Interview
How To Promote Your Business. – With Neil Patel
on Apr 21, 2009 - 12:26 PM PSTThe full program
A few lessons from this program
I’ve gotten dozens of requests for this interview from people who know Neil Patel’s reputation for growing traffic online.
Neil, built his reputation as a consultant who could deliver measurable traffic growth to the biggest online brands. He’s currently the co-founder of two online companies that help web sites measure and improve user experience, Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. And he blogs about business at Quick Sprout.
The excerpt:
In this edited excerpt from our interview, Neil talks about business development:
Three years ago, I pitched TechCrunch, saying, “I can help increase your traffic through search engine optimization.”
It took a while and they said, “Great thanks. We’ll consider it.” But they never really did. They didn’t really hit me up. They didn’t care that much.
Then I started working with ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, and a few of their other competitors. They saw how those sites’ traffic increased and they said, “Hey! Yeah, we’d like to do an engagement.”
So my original deal wasn’t really for the links that they gave me back to my site. I wanted the branding and I wanted revenue. Michael Arrington, TechCrunch’s founder, is well-known in the venture capital space. So what I ended up doing is saying, “Hey Michael, I’m going to grow your traffic over two weeks if you send a mass email out to all your VC friends.”
So Michael sent out an email to people like Josh Kopelman–founder or First Round Capital and the founder of Half.com before that–and he said, “Look what Neil did with my traffic. He’s awesome.” And he sent it out to quite a few VC’s, and what endedup happening is those VC’s mass emailed all their portfolio companies, saying “go hire Neil.” That’s how my business grew.
That was the main way I leveraged Michael. The link is great, and I do appreciate them linking to me, but that wasn’t the main thing I wanted from Michael. I wanted his connections.
The full program includes:
- Evaluations of sites submitted by Mixergy readers
- 5 no-brainer ways to grow your traffic
- 5 dopey mistakes that sites make
- Neil ripping on Andrew for now posting text transcripts
Give your feedback:
Don’t be a passive web reader. In the comments, teach us something you’ve learned about promoting businesses. Or, tell me how I improve these interviews.
View Comments to “How To Promote Your Business. – With Neil Patel”
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April 21st, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Neil has an incredible mind. I like that you're transcribing content, all the great webmasters do it. :) This way I can read it at office and not disturb others with the noise.
More interviews with Neil and like this one please, this stuff motivates.
April 21st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Yeah, but I'm not transcribing the full interview.
He ripped into me for that. Made good points too.
Since there's no revenue in this yet, I don't want to spend money on
transcription. Plus, because traffic growth from transcription isn't easy to
tie back to the money spent on it, I don't think it's worth the expense.
You're one of the smartest guys when it comes to content and traffic.
(Evidence: http://bit.ly/QIUta ) If you think otherwise, let me know
Michael.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I did a quick search on elance for transcription services for you:
http://bit.ly/transcription
Seems like there are lots of people who will do it cheap! (the quality may be another story!)
April 21st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
sry wrong link!
here you go:
http://bit.ly/transcriptions
April 21st, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Thanks Duncan.
I love that you looked it up for me!
I still don't see how to justify the cost. Even at that price.
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
My favorite Mixergy interview to date….Neil is so incredibly creative. He really thinks outside of the box and does not follow the main stream. He has build a great brand for himself. A real superstar. He's incredibly accomplished and everything he seems to get his hands on turns to gold. A traffic generating powerhouse, entrepreneur, mentor, and creative. Did I mention he's a real “down to Earth guy”? What a hilarious story about his early entpreneur days selling CD's at school and getting his CD's confiscated by customs. He's had entreprenuership in him from the beginning and he's been able to bring his creative ideas to market. Thanks for the great interview Andrew.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
You refer to the chat, but I can't listen in when you do the interview so I can't see the chat. Is there a way to record the chat and show it when I click the play button on the video.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
“Down to earth” is right. Can't believe he gave out his email address and
invited anyone to call him.
Andrew Warner
Founder, Mixergy.com
2009/4/22 Disqus <>
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Finding a way to show the chat might be messy. I'll try to do a better job
of reading the comments I refer to to so it'll be clearer.
Kris, if it's still now clear, please let me know and I'll find others
solutions.
(I already recorded this week's interviews, so the change will show up in
next week's interviews.)
Thanks for pointing this out!
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Great interview, thanks Andrew / Neil.
The hidden takeaway for me relates to thinking big. This applies to any service, if you can offer it to the rich and famous (or top 100 bloggers) then they should be your primary target.
Neil said he increased traffic to one of the sites by 20% but when that site has millions of visitors a day, it's a huge deal.
There are 1000 other guys with the same technical skills as Neil, who wouldn't have taken the initiative to forge relationships with the big blogs, they would have pitched to smaller, “easier” companies. My bet is, those guys are busy working a lot harder, to make a lot less money.
Work for the people who will value your work the highest!
April 24th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Promising growth is a gutsy move. He's very good.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
This sounds like a fantastic idea.
Keep up the good work !
Dr.David Black
http://www.blackchiropractic.com.au
April 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Thanks.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
A great interview!! Full of clear, detailed, actionable points!! All that remains if for me to pull my finger out and act on all the recommendations :-)
August 10th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I he as genius like michael scofield on prison break?? lol dont get over with this tv series..
August 10th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
That's what I'm aiming for with my work!
August 26th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the great information.
Sam Orville – SEO Specialist
Managed Medical Services,
http://www.managedmedservices.com
BPO, Sales and Marketing Solutions,
http://www.callboxinc.com
September 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
[...] when Neil Patel was on Mixergy he said he targeted big-name bloggers because if he won them as clients, everyone else would want [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Wow, I like your style man. You are incredibly thorough with your questions which is very helpful for us viewers/readers. I love how you dig in and ask great follow up questions. There is much to be learned from interviewees such as Neil and we will get more value with you asking questions. I'm very impressed.
Anthony
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
[...] went into detail on a comment Andrew Warner had made in an interview with Neil on Mixergy.com about how he “gamed twitter” basically getting tons of followers using black-hat [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Great interview AW! Your site is one of the best resources I have come across in a long time and the interview with Neil Patel is excellent. I agree with Neil that you should do full transcripts. However I do not agree that you should attempt to make this site a subscription-based service. As you continue to build your viewership you will run into PLENTY of monetization opportunities whereas if you ask people to pay to see your interviews it could inhibit viral growth that will later represent huge profits. Just my 2 cents worth. Keep up the great work.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:34 am
[...] this Mixergy interview with Neil Patel has some great examples of how free work brought in new business. Neil says “don’t [...]
January 17th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
[...] Suster listed above, you should check out this interview with Ben Huh of "Failblog", or this amusing interview with Neil Patel of KISSMetrics. This is quite simply an amazing [...]
March 5th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Hi, i like the way you ask question. Surely i'll borrow one of them.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:35 am
[...] from great entrepreneurs while working on BSA:Jason Fried of 37signalsDharmesh Shah of HubSpotNeil Patel of CrazyEgg and KISSmetricsMike McDerment of FreshBooksI could go on an on…If you’re interested in some of the BSA [...]
May 14th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Good helpful post you got there! thanks.
June 22nd, 2010 at 8:56 am
Thanks.
June 22nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Thanks.