In the interview series so far, we have done interviews with some of the big names in the SEO and affiliate marketing industry like Neil Patel and Harsh Agrawal. In this week interview series, we have a guy who has earned a big name for himself in the SEO and affiliate marketing domain in a short period of time.
Lets Welcome Matthew Woodward as our guest for today’s interview. Matthew Woodward blogs at Matthewwoodward.co.uk. His blog has won many awards including:
- Technorati Top 100 Business Blog July 2013
- Affiliate Summit Best Affiliate Blog 2013
- ProBlogger One To Watch 2013
- Unbounce Top 75 Internet Marketing Blogs
- The Best Of Search Engine Journal 2012
Matthew is really popular in the blogging community for his income reports, tiered link building, Seo advices and tools and lots of well researched contents that he had created over a period of time to solve different kind of problems.
You should read this interview if you want to improve your blog SEO, want to improve your blog traffic or want to improve your affiliate earnings.
Matthew Woodward Interview (Blogs at MatthewWoodward.co.uk)
Now let me share the lovely discussion I had with Matthew Woodward:
Hey Matthew! First of all thanks a lot for accepting my interview invitation. Please tell us about you and how you get into blogging. And how has been the blogging journey so far for you?
I have being involved in the blogosphere for the majority of my life. I started writing games reviews for a website well over a decade ago all the way through to my current blog – www.MatthewWoodward.co.uk
Frankly speaking recently only I started following your blog MatthewWoodward.co.uk. But when I started, I really like it and there are lots of learnings for me already from some of your latest blog posts. It would be great if you could share how you are able to make your blog so popular in such a short period of time?
The success is driven from a few angles. The most important of which is the value of the content I provide.
I treat my blog like a TV channel, if they just re-run old shows on repeat its boring. Instead I like to entertain and engage by bringing something new to the table.
I spent a lot of time making sure that each and every piece of content on my blog is the very best of its type on the web. This level of effort lays the foundations for a quick route to success.
On top of that I also focused on a community driven promotional strategy by reaching out to community’s directly to live where my audience lives.
If you want a much more detailed look at exactly what I did and how you can do – take a look at how I build a top 100 blog in 12 months.
Coming to your income reports that you are publishing every month on your blog, you are able to earn decent amount of money through affiliate products sales. How you are able to do this? Your tips will be really helpful for lots of newbies who have to wait for several month to see a single affiliate sale into their account. And for some it never happen and they just quit blogging.
Again a lot of this is down to the content I produce and how I produce.
I’m always trying to solve peoples problems with my tutorials and occasionally the best solution is a paid product.
In my tutorials I will explore the problem and the solution – but also show people the nitty gritty of how to use/integrate whatever it is properly.
Most people would just create a basic review showing off what it does, rather than identifying the problems it solves and connecting with people on that level.
Matthew once you have chosen a affiliate product and created a tutorial around that on your blog, what are the methods you use to drive targeted traffic to that.
When you first start out and have a solid base of content you will want to spend most of your time on promotion.
Personally I keep it simple with this strategy that will not only drive targeted traffic but also build relevant backlinks at the same time.
It doesn’t cost anything other than your time to do either!
Keeping in mind the kind of algorithmic updates Google is doing these days, how you make sure your blog contents will be loved by Google bots.
I have the mantra that each and every piece of content I create will be the very best piece of content on any given subject.
Keeping that in mind helps you avoid a lot of the problems!
As an SEO expert, how you go about promoting your blog on the web? And is there any precautionary measure you take while spreading words about your work on the web?
Google is constantly evolving their algorithm and it’s often difficult to keep up with.
They have also gotten much better at detecting spam the past year and you really need to start broadening your SEO strategy to succeed.
I have written about this in detail.
Now lets talk about your recently launched SEO tool RankCracker.co.uk. What this tool is all about and how its going to help the SEO and blogging community?
Only 1 link building tactic has survived every single algorithm update – and that is replicating your competitors link profiles.
I had a private SEO tool developed to help speed up that process (based on my manual process) and then decided to just give it away free of charge to anyone that wants it.
