Offboarding: From At Sea to SEO for Mathew Fregano

Mathew Fregona’s travel based business faltered after the start of the pandemic, but that didn’t stop him from putting the knowledge he acquired from creating the business’ website to use in other ways. The former chief officer used the SEO and marketing skills he learned from starting a bootstrapped company to create different websites that spoke on topics he was familiar with, like boating safety for the recreational boater. 

Fregona monetized these websites through affiliate links and sponsored content. He then started to buy distressed websites and online assets with potential and work on fulfilling that potential, then selling them. Fregona treated this like the real estate market – only instead of buying houses to rehab, he bought websites. He now offers his marketing services and continues to operate a small portfolio of publishing brands, mainly in boating and renewables. Although Fregona is now fully ashore, he believes the businesses he created can be operated completely in the crew mess even if conventional wisdom says otherwise.

Q: How and when did you get into yachting?

A: Growing up in South Africa, my stepsister got into it a year before I did, and she had told me about it. I’d always known about it, but that was the most direct line to someone that actually had done it, and that was back in the end of 2010. 2011 I got the STCW and all that stuff and then went over to the Med. I didn’t get anything permanent, and this was a while ago, but it was a bit easier to get a B1 or a B2. Then there was a captain I was working for who set me up with a sort of temporary job in Fort Lauderdale. I got my documents that way, flew over to Miami, and it took me a good five months to get a job full time, but I ended up getting one as a deckhand. That was the beginning of 2012 so about five months from walking the docks to getting something full time and then working my way up on deck through there.

Q: How did you get into SEO and building websites?

A: At the end of 2017 I was looking for a bit of a change and wanted to get somewhere more permanent rather than moving around. I used my experience of serving guests to start a travel company that was geared to providing quality service tour packages for off-the-beaten-track music festivals that were a bit less well known and designing custom tours around those. It took me quite a while to build it and start it. I launched it a few months before COVID, then COVID came along and travel and music festivals got shut down pretty hard, so it was a bit of a blow. I got back onto the boats with temp gigs to tide me over. I built the website myself for that business and I just loved the SEO and doing all the marketing. I wasn’t thinking that at the time, but that was the skill set that I’d been building.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge so far building your businesses?

A: I would say scaling. This year has got a bit more competitive, and it’s become quite a well-known method of making money online. Some keywords on Google can be worth an absolute fortune, like “best vacuum cleaner,” that can be a pretty lucrative keyword if you’re in position one. But that’s where all the big publications come in. If you see Forbes or the New York Times ranking for what the best vacuum cleaners are, you can pretty much assume that they’ve not actually got any idea what the best vacuum cleaner actually is, but because they’re such a big website they can run for that. That’s been pretty tough, but you’re constantly looking for available keywords.

Q: How do you think your yachting experience helped give you an advantage in starting your businesses?

A: Relating to my boating websites, I’m not claiming to be a subject matter expert or an engineer, but I had a pretty good idea on electric boating just from being around it. Seeing what was in the yachting industry, you’re pretty much at the forefront of what’s coming out and what’s new in the industry in that regard. You’re always seeing new toys, new jet skis, all these different things. I would say that was a pretty significant advantage of just knowing what’s going on and being able to convey that to an audience.

Q: Do you have any advice to yachties who want to begin working ashore in a similar field?

A: I probably would have started a website while yachting the first time around. That idea hit me when I was temping and started in the crew mess. On a superyacht you have a whole bunch of different things you can review and recommend to people, whether it’s through a YouTube channel or a newsletter. If you’re working on deck, you got access to Sea Bobs and electric eFoils and all this rad stuff that most people don’t have the ability to get hands-on with. In terms of interior, stews could create websites or web assets all about cleaning products. There’s a big market for health-and-safety about what’s in these products. If it’s a YouTube video, obviously you need the time and permission, but you’ve got loads of B-roll that you can capture, you’re at an advantage. I would also say having an interest in what you’re writing or creating a website about. Everything could be great for six months, but then if you lose interest in the subject or the topic, it’s going to be a pretty hard slog.

Q: Do you miss working on yachts?

A: I do. There are definitely parts of it that I miss, travel is obviously a big one. There are times where it’s cool to just be able to pack a bag and go somewhere new, somewhere that you haven’t seen before. Some of my closest friends are from the yachting industry, that I’m still in regular contact with. The relationships that you build with like-minded people, that was probably the biggest one I miss. There’s this sort of unique thing that yacht crew have, especially being in that environment where everyone gets super close. Charter trips are an amazing thing — they’re always super cool.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: AI is quite a significant change to the way that people are going to do things online, so I would say the biggest thing is figuring out how to use AI to your advantage. There was a quote, I can’t remember who it was, but it’s, “Your job won’t get taken by AI, but by someone who knows how to use AI.” I think for a lot of people AI, whether they’re sleeping on it or aware of it, is probably in the short to medium term the biggest change that people need to get to grips with. If AI wasn’t around, the biggest hurdle would be scaling the business.

*Check out Mathew Fregona’s websites, including the free weekly newsletter through blackplasticglasses, where he shares what’s happening in the online business world along with other free resources.

blackplasticglasses.com/newsletter

kiteship.com

sailingsavvy.com

Offboarding is a Triton series that highlights the many ways crew use their yachting experiences to build new careers ashore. Got a story to share? Let us know at [email protected]

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