Michael Chotiner
911 Davis Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.writesaroni.com
michael.chotiner@gmail.com
202-306-5707
Objective
To obtain a senior-level staff position or consulting assignment with an organization that can benefit from my skills and experience in Web content development, information architecture, SEO, writing, editing and publications management
Relevant Experiences and Achievements
writesaroni.com. Principal, writing/editing/consulting practice for Web, print and desktop publishing. The site provides a list of services, writing samples, user-generated content and professional background information.
remodelingadvice.com. Current responsibilities as director of content for a consumer-facing Web site that will launch in December include:
- Coordinating with a team composed of business-development specialists, Web designers, developers and an SEO analyst to create and launch a successful product
- Designing the taxonomy (content categories) in a manner that both serves users and drives traffic to professional-referral search directories that will provide the site’s primary source of revenue
- Writing and posting more than 100 articles that will stand as the site’s core content
- Acquiring images and video content
- Supervising bloggers
- Aggregating relevant related links to Web-based resources
- Working with the developers to adapt the Drupal content-management system to the project’s needs; training other group members to work in the CMS
ebuild.com. During a seven-year tenure as director of content for a noted B2B Web site, achievements included:
- Participating as a founding member of a team that launched the Web’s first searchable online catalog of home building products
- Developing content strategy for a searchable catalog containing more than 300 product categories and 300,000 product records
- Designing a product taxonomy and developing attributes to power the site’s product search/selection system
- Supervising a staff of 16 data-production and content editors
- Managing offshore data aggregation resources
- Devising an automated system to measure the quality of product data records
- Guiding efforts to repurpose print-magazine content for display on the Web site
- Aggregating video content for display on the site
- Composing descriptive blurbs, tagging, and creating metadata for images and video content to improve the site’s search-engine rankings
- Designing market research and user-experience studies
- Leading a redesign team composed of business development stakeholders, information architecture consultants, GUI designers and developers
Employment History
- Web Producer/Consultant, AARP – Current
- Director of Content, remodelingadvice.com – Current
- Senior Technical Writer, Government Services IPT, Lanham, MD – 2008 to 2009
- Director of Content, ebuild.com, Hanley Wood, LLC, Washington, DC – 2000 to 2007
- Vice-president, Sumner Rider & Associates, New York – 1998 to 2000
- Editor, Bob Vila’s American Home, Hearst Corp., New York – 1996 to 1998
- Editor-in-Chief, Home Mechanix, Times Mirror Magazines, New York – 1991 to 1995
Publications
Editor of:
- Lighting & Electricity, Time-Life Books “Fix-it-Yourself” series
- Major Appliances, Time-Life Books “Fix-it-Yourself” series
- Popular Mechanics Book of Home How-To, Wiley
Author of:
- Building Crafts Series, TPC Publications, Chicago
- Math for the Healthcare Worker, Activity Records, Baldwin, NY
- Math for the Carpenter, Activity Records
Contributor to:
- Architectural Record
- Consumers Digest
- Old-House Journal
- Popular Mechanics
- Bisnow on Business
- The Editorial Advantage
Education
B.A., Comparative Literature, Rutgers University
Proficiencies
- Web content development
- Information architecture
- Wire- frame development
- Drafting business requirements
- Project management
- Writing in virtually any style and format
- Line-editing, copyediting and proofreading
- Keen eye for layout and graphics
- SEO
- Microsoft Word, including auto-formatting
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- HTML
- DreamWeaverEdit Plus
- Drupal CMS
- CQ5 CMS
- Google Analytics
- Omniture