Matt Diggity is a full-time SEO, focused on affiliate marketing in high-competition national searches. He also is a director for The Search Initiative, a coach at The Lab, and host of the Chiang Mai SEO Conference. You can find him at DiggityMarketing.com
Lets get down to the interview with Matt Diggity..
1. How did you originally get into the industry?
I was an electrical engineer for years after I graduated university… and I hated it. We were working on software that would be used to design microchips for Intel, Qualcomm, etc. Cool products, lame to work on. Plus, cubicles and me don’t get along.
So when a buddy handed me a copy of the Four Hour Work Week (4HWW) in 2009, I was primed to read it.
I ended going to a meetup for the 4HWW where people would meet, discuss the book, and talk about their “muses”.
At the time, 90% of them were doing affiliate marketing via SEO as the traffic vehicle. So I just jumped on the bandwagon.
2. What’s been your biggest regret since starting out and your biggest lesson?
My biggest regret was the hesitation I had all along the journey.
I came from the typical US system, which teaches you that you’re supposed to get a degree and slowly climb up the corporate ladder. Anything else was a scam.
As I was coming up, I wouldn’t actually believe that SEO was a viable way of making money until the cash actually hit the bank.
As a result, I was probably a lot slower on my investment (both resources and education) than I needed to be.
Honestly, I should have just started this a few years after I finished school and got a little bit of experience in the corporate world. I do indeed feel like my time “served” in that sector was somewhat valuable.
At least I know what I really DON’T want to be doing!
3. Where do you see the future of SEO in the next 5 years?
I think we have a few different variables that are going to effect the longevity of what we’re currently doing.
Voice search, if highly adopted, is going to really change what people focus on. Hopefully it’s adoption doesn’t cannibalize text-based search, but who knows… it definitely could.
There’s also machine learning, or if we really want to get crazy, artificial intelligence (AI).
Right now, Google relies on so many different factors to figure out if a webpage is rankable or not. Links is one of them. That’s great for us because all of these different factors can be “manipulated” by us SEOs.
But if an AI were intelligent enough and have enough computing resources, all it would need to do is look at a webpage and compare its content to other other pages on the topic and assign it a rank.
All our levers would go away, and SEO would become a battle of who can find the best writers and the best page designers.
4. You’re a big believer in PBNs, can you share any tips with our readers on building the perfect network?
Oh lord. PBNs management is a tough job these days.
I test all my PBNs before I add them to my network.
In early 2017, 75% of the PBNs I built started giving actually BAD results. After a few months of testing over 300 PBNs and 17 experiments, I figured out what new filters had been applied in the algorithm.
If you’re building a PBN, you need to constantly test. And when something changes in the algorithm, you need to figure out what that was and apply it to your new sites.
Some would argue that the complexity and P.I.T.A. involved with PBNs these days makes it not worth it.
I don’t know if I agree with that. The ranking increase and the speed of result with PBNs is unmatched. And since I have the systems and R&D teams for testing, to me it’s 100% worth it… for now.
5. You live in Chang Mai, the digital nomad and SEO scene there looks great. What’s been driving that?
Chiang Mai does all the work. It’s a great place to setup shop for beginners because everything is cheap and the digital community here is huge.
And then again, its a great place to stay for the advanced folk because there’s a lot of high-level people here too.
Plus, Thailand is just awesome.
6. Who has been your biggest inspiration in life? And who do you regularly follow?
I’m a big fan of polymaths: people that can do just about anything.
Richard Feynman, Elon Musk, Tim Ferris… all very impressive individuals.
Probably my biggest inspiriation was my father. He was the only proof I ever had growing up of entrepreneurism working.
Unfortunately, he passed away when I was young, so I never got the chance to really talk and learn from him about business. But I like to believe I’m carrying the torch.
7. If you could give some newbies one important piece of advice, what would it be?
Get a mentor. It helps avoid making stupid mistakes, while focusing on the things that matter.
Approach potential mentors carefully though. Too often I get requests that just start off with “I want to learn from you. How do I start?”
There needs to be a value exchange and it needs to be worth it to your potential mentor. Remember that.
8. Tell us a bit about your current projects, what are you working on right now that excites you?
Absolutely!
The Lab – This is a mastermind, training program that me and some other SEOs started. Almost every day we wake up hearing about some student’s success story and it’s REALLY fulfilling. The thrill of making a bunch of affiliate monies has started to wear off, and this is my new high.
The Search Initiative – My agency is getting some crazy results for our clients and I believe a big part of that is that we focus on A+ quality staff. We only hire the best of the best, which has been a challenge, but its paying off.
Authority Builders – I always wanted a system that can delivery high quality “white hat” links easily and affordably. I launched this service in Nov of 2017. We’ve been working on smoothing out the process and are really proud of the system now.
Chiang Mai SEO Conference – Wow… So the first year (2017) we sold out and I finally got to see 500+ SEOs come to my town and experience what life is like in a virtual mecca of SEO. This event almost killed me, but it was worth it. 2018 we’re going even bigger with twice as many presenters and a five-day event.
Upcoming SAAS – Might be taking a journey into the world of SAAS soon. Stay tuned.
9. You’ve been running a few meet ups and mini conferences in Chang Mai, how do you find speaking in front of people? How do you get over the stage fright?
As a born-introvert, it’s not natural. But practice makes perfect. I probably practice my presentations much more than the average person, and I force myself to do them a lot. Eventually the nerves started to go away. The big events still freak me out though… don’t get me wrong.
10. You’ve written some excellent guides and tutorials, what keeps you motivated and on track to write those?
Honestly… I told myself I’d do a new blog post every month and that they’re progressively going to get better over time. And when I tell myself (or anyone else for that matter) that I’m going to do something, I do it.
11. Do you see yourself staying in SEO for the next 5 or 10 years? If not, then where do you see yourself?
Probably in some form. I love it.
But if the “levers” (as mentioned above) start going away, the ROI might not be there anymore. We’ll have to see.
If I weren’t doing SEO, some form of service or product dedicated to serving internet entrepreneurs is likely where I’ll be.
12. Lastly, is there anything you’d like to specifically say to the SerpLogic readers?
Thanks a bunch for reading this. And thanks Tommy for having me. Great crew you got here.
