Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Wilkerson.
Hi Kevin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I broke the mold early in life. While I am from Knoxville, TN, home of the University of Tennessee, I attended that school’s top rival, the University of Alabama. Truth be told, I followed my father’s footsteps to the Capstone and am glad I did, for it has one of the country’s top jounalism schools, a championship-level football team to cover and it prepared me for my career in journalism.
My first job was at the Dothan Eagle in the southern part of the state and that’s where I learned to cover sports at a lower tier than at the collegiate level, high school athletics. That served me well when I moved to the Savannah News-Press in Georgia and it still does today as editor and publisher of the lifestyle, travel and nightlife website PubClub.com. At the high school level you don’t have a team of people handing you quotes and statistics like in college and professional sports like the NFL and NBA so you have to do it all yourself. That’s great trainng for a journalist. And any profession, really.
When I told people in college that I got a job in Dothan, they called it LA. Lower Alabama! Dothan is a fairly small city in a rural area and I longed to be in the real LA – Los Angeles. I eventually made it there, too, where I built a career in public relations. Today, I am in San Diego, a city I enjoy so much that take visitors around it as a tour guide while also applying my skills to PubClub.com, and for various PR clients.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My road has been smooth and full of potholes. It’s been like cruising along the coast with the top down – which I have done many times – and a wild ride. For several years, things were like traveling on a newly-paved highway. I moved without a job from Savannah (GA) to pursue a more robust life in Los Angeles. I found a job within a week, moved to a bigger PR agency within a few months and when that company was jettisoned by the parent company I immediately landed an even better job. When that inevitably ended (changes in management and other factors were reasons), I was offered an even better opportunity to work with models for a promotional company.
The website I had launched, PubClub.com, was thriving with more than half a million page views a month and it was generating very comfortable revenue from Google AdSense and a major beer sponsor.
Then, much more suddently than it had arrived, it almost all went away. The promotional job ended, Google changed its search algorithm causing page views (and revenue) to steadily decline and the beer company was purchased by a company that led to decline in what money they could give me and eventually even that disappeared. I still had a couple freelance PR clients but those, too, went away due to circumstances beyond my control.
Jimmy Buffett once sang that “if it all ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall,” but I wasn’t so sure I could do it. Oh, and the beach house I had rented for years was put up for sale (and sold for more than $7 million) so I had to move.
All was not lost, tho, as I lucked out when another beach house became available to rent. I then boldly walked into a PR agency and while it took a while to be hired there, the owner was so impressed with my assertiveness he recommended me to an associate who provided me with enough freelance work to survive. More potholes were ahead of me as the second beach house later sold (also for around $7 million) and another house I rented was sold six month later. The PR jobs had run their course by this time and I was eventually forced to move to San Dieg, where a friend rented me his apartment on a temporary basis while he was out of town.
Rathern than seeing it as the end of the road, however, I looked at it as a new opportunity.
I swallowed my pride and walked into a tour guide office one day and landed a job as a tour guide. That proved to be an excellent move and I am still with that company six years later. Through a lot of effort, PubClub.com began to slowly recover and I replaced some of the lost revenue by accepting paid sponsor posts (now the lifeblood of many websites and blogs). I have also been utilizing ChatGTP to analyze PubClub.com and evaluate articles for SEO. This has led me to prioritize what I put on the homepage so visitors have a clear idea of what PubClub is the moment they see it and where to best spend my time rather than chasing page views. It’s working, too, as I have seen immediate positive results.
Additionally, I picked up two former clients, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach where I am the lead content writer and the Congressional Cup, the premier sailing event on the World Match Racing Tour, where I am the Press Officer.
Looking back, maybe I did indeed somehow adjust to the fall.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Above everything else, I am known for my writing. I have been told I am able to write to the point people can visualize being there. I am fortunate to have inherited writing skills from my very talented father and I apply it in a variety of ways, from blog posts to press releases to social media posts to program stories for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. I am also known for being relentless when pursuing media coverage for my PR clients. That’s why, for example, I was able to secure a three-minute advance feature on KCBS-TV for this year’s Congressional Cup regatta.
What sets me apart from others is my personality. I’m friendly, quick to make a joke, stay loose in tense situations, have my wits about me, think of solutions instead of problems and have a positive outook on things. A boss once said to me “you bring a lot of positive energy to the office.” I think that pretty much explains it.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was pretty much like I am now: quick to laugh, having a passion for sports, riding a bike, being in big cities and going to the beach. I was fortunate to have two great parents who taught my sister and myself to be nice to people, respect other people’s property and, when visiting someone, to leave things the way you found them. Your adult life is shaped by your childhood experiences and I am blessed to have been brought up with good values.
My dad was not much of a talker but when he said something, you wanted to listen. My mother, on the other hand, would chat up anyone, even clerks at the check-out line. At first, my dad, sister and myself kind of made fun of this quirk of hers but now I do the same. It’s a way of being friendly and sharing positive vibes with others.
Pricing:
- • $100-300 for sponsored posts on PubClub.com
- • $100 month for a side banner ad on PubClub.com
- • Sponsorship opportunities are available on PubClub.com
- • PR and writing projects determined on a case-by-case basis
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pubclub.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pubclub/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pubclubber
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wilkerson-3711555/
- Twitter: https://x.com/BarBlogger
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/pubclub
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@pubclub.com
