Women of Internet Marketing Wednesdays Part 22

Welcome back, it's Wednesday again and I'm back with two new women for you to meet.  But before I get to this week's two women, I wanted to remind the SMG audience, if you know of a women who we haven't featured yet, please feel free to drop us a line (email link in the left hand column) or leave a comment, and we'll see if we can work that woman into our upcoming interviews.  Right now we're scheduled into November, but I'm looking for a few great women to schedule out to the end of the year.

Now onto this week's two wonderful women.  Both of these women were at SES San Jose, and both are rather active in our industry.  One of our women is rather familiar with a paint brush, the other could probably help you design that new business suit  you've been thinking about.  Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to Carrie Hill and Danielle Winfield.

Carrie Hill
Carrie Hill is a search marketer and brand manager for Blizzard Internet, located in Colorado.  Carrie describes herself as "Jill-of-all-trades but I specialize in SEO and Brand Management" in her position at Blizzard.  She's been in the industry for about 2 years now and had managed to become very active in the industry.

Carrie writes for Search Engine Watch, and also writes for a few blogs, Blizzard's USA Travel Guide, Blizzard's Online Newsletter, and a blog with a rather humorous title - SEO Junkie + Mom = Burnt Toast. Along with writing, in her spare time she even snowboards (at least that's what her bio on Blizzard Internet's says) and she helps her husband with their painting business.

Q:  What brought you into the Search Marketing Industry?
A:  Actually it was pure luck.  I was working a night job at our local community college helping kids out in the computer lab.  I had 2 small children and I wanted to be home during the day - so I went into work when my husband got home.  After a few years of that I was burned out and needed a change.  Blizzard was hiring and I filled out the application online.  They probably hired me because I was the only one that made it through the whole process - boy was it confusing!  Anyway - long story short - I ended up having an aptitude for marketing.  I shop a lot - I think that naturally makes you a pretty good marketer. Before I had kids and worked nights - I was a legal secretary and an insurance agent.  Weird how things work out.

Q:  Most successful industry accomplishment?
A:  I think Speaking at the SES Travel Edition was a pretty big feat for someone in the industry just 2 years.  I moderated 2 panels and spoke on one.  Also bi-weekly "Little Biz" article for Search Engine Watch is a pretty big deal.

Q:  Why do you like/love this industry?
A:  I love the fact that anyone with a passion for search can become an expert - because everyone is so open and willing to share what they know.  There isn't a 4-year degree that prepares you for Search Marketing - you just have to be willing to put in the hours to research and test your theories.  I think it's pretty funny when I read job search listings for "SEM Experts" and they want you to have 7-10 years experience.  I'd rather have someone with 1 year experience who can do what works NOW than someone with 10 years experience who might have lost some of the passion for what they're doing.

Q:  Describe your typical day at Blizzard Internet, what are the favorite parts of your day?
A:  Well - I'm an email addict- so I love coming in and checking my email - cleaning out my inbox and prioritizing my tasks.  I also love the few hours I spend every morning combing through my feed reader.  I really have this insane drive to be better than anyone else.  It's not that I'm a snot about it, I just want to be the best I can be - so I devour new information every morning then spend the next few hours with my partner in crime, Mary Bowling, trying to figure out how to test and implement new ideas.  After lunch I do some client work and hold clinics and trainings for my co-workers.  Sharing knowledge is part of the culture around here and I like to pass what I learn on to anyone who is interested.  I think that's why I like to write for a wide variety of blogs and sites.

Q:  What's the toughest part of your job?
A:  Being patient.  I'm not a patient person.  I have a short attention span and I want everyone to work at my pace, including red tape and normal "doing business" things.  When I'm doing research and development I want everyone on board and with me so we can get the whole thing done in the shortest amount of time.  Reality is - we're a mid-size company - 50+ employees and there has to be a procedure for everything.  I UNDERSTAND that is has to happen - I just don't have a lot of patience for it.

Q:  You also work with brand management, what's the most common thing that you see business "miss" when it comes to brand management online?
A:  I think a lot of website owners take their brand for granted.  "I already rank for that so why worry about it." Unfortunately that doesn't take into effect who/what also ranks on the first page and what other comapnies are buying paid ads for your brand.  Search engine results saturation (SERS) for your brand is so important when you have a mini-crisis.  If you own the top 10 - you don't need to worry as much about competition actually being bad press about your business.

Q:  You write for Search Engine Guide, the "Little Biz" column, how do you come up with ideas for stories?
A:  Well - a lot of "real world" questions usually drive what I'm writing about.  I do a lot of research & development and training here, but I also service clients.  Most of the time I'm answering questions I've heard from them or in some forums.  There are a few times when I've been at a loss for a topic and my editors, Elisabeth Osmeloski before she moved on to Zonder.com - Claudia Breummer and Kevin Heisler, have really helped me out.  It's a lot easier when you have a great support staff.

