My name is Luke Murphy, I have recently completed my Certificate of Higher Education in Computing & IT. I was headed towards a Bachelors Degree in Cyber Security, but did a complete U-Turn and decided to go back to what I know best, Marketing!
My Cisco CyberOps has also been completed with distinction and letter of merit.
Experience
I am completely self taught when it comes to Computing & IT. My main areas of interest and experience is within the Marketing industry. I took a liking to Affiliate Marketing when I was just 21, I made a small fortune selling many different products and services.
By 2011 I had opened up my first company “UK SEO Media LTD”, I sold organic SEO services. It wasn’t long before I had a long list of clients, thanks to my amazing salesman. We managed to land a 24 month contracts with Land Rover Jaguar & GCHQ where I boosted the jobs / careers pages to #1 in Google for certain keywords that I cannot discuss here due to the NDA agreement.
Sadly, this came to an end in 2014. This was down to the recession, nobody was buying marketing, businesses stopped spending and made cutbacks. I had no alternative but to stop my B2B activities and move back into the B2C affiliate world. I managed to get by with selling toothpaste of all things! The first charcoal style toothpaste came out around 2014 and it flew off the shelves, thanks to celebrity endorsements (Love you Kim :-).
I have plenty of clients, including the new Pukka Pizzas client. I mainly freelance right now because of Covid, nobody is buying marketing.
It’s not all that bad, I have complete free rein over the SEO campaigns and Website at least. We are also #1 for a heck of a lot of keywords.
I also keep a couple of things running online, like my latest project. A vitamin supplement company I created called Go-Loaded. I managed to secure a white-label deal with a UK manufacturer, so these products are my very own under my own brand, check it out: https://www.go-loaded.co.uk/
My Autism
I have an Autistic Spectrum Condition, which for the first time EVER I am publishing online, why? Because I am no longer afraid of who I am! Yes, I am that guy who melts into the background at parties and sneaks out the backdoor. I may get anxious when doing the small talk, because I do not know what to say, but you know what? It’s me! It takes me more time to come out of my shell and have a good old chat.
Pubs, clubs, parties and drinking? You won’t find me in bed with a hangover. You’re more likely to find me watching a good tech documentary or mainly reading some online content.
If you have lots of talking to do, you are not working hard enough!
This has effected me for so long and I always wondered why I could not talk to people I do not know very much. This is why Marketing is my sanctuary, the ability to throw adverts, products, media and content into the faces of those who do not know on the other end is an introvert, It’s kind of like my voice.
There is an upside to being Autistic of course, my attention to detail is uncanny. I like to work quickly with every single minute detail accounted for. I also have this burning desire inside of me to finish things, I cannot leave it! If I was given a project to complete, I would spend my entire time, focus and energy on that one particular thing until it was finished. This also means taking the project home, I would sit, research and work until it was done! I can skim read and finish a 40 hour course in just two hours. It’s as simple as that, and that my friends is AUTISM.
Studying
Why did I take up studying? To fill a void. Yes I can do plenty of things, but how do I prove this to people? I decided to take up studying with the Open University because I did not want to be tied down into a brick university, I actually like the freedom of distance learning. Distance learning means it is possible to learn at a pace that suits me, without the distractions of other people.
My Certificate of Higher Education in Computing covered lots of different topics such as:
- The basic principles of computer networks and the challenges in setting these up and maintaining them. Topics covered include protocol models and layering; IP addressing; basic network design and network devices.
- The fundamental software that turns hardware into useful and useable computing systems. Learn how an operating system manages the computer’s processor, memory and storage so that more than one program can run at once.
- Robotics and the design of intelligent machines. Learnt how robots work and how to program and control robots using simulator software.
- Problem solving – using Python
- How to keep data secure from prying eyes (Hackers etc)
- And of course everybody’s all time favourite…. Mathematics! (Ugh)
I did things away from the University too. I did a course on the CCNA CyberOps during the summer. My Certified Network Security Specialist Certificate was also completed side-by side. I am looking into doing some Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) certificates very soon! If I enjoy Marketing, why not get a couple of accreditations in that, makes sense, right?
Accreditation
View one of my accreditation’s here.
What is the blog for?
My blog is like a diary, I use it to help me engrain knowledge, talk about different subject matter. If it helps to teach anybody anything, then fair enough, take the knowledge and enjoy.
The purpose of this blog is not to “teach” anyone, but if you take something away from it then that is fantastic. The blog is simply as a reference for what I am doing, kind of like an online set of notes.
Note: The subject(s) talked about on my blog is my own content, research and my own way of explaining things within the OU (Open University) modules. None of the material is copied in any way from the textbooks, nor is any of the answers featured here in any way from the module exams; TMA, iCMA or otherwise.
