Business

The Scottish digital marketing expert who redirected Nigel Farage’s website to Michel Barnier’s website

Published

5 years ago

December 14, 2020

For the last two weeks Nigel Farage’s website has redirected visitors to the official website of Michel Barnier – because he let one of his most popular domain names lapse.

Thousands of visitors every week have clicked on NigelFarageMEP.co.uk – and been sent to Barnier’s site instead. The MEP site may no longer be Farage’s official site but it ranks higher than his official site on Google and until December 1 was still listed on Wikipedia as his official site.

His domain was bought by digital marketing expert Craig Campbell, who has now decided to redirect people to other sites to make a point about protecting your online identity.

LAPSED DOMAINS CAN CAUSE IDENTITY ISSUES

While it may seem like a prank, Campbell – who has more subscribers to his YouTube channel than 10 Downing Street’s channel – believes there’s a very serious point to this.

The businessman said: “I’ve seen a lot of people online wondering what the hell was going on with Farage – had his website been hacked, was he planning to change parties again or something else.

“All that has happened is that he – or his team – let the domain expire and I was able to completely legally pick it up. Politically we are quite different so I wondered what I could do with it to raise awareness of the identity issues here. Redirecting to Barnier’s website seemed to be a good way to make the point.”

“HIS FOLLOWERS… COULD HAVE BEEN PUMPED”

“It was really careless of his people to have left the old domain name on his Wikipedia page.”

“Now while there’s a bit of fun here, there’s also a serious message to this. Someone could have bought this and used it to get donations off people or tried to scam people. That’s the sort of thing a lot of crooks will do. People could have been conned for considerable sums of cash here quite easily – either by affiliate links or more blatant asks for money. His fanbase, to use a Scottish expression, could have been totally pumped.”

A DIGITAL GOLDMINE

Campbell, Scotland’s highest paid YouTube business speaker, said: “From the viewpoint of online, the site is a goldmine. It ranks highly – above his new ‘official’ site when you go to Google, it has thousands of links going to it and is visited by thousands of people a day even now. From a digital marketing perspective, it’s as good as it gets on so many levels.

“You see domains being done more and more often as a form of activism as well. I know the guy who owned DonaldTrumpScotland.com and he only let it expire once Trump lost the vote. He had bought it because they didn’t want anyone to try and profit from that while Trump was in the White House.

“People – and businesses – need to keep an eye on their digital presence and set things up properly so that they aren’t losing out on a lot of potential business or seeing their reputation take a hit by someone setting up a spoof site.

“There are hard cybersecurity attacks to try and protect yourself from – but looking after your domains and links is fairly basic stuff.

“There are also savvy ways to close down a site – but this wasn’t done either.”

WILL FARAGE TEAM UP WITH GRETA THUNBERG NEXT?

As for the future of the Farage website, Campbell says he’s going to rotate it on a weekly basis to other sites.

He said: “I’m going to ask people on my LinkedIn and YouTube channels every week where I should redirect the traffic to. I might do Greta Thunberg next.”

Craig also went on to say “ that he is keen to make sure that the domain gets back to its rightful owner, and if anyone from Nigel’s team wants to get in touch he will happily hand it over so that it remains in the right hands, and maybe they can even use the power of the backlink profile to boost Nigel’s official website “

” Craig also went on to say that he is keen to make sure that the domain gets back to its rightful owner, and if anyone from Nigel’s team want to get in touch he will happily hand it over so that it remains in the right hands, and maybe they can even use the power of the backlink profile to boost Nigels official website “

Business

Scaling Success: Why Smart Habits Beat Growth Hacks in Modern eCommerce

Published

1 month ago

July 26, 2025

Matthew Wiles

There’s a romanticized image of the eCommerce founder: a daring risk-taker chasing the next big idea, fueled by late-night caffeine and last-minute inspiration. But the reality behind scaled, sustainable brands tells a different story. Success in digital commerce doesn’t come from chaos or clever hacks. It comes from habits. Repetitive, structured, often unglamorous habits.

Change, a digital platform created by eCommerce strategist Ryan, builds its entire philosophy around this truth. Through education, mentorship, and infrastructure, Change helps founders shift from scrambling for quick wins to building strong systems that grow with them. The company doesn’t just offer software. It provides the foundation for digital trade, particularly for those in the B2B space.

The Habits That Build Momentum

At the heart of Change’s philosophy are five core habits Ryan considers non-negotiable. These aren’t buzzwords; they’re the foundation of sustainable growth.

First, obsess over data. Successful founders replace guesswork with metrics. They don’t rely on gut feelings. They measure performance and iterate.

Second, know your customer deeply. Not just what they buy, but why they buy. The most resilient brands build emotional loyalty, not just transactional volume.

Third, test fast. Algorithms shift. Consumer behavior changes. High-performing teams don’t resist this; they test weekly, sometimes daily, and adapt.

Fourth, manage time like a CEO. Every decision has a cost. Prioritizing high-impact actions isn’t optional; it’s survival.

Fifth, stay connected to mentorship and learning. The digital market moves quickly. The remaining founders are the ones who keep learning, never assuming they know it all.

Turning Habits into Infrastructure

What begins as personal discipline must eventually evolve into a team structure. Change teaches founders how to scale their systems, not just their sales.

Tools are essential for starting, think Notion for documentation, Asana for project management, Mixpanel or PostHog for analytics, and Loom for async communication. But tools alone don’t create momentum.

Teams need Monday metric check-ins, weekly test cycles, customer insight reviews, just to name a few. Founders set the tone by modeling behavior. It’s the rituals that matter, then, they turn it into company culture.

Ryan puts it simply: “We’re not just building tools; we’re building infrastructure for digital trade.”

Avoiding the Common Traps

Even with structure, the path isn’t always smooth. Some founders over-focus on short-term results, chasing vanity metrics or shiny tactics that feel productive but don’t move the needle.

Others fall into micromanagement, drowning in dashboards instead of building intuition. Discipline should sharpen clarity, not create rigidity. Flexibility is part of the process. Knowing when to pivot is just as important as knowing when to persist.

Scaling Through Self-Replication

In the end, eCommerce scale isn’t just about growing a business. It’s about repeating successful systems at every level. When founders internalize high-performance habits, they turn them into processes, then culture, then legacy.

Growth doesn’t require more motivation. It requires more precision. More consistency. Your calendar, not your to-do list, is your business plan.

In a space dominated by noise and novelty, Change and its founder are quietly reshaping the conversation. They aren’t chasing trends but building resilience, one habit at a time.