Q:  What advice would you give for other women starting out in this industry, based on your own experience?
A:  I think women are great in this industry because of our natural attention to detail.  If you can shop and juggle at the same time you're probably going to be a natural.  It's all about keeping all the balls in the air and understanding what the consumer is looking for.

Q:  Who's your favorite blogger to read (can be any, doesn't have to be SEM/SEO related)?
A:  Hmmmm....only one.  Actually I think Jen Laycock and Lee Odden are tied.  I read lots of bloggers but I bet I learn the most from them.

Q:  Is Social Media a good strategy for small businesses?
A:  Social media is a great strategy for small business - given the small business owner has the time to put into it.  That's why I say they should stick to their own social neighborhood and not go for the Diggs and StumbleUpons - go for the niche social sites and spend the time you do have on something you're already passionate about.

Q:  YouTube or Flickr?
A:  Hmm I think Flickr - I like video but I have a short attention span.  I want to look at an image, take it in and move on. Videos are a time investment :)  SEM wise - both please.

Now for the part of the interview that allows you to "let loose" a little and have some fun.......

Q:  You and your husband own your own painting business, what's the most bizarre thing you've been asked to paint?
A:  Apparently there is an aversion in the Aspen area to vent covers and switch plates.  Todd has been asked to faux paint metal heater vents in the floor to match the grain in the wood floor.  I think that's insane.  I also think he epoxied some lady's garage floor hot pink - had to send to the manufacturer for that paint - it was a chore but he did it.  Had hot pink paint on his shoes for months.

Q:  Simon Heseltine, Bill Slawski or Scott Orth?
A:  Hmm - Bill Slawski I think - I love his patent application stuff.  I'm way to short-attention-spanned to do that myself so I love that he breaks it down for us.  I have enjoyed Simon Heseltine's recent foray into geo-targeting.  It's great for travel.

Q:  OK..... You are casting director for the new revival of the "Love Boat" who would you cast as the following and why?
A:  Hmm - I'm going to pick all SEM industry people because I think that sounds the funniest.

• Captain Merrill Stubing: Greg Jarboe - I think it's the beard
• Julie McCoy, Your Cruise Director: Li Evans - the personality and the great hair says it all ;)
• Burl "Gopher" Smith, Your Yeoman Purser: hmmm I have no idea what a purser actually does - Neil Patel?  I think that kid knows everyone.
• Issac Washington, the bar tender: Christine Churchill - she really put me at ease during my first conference gig and was so easy to socialize and talk with.  What a great representative of the industry!
• Doctor Adam Bricker: Vanessa Fox - I'm pretty sure she could fix anything given the time and resources
• Ashley "Ace" Covington Evans, Your Cruize Photographer: I'm stuck on this one but Rebecca Kelly from SEOMoz.org comes to mind because of her great conference cartoon strips.

Thanks Carrie!  And as you're cruise director, shuffleboard will be on the Sphinn deck at 1 p.m., Salsa Dancing on the Reddit ballroom and a Texas hold 'em tournament in the Techmeme lounge make sure you sign up *cheese*.  ;)

Now lets learn a little bit more about our next women of internet marketing, Danielle Winfield.

Danielle Winfield
Danielle Winfield is the co-founder and Technical Director of 10e20. I had the pleasure of getting to know Danielle while at SES in New York and we got to spend time hanging out at SES in San Jose.  Danielle's "other half" (i.e. her hubby) is Chris Winfield, and the two of them make a great team when it comes to providing their clients with search marketing and social media solutions.

Danielle has been in the industry for over 7 years, but believe it or not, search marketing wasn't her first area of expertise.  Danielle use to be in the fashion designing industry - talk about a change!  So lets find out a little bit more about Danielle.

Q:  What brought you into the Search Marketing Industry?
A: I initially got into web design when I was working as an assistant designer in fashion. It was 1999 and I remember that all the owner of the company could talk about was getting a website. I figured if this is the hot thing that everyone is talking about I wanted to be a part of it and took an html class at night. I eventually fell in love with it, got sick of fashion and got a job at a web development firm where I met Chris.

For Search Marketing it was my husband. We had worked together at a web development company in 2000 and it went out of business. There wasn't really any focus on Search Engines or marketing at that company. It was simply development. Neither of us really had any intention of getting back into web work after that company folded. We were both so young when we started working there and took it really hard that it closed.

