Examples of Added Value:
• Built an e-commerce site exactly as the owner wanted it while negotiating / pleading that his marketing approach would not succeed. After the site posted zero sales in the first 5,000 visitors, the owner told me to do it my way. Last time I checked, the site was doing $100,000 a month in sales.
• Took over an e-commerce site that was dominant in its search engine rankings, but because it was so SEO-focused, it had a 70 percent home page exit rate. Within months, I'd cut the failure rate in half. When the market cooled, my work to improve stickiness and user friendliness kept sales level while overall traffic was dropping.
• Handled an educational project with a business requirement (Flash in PowerPoint) that made it extremely difficult to make the file portable. So I built a second version in HTML while keeping the exact same look and feel.
• While mocking up a Web site for a company that didn't have a tagline, I stuck one in. Owner loved it, and the company used the phrase for years.
EDUCATION
Ohio University (76-80)
Journalism major, double minor in history and philosophy.
REFERENCES
Available on request
BOTTOM LINE:
I'm so versatile it works against me resume-wise, though I like to think it shows that I'm a team player. Should also note that thanks to 11 years with UPI, I might be the most deadline and budget conscious applicant you'll ever meet.
CAREER SUMMARY
I bring 10 years experience in the Web world after more than a decade of experience in news. Web-wise, I've handled online marketing, search engine optimization, information architecture, portal design, usability and interface, intranet planning and strategy, traffic analysis, HTML/CSS development and a wide array of technical writing projects.
PROFICIENCIES
Work mostly in Photoshop, BBEdit and Dreamweaver. Well-versed in QuarkXpress and the Acrobat, Macromedia and Microsoft software suites. Experienced with Visio, but generally use Grafffle. Some experience with Flash, Cold Fusion and Visual Interdev, and have been a content manager on a number of Internet / intranet sites. An accomplished writer, good photo editor and experienced desktop publisher.
SKILL SET
Search Engine Marketing
Can show a Google Top 10 for nearly every client, and particularly adept at the on-page aspects of SEM, which leads to excellent results on the new Microsoft search engine. I integrate SEM with my background in information architecture, traffic analysis, usability and graphic design to boost both site traffic and stickiness. Some experience in the emerging field of persuasion architecture.
Information Architecture
I was doing IA -- the design of the information as opposed to the design of the graphics -- at Capital One six months before the O'Reilly book on IA came out. My second IA stint on the Capital One intranet resulted in a citation on Jakob Nielsen's Top 10 Intranets for 2005.
Instructional Design / Technical Writing
Have handled online educational projects for Phillip Morris, General Electric Financial, Reynolds Metals and the Virginia Department of Forestry. Have performed technical writing assignments at a number of places, including Circuit City.
Internet / Intranet Planning and Strategy
Part of the redesign team with the Owens & Minor intranet and taught seminars there (on design and FrontPage) for department-level site masters. Other design and strategy clients include Senior Navigator and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Web Design Ð HTML / CSS Development
Entered IT as a tech writer, moved to Web design and development and did it for years. When 14.4 modems were common, I specialized in download optimization. When Netscape 4.x complicated everything, I specialized in cross-browser compatibility. When sites began to sprawl, I got into information architecture. As e-commerce increased, I got more and more into usability, and have designed the front-end of a number of Web-based apps.
WORK HISTORY
Lots of freelance and short-term contracts as even my full-time IT jobs involved short-term assignments at various companies. Full-time employers included Targetem (Online Marketing Manger, July 04 / May 05), Skycasters (Online Marketing Manager, Oct. 03 / July 04), Venturi Technology Consultants (March 01 / Nov 02), iXL (Aug 00 / March 01), Xperts (Jan. 96 / Nov. 98) and single assignment firms included Core Management Consultants (Commonwealth of Virginia web strategy project) and Object Systems Group (information architect on the award-winning Capital One portal). For those who wonder about the modern mobile workplace (versus plain old job-hopping) I like to remind people I spent 11 years at United Press International (82-93), including a year running Virginia statewide operations as Richmond Bureau Chief.
GL Marshall
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