Posted by Jason on February 21st, 2006 — in Interviews
Our next interview is with Nicholas aka bluemouse2 from the Digital Point forum. He started his webmaster journey in 1999 when he created his first 
website, which was a fansite. The fansite still exists and suffered many modifications along the years. In 2003 Nicholas started his first commercial website, offering forum hosting services. Then, he started to develop several websites, covering major internet topics: web directories, entertainment, etc. He also owns a Webmaster Services site, which is what I based my questions on for this interview.
What services do you offer?
I offer all kinds of webmaster services: I install PHP scripts, I create small and medium websites, I do
directory submissions, I sell links, directory listings and more.
Do you package many of them together or do you tend to sell each service on its own?
Sometimes I package them, sometimes not. It depends on the customer needs.
You mentioned Directory Submissions, how does hand submission differ from using a program to do it?
Submitting by hand assures a high quality service. I can choose the proper categories, I take care of all required fields and I check the email confirmations.
How do you decide on your pricing for your services?
The price I offer reflects the quality of my service. It’s not the lowest price around but everyone should afford my webmaster services.
How do you promote them?
I promote my services through my PHP scripts installing website and through the directories that I own. I also promote them via Digital Point forum and other webmaster forums.
Do you get a lot of repeat customers and how do you encourage that?
I have customers that return even after months. I think the main factors are the quality of the services and the respect for my clients.
Do you see the small services market, such as directory submissions, as overcrowded or is their always room?
Sometimes it gets overcrowded but I can manage as I can offer other webmasters services.
Are there any tools you use to make your jobs more organized or efficient?
Notepad is my favorite tool. I use it as HTML editor and organizer.
What is your favourite aspect of providing Webmaster Services?
My favorite aspect is that I can earn the money that I need.
What is the worst aspect?
The worst aspect of my online business is that Paypal is not accepted in my country.
Where do you see yourself and your offerings in 1 years time?
I’m an optimist guy; I hope things will remain as bright as now in the future. Thank you for your interview!
No Comments »
Posted by Jason on February 13th, 2006 — in Interviews
The subject of my next interview in this series, Oliver, is an SEO for an 
agency based in Central London called Airlock. He works with pretty much anything to do with online marketing, from banner campaigns to search, although the company has a pretty widespread range of services including Site Development and Banner campaign management.
Oliver has been building sites since I was 13 or 14, but didn’t actually start to make any money out of the net until around 2003 when he got a job as a junior developer at a small agency near where he lived. Since then he has moved away slightly from the dev side of things and now focus more on Search and Online Marketing. He is also an avid poster in many forums under the user name SEBasic.
What are the main jobs an SEO does for their client?
My day to day duties vary pretty widely, but the majority of our clients employ us to increase the visibility of their sites in their market, and come up with new and exciting ways to make sure they still perform 12 months down the line.
What are the advantages of hiring an SEO over doing the work yourself?
Most SEO firms aren’t doing anything special ~ In reality most site owners could do the work SEO firms undertake themselves (If they had the time or inclanation).
I like to think the work we do is slightly more special because we take a much more tailor made approach to it, and as a result get to be involved in so much more than just link exchanges or whatever most firms occupy their time with.
How has SEO work changed in the last few years?
Search had changed so much over the last 12 months.
It’s gone from being more of a techy area focused on site development, into more of a PR (Not the Google type) and spin exercise.
It used to be the case that you could chuck a few thousand links online, all of them pointing to your sites and you could pretty much guarantee that’s you’d do well for the phrase.
Things don’t usually work like that now because search engines are so much more intelligent than they once were and as a result catch that kind of thing pretty easily.
What is the biggest challenge to an SEO?
The biggest challenge to a corporate SEO is finding new and interesting ways of increasing your clients site performance, while making sure that their brand isn’t being diluted.
The biggest problems for Bedroom SEO’s is having to wade through all the crap advice and help out there before they find anything that will actually help them with their sites.
Forums are a blessing and a curse ~ it’s a great way of finding out LOTS of information about SEO. It’s just a shame that all the info isn’t accurate.
How do you decide your rates?
That’s a tricky one.
The problem I’ve always had when trying to price SEO work, is that most of the tasks an SEO undertakes aren’t really quantifiable.
Most of it comes down do intelectual property and having an infrastructure in place that facilitates the work (Whether that be software or a methodology to do the work).
There are so many different areas involved in a decent SEO campaign that having a set fee for clients isn’t a viable option (For us anyway), because the work required from site to site can vary so much.
I’d love to be able to offer advice on this, but there are so many aspects that need to be covered when it comes to pricing that it would be pretty much impossible to say “This is how it needs to be done”.
