April 25, 2008

Maserati of Minneapolis Blog Move

Well;

After success with this website, I decided it was finally time to move the Maserati blog from the blogspot domain (maseratiofminneapolis.blogspot.com) to its new home at www.maseratiofminneapolis.com/blog/

The new blog is done in php, so I can tap into the parent site's database to load dynamic content, and once version 2 of the parent site is done in the next couple of weeks, I will be able to finish styling the blog to look exactly the same as the parent site.

Moving the Maserati Blog to its new home was a big undertaking, considering it's been active for over 2 years, with hundreds of posts and tons of pictures, but it went surprisingly well. The initial move to the parent server was done in a matter of hours, but the preliminary template and php conversion took another week to finish.

I know a lot of people prefer wordpress to blogger, but after reviewing both options, trying them both for myself, I have to say I much prefer the blogger solution.

posted by Mark Potter at 4/25/2008 01:29:00 AM 0 Comments

January 22, 2008

Website Re-Do Nearly Complete

Not that basing a website around a blog platform is something new or groundbreaking, but it's not something I have done before. I decided to use Blogger as my major content management system, with a customized template and style-set. The reasons behind this are mainly ease of use, search engine friendliness, and deployment speed. The transformation from my previous test setup to this took less than three days, with the full look and feel carried over.

In the past I have been particularly happy with the speed at which Blogger posts show up in Google's Universal Search pages. This is one example of using a third party off-site solution which can be later integrated into a site for SEO purposes. I'm especially looking forward to pushing the limits of what a Blogger-based website can be.

posted by Mark Potter at 1/22/2008 02:11:00 AM 0 Comments

January 21, 2008

My Resume

Also available for download: resume.pdf resume.doc

SEO, SEM, WEB CONSULTANT
Solutions-oriented specialist with a broad skill-set and notable experience in planning, analysis, and implementation of web technologies in direct support of business objectives. Strengths in written and verbal communications, for both internal and consumer oriented mediums.

EXPERIENCE
MARKETING: BENTLEY MINNEAPOLIS, MASERATI OF MINNEAPOLIS & MORRIE'S MAZDA - 2002-present
  • SEO, SEM, PPC, content creation, photography, videography, web design, R&D, and web analytics.
  • sales, sales support, traditional media advertising, events coordination, and general IT support.
  • maseratiofminneapolis.com - Oversaw development of database and back-end tools (inventory management, feed creation, eBay integration) Optimized for SEO, content production, routine maintenance. V2.0 in current development.
  • maseratiofminneapolis.blogspot.com - maseratiofminneapolis.com/blog/ Selected platform and created blog, produced all content, moved from Blogspot domain to be hosted within parent website, without losing current content, and continuing to use Blogger as a content management tool (like this site)
  • www.youtube.com/profile?user=maseratiofmpls - Created video channel and content
  • mazdagear.com - Oversaw all aspects of site from concept to current day, except inventory and order fulfillment. Launched August, 06 - 2006 gross sales $12,000; 2007 $125,000; 2008 Q1 $54,000+, 2008 projected $240,000
  • bentleyminneapolis.com (under development - to be built on maseratiofminneapolis.com V2.0 framework \ share inventory database)

CONSULTANT \ INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR - 2001-present
  • doyouknowwhoiam.com (concept, design)
  • Peacock Groove bikes (studio product photography)
  • KJurek Couture (studio and runway fashion photography, web, marketing)
  • Amanda Christine Designs (studio and runway fashion photography)
  • 360House.com (on-location virtual tour photography)
  • 3 additional projects under confidentiality agreements (concept, business, web, marketing)
SKILLS
  • Platforms: Windows 95,98,2K,XP; Mac OS X (10.4.x,10.5.x), Linux (Suse, RedHat, Ubuntu), Embedded (Palm, unix variants)
  • Hardware: i386 - i686x64 based desktops and servers, Apple powered desktops
  • Servers: Apache, MySQL, PHP4, PHP5, Bind, DHCP
  • Languages: (X)HTML, PHP, CSS, XML (RSS, Sitemap, Google Base, ADF, custom schemas), limited javascript, asp
  • Software: Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook), Adobe Design Suite (Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere)
  • SEO\SEM specific: (all white-hat \ best practices) Blogs, Forums, Google’s tools (Analytics, Base, Sitemaps & Webmaster tools, API keys, membership in many Beta programs), Widgetbox, eBay, YouTube (use and video production), Blogger, Wikis, Podcasts, DIGG, Del.icio.us, MySpace, Facebook
  • PPC: AdWords (budgets exceeding $50k/year), Overture, targeted banner purchases
  • E-Mail Marketing: html multimedia e-mail, non-tracked, personal response

posted by Mark Potter at 1/21/2008 04:39:00 PM 0 Comments