Frank Matowitz

For over two decades KNL has really been just one person, Frank Matowitz. All the skills from being an award winning one-man-band production company to making clients sites rank #1 on Google, it’s me and who we need. Please forgive me for the work in progress here. It is like the cobblers shoes. I work on everyone else’s stuff and ignore my own. I’m sure many of you suffer from the same thing. 🙂 

 

Since 1997 KNL has been an award winning leader in new media development. Here are some of the milestones:

  • One of the first companies to include entertainment video on CD ROMs
  • More than 20 years ago now, developed one of, if not the first, TV Shows streamed over the internet way back in 2000.
  • Created one of the first MOOCs
  • Unsuspended 3 companies from Google for black-hat techniques
  • Twice Google requested access to PPC accounts I took over to manage because of huge swings in the success of the campaigns. 
  • Able to get six of the nine position on the front page of Google for primary keywords. 

 

I have to say though, Next Level TV was my proudest achievement. Long before Youtube or any other video sharing site existed. It was to be the first of many shows to be on my streaming platform. Think of it as like a Youtube for for serious video producers. No cats falling off of TVs. LOL, which is one of the things that made Youtube famous… this was six years before they did it. I have always been ahead of the curve.  And right now is no different.  If you need new media services including websites, SEO, SEM, Digital Photography or Digital Video production give me a call.

 

Here is my work experience in the field. I have chosen to work as an employee for these companies because it is just easier with taxes and all the details of HR that a freelancer needs to take care of. It simplifies things.

My most recent employment was with HPA in Saint Petersburg. Prior to my employment they outsourced everything to one of the countries largest internet businesses services providers. The problem was, they never registered the domain with Google search. As you can see, once I came on board it was the first thing I did and their internet presence exploded.

They had a VP of marketing that had a wonderful vision for the company. It was to bring in-house all the media services so they had complete control of their digital presence and brand it all under one umbrella.Unfortunately I was brought on by the VP at the end of their tenure. They spent years there burning the midnight oil and just had hit the wall and burned out. They needed to move on and without a captain to steer the entire marketing ship it was no longer feasible to continue the process of bringing it in house with no one to control it all. While there I was able to accomplish:

Major Accomplishments

  • Set up 4 complete WordPress websites
  • Setup and managed a Microsoft Advertising Campaigns
  • Set up and managed Google Ads campaigns
  • Set up and oversaw Facebook (Meta) Marketing
  • Set up and oversaw Angi, and several other home improvement sites
  • Developed a Customer Portal to keep customers informed on projects
  • Set up ticketing system to track customer issues

Interesting e-Learning and development company. It is a husband and wife team who are both each highly skilled programmers in their own right. They recognized that as knowledgeable as they are, they didn’t have the expertise to effectively develop and manage high converting websites. They can build really sophisticated and well functioning websites. They built and manage one of the highest used shopping carts for the garment industry on the Internet. But marketing and converting requires experience with an entirely different skill set. I was brought on to provide that part of the business.

It began with a traffic school website. We first had to develop a streamlined process for putting a WordPress front end for the marketing part on their sophisticated shopping carts. Then we developed a very robust PPC campaign that got great results, for a while. I added for a while because I learned something every important about click fraud all business owners should know (click here). But it did last long enough for us to work their website to the front page of Google for their primary keywords. Several of them in fact.  I was then given reign to develop what websites I wanted. I then used a technique that allowed them to hold six of the 9 organic spots for their main selling product. The landing page had a conversion rate in the mid 20’s around 24% – 26%.  It still is on top today.

After that we then began to develop other products in other areas and took on some outside clients.

It was my decision to make a bold marketing move to basically save my and a couple others jobs when the pandemic hit. Oddly enough you’d think an online e-learning company would blow up during the pandemic, right? Nope, not at all. Sales plummeted. We were still ranking in the same place but there was just no traffic. With everything closed up there were no brick and mortar school making sales either. But they have the grass roots connection into the community that an online school does not. So I linked the two together and allowed the brick n mortar schools to resell our online course and make money helping them keep their lights on while saving the online school making the sale. It was so successful that it remained a permanent way for both to do business after all the bans were lifted. It raised revenu 50% over the previous year.

Major Accomplishments

  • Underground Storage Tank Certifications
  • Expanded Driver Training Offerings
  • Texas Alcohol Server Certification Training
  • Saved 2COOLTS during the pandemic.

Website projects:

Paul Kastes Property Management

Business and Professional Women of Florida

Flagship Website (They have updated the theme but the core of the website is what I built.)
Here are examples of others sites I did for them.
Site 2 Site 3 Site4 Site5

The reason for my separation is that the owners had enough instances of setting up new businesses using my methods and the process we developed. Once they had their personal affairs in order they were then able to dedicate their time using my process and methods developed for them and I became redundant.

Here is a current look at their Internet presence. You can see that they declined for some time after I left and the number of ranking keywords have dropped significantly. 

21st is a business that sells businesses in the home healthcare industry. If you want a home care business you go to them and write a check and they deliver you a home care business for your state all legal and signed, sealed and delivered. I Was brought on to improve rankings and increase lead generation.

 

21st is one of the two companies in my career that the PPC campaign was so successful Google asked for access to monitor it to see how it was configured and run.

