About Simon Harris and Spain-Football
Here's a picture of me on the right - caught in the act of reading the football results by my daughter! My BackgroundWell, I was born in 1960 in Nottingham, England into a working-class family. I've got two brothers and the three of us have always been passionate about two things - football and music.We moved up to Runcorn near Liverpool when I was eleven and then I went back to Nottingham to study Psychology at the University. I started playing in New Wave bands with some success and could watch all of Forest's home games - it was great. After University, I went down to London to try and make it as a musician and started playing jazz and African music (without much success) but I learnt a lot. I arrived in Barcelona in 1988 with a guitar on my back and was soon making a reasonable living as a musician but then I met my beautiful Catalan wife Montse and decided that it would be difficult to support a family as a rock and roller. I took my TEFL qualification and became an English teacher and our daughter, Carme, was born in 1994. Since then I've worked at a number of good schools, including the British Council in Barcelona, and for the last three years I've taught at the Language Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
My Love of FootballMy love of football goes back as far as I can remember. My Dad took me to Forest's City Ground for the first time when I was three and my Granddad was one of those incredible people who could remember the starting line-up for every Forest side since well before the war - perhaps that's where I get my love of football facts and statistics from.Living in Cheshire in the seventies, I had the opportunity to watch the Liverpool and Manchester teams regularly and the fact that I was a frequent visitor to Anfield, when LFC had a really fabulous side, means I've still got a soft spot for Liverpool. My return to Nottingham for University coincided with the Reds' Golden Age under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. I'd already celebrated European Cups with my Scouse mates but it was ten times better being able to do the same for my beloved Forest. Down in London, chance would have it that I found a flat in Highbury, so many a Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Gunners and when Arsenal weren't at home White Hart Lane was only just up the road. My first visit to Barcelona was in 1986 when Terry Venables was manager and Gary Lineker and Steve Archibald were the stars, and I came to live here just as Johan Cruyff's Dream Team was beginning to form. I became a total 'culer' (barça fan in Catalan) and go to the Nou Camp as often as I can - I also only live 5 minutes away from my local Third Division team Sant Andreu's ground so I manage to get a game in most weekends. As a player, I was nothing special but was generally good enough to get on the school team, the town team and even played one game for the university. Having two brothers, though, meant that there was always someone to have a kick about with. My youngest brother, Joe, trains the youngsters at Deal Town where his son Little Dan is a player - the whole family have got our hopes pinned him to be a star of the future.
My Love of SpainI arrived in Barcelona almost by chance in 1988 with the idea of learning Spanish and then going travelling in South America but I loved the city so much that I just had to stay.It was very lucky that I was a musician because I was playing in bands with Spanish guys almost immediately so it was very easy to make friends and I had a lot of opportunties to learn the language. What's more I had the chance to go on tour so I quickly got to know the whole country well and soon appreciated what a diverse and fascinating place Spain is. However, the crucial moment was meeting my Catalan wife. All of a sudden I became totally accepted as a member of the family and this position was only reinforced when our daughter was born a few years later. Twenty years is a very long time for somebody who was just coming for a short visit but I've had so many experiences that Spain is now part of me. I can sometimes go for weeks without speaking a word of English but as I feel totally at home in this wonderful country, I never really think about it. After all these years, it would be very difficult to go back and live in England again. Apart from anything else, I don't think I could take the weather!
Setting Up Spain-Football as an Online BusinessIn July 2008, I had my first book Going Native in Catalonia published and decided to take a sabbatical year from the University to see if I could make a living as a writer.'Going Native in Catalonia' is all about my experiences living here and I decided that football would be a great topic for my next book. Becoming a Barça fan has really helped me to integrate and I wanted to express my enthusiasm for Spain through the eyes of a football supporter. However, as I started researching the idea I realised that there wouldn't be enough space in one book to get across everything I wanted to say. I decided to set up a website and I was lucky to find a great company. For a little over 200 Euros a year, they provide me with a very easy-to-use system, which is automatically optimised for the search engines. But what's even better is that they provide free information on how to make money from your website by putting a few adverts on your pages. The system is called affiliate marketing and although I only started Spain-Football.Org at the beginning of November 2008, after a few weeks I am making more than the web service costs me. It's amazing. If you want to find out how to make money by writing about your hobby or interest on the Internet,
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All the best PS. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to get in touch through the 'Contact Me page. Here's An Introductory Video From the Company That Hosts Spain-Football.OrgJust Like Me - They All Make A Living From HomeGoing Native in Catalonia by Simon Harris
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I added this Alexa ranking on 4 November 2008, just a few days after I'd started Spain-Football, and my initial position was 18,538,376 - have a look at my ranking now and judge for yourself how effective the Site-Sell system is.
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