034: Growing A Subscription Business, Advise For Newbie SEOs w/John Doherty

John Doherty’s experience spans across everything from working in house managing SEO at Distilled NYC, to working within the Zillow group doing SEO for HotPads and now as a founder – of Credo – a marketplace for marketing companies. Because of this he has a wealth of knowledge to share.
We get into a TON in this interview including – advice for newbie SEOs, how he builds his email lists, how to find a mentor, mistakes bad SEO agencies make – and how he attracts and sends 50+ leads to 35 marketing agencies per month.
Enjoy!

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Links

* Interview w/ John Doherty (2011)
* JohnDoherty.com
* GetCredo.com
* The SEO Tools We Couldn’t Work Without
* List Builder from Sumo
* Moz Recommended List
* Paddy Moogan’s Link Building Book
* Interview w/ John Mueller
* The Hard Thing About Hard Things
* The Four Hour Workweek
* Why Are We So Bored
* John’s Facebook

People

* John Doherty
* Noah Kagan
* Rand Fishkin
* Paddy Moogan
* Nick Eubanks
* John Mueller
* Mike King
* Tom Critchlow
* Ross Hudgens
* Sujan Patel
* Richard Branson
* Dan Martell

Agenda
John’s background

* “My first full-time SEO job was building links.”
* “It’s been beneficial to me as a marketer to see all the sides (in-house, agency, consultant, etc).”
* “People should try to experience both sides (agency and in-house SEO).”

Credo

* “It’s a place where businesses looking to grow can find the right marketing agency/consultant.”
* “About 35 agencies and consultants are on the platform right now.”
* “Most months 40-50 leads are coming through.”
* Onboarding process

Marketing Credo/Attracting Leads

* “Internal referrals have really built the platform (agencies currently on the platform).”
* “I have a few different email lists.”
* “I really saw the value of email lists while working at Hotpads/Trulia.”
* Building email lists
* “I try to be smart about how I use popups.”
* Giveaways

Mistakes that (Bad) Agencies Make

* Quality of work
* No References
* Suspicious links in profile

Client Profile