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Written Interviews

Interview with Jon Rowe of ScubaDiveTourism.com

Today I am presenting another written interview with Jon Rowe of ScubaDiveTourism.comJonnieRowe1024x682

Check out the interview:

1. What got you interested in helping companies in the scuba diving niche? Share your story

Scuba diving is a passion of mine. I started out scuba diving about 9 years ago in the Cayman Islands. Since that time I have been diving all over the world. Hawaii, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and the British Virigin Islands as well as at home in Canada. Diving and surfing are two things I love to do in my spare time. I had a bunch of spare time after having my third son, and was travelling to Costa Rica with my wife and three kids on parental leave from my job in Canada. I decided to do my divemaster internship while travelling with Rocket Frog Divers. They had a website that was in terrible need of repair. I had worked on lots of websites and done a lot of SEO work before so I figured why not make one for them. I did and started optimizing it for search. The results they got were amazing as far as an increase in business goes and I was off and running. It is the perfect business for it. It is mostly tourist based so people are always researching which shop to dive with online from home. If I bring more dive reservations to the dive shops they will never be shy about paying their monthly bills and that’s what I have done for the half dozen or so shops that I am working with now.

2. Have you found it easy to bring on new clients in this very specific niche of scuba diving? How do you find new ones and what’s working for you?

The funny thing with web design and marketing is that when you are doing a good job, customers will find you. They see what you are doing for their competitors or other shops and then they want you to help them as well. The main barrier I have faced is that a lot of dive shop owners think old school methods work, and are hesitant to pay very much for online marketing. The other problem I have is that I don’t work with any other dive shops within the same geographic area as any other shop I am already working with, due to competition. I can’t really tell one shop I am doing everything I can to rank them ahead of their competitors when I am also helping their competitors, so I have stayed away from that. I can’t count the number I have turned away due to this.

3. Do you think you would have had the same success if you catered general website and SEO services to anyone vs. specifically targeting scuba diving companies? What are your thoughts on this?

Yes and no. A big part of SEO is writing good content, researching, commenting on forums, etc. I don’t find this to be that taxing of a job when I am doing it about things that I like and I am interested in. I don’t mind sitting down and researching what the diving is like in a new part of the world and then writing about it. If I was writing about bathtubs or clothes then I would be bored to tears and much less productive with my time. So to put it simply, I know my skills certainly work with other niches, I do believe I have chosen an appropriate one for myself to be successful and not hate my job!

4. Have you done anything unique to help you stand out as a designer and for helping with SEO when working with clients? What can you offer a normal web design or SEO company doesn’t to these companies?

I would say the main thing I have done is get a team of dive writers together who are all actually professional divers as well. Out of the 40 or so writers I have at my disposal I am probably the least experienced diver. If I need information on a given area, there is a good chance that one of my writers can provide first hand knowledge and send me off some writing that is highly relevant and readable. People who choose designers and marketers that aren’t divers likely don’t get the same quality of articles that I am able to get. I also have the ability to get these articles in a wide range of languages as well which is a huge plus.

5. What are your future plans for 2014 and beyond?

I am hoping that 2014 is my last full year in Canada working a normal job. So far I have been doing this in conjunction with my normal job which is working in corrections. I am almost to the point where I can let go of my normal day job and head to a warm destination with my wife and 3 young boys. Right now we are leaning towards either Costa Rica or New Zealand. I want to be in a place where I can share my love for diving and surfing with my kids on a daily basis.

As far as the business goes, I think that will take care of itself. I need another 5 or 6 dive shops signed up to be able to reach my goals but I think if I just keep taking care of the dive shops I am already working with and take on new clients when the deals are profitable, then that should happen within the first half of 2015.

Check out his site at www.scubadivetourism.com

Categories
Written Interviews

Interview with Marc Heighway on Affiliate Marketing

Marc Heighway is an affiliate marketer and SEO consultant based in the United Kingdom. He recently launched new email service which lets affiliate marketing people subscribe for free weekly email alerts containing new niche ideas. In this interview I get the low-down on this new service, plus hear about plans for his own personal website which contains SEO hints, tips, and affiliate marketing guides.

  1. What got you interested in starting AffiliateNicheIdeas.net?

I’ve been making a living from affiliate marketing for a number of years now, and always have too many ideas than I can actually work with. I’ve been noting the ideas down for quite a while, but realistically know that I am never going to get around to doing anything with most of these affiliate niche ideas.

