Building a Multi-Publication Technology Network

I started publishing technology guides in 2007 while working in IT. The first site, Online Tech Tips, grew quickly enough that a single general-interest desk could not serve every reader well.

A consumer troubleshooting audience, Apple users, working IT readers, and later Xbox players do not want the same stories, voice, or calendar. Folding everything into one site would have diluted the point of view. Treating each new topic as a random post would have made the library unmanageable.

Founder responsible for positioning, editorial strategy, operations, technology, and business outcomes across the portfolio.

• Give each publication a defined audience and a clear statement of what it will not cover.
• Keep a shared quality bar — usefulness, accuracy, and readable structure — while letting voice and depth vary by desk.
• Use search intent and reader problems to plan calendars, without turning the sites into keyword factories.
• Connect publishing decisions to audience growth, advertising, affiliate programs, and the cost of maintaining a large library.

• Launched Online Tech Tips in 2007, then added Help Desk Geek, Switching to Mac, The Back Room Tech, and later Xbox Advisor.
• Wrote heavily in the early years, then shifted toward recruiting contributors and building editorial systems as volume grew.
• Operated the work full time from 2010 through AK Internet Consulting.
• Maintained WordPress infrastructure capable of supporting high-traffic publishing.

• Per-publication positioning and topic boundaries
• Shared briefing, editing, and quality-control patterns
• Content inventory and internal-linking practices across a large archive
• Analytics review to decide what to expand, update, or stop

• Five major technology publications, each with a distinct audience.
• Approximately 7–8 million monthly pageviews across the network at its peak.
• A portfolio of more than 4,500 technology articles.

• Audience-specific positioning is an editorial decision, not a branding exercise.
• A large archive is an asset only if someone is accountable for quality, updates, and what no longer belongs.
• Founder work in publishing includes people, systems, and business results — not only bylines.