you have the opportunity. Plus, you’re young enough that you have nothing tying you down, and you have the brains to know to jump on a learning experience when it is presented to you!
All mothering aside, congrats to you, and if you ever need ANYTHING just drop me a line - I’ll always be here for you!
Good luck in SA buddy, congrats!
Congrats Glen!
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HI Glenn,
I caught news of this a bit late, but never the less, CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I’ve always been very impressed with your presentation and professionalism.
“Breaking your cycle” as Ze would say, is the best thing you can do for your self.
I truly am very excited for you. No luck needed, I’m sure you’ll do well.
Good luck.
What an opportunity! Hope everything there is working well for you.
[...] I made the move to South Africa, life has certainly been a lot different for me. Getting to devise strategies for some of the [...]