I went back to fashion design and he went to work doing promotions for a recording studio. He loves music. They had a limited budget and he put almost all of it into a website that we created together (I did the development for it after work) and then he did the SEO for it. Chris' brother Patrick who is still our lead designer to this day took the pictures and redid their logo. Before we knew it the recording studio was maxed out in bookings and some of the artists wanted websites created too.

I would get up, work out, head out to work (leaving the house at 7:45 am) until about 7 pm, commute back to Brooklyn, and stay up until about 1 or 2 working on our projects (I was living on no sleep in those days). It got to the point where my having a job was actually preventing us from earning more through the company and we took the plunge. After that there was no turning back.

Q:  Most successful industry accomplishment?
A: The one that sticks out at me is recent. We've had a long time client that we were trying to get ranked for some really competitive terms. Rankings were really nothing to write home about for awhile. Main competition had tons of edu links pointing back to them. Their old e-commerce site was pretty closed to us and most of our work was off site and we could only get in to make the most minimal of changes here and there. Around the time that I started transitioning over to the search side of 10e20 we were contracted to recreate the site so I was the PM on both sides.

The new site that I led the team to create was launched about a month ago and they are now on page 1 of Google for basically all of their terms. We really didn’t change the SEO strategy of the site, it was simply the way the pages were developed and presented. The client is overjoyed and so am I. It really is a testament to development and SEO working together and drove home the importance of educating both sides as to why you want changes to be made instead of just giving instructions to be followed. In this case I was managing both so I only really had myself to argue with. :)

Q:  Why do you like/love this industry?
A: I LOVE this industry because it feels like a new frontier. I feel like there is room for everybody right now. (There are people I am related to that do not know what Google is! Seriously.) Encouraged learning. Fashion was closed in that sense in that even people that you work with might not want to share tips and tricks. Every new hire was a threat of some kind. It's not like that at all in my experiences in this industry. 

Q:  Describe your typical day at 10e20?
A: Get in and setup. Start going through email, answering anything that I can solve quickly so I don't have to come back later for it. Anything that needs longer attention or discussion goes on my list. Communicate with my team on deadlines, projects, anything major going on. Check out Sphinn to see what's new. During lunch I look through by feeds. If I think I might ever want to come back to it I clip it for later. I am big on that. After lunch is usually my scheduled communications. So client calls, check ins, meetings, that kind of thing. Eat a cookie and play with my dog a little. He sits in a huge armchair right next to my desk and waits for the mailman and any delivery people to show he is a tough guy. Then settle in for any big thinking that I need to do. This is the kind of work that I will continue when I get home and work on until it’s done.

Q:  What's the most challenging part of your job?
A: Time management and prioritizing. Making time for the long term ideas that I have when there are a lot of daily tasks and communications that take priority.

Q:  You come from an entirely different background than most of the women I've interview, you were first in the fashion industry, do you find there are similarities between fashion and search?
A: Sure. With creative work there is always critiquing and feedback.

Q:  You lead up a team of product developers, what's the most interesting situation you've had to deal with in managing product development?
A: I don't know if I can point to one, but a lot of what we do is custom work. Sometimes it’s hard when you have a client that is insistent on their site functioning a certain way and they just refuse to listen to reason. I guess I would call it interesting because there have been some cases where we’ve built crazy systems that actually wound up working out. It’s always interesting to be the bridge between our extraordinarily logical programmers and a client who has a vision that they are passionate about, who want it to work exactly the way it’s been dreamt. My most successful projects have been those where there has been a mix and understanding on all sides. 

Q:  What advice would you give for other women starting out in this industry, based on your own experience?
A: Find something that you are interested in and pursue it. You have to be passionate about something in order to excel at it. Don’t be intimidated by an industry that is predominantly male. As long as you are hungry and genuinely into your work there will always be people and resources you can learn from. Trust your instincts too. A lot of what is out there is opinion. If you believe in a theory, test it; see if it works for yourself. This is not an exact science, and at the end of the day as a creator of websites and internet marketer you are appealing to human beings. There will always be a bit of art tied up in that.

Q:  Who's your favorite blogger to read (can be any, doesn't have to be SEM/SEO related)?
A: There are sooo many! Non SEM/SEO are perezhilton.com, Oh Happy Day, Oh Joy, The Sartorialist, Go Fug Yourself, My industry related ones are SEOMoz (I learn so much from that) SeoChicks, Search Marketing Gurus (of course), TopRankBlog, I could go on and on...

Q:  PPC or SEO?
A: SEO. I get a huge thrill when I see our sites climbing through the ranks and then hitting our goals. I do think you need a good balance of both though.