 

We were so successful in turning around their digital presence they had the financial resources to change their business model from just selling businesses to a franchise model. The PPC campaign had over a 500% increase in conversions. Although I wasn’t responsible for all the changes that business did to grow, I did my part in getting it the resources in sales so it had the financial means to take it to the next level. 

At one time this company was responsible for importing more than 90% of the Kratom that was brought into the United States. The owner of the company hired me for my first remote job after speaking with him at length on the phone.

They had an eCommerce website that was built on a platform that had cease to exist for more than 4 years. They just kept running millions of dollars of transactions through a website that was just waiting to be hacked. The owner knew it was a disaster waiting to happen but no one wanted to deal with this mess.

They had over 200 products and 25,000 clients with hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes over a million dollars in transactions a week. Myself and a fellow programmer completely redeveloped the web presence and locked it down secure and as hack-proof as can be. When the website was launched Christmas Eve 2016 it tripled it’s traffic for over 5 months while I was there finishing up and had a bounce rate below zero. 0.24% bounce to be exact. Literally no one left that website without going through it.

The best part of this job though was I got to temporarily relocate to Southern California for 3 months to finish up the details of the project. They needed new product images and all the new SEO work needed to be done so the owner invited me to come out there. What an amazing experience. I crossed half a dozen things off my bucket-list that I didn’t ever think I would have the chance to do. Things like ride a Harley on the Pacific Coast Highway. See the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, iconic things.

The company changed hands and I’m still in contact with that owner today.

 

This company is in the hardware industry. They make a product that we’ve all seen but probably never thought about. Those aluminum cylinders that hold marketing signs off the walls. When I left there was such an explosion of business that new staff had to be hired to accommodate the increase in business. 

 

This company is using Magento as their eCommerce platform so I know my way around that as well. We did several things to help boost the companies online branding. I created “How To” videos for the use of their products that the still use. Here is an example

 

This is one of the companies I worked for that I was able to get unsuspended from Google. The owner had run the digital marketing and like owners do, they wanted to get an advantage over the competition. Problem was, they invested in what become black-hat techniques and then never cleaned it all up.Once I got them unsuspended we were able to unseat the industries long time #1 ranked website. Their competitor is the industry standard. Been in business over 70 years and #1 on the Internet since the 80’s. 

 

This is what that looks like on SEM Rush.

Prior to that I built an entire IT department and web presence for one of Tampa’s biggest independent companies.  When I was brought on the former webmaster had passed away and all of his work had been lost and they were under a Google Suspension for black-hat techniques.

I also accomplished the following:

  • Renegotiated their email contracts saving them thousands annually
  • Renegotiated their web hosting giving them far superior service at a price less than what they were paying saving hundreds of dollars and improving service.
  • Launched their first complete E-commerce site
  • Upgraded all their old HTML sites such as their flagship sites into the 21st century with e-commerce, CMS based websites that have nearly 300 products.  When I left both of these sites appeared in the #1 Position on Google for several of their keywords.
  • Very successfully managed their over $120,000.00 a year Adwords campaign so successfully that Google wanted to use it for their research.
  • Installed a wireless system that shared the Internet to 2 buildings on campus that used to require their own Verizon accounts.  This saves them over $3,000.00 a year!
  • Upgraded all expired XP (yes, XP, over 50) computers.

The list is long and at some point I will make a comprehensive one but for now let me tell you what else I’ve done.

Previous to that I worked with Andy and Holly Wood of Titan Home Lending.  Andy is a very highly respected instructor for the FHA 203K mortgage program.  I met Andy through Ronald McDonald while I was his webmaster managing over 500 domains.  Andy just had a one page HTML site that had a picture, one paragraph and his contact info.  He was no where to be found on the Internet if you didn’t have his URL.  Well, 2 years since then Andy and Holly are in the #1 position for “203K mortgages Florida” and “203K mortgages Tampa”.  Search it for yourself.  Remember, this is the #1 position in Google.  Not just the first page, the #1 position on organic rankings.

 

But besides the awards I’ve won for video production I’m most proud of the fact that Mike L. Murphy chose me to work with when he was doing a project in the area.  Mike worked in Hollywood for years on such block busters as “Iron Man” and “Lord of The Rings” just to mention a couple.  We developed a motivational program that included Olympic Gold Medalist Steven Bradbury of Australia.

 

Let me give you some more background.

 

I pioneered NEW MEDIA VIDEO MARKETING for business: internet, cell phone and iPod marketing long before anyone else.

 

Are you in need of  professional photography services for your event, product or publication?  I’ve shot everything from professional sports with Iron Man and NASCAR to fine art and most everything in between. Tons of product photography too!  I  have the experience you need to get the images you want.

 

And no New Media company is complete without offering Internet services including web design with SEO.  Why waste extra money hiring a web designer AND an SEO company when if your website is designed properly from the start you only need one?  I use the latest technologies in content management systems that give your website power like never before.  Decide you need a new functionality added to your site?  It takes hours not days to add features like newsletter signups and photo galleries.  And the really great part is that if you have someone on your staff that is well versed in a word processing application they can update your website from anywhere there is Internet access and they have a computer or even a phone!  You are not at the mercy of the developer.  I treat my clients the way I want to be treated.

 

And if  you need video production for your site or professional photos it is what I love doing.  From television to published photos, I’ve got you covered.

 

How about e-commerce?  Need an online store?  I’ve set up dozens of carts.