In the future I am planning on developing some SEO software, but realistically know that if I am going to market that well, I will need a subscriber base to tell about it. That got me thinking about how I could feasibly build an email list of relevant people, whilst at the same time building trust with them and giving them free content that they would value.

That’s how I came up with the idea for the Affiliate Niche Ideas website and a new video promoting affiliate niche ideas. Over the next few months I will give my subscribers helpful content and then in the future tell them more about the new software I’ve developed which will also help them build their online income.

  1. What can someone expect for being a subscriber to your site? What are some example tips you will be sharing with your followers?

Each week I will give them a new affiliate marketing niche idea, but also offer out some free advice on link-building and SEO tips. For example, last week I sent the subscribers to Affiliate Niche Ideas a new blog post I wrote about my top 10 secret list of free back-link opportunities.

Essentially I want to give real value to the readers and help them to build up their own projects which start to create them a passive online income.

  1. What are some tips you can provide to others who plan to dive into affiliate marketing?

Mostly it concerns trying new things until you hit upon one that actually works… then rinse and repeat is as much as possible. When I first started out in affiliate marketing I might create five projects, but only one would become profitable.

After a couple of years doing this and testing various methods I fell into a more productive pattern. I will share tips on how to do that on my internet marketing blog.

  1. Of all the affiliate marketing models out there, what’s your favorite? Amazon, Clickbank etc.

I’ve always loved programs like Commission Junction as you tend to find retailers in there who already have a high-trust value and brand equity with the public – meaning it’s a lot easier to sell their products and make those final commissions.

Over the last 12 months though I’ve become a lot more active in lead generation in some of the legal niches. The profits in these industries can be very big, and whilst the SEO and search landscape is extremely competitive, with a lot of hard work and effort it’s a very rewarding industry to work in.

  1. What are your future plans for your personal site?

To keep expanding it, to offer value, honesty, and truth. Of all the Internet marketing blogs on the web, the ones which are really successful are the ones which are honest and upfront about what works, and don’t try to hard sell products.

Essentially I want to grow the subscribers and create compelling content that they value and want to share. If I can help people to achieve their aims with their online projects then that’s going to be very rewarding on a personal level.

 

Categories
Written Interviews

Interview with Christian Abbas of PrimeDigital.co

Today I present another written interview with Christian Abbas of http://www.primedigital.co/Prime_Logo2

Check out the interview:

1. What got you interested digital marketing? Share your story.

From a young age, I realised that I wanted to further my career into the online sector. The speed at which things were changing made it obvious that many new opportunities would arise, and I wanted to be around to capitalise on them. However, at that early stage, I didn’t really know how to make it happen. I graduated from university with an economics and business management degree and jumped at the opportunity to fill an SEO writing position at a digital marketing agency in my area. Before long, it became obvious that the company I was working for was hindering my progress, and with a partner, I went on to build Prime Scripting.

2. What types of services do you find are most popular among the 3 you provide – Social media, copywriting or SEO?

All three of the services we provide are demanded in huge quantities, and this demand only continues to increase. Small businesses are now beginning to understand the importance of having a social presence, and we are seeing more and more companies budgeting for it. The situation is very similar for copywriting. Content is an increasingly important part of the web and people from around the globe continue to demand web copy, blogging and press release services from native English writers. SEO makes up a slightly smaller segment of our workload, although there is absolutely no doubt that demand in this area will increase.

3. What are a few challenges you typically face working with most clients when it comes to meeting their expectations?

Sometimes clients ask us to write copy for their sites in niches that we are not directly experienced in, which requires us to do the necessary research before writing. However, being able to do this research and write for a client’s specific target market is a core skill of a copywriter. I think it’s important to understand the opportunity that arises with each challenge. Every new niche that our writers study makes us a little better prepared for the next client.

4. When helping clients with SEO, what types of strategies are working today for your team?

When it comes to SEO, we only use ethical strategies which produce lasting results and are safe from being penalised by Google. Having expertise in both writing and SEO allows us to write optimised web copy, making the pages as accessible as possible for search engines. As well as that, we have a lot of contacts which allow us to build backlinks by posting high-quality articles on authoritative websites.

5. What are your future plans for 2014 and beyond?

As we further cement our place as an authority within the industry, we are looking to move into the broader digital marketing space. The first stage is to move on to graphic design and web design, which we feel are perfect complements to the services we already offer.

Prime Scripting are SEO consultants, providers of copywriting services and social media management.