SERPWizz Interviews - Ryan Biddulph

Ryan Biddulph

Blogging From Paradise

Ryan Biddulph helps bloggers retire to a life of island hopping through smart blogging.

Check out Ryan’s: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Email

What are some of the biggest challenges/obstacles you faced when starting out with SEO, and why?

My biggest challenge was building my Domain Authority to where I could rank on page 1. Few SEO-focused bloggers explain how building your DA is critical to ranking consistently on Google because the Big G wants sites with proven track records before
ranking blogs. I simply created helpful content to solve my reader’s problems and built my friend network genuinely over years. The challenge is doing simple things generously for a long time. My advice: do not panic, face fears that arise and keep creating and
connecting over the long haul to build your DA.

Tell us about your favourite/most successful link-building strategy - how quickly do you typically see results from this method?

My favorite strategy has nothing to do with building links quickly because impatience is fear, fear negates and any time you negate your link building efforts you cancel out your works, your links and waste your time. Publishing in-depth, spot-spot, detailed content influences successful bloggers to link to your blog organically, based on the quality of your content. But making blogging buddies by generously and genuinely helping pro bloggers in your niche inspires your friends to link to you, too. My favorite strategy for building links is:

1 – Build dazzling, detailed, in-depth content that builds links passively, based on the merit of the content.
2 – Build friendships by helping pro bloggers in your niche, asking for nothing in return, influencing these pros to link to your valued content.

This is a slow, organic strategy but lasting success builds slowly while quick, inorganic methods are fleeting, preceding immense failure over the long haul. Take your time when building links; you will thank yourself 5-10 years down the road.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, or have lost your focus temporarily, what do you do?

I take a deep breath and meditate for a bit to become aware of the fears in my mind co-creating the illusion of:
– overwhelm
– lack of focus
Fear is an illusion. Only love is Real. If I appear (illusion) to lose focus I feel the fear creating this illusion in my mind, let it go and return to my natural state of clear, powerful focus in a calm, relaxing mental setting.

How do you choose who to reach out to/partner with? Where do you find them, and what approach do you take when reaching out?

I have never reached out to anyone to partner with me.
All 40,000 plus backlinks pointing to my blog are organic and everyone who partners with me found me and asked me, versus me finding bloggers and asking them to partner with me.
I built up my skills and friend network over 13 years. During that time frame, blogging buddies found value in my skills and partnered with me. Trying to manipulate strangers to convince them of my worth seemed like a waste of time to me. Why not build your builds and buddy network so you are the hunted, not the hunter? No wasted motion there.

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

Bloggers offer advise based on hacks, tricks and techniques based on getting traffic and money fast. The only way to get traffic and money fast is by BEING the blogger who does the scary, sometimes terrifying things that 99.9999999% of humans never do, guaranteeing 99.9999999% of bloggers fail using these strategies.
I have plenty of fears in my mind. But I also stepped into a cage with three 400 pound tigers, helped fight a spitting cobra, lived in a remote jungle in Costa Rica for 6 weeks (outhouse, no electricity, bullet ants and poison dart frogs were everywhere) and I still
advise that good things take time, because success grows slowly and organically. If I am more fearless than the average person and recommend how blogging success is a slow, steady climb, anyone offering advice to the contrary is offering bad advice.

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?

The only truth: only love is real. Fear is an illusion. I came across a book called “A Course in Miracles”, read a few sentences and my egocreated world slowly began crumbling, one fear at a time.
Humans live in complete abundance and love but since most never face the fear in their mind, human beings create an illusory world of fear, separation, poverty, war, failure and general insanity. However, if you face fear in your mind, you can be at peace, live in harmony and accelerate your blogging success in the process.

What do you think about link swaps?

I do not go the link swap route solely because if someone links to me mainly because I linked to them:
– the backlink is not genuine
– the blogger linking to me did not link to me because of my skills, exposure, credibility and reputation but because I did them a favor, in most cases
– if link swaps built thriving, ever-expanding businesses, all of the top bloggers in the world would stress how they build their businesses on link swaps mainly; none do

What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?

Investing 1000’s and 1000’s of hours in:
– meditating
– doing Kriya yoga
– doing yin yoga
– exercising
– studying my mind
– facing fear
allowed me to live a pretty neat life.
Going within for years offered me the return of freedom.
Being free to circle the globe rocks but being somewhat liberated from fear rocks even more.

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it — metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions — what would it say and why?

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. I read these links in “A Course in Miracles”. Living this truth makes planet earth the paradise it really is.

Tell us one thing about SEO that most people don't know?

Domain Authority plays a big role in ranking. I optimized posts for SEO on and off for 7 years but began ranking quite a few posts mainly because I built my Domain Authority with 3000 plus helpful blog posts, ranging from 600 to 3000 words. Google wants you to prove your blog by publishing helpful content for a while

When did you first become a rebel?

I worked a security guard job to find my path in life when I had:
– a college degree
– a strong resume with multiple respected office jobs
From there, I got over the fear of what people would think about my life choices. Some 6 years later I began circling the globe as a full time blogger.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a “favourite failure” of yours?

I basically failed to overcome survival mode for 30 plus years because I worked jobs to pay bills. I had failed to:
– be free
– live my dreams
– step out of the matrix of fear, manipulation and control
because it seemed so normal to live in a state of subjugation. But I faced my fears, overcame the failure and decided to make fun, freeing and sometimes scary choices to live my life by design.

Tell us about your business. What does it do and what value do you add?

I help bloggers go pro with simple, smart blogging tips.
As for value, I give advice that, if followed, can help bloggers experience a life of fun and freedom as they circle the globe.

Heather Wilkinson

Author

Heather Wilkinson is a globe-trotting content creator and PR enthusiast who’s finally put down roots in her native UK. When she isn’t working, you’ll find her pretending to care about Minecraft for her son’s sake, while secretly reading the latest Ace Atkins novel (or sleeping – her second favourite past-time).