Archive for the ‘Thought Leader Thursdays’ Category

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Melissa. You’ve been running a successful telemarketing company, Rich Enterprises, for over ten years now, helping to generate leads for your clients while they focus on running their business. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in this industry? I have always been in sales and in a variety of industries. I worked as a telemarketing representative for two years and was able to learn the telemarketing side of business. I eventually decided to establish my own company so that I could run the business differently. I wanted to begin with a strong team approach where every marketer’s opinion is valued and the marketer can really take charge of the account and use their personality to enhance the campaign....

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Kim. You’ve been done a lot of things online, but I think you’re most recognized as a usability expert. How did you develop your expertise, and of all the paths you could have chosen, what made you choose this one? I’m never sure which industry I fall into, frankly.  I started out with web design in 1995 and quickly realized I had a passion and talent for SEO, which was encouraged by the company I was working for at that time.  Cre8pc.com launched back then as an SEO teaching site and was popular enough that many people continue to contact me for SEO services, despite my having switched to usability and software QA testing in 2000. As a user interface engineer, while I loved the...

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Chris. For those outside the design community who may not know, you are pretty much at the top of the food chain when it comes to CSS. Let’s start off with the standard “how did you get started” question? Thanks for the compliment. Although I’m not sure there is a food chain, we’re all in this thing together!  I think I “got started” in about middle school. Since then, through all of the twists and turns of life, I have been a computer nerd. That has manifested itself in a number of different ways, from hardcore gamer to programmer to designer. When I do anything, I try to dig really deeply into it and get seriously involved. I always knew I loved web...

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Neil. You’ve been working with PHP & MySQL for quite a long time and recently started working heavily with WordPress. Your blog, WP Dude, has really been taking off. What brought you to the IT industry, and what motivated you to eventually shift to your chosen niche of specializing in WordPress? I have been working in corporate IT for years now, I went straight into IT from college. The last five or six have years have been in Internet facing systems. I went freelance, again in corporate IT, but the culture of big business IT left me cold. I was into blogging and developed a couple of sites (since flipped or left to die) about a couple of topics, and it occurred to...

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Rand. Most people involved in search engine optimization have heard of you and your company, SEOmoz, which provides a wealth of information, tools and resources for search engine optimization professionals. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in SEO? I started doing SEO in 2002/2003 as part of some web development and marketing contracts. I struggled with it personally, contracted some professional SEOs, didn’t have much success and so, dove into it headfirst. I’d spend hours reading forums, posting replies, testing changes and tweaks, building and re-building pages and conducting manual link building (the most horrifying task known to SEOs). In 2004, I started the SEOmoz blog as a place to post research, findings and get...

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Rae. In the Internet marketing community, you’re well known for your SEO and affiliate marketing background. I’ve seen plenty of content on your websites, Sugarrae and Outspoken Media, that even the most experienced people can learn from. Can you tell us about yourself, how you got into the industry and how you stay up to date on the latest strategies? I’m an absolute workaholic, a mother to three fantastic kids, never shut up and know that I’m way to driven and outspoken for my own good, LOL. I am the CEO of three companies. Sugarrae and Outspoken Media as you mentioned, and I also am the co-founder, co-owner and CEO of MFE Interactive (which is a website publishing company based in Guelph, Canada). MFE essentially...