Exclusive Interview with Nikola Roza an amazing Blogger & Affiliate Marketer

Hey guys, I hope you are doing great. As you know on Bloggers Desire we have special interview series where I regularly invite experts so, you get more & more knowledge and inspiration from their journey.

Today I invited Nikola Roza to share his journey & amazing tips about Blogging, SEO, & Affiliate Marketing.

So let’s start.

1. Please Tell Us Something About Yourself & your blog.

Hi folks, my name is Nikola Roza.

I’m a blogger, affiliate marketer and freelance writer from Serbia, a small European country. I blog at nikolaroza.com. My blog’s topics are SEO, affiliate marketing and WordPress.

2. How the idea to start a blog came to your mind?

In early 2015 my mother got terminally ill. So ill in fact that even the doctors told her she should go home as there was nothing they could do for her.
I started blogging because I wanted to save money to help her beat the disease.

However I failed because my mother had about only 100 days to live by that point. And I also knew nothing about blogging. I literally didn’t know what the SEO acronym stood for.

So of course I was unsuccessful.

3. How did you start your SEO learning journey?

I had a brief start in 2015 as mentioned above.

But I really buckled down in early 2017. I remember I wanted to start my blog right then and there, but couldn’t because I didn’t have enough money to buy hosting and domain name. That’s how bad things were financially for me.

So I spent all Summer and Autumn in western Serbia picking raspberries, grapes and later apples.

I was saving money to sustain myself, but also to start my online business.

Finally, Winter came and there were no more part time jobs. And I started my blog on 4. December 2017. And I almost forgot to mention, all the time that I was not working in the field, I was learning, reading like crazy.

Back then Brian Dean’s Backlinko had 16-20 posts and I have read each of them 10 times over. I was obsessed with SEO, and still am:)
The rest is history.

4. According to you, What are some crucial factors to rank a blog post on SERP?

Here they are ordered not on importance but based on how they naturally happen.

Excellent article that matches the user’s search intent Great on-page SEO which helps you boost your content relevance. Relevant backlinks to push you to the top. Good user engagement metrics to keep you on top. Because Google will remove you if they see users don’t like your post

5. What is the scope of blogging in the future?

Blogging is only going to grow. Roughly half the world population don’t use the internet. So that’s a huge potential there. So blogging will grow but so will our competition.

I still say the future is bright.

6. Share some advanced SEO tips for beginners.

Tip #1- Create content that matches search intent. If you don’t, nothing matters and you won’t rank. If you do, you’ll have a great chance of ranking

Tip #2- Don’t waste time trying to rank for lucrative high volume keywords. It will never happen. Instead focus on long tail keywords with high buyer intent.

Tip #3- Don’t neglect site architecture. It’s crucial to make all your pages accessible from the homepage in 3 clicks or less.

Tip #4- Don’t neglect link building. It’s a big mistake not to build links at all. Build them in parallel with content and you’ll grow so much faster.

7. What are some of your favorite SEO tools?

My favorite SEO tools are:

• Ahrefs for backlink analysis;
  SEMrush for keyword research;
• Link Whisper for automated internal link building (get Link Whisper coupon here)
• Unbounce for landing page creations- I know Unbounce is not an SEO tool per se, but I still love it (note: click here to get Unbounce coupon code)
• The software between my two ears:) AKA my brain! Finally I’d like to add Missinglettr. It’s not an SEO tool per se, but it’s a social media scheduler that automates 99% of your social media activity.

And because I believe social play a part in SEO, so in a roundabout way Missinglettr does help with SEO.

If some of your readers want to get a Missinglettr coupon, then they can click the link they just saw.

8. Describe your guest posting technique & how it is helpful?

I guest post to build links and relationships.

Namely, with every guest post I publish I link to bloggers I like and want to connect with. Over time these folks notice and remember me and they start linking to me naturally and spontaneously without me even asking.

But also, I keep a record on whom I linked to and how many times.

If I see that I linked to blogger X 3 times already, then they’ll get one more link from me and when I let them know about that new backlink, I also gently ask for them to include a link to my site.

Honestly, this tactic is so effective that so far I have had a 100% success rate. And I’ve been doing it for months.

Yeah, guest blogging is powerful, as long as you don’t just guest post for links, but also to build meaningful relationships with other bloggers in your niche.

9. What are some great link building tips & methods in 2021?

Well, there’s guest posting as you’ve read above. And there are also niche insertions which you can get with smart guest posts, as you also read above:)

Finally, I want to recommend HARO.

HARO is such a powerful source of strong links. The problem is that you have to develop a system and you have to be fast at responding.

Not necessarily responding immediately, but when you sit down to write and you have 6 queries, it can’t take you 3h–4h to do it. Then it’s not worth it.

Instead you need to write fast, succinct answers that answer the query and then move on with your goals for the day.

Another thing with HARO is that you need to work at it 2-3 months before you start seeing those links come in.

But when they do start to pour in, you’ll know the difference.

10. Any feedback or suggestions about me & BloggersDesire.

Yeah, love your site man.

Love the design, so slick looking and very easy to navigate Your homepage is excellent. I’m guessing you designed it with Elementor?

I only recently got Elementor and will soon redesign my site from the ground up..
And when I do I’ll turn to your blog’s design for some inspiration:)

As for content, it’s stellar, nothing more to say. If I was browsing Google and found your blog post in search, I know I wouldn’t be disappointed with what I found.

The only advice I can give you is to ramp up with content production. It takes time to rank in Google so the sooner you publish, the better.

That’s it!

Thank you for hosting me Ayush, it’s been a pleasure.