My online history goes back all the way to 1996 when good design was based on using the <blink></blink> tags.  I combined my experience as a software developer and a high-tech PR Acct Exec.   No one handed me an career in this business; I had to create my own path and did so by building portal sites which allowed me to then develop content and sell sponsorships.

The first two sites were SoccerClub and NewportOnline.com.  Both of these sites led more to fun opportunities and chance to experiment with new technology than they did riches. SoccerClub provided me the opportunity to work with the US National team and provided me press access to MLS Soccer games.  I also developed soccer projects for Time Inc around family soccer and the 1998 World Cup.  Newport Online had me installing phone lines on the roof of a beach bar in Newport to live-cast their weekend beach party.  Remember this was 1998, so this was pretty unique.

Now I’ll speed this up — This opened the door to an opportunity to produce the SuperBowl.com site for 1999 at Lycos, which led to a position as the Lycos Search producer.  While there, I met a group that eventually landed funding for their music encryption technology, and I joined their start-up as their ninth employee where I had a chance to worked with very smart and very talented group of business people and musicians.

After a couple more start-up size positions, I got back into the search game at AOL Search where I created products for content publishing and advertising.  This led to an opportunity to work at Hakia, a semantic search start-up as their Vice President of Business.

Let’s look at 2009 — It’s a feeds-driven world, people. The struggle is going to be how to monetize it.  Contact me and we can discuss how my search, social media and advertising background can make you some money.