Follow Friday: Entrepreneur Neil Patel
by Michael Tao in Follow Friday on November 12th, 2010
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TweetOne of the best internet marketers in the biz, Neil Patel, is the co-founder of 2 internet companies, KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg. While his name precedes him, have faith that Neil is just a regular guy. A regular guy who has worked with Amazon, HP, Viacom, and GM, to name a few. While he may have worked with some amazing companies, his day to day operations aren’t much different from other entrepreneurs. So meet Neil, he’s just like you…but maybe a bit better.
Who is Neil Patel?
Neil Patel is just an average Joe. I love eating Taco Bell, hanging out with friends and watching movies. In addition to that, I live in a small condo located on the outskirts of downtown Seattle.
As for my business background I started out an entrepreneur when I was 16 years old. My first startup was a job board that failed miserably. My second startup was an Internet marketing agency, that ended up doing all right. And after those two startups, I did around a handful more.
Currently, I am spending all of my efforts of KISSmetrics, which is an analytics solution that focuses on conversion tracking. KISSmetrics also has a sister product called KISSinsights, which an online survey application that helps you get actionable feedback from your customers.
How many ventures have you been involved with?
I have been involved with a lot of ventures. I personally have invested in 15 businesses and I am the co-founder of KISSmetrics and KISSinsights.
Do you have a favourite and why?
My favorite business is KISSmetrics and KISSinsights. The reason I love those two businesses is because I am passionate about web analytics. The current analytic solutions in the market place provide tons of data, but not enough actionable insights.
What’s your daily schedule like?
My daily schedule involves me spending most of my time on the phone and responding to emails. Other than I attend a handful of conferences each month and speak about web analytics and how companies can make better use of their data.
You are known as one of the best Internet Marketers and you’ve worked with a lot of big companies. What is your favourite technique to drive traffic to a site?
Creating a good product or offering exceptional service is the best way to drive a lot of traffic to a website. Anyone can market a website, but you won’t be able to drive a lot of high quality traffic unless the company has a good product or service.
When it comes to a technique I love search engine optimization. If you want to learn more about that, I recommend reading the Beginners Guide to SEO. http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization
You have had both success and failure. What was the key to your success and would you recommend it to other entrepreneurs?
Sadly, I have had a lot more failures than successes. Nonetheless, the key difference is that I was able to pivot and learn from my customers faster with the successful companies. It is all about execution and you have to be able to move really quickly.
Last word for the Define community?
If you are going to be an entrepreneur, learn to focus all of you energy into 1 company. I have made this mistake one too many times. If you spread yourself too thin, none of your businesses are going to be doing well.
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