Running IASourceLink, a statewide platform serving 100,000+ visitors a year
IASourceLink is Iowa's centralized business resource platform, home to the state-mandated business licensing database. For more than five years I ran it essentially as a one-person operation.
- University of Northern Iowa, IASourceLink
- Program Coordinator, UNI John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center
- More than 5 years
100,000+
annual visitors
500+
business licenses maintained in the state database
1,000+
attendees per tax webinar
Hundreds of thousands
of views on how-to guides still in use
Context
IASourceLink is Iowa's centralized platform where entrepreneurs find business resources, licensing requirements, and the right agency for their question, run out of the University of Northern Iowa. It also houses the state-mandated business licensing database. Its audience is anyone starting or running a business in Iowa. Its partners are the government organizations those businesses deal with.
Problem
A platform like this has several jobs at once: keep content accurate and useful, maintain a licensing database the state relies on, run a CRM and reporting across two systems, host events, and stay in contact with a large partner network. All of that rested on one person.
Constraints
- One person, no dedicated team.
- A state-mandated licensing database, so accuracy is an obligation rather than a preference.
- Two platforms to reconcile: WordPress for the public site, SourceLink Pro for CRM and reporting.
Approach
Let data decide where the time goes. Google Analytics drove the content strategy, so effort went to what people actually searched for and read rather than what seemed important. I treated the licensing database as a product with a maintenance cadence, not a one-time project. I hosted events with partner agencies that already had the audience.
Systems built
- Analytics-driven content strategy
- Content updates prioritized by real search and traffic data.
- Business license database
- The state-mandated license database, maintained continuously so requirements stayed current.
- CRM and reporting
- Contact and reporting workflows across WordPress and SourceLink Pro.
- Tax webinar program
- Co-hosted with the Iowa Department of Revenue.
- How-to guide library
- Plain-language guides on the questions people were actually asking.
Results
The numbers above held for years with one person behind them. The how-to guides written during that time are still live and still in use, which is the outcome I care most about: work that keeps functioning after the person who built it moves on.
What I took from it
Search data was a better editor than intuition. It decided what got written, what got fixed, and later, what the chatbot needed to know.
IASourceLink is Iowa's centralized platform where entrepreneurs find business resources, licensing requirements, and the right agency for their question, run out of the University of Northern Iowa. It also houses the state-mandated business licensing database. Its audience is anyone starting or running a business in Iowa. Its partners are the government organizations those businesses deal with.
The numbers above held for years with one person behind them. The how-to guides written during that time are still live and still in use, which is the outcome I care most about: work that keeps functioning after the person who built it moves on.