Bio updated May 2024

Hi! I'm Deborah Carver, and I'm an independent consultant with a 20-year career divided between traditional publishing and digital content strategy. I live in Minneapolis with my husband and two cats.

In May 2019, I started my independent consultancy, deciding on The Content Technologist to showcase my love not only for words and writing but also for my expertise in the web-based tech and software that superpowers digital content. That July, I began writing the weekly The Content Technologist newsletter to share my experiences and practices working in content strategy. 

Professionally, I'm an expert in:

  • Cross-channel digital media strategy, with a focus on organically developed content;
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) with high-quality content in mind;
  • Audience research and data-driven content strategy;
  • Content analytics, insights, and what "normal" looks like;
  • Research methods and how they translate to business outcomes;
  • Website redesigns for content-heavy organizations;
  • How different types of businesses monetize and manage content and all types of consultanty things;
  • Content- and media-related software and how it impacts said business models;
  • Ethical generative AI from an organizational perspective.

What I've learned on the job at publishing houses, corporate communications, and in agency-side performance/strategy roles has been so different from what other content strategists and search experts write online.

And I've always believed that if you can't find what you want on the internet, you should make an effort to publish it. I also have a deep love for the open web and really good websites. Thus, The Content Technologist was born.

When I do personal branding exercises, I describe myself as:

  • a Minneapolis-based writer, editor, and publisher;
  • a content designer, podcast guest, speaker, and creator;
  • a freelance digital strategist with expertise in media effects, content analysis, search and discovery;
  • a consultant with expertise in helping businesses design, package, and price products and services around all above;
  • someone with two university degrees, dammit, and I took all that time and money to do 'em, so I'm gonna use 'em and, no, I won't stop quoting Whitman;
  • the kind of person who will talk endlessly about the gradual adoption of and attitudes toward technology in The Sopranos; quiz you about your favorite songs of the summer; then introduce you to the best quarterly reporting strategy you've ever seen;
  • a person who loathes pitching herself but knows that outreach is part of the gig.

Contact me! The whole point of being on the internet is to be in touch with other people. I'm happy to have a conversation with pretty much anyone unless you are very specifically pitching something that I am not actively looking for. My rough editorial calendar is here, for the moment.

I'm also in the process of building a more in-depth personal website.

I am not:

  • a coach;
  • a scammer;
  • a community manager;
  • a fractional executive;
  • an engineer, a sysadmin, or anything traditionally considered IT.

The newsletter has taken some twists and turns with occasional collaborators and content contributors, but in 2024, The Content Technologist is a solo operation.

I am in the process of updating my C.V. across the web. For the moment, my LinkedIn profile might be a bit out of focus, but it's not wrong.

Yes, on this website, I use affiliate links.

Longer bio for the interested

I've been building websites since I was a teenager in the late 1990s, and I've taken that passion for publishing content and finding an audience online—and turned it into a career.

I started my post-college career in publishing and editorial, interning at major New York publishing houses; and snagging writing and editorial gigs working in mostly in books around the U.S. In 2007 I moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota, snagged a master's degree, and stayed in town.

Since 2013, I've worked directly with digital marketing, content, and development agencies to support their clients with audience research, search optimization, analytics, and website information architecture projects. I've standardized content strategy deliverables and supported teams in building consistently successful service design for content strategy, production, measurement, and reporting.

Past clients have included leading global arts organizations; two Fortune 10 companies; reproductive health companies; social justice and affordable housing organizations; higher educational institutions; SaaS startups; one of the most populous U.S. states; and numerous other Fortune 500s and companies you've heard of.

In addition to award-winning client work, I've spoken at national conferences and conducted content strategy workshops with individual teams. Long ago, I was also an adjunct publications editing instructor at the University of Minnesota, as well as an interim afterschool tutor hired by companies during the No Child Left Behind Act era. I've also been part of a major longitudinal research study about work and childhood income since I was 14, so I know a lot about that kind of research from the subject's end.

Still here? Well, you're probably interested in how I also once worked at a mixology bar, and I know a ton about cocktails. In graduate school, I wrote papers on Jezebel and Feministing. Once, briefly, I sold gas lanterns and dog art. In the airport, people I don't know break hallway traffic patterns to ask me for directions.

If you want more, you should really subscribe to the newsletter.

Subscribe to The Content Technologist

Below will be updated later in 2024.

Memberships

Indee Marketing Co-op

Assorted recent consulting clients

Three Sixty Eight | Storythings | Creed Interactive

Assorted recent coverage

  • BuiltIn - “10 Do’s And Don’ts Of Data-driven Content Strategy”
  • Business Insider - “1 woman's experiment with newsletter platforms revealed 4x traffic growth thanks to one strategy: leaving Substack”
  • Divvy - “Could AI generated content work for you?”

Past speaking engagements, in-person and virtual

Awards

Other socials

When I’m not being fully professional, I use the handle fightwithknives. It’s been my handle for 20 years, and I’m stubbornly clinging to it.