Work History 2011 - 2013: CDL Life

The transportation and truck driving industries in North America are huge. Billions of dollars go through them every year. Having said that, the industries aren't exactly riding the cutting edge of technology. They're just beginning to catch up to where a lot of companies were back in 2008.

What I learned at PlattForm Advertising was that trucking has a lot of appeal to a certain type of person. However, many potential drivers needed to know a lot about what they were getting into before they earned their CDLs. CDL certifications aren't that hard to get, when compared to college degrees. You move into a school, you learn what you can from a seasoned veteran of the industry, then you take a test and get into a truck. Once that happens, you need information.

There are a lot of sites that just have basic stuff designed to get you interested in a Commercial Drivers License program, like PlattForm was so adept at marketing. Not that many places on the Web gave people insight into the trucking industry and the kind of demands it placed on new drivers. That's where www.cdllife.com comes in.

I looked into fifteen sites that cover the trucking and transportation industries, and CDL Life was unique. They put more of an emphasis on community, rather than just industry information. They create content that appeals to every aspect of the trucker - what they think about during the work day, what their carriers are up to, what kind of music and movies they like, what kind of mobile apps benefit them and their families, how they can save money, what industry groups love to back them and their image, everything. They love drivers, all 4 million of them who bring about 99% of everything you buy to the stores you like. Who wouldn't want to write about that?

So based on previous stints at PlattForm and In10sity with trucking and transportation clients, I went ahead and accepted this new assignment. It came with a "Director of Content" title, which really meant advising a small team who could move fast. It was a job that demanded I learn as much about an industry as I could, while making sure a large reading audience wasn't bored.

What I learned:

• Targeted audience marketing
• Team management
• Client-faced marketing
• Consumer-faced marketing and PR
• Video scripting
• Budgeting

Work History 2010 - 2012: In10sity Midwest

Corporate mergers can be difficult. It basically means that two teams of executives have to find some sort of compromise while devising a new business model, followed by a series of unsavory decisions regarding their staffs.

The first difficult merger I witnessed was while I was a content writer at PlattForm Advertising. They bought a small publishing company in the mid-2000s so they could start print publications directed at for-profit education corporations. Professional titles were altered, duties were shifted and toes were stepped on until they were bloody nubs.

Change is tough for professionals who are accustomed to certain game plans. This was much more evident to me after the small marketing agency I contributed to called SPIDERtel merged with In10sity Interactive. In10sity was different; they were hungry and they demanded results. The economy in 2010 was tough, yet every industry report published spoke of rising spending ceilings for online marketing; confusing, but invigorating to agencies willing to put in the hours. In10sity was game. I took the plunge.

In10sity's business model was based on their content management system, InPower 2.0. The back end resembled your regular WordPress interface, with much more versatility. They were also dedicated to search engine marketing, mobile apps, digital marketing tools and paid placement. My duties at SPIDERtel became much more diverse once the In10sity client stable demanded a new level of performance. At In10sity, I continued to develop SEO strategies, but was able to get back to duties more attuned to creative writing and on-page SEO. We had a broad range of clients and an intimidating workload. My duties there lasted until late summer 2011.

So, to recap-
This is what I learned:

• SEO
• PPC
• Google AdSense
• Content management systems
• On-page optimization
• Corporate mergers are tough
• Long hours

Work History 2003 - 2010: PlattForm Advertising

The market crash of 2001 taught me a lot. It taught me that even though I had come a long way since my move to internet marketing, things could go horribly wrong at any moment. It didn't matter if you created great content, nor if your company was "cool." Things fall apart.

So in 2003, I went to interview at a rising agency in the Kansas City area who were doing gangbusters with an online affiliate network. They were called PlattForm and they were soon to be one of the largest privately-owned agencies in the country. On my first day of hire, PlattForm employed 83 people. By the time I left 7 years later, they had grown to over 300 (and they're still growing).

The early '00s were an exciting time for internet marketers who were beginning to understand the implications of Google, both as a business partner and a utility. So while my initial years at PlattForm were focused on creating content for the affiliate structure they had in place, my team also began aligning with new teams focused on search engine optimization and paid placement campaigns. The combined efforts of my content creation team and the SEO and PPC teams allowed PlattForm profits to balloon in a quick, violent lurch of productivity and exposure. Private education became big business online, leaving state-funded institutions in the dust as far as technology and enrollment until well into the mid-2000s.

To this day, PlattForm remains the biggest player in the marketing of private education institutions and continues to develop innovative revenue streams and profitable verticals in related industries.

So to recap -
What I learned:

• Direct marketing skills
• On-page SEO strategies
• Search marketing skills
• Team management
• Niche marketing
• Email marketing
• Creative services
• Client relations
• Feature writing
• Statistical research
• Social media
• Affiliate marketing
• Video scripting