A4U Expo interview series: Gillian Muessig

Listen to the podcast here

Could you tell us who you are?
Gillian Muessig is the president and co-founder of SEOmoz, the world's brand leader in search marketing tools, resources, and community for the SEO community. With more than 20 years of success as the owner of marketing/search marketing companies, Gillian shares her in-the-trenches experience and insider tips in the SEO and rev-share space as a keynote  and session speaker at conferences around the world. Gillian and SEOmoz have been noted in the press in places such as Newsweek, NY Times, WSJ, and many more.

What will your session be about at A4U Expo and what will you be talking about in specific?
I'll be talking about Productisation, one of my favorite topics. So many individuals and companies have a treasure trove of brilliant ideas, many of which are already built out and being sold, either individually or as part of a whole. Taking a fresh look at ways to monetize what we already have at our disposal can be incredibly lucrative. I'll have a good deal of fun demonstrating my point, but then we'll get down to actionable tips on segregating out ideas, focusing on customers and market stressors to determine how to repackage and sell what you already have to your great financial advantage.

What is the link between SEO and affiliates for you? Who needs who?
Naturally, it's a symbiotic relationship. It's got to be good for everyone involved - SEOmoz, our Affiliates, and our subscribing members. I have no illusions that Affiliates might 'need' SEOmoz; there are many fine, financially rewarding products and services from which to choose. It's incumbent on SEOmoz to provide a superb product at an affordable price and offer a reasonable payout to those who will market it for us.

What makes A4U Expo a conference you want to be speaking at?
SEOmoz has a deep global brand reach in the organic search marketing world. But relatively few folks in the Affiliate Marketing space are aware of the power of our tools such as Linkscape. Linkscape's power for Affiliates lies in its ability to provide competitive intelligence. If someone is beating you out for a specific key term on a regular basis, the question is: "What's he got that I haven't got?" Linkscape can tell you that. You'll actually know your competitor's link strategy down to the minute details. I'm here to share that and to learn what else SEOmoz Affiliates would like SEOmoz to provide in our suite of tools.

Why should we visit your session?
You should check out my session because it will make whatever you already have much more powerful. If you're selling something to an audience now, you may be able to shuffle just a few talking points and sell it far more effectively to a whole lot more people. That's money in your pocket. Come join me - I'll share the secrets of how I do this time and again, so you can repeat the process for your benefit and your clients.

Which other session will you be visiting and believe that others should?
Don't miss Ben Jesson's Beat Your Merchants At Their Own Game session on Day 2. Ben and the team at Conversion Rate Experts worked on SEOmoz and increased our conversion rate well over 30% in a short order - Ben knows what he is talking about! And don't miss Barriers to Conversion and Discovering Untapped Opportunities With Analytics with my colleague, Will Critchlow of Distilled. Will is one of the finest SEOs in the world today. I'll be on hand to learn more about digging into analytics to find nuggets of actionable wisdom.

Mel Kerk can be found at SEOMOz or on Twitter.

The series can also be followed on iTunes

In the series we also talked to:

Will Critchlow

Marcus Tandler

Lisa Myers

Christoph Cemper

Dixon Jones

Lyndon Antcliff

Mel Kirk

Joanna Butler