Thirteen sets of notes I built while learning digital marketing properly, rather than collecting certificates. Structured as maps rather than lists, because the thing that takes longest is not the facts, it is seeing how they connect. Free, no email required, no course attached.
Written to be used, not sold.
Digital marketing is taught badly. It arrives as a pile of disconnected tactics, each one presented as urgent, none of them explaining how the pieces fit. You end up able to follow instructions without understanding what you are doing, which works until something breaks.
So I built these as maps. Every set starts from the underlying mechanism and works outwards: how a search engine actually decides, what an ad auction is actually doing, why an email lands in spam. Once the mechanism is clear, the tactics stop needing memorising.
They are working notes, not a textbook. They contain my own shorthand and the occasional typo. I am publishing them as they are because a polished version I never finish would help nobody.
If you are starting out: read them in the order below. SEO first because it teaches you how the internet is indexed, then paid because it teaches you how attention is priced, then the rest in any order.
Each one downloadable, free, and yours to use however you like including teaching from them.
Crawling, indexing and ranking · keyword types and mapping · on-page tags · technical SEO and Core Web Vitals · off-page and link building · white, grey and black hat · SERP features · tools
The largest set by far. Built as a single map from how a search engine works through to how you audit one, because SEO is usually taught as disconnected tactics.
Account and campaign structure · ad types · PPC and CPC · auction, bidding and Ad Rank · quality score · keyword match types · pre-campaign planning · conversion tracking end to end
Includes the full conversion-tracking walkthrough from Tag Manager to a firing conversion action, which is the part most courses skip and most accounts get wrong.
Terminology · search volume, competition and relevance · bidding strategies · ad components · how the auction decides who shows
The mechanics of what actually happens between someone typing a query and an ad appearing.
Device, location and ad schedule adjustments · auction insights · impression share, overlap rate, outranking share · what a low impression share is telling you
Diagnostic rather than descriptive: each metric is paired with what it means when it goes wrong.
GSN versus GDN · display ad formats and types · benefits and targeting · AdSense and publisher considerations
Where your ad can appear, and why a company site normally should not run AdSense.
What GTM is · tags, triggers and containers · account structure · setup
Short, because GTM is simple once the vocabulary is clear. It is the vocabulary that stops people.
Domains, hosting and DNS · webserver basics · WordPress from purchase to published site · header, body and footer structure · e-commerce setup
A complete build sequence in seventeen steps, written so it can be followed rather than admired.
Email types · advantages and real drawbacks · choosing a platform · list building and lead magnets · compliance · full Brevo setup including DKIM and DMARC · automation
The DNS authentication section is the reason most people's email lands in spam, and it is almost never covered.
AIDA and the buyer's journey · click funnel concept · the modern online buyer's journey · the 4Ms of marketing
The structural view: what a funnel is actually doing at each stage rather than a diagram to copy.
Objectives from awareness to credibility · matching content to funnel stage, audience and platform · fifteen content types · defining audience and calendaring
Content mapped to funnel position, which is the difference between publishing and marketing.
Magnet types · affiliate and influencer economics worked through with real numbers · retargeting and remarketing sequence · inbound versus outbound
Includes the arithmetic. Worth reading purely for the worked example of how affiliate commission, conversion rate and remarketing compound.
What influence is · nano, micro, medium and celebrity tiers · types of content creators · advertising versus promotion versus marketing
The tier definitions matter because pricing and expectations differ enormously across them.
Design, domains and hosting · image and video editing · AI generation · SEO, email and CRM platforms · research tools
A working inventory rather than a listicle. Includes the academic research tools, which most marketing lists ignore.
No licence, no attribution requirement, no email wall, no upsell to a course. If they save you a month of confusion, that is the whole point of publishing them.
Two requests, neither enforceable. If you spot something wrong, tell me so I can fix it. And if you rewrite them into something better, send me a link, because I would like to read it.
Tell me and I will fix it. If you rewrite them into something better, send me the link.