Kentucky Internet Marketing Industry
What can I say, it is shit.
Kentucky, and all its cities, are about 7 years behind when it comes to online anything and this is especially true for online marketing.
How do I know? Well, lets see… I have been building web sites for myself, freelance clients, partnerships, and for companies I have worked with for the last 14 years. I have done everything from selling the services, support, building the sites and apps, marketing them online, hosting them, and even running them. I have had some sort of partnership with just about every web design and marketing firm in the state.
Everyone has the same problem. The clients in Kentucky are not informed of even what the Internet is or how to take advantage of it as a whole. Because of this, most clients are not willing to sink even a fraction of their advertising budget into their web site like they do for their print or traditional media buys.
This also leads to salaries for IT professionals as a whole in Kentucky to pretty much suck. All I ever see is jobs for C, C#, C++, Java, .NET, or VB going for at most 45k a year on average. So how about the open source PHP or Python developer? What about an Internet marketer? Well, I can say that jobs for you are starting to trickle into Kentucky finally, but for years you basically were shit out of luck and had to work outside the state traveling or working remote.
Even worse, I would see jobs like these open up and qualified professionals apply for them, only to be turned down because the company decided to hire someone fresh out of college with NO hands on experience in the needed subject and willing to train them instead of hiring someone with over 10+ experience in what they need. How stupid…
So when I look at corporations like Humana, Doe Anderson, gotolouisville.com, and Networld Alliance and see that they consistently have help wanted ads for the same position every 3 months, it makes me laugh and giggle inside because I know these people don’t try to hire the “right” people, but try to hire the “cheapest” people they can. I have nothing against this, but when I see the same job opening for 14 months straight and then see it repost every 2-3 months for almost a year, I have to assume that they have no clue what they are doing.
However, I also know the people that end up getting these jobs for the most part. A lot of them are people I have connected with over the years here in Louisville and across the state. Many of these people are starting out designers or programmers that have came to me for help with Internet marketing at one time and I have given them some advice or worked with them on projects for clients. They get bitten by the Internet marketing bug and think it is their golden ticket to riches online, so they start learning SEO and SEM themselves and end up promoting themselves as an Internet marketing GURU. They in turn land jobs at these corporations as a Internet marketing specialist, only to be let go months later.
Even worse, they might start a new company all about Internet marketing services. My my.. just months ago they were web design and programming GURUs and now they are SEO Gods! I wish I could go to their schools!
Ha, I have to laugh sometimes at all this. I see these companies pop up all the time left and right. One company ( a one man operation ) basically got his start by stealing his former employers CMS code and client list. Another one is actually some guy that knows nothing about HTML, SEO, or online business.. but outsources all his work to teenagers and landed a nice article on the CJ because he had a “few connections” there and promotes himself as a small business online marketing guru. Another good one is this company that started out doing nothing but hosting and was run by someone who primarily does construction, outsources their work, and uses of all things outdated cold fusion code.
Why would you buy Internet marketing services from these people, let alone hire them to help grow your business when you can have someone that is focused, rooted, and dedicated to Internet marketing?
The answer is kinda simple and hit me many months ago and changed my views on my career.
Real Internet marketing people don’t have clients. We don’t take on client work, we don’t send out invoices, we don’t cold call or apply for jobs. THINK ABOUT IT. If we are so good at what we do and can get top spots on search engines, build you an email marketing list of thousands of prospects, get you tons of traffic from social media and paid listings.. then why the hell would we do it for you and make you rich?
Be careful. The next time someone wants to sell you marketing and they claim they know it all, sit back and ask yourself why they need YOU.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:00 am
Ever stop to think that the reason you don’t get hired at these jobs is because of the very attitude that comes out quite clearly in this wonderful blog post you’ve written above?
Your post makes you out to look like a lonely, desperate man who thinks that he’s better than everyone else. If Louisville is so terrible, why are you still here? If Louisville is so awful, why does anyone who’s halfway decent at their job have no problem finding great work?
Louisville is a wonderful city with a lot of very intelligent people. Thankfully, a lot of those intelligent people have the common sense to avoid people like you.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:31 am
Thats pretty funny coming from someone that hides behind an Anon title and is too shady to even display their real name. Considering the time I made this posting and the time you replied, you must be one of my competitors that subscribe to my RSS feed. You clearly live or work within/near Louisville, so I will assume your one of the many competitors I have pissed off in the above post.
Here is a few of your mistakes my friend:
1. I never once said Louisville was a bad town or that it was awful like you have mentioned. Clearly you don’t have the sense to know how to read and comprehend my friend.
2. Louisville is a wonderful city on many other levels and yes, there are a lot of intelligent people in this town. I never said there are no intelligent people in Louisville.
3. I never said that someone who is halfway decent at their job would have a hard time finding great work either.. that is if you wanna work in health care, trucking, law enforcement, or in a call center. Geez dude, you must be a half minded loser to even remotely think the IT industry is great here.
Louisville is a great town and has lots of intelligent people and many people here do have a great job. However, my posting is reflective of the IT and Internet marketing industries within Louisville. If you have ever dared to venture out of this city and travel to places like Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Toronto, or any other city outside of Kentucky.. you will easily see that they are light years ahead of us in regards to IT.
My attitude is a direct response of the way people in this state regard IT. It does not mean I have compiled this from my own direct experience, but from stories, tips, and ideas that my partners, competitors, and own employees have told me time and time again.
Have you ever been to the local Geek Dinner? Have you ever joined a local Meetup? Do you even have friends in the IT industry? I actually talk to and network with other professionals in my industry and they agree with me that Kentucky and Louisville are very backwards in regards to IT.
Next time before you post on my blog, grow some balls and leave a real name, email, and a way to contact you. As of now, your just a nameless hater that likes to read my blog to gain ideas and tips on how to do SEO properly…. you noob.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
I have been outside of Louisville many, many times and don’t feel that our IT industry here is that backwards. I go to many networking functions, which is why it surprises me to hear you insult anyone on that point. I have not once seen you at one function around town.
I’ll leave it at that. I don’t like getting into squabbles like this but your post rubbed me the wrong way. I shouldn’t have said much of anything to begin with and it was wrong of me to personally insult you.
This is a wonderful time of the year and I sincerely hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas :).
June 10th, 2008 at 12:33 am
What Louisville is. Is that Louisville is a low wage mecca full of companies with crap for brains. If you have a college degree in this town and some common sense, you can forget about getting a quality job. They are more interested in putting you in some hell hole type of job that is outside of your qualifications. Too much here is based on who you know, who your daddy is, and how much you can lie and BS people. Not any way to run any reputable company. Louisville should be called Hooverville with the masses here near poverty and living in derelict neighborhoods not only in the West End but in areas across the city. There are a lot of intelligent and well meaning people but not enough to change the bubba mindset that exists here among employers and general businesses.
The same can be said for Kentucky at large. Low wages, poverty level jobs, poverty all over the place and waste of people acrross the state. This state wastes its talent like no other. Its sad. But when you have a business community that is ran largely by hilljacks and bigots, its no wonder that the state continues its backward slide