In 2018, one of the largest media companies in Central America shuttered, and with it, the dreams of many employees. April Keaton was one of them. Like all writers left in the cold, she faced the frustrations of floating her resume again. She had no idea that this road would lead her to founding April Pad.

When I met April, she was booking a flight back to Puerto Rico. However, due to a local uprising, all fights were cancelled that day. The small airport had more National Guard than passengers, and no one wanted to stroll around.  Sharing seats and chatter became a comfort. So we did.

Within a few minutes, it became clear that we were both affected by the same company. She was the affiliate manager who supervised over ten affiliate departments. Ten years of corporate bureaucracy had finally come to an end. A small civil uprising can pack a powerful punch, knocking out everything in its path. She had nowhere to go except home.

Founding April Pad- The Flight that Never Happened

By midnight, we both fell asleep and woke at the sound of the government siren. A stern flight attendant, accompanied by two guards, delivered the bad news. All flights were cancelled.

As we discussed our plans, we discovered that we both wanted to start our own blogs, recover some of our clients, and become the kings of Google. Scheming has always been easier for writers, and especially those with years of experience. No wonder she soon had a notepad scratched all over.

The plan was simple.

• April would write affiliate marketing content, and I would write about SEO services.
• She would be the affiliate manager, and the rest would pretty much fall on my lap.
• We could invite my wife to take on the role of accountant.

There was so much excitement in the year that we hardly noticed that it was noon and we hadn’t taken a shower.  There was no rush anyway; we were giving birth to a new blog.

How Was April Pad Created?

Life has a way of uniting people in ways we least expect. At about 2 o’clock that evening, a friend of hers called to check on her progress and offered to bring us some food.  That would be a pleasant thing after all.

While she showered and got dressed, the friend came along with the food, and to my surprise, turned out to be living in my town. Her daughter was a classmate of my daughter, April.  She once mentioned that she had a friend called April.

Once the ties were revealed, we both decided that naming the blog “April” would be related to both partners. However, every domain angle of April was taken, and April.com was having some conflicts with customers. We began to look for names with “April+” as a prefix, most of which were recommended by Namecheap.

By midnight, we had settled on the Aprilpad and agreed to wait until the uprising was over. However, we were unable to launch that year, despite gaining eight clients. The rest of the story is history.

The COVID-19 pandemic further derailed the project, and we did not officially launch until 2022 under the April Pad SEO Services name. Nonetheless, April Keaton, Katherine Valladares, and I deepened our plans over time and never lost a customer.

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