About

Mark Hayward is the author of ProBlogger’s Guide to Blogging for Your Business for ProBlogger.net, which is the web’s foremost authoritative website on blogging, blogger education, and developing an effective online presence. He is also one half of the creative team that developed and launched the Possibility Engine. A free ebook aimed at motivating and helping “time short” business owners, nonprofit leaders, and individuals to get their ass in gear and get to work, so that they can take advantage of all of the possibilities that the real time web has to offer today.

Mark is a bricks and mortar business owner who has spent the last four years learning how to leverage social media and online marketing to not only drive an unending wave of customers through his front door, but also to attract a good deal of traditional media coverage.

Having had the lifelong dream of owning and running a business in the Caribbean, around four years ago he purchased a defunct small business on Culebra Island that had no customers, no cash flow, and certainly no online presence or existence. With a hefty monthly mortgage payment to meet, he set to work learning everything he could about creating a comprehensive social media footprint via blogging, media creation, and search engine optimization. His efforts have landed his business feature stories in Conde Nast Traveler, Islands Magazine, and the Boston Globe. Today his business sits atop most review sites as number one and is frequently listed on the front page of the search engine results for his primary keywords.

With a deep understanding of the need to balance running a “real” business or nonprofit and the desire to implement cutting-edge social technology to drive more revenue or donations, Mark works with clients to create online strategies with tangible goals, benchmarks, and measurable, real-world outcomes.

The long, long story!

Mark Hayward is a small business owner, entrepreneur and humanitarian. He’s an advocate of goal oriented and benchmark driven blogging, social media and web marketing strategies to support small business growth and non-profit success. He is presently assisting businesses use the web for cost effective marketing, brand/organization awareness raising, and for building trust and relationships.

During the summer of 2008 Mark launched and co-founded pilot project and non-profit organization, Train for Humanity, which relied solely on social media (Web, blogging, Twitter, etc.) to help raise awareness and funds for those who had been affected by genocide or civil war in Darfur.

The backstory…

Mark lives in the Caribbean on Culebra Island (off the east coast of Puerto Rico) where he owns the Palmetto Guesthouse. In 1995 after working in a number of dead end jobs, and feeling trapped, Mark made the conscious decision to pursue a life based on quality and happiness; rather than, a cube, a paycheck, or a financial bottom line.

Although chasing a dream outside of the typical 9-5 career routine was frightening, and not knowing exactly how to proceed, he began to undertake the necessary steps, which would eventually allow him to live in the Caribbean, be his own boss, and create innovative projects.

After working and living in the rain forests of Papua New Guinea from 1997-1999 as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, Mark completed his master’s degree in International Development and Geographic Information Systems at Clark University.

Prior to owning his small business Mark spent 10 years assisting various governments around the world with participatory technology integration. That’s just a fancy way of saying that he did technical consulting.

But, instead of imposing his own “outsider” views, Mark would spend a great deal of time listening to the government’s needs and desires as a way to ensure maximum stakeholder participation. He then worked with them to achieve the identified goals and milestones, which typically included, improving existing network technology and computer infrastructure, enterprise-wide data access, and the creation of a web presence.