Expert Chat: Interview with Reginald Chan Aka Skilled Blogger

Today I would like to welcome Reginald Chan who is part of this mind boggling interview. So You are welcome to 3rd Interview section of this blog, the “Expert Chat” Section where we have a chat with the Reginaldchan.net Author Reginald.  He is going to discuss various tricky questions related to SEO and Internet Marketing. So I hope you Enjoy his interview on my blog. He really put his hard work on this interview, so do share your reviews in comments section.

Can you tell us something about your blogging journey. How and when did you enter into blogging? And who are your blogging role models?

Hey mate. Thanks for the opportunity given for the interview. Well, I started blogging back in 2005 and it was just as a hobby. Within the first 3 months, I earn my first dollar from Google Adsense and I was like “wow!”. My first blog was over at blogspot and I only started self-hosted domains around 2009.

I have a few idols which are:

• Ana Hoffman – Traffic generation guru
• Adam Connell – Marketing expert
• Business blogging – Darren Rowse
• Neil Patel – Conversion master

Only after I started my self-hosted domains, I got more serious into blogging. Before that, it was all for fun but amazingly, I was still making money out of blogspot with zero SEO then.

What are your top favorite 3 tools for managing social media campaigns and why?

There are probably dozens of tools but I am in love with Buffer. With my hectic schedule, Buffer is great for scheduling etc. I do my scheduling once a month and it is a great tool indeed!

Besides that, I am also using Commun.it to connect with influencers. I love the part where this tool gives you a list of influencers, recommended people to follow and unfollow. Great for Twitter management.

Lastly, how could I ever live without Followerwonk. Since my goal is Twitter, Follwoerwonk allows me to check on timeline etc. This tools makes all the difference as it increases the ROI and for addon, it is able to integrate with Buffer. Win win!

Do you Pinterest for your business, what kind of pinterest tools you use.

Pinterest is a cool tool but a very good traffic generator. However, just like any other social media networks, you need to spend a lot of time to build it. For Pinterest, not many tools are good or at least, offering features I am looking for. Therefore, Pinterest is manual for me.

I use Pinterest on ad-hoc basis. The truth is, you probably get a repin if you have great images. If you don’t have one, then the chance is slim.

Recommended: Check out Pinterest Tools here !!

If you are familiar with Internet marketing what kind of tactics you use for your blog reader engagement.

It really depends. For me, I share information that I know and have hands on experience. If not, I try to avoid any kind of selling unless it is paid review.

When it comes to IM, there is a thin line between honestly and making money. Truth is, you need to play with your words if you want to close the sale. If you want to make money through IM, only ruthless will dominate.

Sad truth but true!

What Is Your SEO Super Power?

I wish I had! Haha~

I am good with analytics and I plan my stuffs. So when it comes to SEO, I make sure that I do out of the normal (try an error). At times, this pays out and some time now. It really depends. When it comes to SEO, I usually analysis deeply before starting a case-study or experiment. So, you can call me a ‘data-man’ J

How Do You Conduct An SEO Experiment?

Experiment or case study requires a lot of data. This means that you need to have a lot of traffic to really determine the success of it. I do my experience now and then but when it comes to SEO, each case study can take months.

What kind of SEO Tools Do You Use And Why?

I have a few and I had recently ditched quite a few. Here’s the list:

[Previous] Scribe SEO – The best SEO plugin for WordPress and for any serious bloggers. It offers data and analysis not only towards that particular blog post but taking into consideration into your whole blog. It also offers internal backlink suggestions too which comes handy.

SEOpressor – I wouldn’t say it is a great tool for experience bloggers but for a newbie blogger, this is one tool you need to use. It makes SEO easy and all you need is to click and choose the options to enrich your blog post.

Moz Analytics – This another great tool if you are running a SEO agency. It is highly customizable and detailed analysis on social media ranking, keywords and even your blog post ranking. For newbie and small time bloggers, it is not recommended as it cost $99 per month.

Yoast SEO – How could I ever leave Yoast SEO out? Yes, this is the only plugin I am using right now. Basically, straight forward SEO with suggestions and offers a lot of markups which is good. Can’t say anything bad about this plugin though.

What blogs do you read? Tell me about an article you recently read that stuck out to you.

I read about 30 articles a day but it is hard to determine which is my favorite. Basically, I usually hang around at CopyBlogger, Traffic Generation Café, KISSMetrics and QuickSprout.

The article I recently read was “Why I Hate CopyBlogger”. It is a great article by Ramsay Taplin. The article explains how CopyBlogger dominates the market and what the future prospect it has for us all is. He also shares how CopyBlogger build the reputation and basically, putting a new standard when it comes to content marketing.

