About Traffick
The Story of How We Became a Search Engine Blog
Traffick began in 1998 as a humble "guide to web portals"
called PortalHub, the brainchild of web developer Cory Kleinschmidt
(please don't use Archive.org to see what it used to look like).
These were the days when the stock prices of Yahoo and Excite
would leap by $20 in a single day.
We knew that we were in store for great things, but no one knew
exactly how it would unfold. Portals were creating useful tools
that were allowing people to communicate, to learn and to conduct
research in new and magical ways. Oh, and did I mention that everything
was free?
In early 1999, Cory met Andrew Goodman, and the two decided to
reinvent PortalHub with a snappier name, and Traffick.com was born.
Why Traffick? Back then, as it is now, the most trafficked sites
were the big players that we studied and thought would revolutionize
the world of information. Web traffic, sometimes measured in the
now-archaic term "eyeballs,"
were the currency of the New Economy, as was giddily chronicled
by burgeoning print magazines like the Industry Standard.
When the dot com boom went bust in early 2000 after investors
started to demand real, sustainable business models that would
lead to profitability, we kept the faith and never wavered from
our belief that portals and search engines would soon parlay their
audiences into real companies.
Now, we're charting the rise of search engines with a special
eye toward the business side and how search engine marketing is
changing how everything and anything is sold and marketed using
the internet. We were there when pay-per-click advertising gained
credibility and helped save free content online thanks to Yahoo's
Overture unit (then called GoTo.com) and Google's AdWords program.
What began as a hobby has turned into gainful employment, and
we feel fortunate to be part of this new world. What will the future
hold? We don't know, but keep reading Traffick for our unique brand
of commentary and prognostication!
Meet the Traffickers
Andrew Goodman, Editor
 Andrew co-founded
Traffick in September 1999 and can be summed up as a "political
scientist turned internet analyst."
In other words, he's been trafficking in Big Ideas since Jerry
Yang was knee high to a Commodore PET. Currently Andrew is editor
for Traffick and president of Page Zero Media, a search
engine marketing firm in Toronto.
His articles and insights about internet navigation technology,
online communities and the evolution of new media are now widely
cited and published in books, magazines and newspapers.
Andrew is considered by many to be one of the world's foremost
Google AdWords experts. His popular Google
AdWords guide, 21 Ways to Maximize ROI with Google AdWords,
is an e-book published in 2002 that has sold over 6,000 copies.
It has been updated each year to reflect the latest updates to
AdWords.
His latest book, Winning
Results with Google AdWords, is a complete guide to
AdWords published by McGraw Hill in August 2005. It is designed
to serve as a thorough introduction to pay-per-click advertising
as well as an in-depth guide for power users.
As founder and principal of Page Zero Media, Andrew and his co-horts
help businesses of all sizes achieve measurable results through
pay-per-click search engine advertising. Page Zero specializes
in Google AdWords optimization, but utilizes a wide variety of
other search engine marketing methods to deliver results.
Andrew is married to Carolyn and lives in Toronto. For more information,
visit Page Zero's website.
Cory Kleinschmidt, Publisher
 Cory
Kleinschmidt co-founded Traffick.com with Andrew in September 1999
and has supervised its design and content management as well as
writing for the site.
Until recently he was Director of Internet Technology at Jackson
Healthcare Solutions, a healthcare technology investment group
based in Atlanta. He recently joined Page Zero to head up web development
and related initiatives.
Cory’s deep toolset includes competencies as a manager of
growing software development teams, web design chops, business
planning, and web programming. For Page Zero clients, Cory oversees
a diverse set of services including full-scale web architecture
and development, usability advising, landing page testing, analytics
tool installation, and search engine optimization. He is also charged
with supervising specialized content projects and hacking in-house
tools for campaign management through the Google API.
He is also the principal of Siteopedia,
a boutique web design firm that web-enables progressive companies
using internet technology and creative marketing solutions. If
you need a website designed, programmed, written and promoted, contact
Cory.
Cory’s B.A. is in English and Journalism, from the University
of Missouri. Since then he has amassed a variety of web development
certifications. He is married with three children, and lives in
St. Louis.
Adam Eisner, Blogger-at-Large
Adam was formerly managing editor of The Web Host
Industry Review and today works in the marketing department of a publicly-traded
dot com in the software and Internet services business. Although his employer's
large brick warehouse facility isn't quite as big as the Googleplex, it is conveniently
located across the street from the City of Toronto building where distraught
homeowners go to replace their lost or stolen grey and blue boxes at a cost of
$5. Adam has been a longtime friend of Traffick and is an official member of
its small but vital coterie of bloggers. Adam holds a Bachelor of Journalism
degree from Ryerson University in Toronto.
More Information
|
