Bill Kelm

Bill enjoys bringing long term buyers together with ethical and value driven sellers (broker or intermediary).

Bill Kelm has a successful business background that includes 7 years of consistent top sales and customer relations in the B2B marketplace. His "Hall of Fame" status in Thomas Register was given to very few reps in over 30 plus years of record keeping! He has a BBA degree in management and marketing from St. John's University in New York. It was followed by many training courses in negotiations, real estate brokering, independent contractor law, and "on the job training" in buyer-guide directory ("relevant advertising") skills. Some companies Bill was associated with are: Scott Paper Company, Armour Dial, Prince Matchabelli, Charles of the Ritz/Yves Saint Laurent, and 20 years of sales/marketing/management of the advertising in the online & offline versions of the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers.

In 1991 Bill was given a 6 hour test, competed for, and was awarded an independent contractor, advertising sales management contract from Thomas Publishing Company (a B2B buyer-guide directory publisher of the Thomas Register). This "TPL" ("The Personnel Labs" test results page) gives his strengths and weaknesses. He then advertised for, interviewed, trained, and managed up to nine independent contractor reps at one time during the 13 years of his successful Kelm Marketing Group, Inc. company. His Territory New Account success (in spite of many new Internet competitors) is documented for 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Bill did not renew his publisher's contract for 2004 due to differences in managerial philosophy with the incoming and new upper management of Thomas Publishing Company.

Soon after that directory's data base was put online in 1995, Bill developed an interest in search engine optimization. In fact, he incorporated some aspects of it into his tediously created suggested preparation for his company's reps. He, also, closely watched his many advertising accounts get websites, and read about how search marketing was developing.

This interest in the internet, web site adaptation and utilization, combined with his consumer advocate and advertising sales philosophy interests have given Bill a somewhat unique perspective. A good broker is an autonomous, independent contractor intermediary who, hopefully, is objective and empathetic to all sides of a transaction.

Besides what is in Bill's "One-Line Bio" above, he hopes to make a difference with this unique perspective in helping the search marketing industry grow, and help Internet consumer-users avoid deceptive or misleading websites. Since Bill is a "Baby Boomer", he tries to be an advocate for that growing market segment. Therein lies the reason for this blog.