A client asks you to build a strategic plan for their website. What steps would you go through?

My question would always go back to them. For example:

• What they want to achieve?
• What is their goal?
• What are they expecting?

The funniest (and most common) thing I ever heard from my clients are they want to rank a specific keyword on Google #1 or #2 spot. I mean, if I could do that, then I would probably be a very rich man!

I usually share experience with them and most importantly, telling them what to expect and not to expect from my service. If they understand it, let’s start a business.

What are the Secrets of Affiliate Marketing and are you associated with any kind of affiliates.

Secret of affiliate marketing is no secret. When you promote a product, it has to come from your heart. Don’t just blog because you want to sell it. Tell your visitors and readers if that product can really help them. Never ever sell a product is useless .

I am using ShareASale, DigiResults and Amazon to name a few. I had over a dozen of them. When it comes to affiliate marketing, it is all about freshness and not focusing on limited products. The more you promote, the better chance you do a sale.

Do you use Blackhat SEO tactics in a white hat way. Like scrapebox …

Now, this is really an understatement. Basically, tools like ScrapeBox, SEONuke XCR etc are whatever colour you decide they are. What I mean is each tool has potential to build you white hat SEO and black hat SEO.

At the moment, I only use ScrapeBox for white hat SEO building. Pretty cool but you need to build your own method. These tools can make you PR 6 in a very short time if you know what you are doing. Furthermore, the truth is 99% of the SEO enthusiast uses these tools and for those who say they don’t use it, it is really untrue.

It really boils down on how they use it and with Google algorithm changing from time to time, black hat is turning white and vice versa. Think about that! J

What are your biggest client hurdles?

They expect to rank well within the first month with white hat SEO. SEO building takes months and even years. So, don’t expect the impossible unless you do black hat SEO.

On Optimising a Site – Briefly Tell us what a Search-friendly Site Looks Like?

Keyword should be moderately used. Don’t focus too much on keywords. Make sure it is readable and less than 8% keyword density is good. I usually go not more than 4%.

Website must be responsive to mobile devices. Believe it or not, not having mobile responsive and you will get a lower rank. Though the effect is small, do you really want to take the chance?

Loading speed is important too. Make sure your site is below 1.5 seconds and you should be A-okay. No biggy here.

Proper usage of H1 to H4 headings. Not over using them but use them for title, categories etc.

On Google – Tell me about the Latest Changes at Google

Search queries been updated and this means that niche sites are going to be affected one way or another. Many bloggers still do not want to accept this due to several reasons; Niche blogs with good content will survive but low quality niche sites (focusing on money making in general) will lose out.

Basically, Google is focusing to provide better information to users instead of just showing up relevant results.

Do you think 3rd party blog post links and ebook submissions are playing vital role these days ?

This goes into tier backlink building. Personally, it worked well for me but you need to play it wisely. Over doing it and bam! You get penalized.

Google check on ratio. This means that if you are building links yourself (example submission) more than natural backlinks from other blogs, you are in trouble then.

The answer is yes, they play a role but not as much as last few years.

Is Author Rank is the latest technique of off page SEO ? Do you think Google give preference to this ?

Not at all. It just makes your link looks better and more clickable. However, if you link your site to Google+ profile etc, that is a whole different story.

What are some examples of how you have worked to sell your ideas in collaborative environments?

I would mixing with the right group is important. Collaboration is always two ways. I like the term ‘mix and match’ and therefore, always work better together to improve the quality instead of pointing fingers.

I wouldn’t want to give examples due to certain reasons but basically, you can start by getting involved in communities and groups. You need to understand that these opportunities come when you ask and not when you are being asked. Of course, if you are as famous as Neil Patel and that would be a different case!

What Are Your Relationship Building and Outreach Skills?

Help out and do it politely. For example, I am a strictly ‘no-no’ person especially when someone hooks me up on Facebook and ask me to comment on their post. I am like “what?”

Do it by getting involved in others; sharing ideas, commenting etc. After a few months and if you do it properly, you will begin to see the outreach and more people linking back to you.

When it comes to blogger’s outreach, go out and start the first conversion is the key.

Do You Share Your Strategies Transparently With the SEO Community?

Well, I do share 85% of all my tricks on my blog. However, not everyone achieve huge success as they are looking for quick results. When it comes to SEO, nothing is fast. It takes months to build a strong base.

Everyone should have their secrets and thus, on my clients have access to all my tricks which they are paying on a monthly basis.

Hope this helps!

Finally done with interview 🙂  so I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview. If you like to ask any questions regarding this interview or you have any thoughts to share , please drop in the comment section. Your queries will be answered.  

 

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