by Jason Marshall

In 1996, I moved from a small town in Michigan to NYC to attend the Institute of Audio Research. I graduated in less than 1 year, and in 1997, I moved to Hollywood, California to work in at The Record Plant. Around the same time, I bought a new computer and started surfing the internet.

Little did I know then, but the timing couldn’t have been better.

When I wasn’t working in the studio, I began surfing the Internet looking at all the “new” websites that started popping up all around. At some point, it clicked in my head that this was going to be big! I became obsessed with learning how to make a web site. I began deconstructing source code and reverse engineering in order to understand how the pages were built. Once I had a clue, I went out and bought my first copy of Macromedia Flash 3.0, and Adobe Photoshop 3.0. It wasn’t long before I was making graphics, animations, and publishing my first HTML pages.

Then comes the story of Blackbeard! Garrrr… Ye be workin’ for a pirate now!

I responded to an ad in the paper looking for an entry level customer service person with some web design experience. I was asked to report for an interview, which I did. Blackbeard was there in full pirate dress ready to interview me! Turns out he acted in pirate battle re-enactments for places like the discovery channel, and ran about 30 websites from his home office. The sites were adult in nature, and he needed someone to actively market them online on a daily basis. So I took the job, learned some SEO, made some banners, and the next thing I knew, I was digging in for the long haul. It was my destiny, and I knew it then, I would be a web designer for life.

I stayed at that job for about 1 year. By that time my skills had improved dramatically, and I started getting several job offers on a daily basis. You see, the internet boom had begun, and I was right in the heart of it. Los Angeles during that time was buzzing with tech stocks, blue chips and IPOs. Suddenly, everyone and their brother wanted a website, and they were willing to pay premium wages to get one. The only problem was, a shortage of web designers. This drove up wages and put guys like me in demand. It made us seem like superheroes to the company’s we worked for. We came, we saw, we put them on the map. They paid us, well. And there was no shortage of work. Until the bottom dropped out in 2001.

During that time, I worked for Stardata USA, Hollywood Toys and Costumes, University Access, iGallery, and eToys.

Web based companies started laying off and going under in record numbers late in the first quarter of 2001. eToys announced plans to close its doors in January 2001 and in March 2001, I was out of a job. At this time, nobody was hiring, and a lot of web designers were out of work. With an over-supply of designers in the job pool, wages plummeted, and it suddenly became a lot harder to make a living in this business. But I was hooked, what else could I do? I really had no choice, so I persevered through the tough times.

I left LA after 9/11. It was getting hard to pay $1700 a month for rent with no job and few prospects. So I went back to Detroit and moved in with my older brother. I got a job in the IT department at the same place he worked. The pay was really good, but after almost a year, that company filed bankruptcy! What is with these places? Is it possible to find stability in this industry? All I wanted was a job at a company that wouldn’t go out of business.

Out of work, yet again…

Drastic situations call for drastic measures, so I went into business for myself. In the summer of 2003, I formed DeepTronics, Inc. to sell marine electronics over the internet. I built a pretty killer ecommerce site, set-up supplier accounts, did some SEO work and I was rolling. For two years I was able to make a living this way. Selling online and on ebay. Eventually, I was the victim of credit card fraud and lost a lot of money. That coupled with staffing issues, led to shutting the business down. It was a good run, and I learned a lot from it.

These days, I work in Traverse City, MI at a global online marketing agency. I am engaged to be married, have a house by a lake, 2 dogs and a cat. I like to ski and ride the snowmobile in the winter and go boating and fishing in the summer.

I still enjoy slingin’ the web for a living after all these years. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience and know how to do some really cool things online. So drop me an email or give me a call if you want to talk shop.