Bonus Interview: 10 Questions with Myself

After my intense grilling with Matt McGee, I felt it was time to really turn up the heat and get more answers today. Today’s bonus interview is with the dashing, incredibly intelligent, total babe-magnet Matt Webb. I caught up with myself today as I was staring out the window scratching my ass deep in thought about the state of search.

10 -Â Hey man howzit goin?

Not too shabby. Did you just see me scratching my.. nevermind. What the hell do you want?

9 - Tell the readers something about yourself since interviewers don’t really get a chance to answer the same questions they throw out

Oh so I’m just an interviewer now huh? Alright fine. I got involved in internet marketing back in 2001 for a software company that thought mass emailing close to 2 million people from my own workstation overnight was a great way to drum up sales. Besides that incident, I watched and learned from example MANY things you should never do when marketing or branding yourself. The company vanished in the night. They still owe me a paycheck.

Since those tender days, I was involved in commercial real estate marketing for about 4 years here in Hawaii. I’ve been doing the solo gig for about 2 1/2 years and would never want to stop being my own boss.

8 - What was your first experience with a search engine?

First encounter with a search engine I had was with Northern Lights while I was trying to understand some websites drunken navigation. I got really pissed off about the navigation and saw a link that said “Search”. Away I went on a mystical journey where all my pictures of David Hasselhoff curiosities could be met in a logically displayed fashion.

7 - Was this why you wanted to go into internet/search marketing?

No dinkboy, that is not why and you know it. I got into this because I had built a few websites and they would never show up in the search results. Well except for MSN. Under totally non-sense terms. But that’s MSN for you. After a TON of reading articles and tutorials and lurking forums, I decided I would try to market my own site which offered tips on how to keep your computer free of viruses and spyware.

From those humble beginnings, I started picking up web design clients and was able to talk one of them into a monthly marketing contract. I failed them and I lost them. So I kept learning on my own, and kept applying my knowledge on my sites. Eventually I got it, and was able to bring successful online marketing to a number of clients.

6 - Dude, I totally know that already.

Well then WTF Chuck? Next question.

5 - What’s something that you do for your clients that really impresses them?

Well I do give pretty good foot rubs, but we don’t need another client restraining order now do we? Â Well one thing that I do depending on the client is try to spend the first 2 weeks of building their new site in their office with them for a few hours a week really getting an understanding of their company, their current customers and the overall attitude about their services or products.

I bring in my laptop, sit in and do some coding in front of them and get them involved with the development process. They love it. When the initial marketing phases begin, I come back around again and do the same thing one more time. It’s a win-win for everyone.

4 - I’m thinking of a color…

“Paisley” is not a color.

3 -Â What’s your favorite website that you think other people should check out?

My home away from home has been SEO Refugee. I don’t think I’ve met a cooler bunch of people that I would love to hang out with. Well maybe with the exception of Thom Yorke of Radiohead. I like it there cuz there’s no ego’s or asshole moderators. Just a group of knowledgeable people hanging out having a good time.

2 - If you had to mentor someone in the ways of ethical search engine optimization, what would be lesson 1?

Practice honesty and sincerity in your efforts. Be transparent in your content so you can rightfully gain trust. Treat the visitors with sincerity by making their navigation easy but effective for conversions sake.  Always apply one or the other to everything you do on a website.

1 - Who do you tap next for me.. or you.. to interview someday?

It doesn’t work that way. The people that get interviewed get to pick. You know this already. You gonna eat that?

And that conducts the bonus interview. Hope you all enjoyed!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 12:24 am and is filed under 10 Questions, Marketing, SEO, whateva. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.