Profile

Sabrina Dent is a veteran web designer and content editor with sought after experience in online community building. She has specialist expertise in the arena of blogging, both as a noted professional blogger and as a consultant blog strategist. She is also the founding editor of one of the most popular web publications covering the virtual world of Second Life®. She has been commissioned as a journalist on the topics of blogging, travel and Second Life, and often appears on panels and in the press as a commentator on those topics.

Experience

March 2008 - Present
Sole Proprietor, SabrinaDent.com
Cork, Ireland

Online marketing and communications, including blog and website design and development, user interface design and snagging, brand development and positioning, product consumerisation, web copy writing and blogging, and the ever-popular crisis PR.

November 2006 - February 2008
Marketing Director, Mediasatellite
Cork, Ireland

Development and management of the marketing department for a telecommunications start-up. Communication remit covers shareholder and Board of Directors relations, plus press and public relations. Key responsibilities include turning highly technical R&D specs into consumer-friendly products, and developing customer communications channels.

November 2004 - December 2005
Managing Editor, Mink Media Blog Network
London, England

Design, development, and daily management of five popular blogs focused on UK culture. Editorial responsibilities entailed managing a staff of writers and commissioning content, as well as authoring all of the content for Wanda Lust, a site that earned accolades from both the Guardian and Forbes Magazine as one of the 10 Best Travel Blogs in the world. Mink Media was sold to Creative Weblogging.

August 1998 - November 2004
Director of Online Services, Apperception
London, England

Lead designer and developer for dozens of online projects from government websites to ecommerce stores. Projects encompassed public websites, private networks, and secure access sites. Content development services for client organizations included extensive copy writing for websites, associated monthly newsletters and promotional materials.

July 2001 - October 2003
Editor, Satin Slippers
London, England

Founder and editor of one of the most popular women’s websites of its era, with over 14,000 members, 125 contributing authors, and a sub-editorial group of six. The site featured news, advice, articles, galleries and discussion forums, and delivered in excess of 1.5 million page views per month.

June 1996 - July 1998
Community Development, Microsoft Network
NYC, NY - telecommuting

Content and community development on the then-proprietary Microsoft Network. Areas of focus included planning and implementation of online community events such as charity auctions and celebrity events, as well as creating a format for the MSN UK Business Forum and developing supporting content.

Panels and Presentations

08 March, 2007
Creative Camp, Kilkenny
“How To Blog Like A Boy”
Sociolinguistics, voice and authority in the Irish blogsphere.

28 June, 2005
New Media Knowledge, London
“Is Blogging a New Communications Paradigm?”
Blogging vs journalism, trusted opinions vs impartial reporting.

30 September, 2006
BarCamp Ireland
“Making Money in Second Life”
Examining the niches that generate revenue in SL.

Publications

• The Financial Times
• The Guardian
• The Observer
• The Age (Australia)
• The New York Times
• Sunday Herald Magazine (Scotland)
• Fiesta Magazine
• Net Imperative
• Marketing Magazine (NZ)

Key Skills

• Extensive experience in building online communities.
• Highly skilled in website design and development.
• Excellent writing ability and proven journalistic track record.
• In-depth understanding of online marketing, promotion, and affiliation.
• Considerable sales and marketing experience for online properties.

Technical Abilities

• HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP, and various editing utilities for web pages.
• Database driven websites built on Access, MSSQL and MySQL.
• Photo editing and image generation in Photoshop, Illustrator and PaintShop Pro.
• Windows Media Encoder, Real Producer, and QuickTime Pro.
• Multiple backend systems and CMSs for online content management, including WordPress, Plone, Drupal, Mambo, and Zope.