How do you get your clients?
Mainly through word of mouth to be honest. We do work for a client, get good results, and then they tell someone else ~ Simple as that really.
Is their a specific type of client you prefer?
YES!
One of our core principles is that we work for brands we like.
We’ve got a fantastic client list, and the work we do varies so much from project to project, that it’s pretty difficult to get bored of it.
Basically, anyone with a cool brand and interesting products, because they tend to be more open to trying different things so the work is always varied.
Do most SEOs offer any kind of guarantee in regards to ranking?
I’m not sure about ‘most’ SEO’s, but some certianly do…
Personally I wouldn’t have any issue telling a client ‘Yes, we can get that phrase’, because I have confidence in our abilities, but I’d only tell a client that if I was very confident that we could do it. If I was unsure as to whether it’s achievable or not I’d be honest with them.
The problem with most companies is that they’re willing to guarantee pretty much anything as long as they can get hold of the work.
I like to be honest with clients and educate them on how things work, so to a certain extent they know what’s achievable and what’s not anyway.
What is the biggest threat to a professional SEO?
Getting a client site banned…
That’s a pretty good way of making sure that you lose your reputation pretty quickly, just take a look at the TrafficPower fiasco.
With Google constantly changing their Algo, how do you explain big shifts to clients?
As I mentioned previously, I like to educate our clients from the word go, so when there are changes to an algo, they’re usually pretty clued up as to what’s going on.
At the end of the day, if you do the work ‘right’, client sites won’t see a decline in performance when there is an update, so it’s never been much of an issue.
Do you take on clients where there may be an overlap of industry with another client?
No Comment. 
Where do you see the SEO industry 1 year from now?
I see it continuing very much in the way it has done for the last 12 months or so…
I’d hate to say it, but Web 2.0 seems to be where it’s at right now. Sites like del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg and Blogger (To name a few) will continue to have a massive impact on search results for the foreseeable future…
SEO isn’t so much about link spamming these days, as it is social networking and PR…
6 Comments »
Posted by Jason on February 9th, 2006 — in Interviews
The subject of my next interview in this series, Al, is a webmaster that has been playing around with websites for nearly 10 years. He has recently turned his focus to revenue in the last 18 months on his 12 sites and 3 blogs. The most popular of those is a technology blog called “Coolest Gadgets“. In addition to his posting on the Digital Point forums as dct, He is looking at launching another 2 blogs in the next few weeks and is continually looking for passionate writers.
First of all what is Blogging?
Blogging started of being individuals writing about their life and specific interests, a bit like an online journal. Now many blogs have evolved to no longer be about an individual but more about specific subjects, so instead of having the blog about Jon Smith and his Ferrari, we now see The Ferrari Blog.
How is Blogging for Revenue different?
In a lot of ways blogging for revenue isn’t any different, if you have an interesting blog you’ll get traffic and generally the more traffic you get the more revenue a site can generate. You can optimise a blog for income though, specific subjects, high cost hobbies etc.
What is the average amount of time before you might start to see a return?
You can start getting a small (few dollars a day) return within a month but I’d say it takes at least 6 months to get established, though some blogs can take off very quickly (and equally others never do)
Is it as easy as figuring your income by multiplying how much you make on your first blog by how many blogs or are their diminishing returns?
I’ve not found it to work like that. The best blogs have passionate writers and most people have only so many different subjects that they are passionate about. It’s also easier to generate revenue off some subjects than it is others. Traffic being equal making money off a blog about digital cameras is going to be easier than a blog on cloud formations
What is the best software/script to use?
For me it’s WordPress. It’s good out of the box (well zip) and is very easy to skin and customise.
What are the biggest negatives?
It can be very time consuming as you really need to post at least daily and on some days it can be hard to find something you want to write about.
What is the most common way or program to realize your revenue?
Google Adsense is the obvious choice but there are generally suitable affiliate programs for most subjects. Selling advertising space direct to appropriate companies can also be pretty lucrative and more stable than Adsense.
What do you see for the future of blogging for revenue?
It’s not easy money and is certainly not the easiest of ways to make money on the NET. But if you enjoy doing it the money can be a nice extra income.
What kind of money could someone expect in 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year?
That’s a bit of a how long is a piece of string question, if I launch a new blog I’d be happy if it was making 300USD/mth in the first 3, 1,000USD after 6 and 5,000 after a year
If you could give just one piece of advice, what would it be?
Write about something you enjoy, don’t even think about money at the beginning just write about a subject that you enjoy, monetise it later.
4 Comments »