Q:  Digg, Reddit, Propellor, Newsvine or Sphinn?
A: For me right now it's Sphinn. It feels like a big water cooler for this industry. Digg scares me. I had something on my personal blog hit the homepage and the comments that came through were atrocious. I need a thicker skin before I venture over there again. But on the other hand what I have seen digg do in terms of link building, traffic and even sales (for so many of our clients) makes me a believer in its power.

And now for a little bit of fun with Danielle...... 

Q:  You used to be a fashion designer, what is the craziest thing that ever happened to you while you were in that industry?
A: Leading up to presentations or trade shows were always a blast. Activities could range from churning out illustrations to spray painting Styrofoam sea horses in metallic colors at 2am on a sidewalk in Manhattan. 

Once my girlfriend and I were sent to Florence to do some shopping and go to some shows and on the way into a show a very debonair Italian man took her hand and smiled at her. She swooned! I wouldn’t call it fainting; it was an actual swoon like in a movie. She’s from Memphis so she is a true southern belle. I was right out of school and was shocked! I’d never seen anything like it!

Q:  Jim Hedger, Matt McGee or Greg Niland?
A: I'm going to go with Greg Niland.  (Li: are you sure it's Greg, cuz he's always trying to change his name around me :P )

Q:  OK..... You are casting director for the new revival of the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV Show (we'll forget about that horrible movie they made) who would you cast as the following and why?
A: OK. I have to admit that I don’t remember too much about the show other than the car with doors that wouldn’t open so the boys would get to slide across the hood and jump in the windows. So I am just going to write the first thing that comes to mind. Here we go…

• Uncle Jessie: Danny Sullivan – He’s the guy that people look to for guidance. 
• Bo Duke: Chris Winfield – He’s the Duke I had a crush on when I was little 
• Luke Duke: Cameron Olthuis 
• Daisy Duke: I'm going to have to go with me on this one. :) I'd love to be in a movie just to go to the premiere. 
• Kooter: Neil Patel 
• Boss Hogg: Hmmm. The “mean guy” who is more grumpy than anything else. At least that’s how I remember it. No comment!

Thank you to both Danielle and Carrie for letting us into your lives and learning a little more about you.  Stop back next week and we'll be brining you part #23.  Until then, read up on our many other women in this industry by checking out the Women of Internet Marketing section here on Search Marketing Gurus.

Comments

[Lisa Ditlefsen]

hey Danielle, me and Julie love you for mentioning the SEO Chicks alongside SEOmoz. I'm buying you a drink in Vegas chick(if you are going that is!!)

Lisa =)

[Julie Joyce]

I'm so glad you interviewed Danielle! She's utterly one of the most gorgeous women alive (did I mention I hate her?) and insanely nice. It's always really nice to have people coming in from different backgrounds, since I think they add a great perspective to those of us who are mainly IT people.

[Chris Winfield]

Li -

This is definitely the best post you have ever done (I might be a little biased though) :)

[greg]

Great interviews - in particular, I liked learning more about Danielle. She rocks! The killer combo - brains and beauty.

[JillT]

I have been fortunate enough to work with Carrie since day one, and I can’t imagine what I would do without her!

She’s a natural at this business - she has the drive to learn more and do more, is always willing to share her knowledge with others, and seems to always have a brilliant plan brewing in her head.

If only they sold Carrie’s energy, intelligence, and sweetness in pill form!!

Yeay Carrie! :)

[patrick]

Very insightful interviews. I love the Q&A format and the fun questions.

Way to go Danielle! You Go Girl!

[Cameron Olthuis]

Luke Duke huh - I guess I'll take that as an honor! Like you I don't remember a whole lot about the show, probably because I was dazed with Daisy everytime I watched.

Great interview though. Danielle is one the nicest people in the industry.

[Carrie]

:) Thanks Li for including me -

I paid Jill to say that about me - I bribe her with brownies.

[Danielle Winfield]

Li! Thanks for asking me to be a part of this! I am really proud to be a Woman of Internet Marketing. I think it would be great if you were to answer your standard interview questions yourself one of these days! I would sure like to know how you got started, and who you would cast in a revival of Beverly Hills 90210. :)

Lisa & Julie, I am definitely going to be in Vegas and looking forward to hanging out with you. Unless either of you are coming to NY for SMX and I get to see you sooner. That would be awesome.

Julie, and Greg, thanks so much! You've got my head inflated to the point where I can't get through the door. I'm blushing!

Chris - you rock. Pat - you too!

Cameron - definitely an honor! I figured you and Chris would enjoy riding around in that car.

Carrie - I am honored to share a page with you, I hope to meet you in person one day!

[Neil Patel]

Danielle, the most challenging part about my job is also time management. If you ever figure out a solution, please let me know! ;)

[sylviavictor]

Thanks for yet another useful post. This is really a good guide on how to get started on internet marketing and has been very well organized.