Mike Schinkel

Current

Co-founder at Ignition Alley LLC
Co-organizer at Atlanta SEO Meetup Group
Publisher of PM-Sherpa.com at PM-Sherpa.com

Organizer at The Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs
President at NewClarity LLC

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Past

Web Marketing Consultant at ATV Illustrated Magazine
President at Guides, Inc.
President and CEO at Xtras, Inc.

President at Expert Education, Inc.
Director of Training at Financial Dynamics, Inc.
President at The DSW Group, Ltd.

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3 more...

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology

Recommended

12 people have recommended Mike

Connections

498 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Mike Schinkel’s Summary

Mike is a web technology specialist whose broad and varied background includes experience with web and database technologies, development implementation and training as well as businesses and marketing success.

BUSINESS/WEB MARKETING
Mike's expertise include monetization strategies, leveraging effective web marketing techniques without using "me-to" strategies, and effective website architecture-based SEO.

WEB TECHNOLOGY/DEVELOPMENT
Mike's specializes in the Advanced WordPress and Drupal CMS with experience in MySQL, Apache, PHP, HTML, CSS, HTTP, REST APIs, AJAX, jQuery, RSS, Flash, Flex, FlowPlayer, SlideShowPro, XML, JSON, URL, Design, ClearSpring Widgets, and the ad serving systems. Mike uses video and photos, email marketing, social media for SEO, user-generated content, and web analytics to track it all.

NETWORKING/MATURITY
Mike combined marketing and tech skills give him expertise that most "web gurus" simply don't have. And his highly successful Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs, for people interested in starting, funding, running, growing, and eventually exiting web-based businesses with 1000+ members has given him insight and connections like no-one else in Atlanta.

PAST EXPERIENCE
From 1994 to 2006 Mike founded and grew Xtras, a company ranked #123 on the 1999 Inc 500. That experience gave Mike a unique combination of entrepreneurial business, sales, marketing, and e-Commerce skills few others can claim. Recently Mike lead ATV Illustrated's web from worst to first where they now top the search ranks for most of the long tail results and Mike created the back-end WordPress tools that b5media needed to launch Starked.com

SUMMARY
Mike's understands not only "how" but more importantly "why." If you need web strategy expertise, be it marketing or tech, Mike is one you want. Mike can train your team and evaluate and recommend your strategy and architecture for your website, both before you build it and when you take it to the next level.

Mike Schinkel’s Specialties:

Training and Mentoring people on how to architect and implement websites using WordPress in ways that leverage leading edge strategies for success, especially with respect to how to use site architecture and external properties to optimize SEO results, video and photography to drive viewer interest, and social media to drive involvement.

Mike Schinkel’s Experience

Co-founder

Ignition Alley LLC

(Executive Office industry)

July 2009 — Present (5 months)

Ignition Alley is a coworking facility in Midtown Atlanta whose primary goal is to foster community among the "Creative Class" and secondary goal to be a collaborative workspace.
Co-organizer

Atlanta SEO Meetup Group

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

July 2009 — Present (5 months)
Publisher of PM-Sherpa.com

PM-Sherpa.com

(Internet industry)

May 2009 — Present (7 months)
Organizer

The Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs

(Internet industry)

January 2007 — Present (2 years 11 months)

Mike was the founder and is the lead organizer of The Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs, is a professional development and relationship building group with over 1300 members with goals to support and empower web-focused entrepreneurs in the greater Metro Atlanta area. See http://www.atlantawebentrepreneurs.org
President

NewClarity LLC

(Internet industry)

October 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

NewClarity's primary focus is to help organizations leverage Drupal for both technical and marketing strategy success via mentoring and training.
Web Marketing Consultant

ATV Illustrated Magazine

(Publishing industry)

November 2006 — June 2007 (8 months)

I implemented ATV Illustrated Magazine's current website at http://atvillustrated.com and helped with them strategic web marketing, positioning, circulation, and publishing strategies to ensure they eventually become #1 media brand in the ATV, UTV, and Side-x-Side market. Their top ranking search results for the long tail are testament to how my involvement is helping the succeed with little additional ongoing effort in that area.
President

Guides, Inc.

(Privately Held; Myself Only; Internet industry)

January 2006 — December 2006 (1 year )

Publisher of the product selection guides entitled "How-To-Select Guides" at www.howtoselectguides.com. Mike also offers consulting to help companies improve their marketing, realize new revenue generation opportunities, and help companies sell their products on the web.
President and CEO

Xtras, Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

March 1994 — May 2006 (12 years 3 months)

Reseller selling components and tools for Microsoft-centric developers including .NET, ActiveX, and Visual Basic.
President

Expert Education, Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

June 1991 — December 1994 (3 years 7 months)

Training company in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in training software developers how to program in Nantucket/CA-Clipper.
Director of Training

Financial Dynamics, Inc.

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

June 1990 — June 1991 (1 year 1 month)

Training and consulting company in Falls Church, Virginia specializing in training Clipper and developing sofware applications using Nantucket/CA-Clipper.
President

The DSW Group, Ltd.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

March 1987 — January 1990 (2 years 11 months)

Training and consulting company in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in training Clipper and developing sofware applications using Nantucket Clipper.

Mike Schinkel’s Education

Georgia Institute of Technology

BSME , Mechanical Engineering , September 1981 — December 1988

Studies two years of Computer Science as electives.
Participated in the Co-op program and worked at Owens-Corning, IBM, and Itex Corporation, before forming The DSW Group [http://www.thedswgroup.com] with two other partners prior to graduation.

Activities and Societies:

Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity

Additional Information

Mike Schinkel’s Websites:

Mike Schinkel’s Interests:

atlanta, yoga, motorcycles, boating, business, motorsports, publishing, web advertising, rest-based apis, url design, drupal, php, mysql, html, http, jquery, openx, mysql, flowplayer, yui-css, wordpress, javascript, ajax, seo, social media, usability, web crawlers and spidering