So if you want to download my private SEO tool 100% free, head over to www.rankcracker.co.uk
Please share the seo tools and plugins you are using on Matthewwoodward.co.uk? And reason for using them.
You can find a full list of the plugins I use on the blog and why right here.
Matthew what will be your advice to someone who is just about to start his first blog. How he should go about blogging thing?
Before you do anything you should define your blogs ultimate purpose.
So you might want to think what is the point of your site, what you want it to offer, what do you want other people to say about it?
I spent a bit of time thinking about this when I started my blog and I decided to define my blog’s purpose to be as-
“when people ask for help on a forum, my tutorials will be shared to help”
Matthew, if you are given a budget of just $100. How will you go about using this small money to start your next blog?
Funny you should say that, I’m actually creating a course right now that will show people how to build a successful business online with $100 start up.
This will take people over my shoulder week by week so they can follow along.
I will launch this in the next few weeks so make sure you have signed up to the blogs newsletter to get notified when it’s ready.
The entire course is going to be delivered through an e-learning platform so you can track your progress, get feedback and earn rewards as you go.
How guest blogging should be done keeping mind the latest statement coming from Matt Cutts where he is advocating people to stop doing guest blogging for link building purpose?
Guest blogging isn’t dead. Like anything in life there is a smart way and a stupid way to do it.
Think about what Google can actually detect algorithmically – what footprints does guest posting typically leave behind?
A very low level example would be if 50% of your link profile is made up of sites that feature a ‘write for us’ page – it is safe to assume 50% of your link profile are guest posts.
Guest post need to look and appear like they are created by regular authors on the blog.
Related Reads: Learn more about ‘What is Guest Post‘ and discover top ‘guest post sites‘ in our detailed blog post.
My next question is again around link building. How link building should be done in 2025 and in the coming years?
That is a can of worms question that is best answered with this.
Lots of newbie bloggers find it really hard to attract any traffic to their blogs. Please share some tips that they can use to generate targeted traffic to their blogs.
See previous questions about promotion
Matthew what are your future plans for Matthewwoodward.co.uk? And are you seeing any changes in your approach towards blogging what it was in 2022?
I’m currently looking to improve the overall user experience with a new design.
I will also make the site more community focused with some new features but I’m keeping the full details under wraps for now because it will be awesome!
The main challenge though – will be maintaining a regular posting schedule that continues to match and exceed the current level of content I put out.
We all make lots of mistakes in our daily routine. Please share few of your biggest mistakes that you committed in the recent times and how you fixed them?
One of the things I do a lot is break sites. I’m always tinkering away with them and more often than not, I break them.
That is because I can’t code to save myself and really I have no business in tinkering with code but that doesn’t stop me breaking everything ?
I have learnt the hard way on more than one occasion to back up back up back up.
Whether that’s your sites or your files – back everything up before you change things.
Matthew, what has been your biggest achievement so far in your blogging journey so far?
Winning the best blog of Affiliate Summit 2013 was pretty awesome.
I was up against some big names, blogs that I have followed for years and years.
So it was awesome to see my name up amongst that list, nevermind winning it!
Which web hosting and theme you are using on your blog? And specific reason for choosing them over other options.
I use the Convergence theme which as you can see is pretty heavily modified. I picked it because it was clean, simple and easy on the eye without clutter.
For hosting I’m currently using WPEngine. Never skimp on hosting – how fast your site loads has a direct impact on how much traffic you convert.
How you make decision about the topic you will be writing about next on your blog? It would be great if you could share some steps here.
When I started out I just used forums to see what were the common topics and problems people faced within them.
They are the perfect place to find out exactly what your audience wants. Then you just have to give it to them.
Now most of my suggestions come from readers. One of the emails in my autoresponder specifically asks people which tutorial they would like me to make next.
Your message for the readers and how they can get in touch with your Matthew?
Don’t be fooled by the glitz and glamour of the blogging lifestyle. It is hard work often with little reward.
Getting a blog off the ground takes months and months of work and dedication.
But trust me, the hard work is worth it.
What were the learning for you from Matthew interview and please use the comment section to share your questions or doubts about the topics of your interest.
