About Me

Hi, i'm Brandon Saltalamacchia, I build content brands about the things I am passionate about.

It's September 14th 2023, I am becoming a father in less than 4 months, my partner is going on maternity in 3 months and I have been working hard for 5 years to build Retro Dodo into the world's best retro gaming independent publication with 5 of my friends.

That day was the day Google made an algorithm update that wiped out 95% of our traffic and forced me to reduce my team to just two... all while I was figuring out how to be a good father and support my partner financially during what was the most stressful time our of lives.

Let's rewind a little.

I was born in the United Kingdom in 1992, in an era filled with video games, Disney movies, collectible toys, home computers and portable CD players.

As a child I was very curious about how media and video games were made, advertised and produced. Throughout school I found a fond interest in IT and Media, pursuing Media Production as a diploma at college.

Through my teen years I began creating video content for YouTube, this would start out as unboxing phone cases, reviewing technology and creating vlogs as I travelled around Australia. It was my first attempt at building an online community, reaching 100,000 subscribers and obtaining a YouTube plaque.

After a few years of travelling and returning home, I landed my first job in the publishing industry in 2015, working with media startups to create content brands. Because I was somewhat experienced in video production my role would focus on making the social channels of these brands go "viral" using video based content.

I would go on to create an ungodly amount of video content for these brands, exploding their Facebook pages to 100,000's of followers in a few months. I did this for a couple of years, while freelancing for other media companies in my spare time.

I then decided to work on my own content brand in 2017, so I founded my first official publishing brand called Van Clan, a content website dedicated to van life. It started as a Facebook page, and using my video expertise I quickly grew the Facebook page to 100,000 in 4 months. To take advantage of this community I then built a content website, showcasing my favourite products, discussing the latest news and sharing advice about travelling on the road. A few months after the website was built, I then created the YouTube channel which was where the brand flourished.

The channel become incredibly popular, raking in tens of millions of views and tens of thousands of subscribers. I was working with large automotive brands to visit their headquarters in the USA, I partnered with outdoor brands who sponsored our content and I employed my first freelancer, Seb (who is still working with me to this day).

While I was building this I landed a job at Future Publishing, one of the largest publishers in the world. I had the opportunity to work within their gaming division as a video producer and I worked closely with their editorial team to create high quality video content for their readers.

I learned a lot in this two year period, not only because I was managing my own business in my spare time, but because it also gave me an insight into how large media companies operate and how revenue can be made through content websites.

I saw the things Future Publishing was doing well, and I saw the areas that they struggled in. I saw and experienced how it was to work within this industry as a content creator, and although I loved the work it was very evident that climbing the ladder would take a very, very long time.

Then, the pandemic hit. My partner was unfortunately furloughed and income wasn't the best for us, partly because of how I was underpaid (which is common in the UK games industry).

The business was generating a little bit of revenue, anywhere between £500 - £1,500 a month. It was at this point in my life that I decided to see if anyone would be interested in acquiring my brand, thinking it would sell for around £20,000 or so, enough to keep me and my partner afloat through the difficult times that the pandemic started.

Boy was I wrong, and many buyers were very interested in the business, mainly because of brand appeal, the recurring revenue from the website and the large social channels that I had built.

I sold it for over $100,000. A mind blowing amount for me and my partner. It was at this moment I knew that I had to leave Future Publishing and pursue my own media company, using the money to give myself a 12 month runway.

And so I founded my first limited company, Click Hill in 2019. I built a brand around my passion for retro gaming, which was cemented in me as a child and now in 2024 Retro Dodo is the leading retro gaming news website, with over 500,000 followers and tens of millions of readers since launch.

We have worked with the world's largest gaming brands and have generated 7 figures in revenue since founding. I am still working on the brand, and although recent times are difficult we are still growing nicely and developing products and events for our community to evolve into a hybrid-publishing brand that can adapt to future changes in online media.

While building Retro Dodo I have dabbled in other projects too, such as Card Gamer which I sold in late 2024. Love Bath is a content brand focused on local news which I acquired from an old college friend and have yet to do anything "proper" with it as of yet. I have also sold a couple smaller sites in this period too, content sites I started but never finished.

But in September of 2023 Google decided to remove Retro Dodo from their search engine after rolling out an algorithm update. 95% of my traffic disappeared in just a few months. It was at this moment that I knew I never want to rely on algorithms again. I documented this and the posts (and video) did the rounds on social media, causing so much attention that Google invited me into their London HQ to discuss how they could help creators like me.

I shared all of my advice and all of my frustrations with Google's Search Team, and as I write this we are still being surpassed on their search engine because of the "algorithm", even though we follow their guidelines and build remarkable, human written content.

Now, I am building my media company differently, and focusing on revenue streams and community driven content that does not rely on algorithms. I will document everything I do and learn, while sharing my advice and chatting with other publishers and creators that I believe are building remarkable content businesses, in hope it helps creators like myself.

And so Algoproof.com was born.

Online Media is my bread and butter, I have experienced not only working with large media companies, but working with small start-ups and even building a small media company myself. While I keep building that, I want to help other independent publishers build better content brands that don't fall into the trap of relying on algorithms.

It has never been more difficult as an independent publisher, but I truly believe if done right, we can create micro-businesses that flourish, together without rely heavily on algorithms.