I'm Gabriel, the creator of Top Marinas and YouSail.
My background is marketing. I've spent more than a decade in SEO and app store optimisation, and I was one of the first people to treat ASO as its own discipline. In 2013 I launched the first ASO course on Udemy, then wrote one of the first books on the subject, the ASO Bible, followed by ASO Ninja. More than 10,000 students have been through my courses.
Along the way I ran a marketing agency and worked with companies like Red Bull, Disney, EA Games, FreshBooks, PBS and Xerox. I've helped more than 500 developers and app companies get found, and spoken at conferences in London, Singapore, China and Thailand. I also bought an ASO company, Appmind, which was later acquired by Mobile Action, where I stayed on as a consultant and ambassador.
Not everything I write is about marketing. Zero Excuses is my book on how to live a beautiful life. The Lazy Bastard is a productivity guide for procrastinators.
Building around the life I want to live
I also have a habit. I build websites around the life I want to live. When I worked as a diving instructor, I built diving websites. Now it's sailing.
My partner Kristy and I are working towards buying a yacht, moving aboard and sailing Australia and the Pacific. Plan a life aboard and one question turns up fast: where do you keep the boat? The answers were scattered across hundreds of marina websites, forums and Facebook groups. So I did what I know how to do. I collected them, organised them and put them online.
That became Top Marinas. It sits alongside YouSail and the rest of our sailing network: Sailing Schools, Sailing Courses, Sailing Clubs, Top Charters and Buy Sails.
Finding information. Making it useful.
I'm not an expert sailor, and I haven't tied up at every marina in Australia. What I'm good at is finding information and making it easy to use. The marina knowledge on this site comes from the people who run them, which is why we interview marina teams directly.
Moving onto a yacht is me running out of excuses.
I'm based in Merimbula, on the NSW South Coast. If you run a marina, represent a marine brand, or just want to talk boats, email me at gabriel@yousail.com.au.
You can follow the full story at yousail.com.au.
