Jim Kukral has been around the internet marketing industry for a long time. He has worked on countless projects and more recently launched a new project called ScratchBack.
What initially got you started in internet marketing?
[Jim] I started by learning html by hand back in the mid 90’s. My first job at an Internet company… that first day, they handed me a html book and said “learn this”. This was before tables existed mind you. So I did. I was a print designer before that, so I learned how to take my design skills and put them into html form. A few years later, I realized that I was an average designer at best, and found my calling doing online marketing instead.
You have been around the internet marketing industry for a long time, do you have a favorite project you worked on?
[Jim] I’ve built websites for Fortune 100 companies, and mom and pop shops. Building websites is boring. Building fun, creative projects and businesses that entertain or help people is fun. My favorite fun project is my www.awesomemillion.com, which never took off as I’d hoped. Still love the concept and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
Could you explain more on what your consulting company does?
[Jim] I help online businesses find success online. By either consulting with them on how they should do it, or actually partnering with them to get it done. Anyone can build a website. Not everyone can market it and use it the right way to drive sales or leads or publicity or traffic, etc… That’s what I do for people.
One of your more recent projects, ScratchBack, has made its way to many blogs and it is only in beta. What are some future plans for the project?
[Jim] When we roll out of beta we’ll launch with smaller widget sizes, as well as personalized buy pages. A new directory is coming soon, plus some more exciting features that our users should enjoy.
Google is penalizing websites and blogs that are selling links. Was this a big influence in the concept behind ScratchBack?
[Jim] Actually, no. The decision to make SB nofollow was made 9 months before the Google penalties “went down”. I always knew that selling links was not something Google would like, and frankly, the whole purpose of ScratchBack isn’t about passing page rank, it’s about allowing a reader to be able to give back to a blogger in the form of a tip, and get some recognition in return. A win/win for everyone.
Do you think blogging is having a good affect on internet marketing?
[Jim] Absolutely. I’ve been blogging since 2001, and I’ve seen it grow from a handful of grass roots bloggers, to millions of people using it. Blogs have become a must strategy when discussing a successful internet marketing campaign. Frankly, if you don’t have a blog now, people are going to wonder why not. It wasn’t that way a few years ago.
Thanks again to Jim for taking the time out to do the interview. He has a great blog JimKukral.com that everyone should check out!
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