Sorry, I’m going to pat myself on the back now: I’ve been asked to be a Contributing Editor at Practical Ecommerce, a leading online magazine for ecommerce merchants. YAY! I’ve been writing SEO articles for PEC and its sister site Ecommerce Developer regularly for two years now, and am so pleased to join the team a little more officially. Plus, when I attend SES Chicago next month I get to go as a member of the press. So cool.
So what’s Practical Ecommerce all about?
The mission of Practical Ecommerce: To provide down-to-earth articles and advice to help smaller businesses succeed online. We are a small business ourselves, and we take seriously the task of helping other businesses migrate online or improve their online operations.
The mission of Ecommerce Developer: By publishing independent editorial content without regard to programming language or vendor platform, Ecommerce Developer helps web developers become more proficient at building ecommerce sites and at growing their development business.
Growing up I was certain that I’d make my career in publishing. I graduated from Stanford with dual degrees in Communication and American Studies, worked through school on The Stanford Daily as a copy editor, and worked my first job out of college as a copy editor and page designer at the Alameda Newspaper Group in the East Bay. While I liked the work, I quickly learned that publishing a morning paper requires the editorial staff to work through the night. And I hate the feel of newsprint. My reversed schedule made having any real social life pretty difficult, so after a year I called it quits and jumped over to the PR team at Intel to start my new life in online marketing. This kind of brings bridges the gap between the two — online marketing and publishing. Funny how life works out sometimes.
Anyway, back to PEC. The team is so down to earth and supportive, they’re a joy to work with. Plus they’re based in Grand Junction, CO, whose high school was my high school’s primary rival. The dreaded Tigers were a tedious four-hour bus ride away from Durango where I grew up, but when you live on the sparsely populated Western slope of the Rockies you don’t have many schools of any real size to compete against. Publisher Kerry Murdock‘s boys play soccer for the Tigers now, and he and I have fun sharing stories of the area and the rivalry. I’m so pleased that he trusts and respects me enough to offer me this role.

Originally posted on Web PieRat.