Aero Searcher

Seven years ago, an idea got thrown around for an aviation classifieds website. Jeff Miller thought this would be a cool site that he could manage, but sought the help of one of his seasoned entrepreneur friends, Todd Hogan.

Jeff Miller 

“We didn’t know each other long before I brought up my idea for a classifieds site,” Miller said. “I wanted to do something where I could combine my passion for aviation along with an entrepreneurial spirit, and I thought Todd would be the perfect person to help make it happen.”

Todd Hogan, being a digital marketer and online publishing guru, took Jeff’s idea a step farther and mentioned the concept of starting a metasearch engine with not only aircraft for sale, but aviation jobs and products too. At the time, Jeff wasn’t ready to take on a project like this. Yet, three years later in the summer of 2016, Jeff decided it was time to dive into creating an aviation metasearch engine.

Todd Hogan 

“It was a lot to think about and manage, especially since it would just be a part time side project,” Jeff said. “But I just kept coming back to the idea and wanted to make it happen. We did quite a bit of market research to figure out what this community really needed, and we just went from there.”

Todd, Jeff and a select team of developers worked on this project until late 2018 when the website launched. AeroSearcher came to life as an aviation metasearch engine, where users can search dozens of websites for aircraft for sale, aviation jobs, and products and parts.

No longer just a project, 

AeroSearcher required more time 

than either Todd or Jeff had available.

“We had to find a way to continue making this work,” Todd said. “Jeff and I both wear multiple hats when it comes to our jobs, and this wasn’t just a side project anymore.”

Ashley Skinner

Just a year after the site launched, 

Ashley Skinner was hired as 

AeroSearcher’s digital marketing manager.

“We knew we had a revolutionary concept on our hands, but we needed to hire someone who could get the message out via social media, forums, publishers and other partners,” Todd said. “We hired Ashley because of her skill set and enthusiasm. It matched exactly what we needed in terms of getting a message out that was both exciting and well articulated.” Personally, I think they made an excellent choice in Ashley. I'm also looking forward to sharing a cup of coffee with her sometime in the near future. 

Ashley and her nieces

Although fresh out of college, Ashley wasn’t lacking experience. She had been the social media manager for a start-up nonprofit in Texas, a copy writer for a digital marketing agency in Texas, and the chief marketing officer for a digital marketing start-up in Indiana. 

“Although I wasn’t familiar with aviation when I took this opportunity a few months ago, I was familiar with start-ups,” Ashley said. “It’s always a challenge working with a new audience on social media, but I love a challenge.”

One of the biggest challenges for Todd and Ashley is getting the aviation community to engage with the AeroSearcher social media accounts.

Todd enjoying his passion of hiking.

“I’ve worked with a lot of different markets, and typically it’s pretty easy to get feedback and engagement from them,” Todd said. “But this market doesn’t react the same on social channels. It takes a lot of strategizing and planning.”

Jeff said getting the word out to the aviation community has been one of the biggest challenges.

Jeff in Kotor, Montenegro

“You have to realize, we’ve done something that hasn’t really been done before," Jeff said. "We’re changing the way the aviation community searches and to do that, we have to change the mindset of how to search. You shouldn’t have to go to six different sites to find the jobs you want to apply for or the aircraft you want to purchase. We’ve created a comprehensive aircraft for sale, aviation jobs, and products search engine that brings it all to you in one, simple place.”

Over the last year, Jeff, Todd and Ashley have been working to build meaningful relationships on multiple platforms. Although they say this has been somewhat of a slow process, AeroSearcher hit its tipping point when there wasn’t enough bandwidth to handle everyone.

“The concept of our data is very powerful and as people are realizing it, they want to be involved,” Jeff said.

Although AeroSearcher’s site was launched just over a year ago, that wasn’t the last stop on Jeff and Todd's journey. Once they realized how much the aviation community needed AeroSearcher’s content and data, they decided to take it a step further: creating an AeroSearcher widget to partner with other aviation sites, bringing their value to as many people as possible. With this widget, AeroSearcher’s search functionality can be leveraged without a visitor leaving the partner site.

“When we started this, our sights were unknown, but we’re coming through the clouds with this concept,” Tod said. “We jumped in the cockpit a couple years ago, and we’ve had a few stops along the way, but now we’re coming over the horizon and expanding based on our new discoveries. I don’t think we’ll be making our last stop anytime soon.”

To learn more about making an account on AeroSearcher or utilizing the AeroSearcher widget for your own website, click here or you can email Ashley Skinner at ashleys@aerosearcher.com.

Enjoy the Journey!

XO Karlene