Neil Patel. Founder of ACS and Pronet Advertising.

The word SEO is usually associated with the art of gaining traffic, visibility and popularity to your website. Neil Patel is a specialist in this area. He have been featured in Wall Street Journal and was quoted by Guy Kawasaki, a succesful writer, blogger and serial entrepreneur. Neil’s blog, Pronet Advertising is very useful for people that want to understand about internet advertising and it current trends. Thanks to Neil for answering my questions in between his hectic schedule.

Q. How did you end up working at ACS? How have it help you in your career?
A. I actually co-founded the company in high school. I have been working there for 4 years. As for helping my career, it has helped me network with other influential people.

Q. What is your view on crowdsourcing?
A. I love crowdsourcing and feel that companies should take advantage of it. (ed: for the benefit of our readers, here’s the definition, taken from wikipedia : Crowdsourcing is a neologism for a business model in which a company or institution takes a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsources it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call over the Internet. The work is compensated with little or no pay in most cases. However, in a few examples the labor is well-compensated. In almost every case crowdsourcing relies on amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D)

Q. My understanding is, you are still in college. Have you ever feels tempted to leave ( due to your successful career) college? I’m sure the thought have come across your mind before.
A. I have thought about leaving college, but I only have 6 classes left. It would be a waste of money for me to drop out now.

Q. You wrote many times about Digg and how to use it to drive traffic to a website. Does Digg as powerful now compared to before? How do you compare Digg to Netscape?
A. Digg is much more powerful than it was a year ago or even 6 months ago. Compared to Netscape it drives far more traffic (sometimes 10 times more).

Q. What are your influences in term of career and internet technology. What are your favourite blogs or writers?
A. Not sure what you mean by the first part (ed- I mean, who are your influences in the internet industry). As for the second question my favorite bloggers are Steve Rubel and Guy Kawasaki.

Q. When did you first interested in SEO? What are some of the simplest thing people tent to overlook when trying to gain traffic to their website?
A. I was first interested in SEO in high school which was when I started my first website.

The most overlooked thing I see people ignoring is meta tags.

Q. What are your interest, apart from internet and other technology related items?
A. My main interests are TV and movies. I love to watch TV shows or
movies while I am working.

Q. What are your basic computer setup? Did you emphasis more on power and storage or practicality and usability?
A. I use a cheap $1000 Dell laptop. I use it because it was free and it is light.

Q. Your client include TechCrunch, also a great website that I often read. How does it feel to be so close with major players in the internet industry?
A. I am lucky that I am close with some major players. Anyone can be
close to them with some hard work and networking.

Q. I’ve used Crazy Egg before and I think it’s great, considering it is free. What are you currently developing at ACS?
A. We are currently expanding on Crazy Egg and developing a social
networking site that will be out in 3 months.

Q. One of my favourite writer is Guy Kawasaki and he refers to you quite often when writing about Digg and how to gain traffic. Are you also a fan?
A. Yes, I am a fan of Guy Kawasaki. He has been a great mentor to me.

Website: http://pronetadvertising.com

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