Welcome to Jacksonville!

After 32 years in Spokane, WA and 15 years working for myself and working from home I decided to throw all that out of the window, take a real job, and move across the country.

Just a quick history: From 1998-2012 I was a full time seo/affiliate guy. I started with some SEO clients and then moved into full time affiliate marketing. From 2012-2013 I was a contractor for an OPM firm. And as of July 8th, 2013 I am now an employee for the first time in a long time.

First off, I have to say I love my job and I love the company I am working with. I have been an affiliate of theirs since around 2002 or so and they have been my best merchant over the years. They have asked in passing if I wanted to move to Florida and join them in the past and I always said no but when they came calling this time it was the right time for a lot of reasons to pull the trigger.

The biggest adjustments so far? Well, getting up and going to an office is of course an adjustment. Learning the corporate culture is an adjustment. Not being able to go upstairs and see my wife and kid whenever I want is an adjustment. Driving to work every day is an adjustment. But so far all of those have gone somewhat smoothly.

The work is somewhat similar to what I have already done. As an affiliate I had dozens of sites so there was always stuff to do there and a lot of plates spinning at any given time. As an OPM I had 15+ merchants I was dealing with so there were a lot of plates spinning there as well. And now we have 27 different programs for our various properties so that is a lot of plates spinning. I am used to jumping around from project to project and being able to at least somewhat keep them going so that has come somewhat naturally.

The biggest change so far is learning all the different moving parts of a company the size of ours. Now if there is a problem there are a bunch of different departments that need to be contacted. It isn’t like when I had a problem with one of my affiliate sites and I just dug in and fixed it. That has probably been the biggest adjustment so far. Learning who needs to know what and what reports to send where is also a challenge but so far it has been fun learning.

So that is a quick update. There will be more to come later as we get more settled. Kate, Clyde, and I are getting adjusted to Florida life and are thankful for people here like Wade Tonkin and his family that have helped us greatly. We definitely miss our family and friends back in Spokane and I am sure that will always feel like home but for the time being we are Floridians. Never thought I would say that.