{"id":3880,"date":"2018-03-20T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/?post_type=customer-spotlight&p=3880"},"modified":"2025-05-06T19:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:25:56","slug":"viral-virtuoso","status":"publish","type":"customer-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/viral-virtuoso\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the DreamHost Customer Who Is a Viral Virtuoso"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What should you consider before you purchase a domain? What are the top marketing words in LinkedIn job titles? What\n are some of the most-effective SEO tools<\/a>?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If questions like these interest you, Eli Schwartz is your man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz, director of organic product at <\/a>SurveyMonkey<\/a>, has built a career\n \u2014 and a website \u2014 based on his knowledge of and passion for all things SEO and marketing-related. And while he never\n set out with this path specifically in mind, his marketing expertise has taken him all over the world as a popular\n presenter at conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a career focused on asking the right questions, it\u2019s fitting that Schwartz works, posts, and presents on helping\n people find the right answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blogging 101<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

About 10 years ago, Schwartz decided to start a blog via DreamHost, <\/a>elischwartz.co<\/a>, as a way to delve\n into some of his favorite marketing-related topics, such as data, experiments, technology, and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was publishing on the most-popular search blogs, and it got me interested in expressing my opinions,\u201d he says. \u201cI\n had never really devoted time to my own personal blogs in the past because it seemed like a better use of time to just\n write where there was already an audience. I started blogging on my own site because there were things I felt like\n writing about that I did not necessarily want on other people\u2019s sites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the critical components of SEO is building backlinks, Schwartz says, and his website gets traffic from his\n niche posts that use data to drive home a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany people build links by reaching out to different websites and asking for a link. I have discovered that when you\n have something unique, like data, the links just come to you,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Schwartz, who was born and raised in Baltimore, doesn\u2019t particularly enjoy writing, he says that the payoffs\n are worth the process \u2014 and the more he blogs, the easier it becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI love expressing my ideas, and it always gives me a thrill when someone reaches out with a comment. When I\n first started blogging, it would take me hours to put my thoughts together. With practice, that whole process is\n much faster.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Blogging was also a byproduct of his <\/a>speaking engagements<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople were paying attention to what I was saying. I wanted to share more details, and this was the place to do it,\u201d\n he says. \u201cI wanted to have a forum to talk about discoveries I was noticing that nobody else was talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEO Scholar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For some, figuring out how to get their websites to the top of search engine results is about as baffling as\n understanding the components of a credit score. Schwartz, however, has learned the tricks of the trade and loves\n teaching others how to understand the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his wisdom didn\u2019t necessarily come from a college classroom. Schwartz studied accounting and entrepreneurship at\n the University of Maryland and earned an MBA from the University of Baltimore \u2014 years before colleges offered SEO\n courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sort of fell into digital marketing, but I think if it had been offered in college I would not have studied it,\u201d\n he says. \u201cI learned SEO in a truly hands-on way first as an affiliate manager working with those who practiced black\n hat SEO and then as an in-house marketer at a media startup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admits he doesn\u2019t use much of what he learned in school but still sees the benefits of his diplomas. \u201cLooking\n back, college taught me how to think and write in ways I could never have done on my own,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a Bay Area resident, Schwartz joined SurveyMonkey nearly six years ago, when it was a small company on the verge\n of tremendous growth. Some of his prior job experiences include setting up and running paid campaigns on Google, Bing,\n and Facebook, in addition to running many social media campaigns and being involved with branding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been fortunate to dabble in many different areas of marketing,\u201d Schwartz says. \u201cHowever, my one specialty is\n technical SEO in which I have deep experience helping companies architect their SEO strategies, diagnose SEO issues,\n and set up plans for growth. Even within areas where I feel like I have plenty of experience, I am always trying to\n learn new and better ways to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> From the\n Experts \u2014 20 Great Blogging Tips<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student of Singapore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz\u2019s pursuit of learning recently took him on an adventure, one that required an 18-hour flight from home. From\n 2015 to 2016, Schwartz and his family lived in Singapore so he could work as SurveyMonkey\u2019s director of marketing for\n the APAC region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing to Singapore was something I really wanted to do; it was the culmination of a year of planning and figuring\n out how to make it a reality,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was fascinated by how different Asia was from the Western world and was\n curious to learn more. From a business standpoint, it seemed like the ultimate challenge to go somewhere where I knew\n nothing and try to make something of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in the island city-state turned out to be one of the most eye-opening experiences of his career, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always been passionate about international marketing since it adds an extra edge of unfamiliarity that makes\n things more of a puzzle. Immersing myself in a market as interesting as Singapore\u2019s added a whole new dimension,\u201d he\n says. \u201cFor one, <\/a>customer satisfaction isn\u2019t really a KPI<\/a>, so figuring out what businesses cared about\n was a fascinating challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> How This\n DreamHost Customer Became India\u2019s Premier Blogger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Schwartz family lived there, they had a third son and traveled with their kids \u2014 the infant, a\n two-year-old, and a four-year-old \u2014 around Asia, visiting more than a dozen different places together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoy spending time with my family doing things outdoors and traveling to new and exciting places,\u201d he says.\n \u201cEverywhere we went we used local transportation: trains, ferries, buses, horse-drawn taxis. That was the highlight\n for our boys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz notes that his favorite trip was to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, an ancient cultural city with a 900-year-old\n temple and jungle tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe boys probably won\u2019t remember these family adventures when they get older,\u201d he says, \u201cbut they\u2019ll pretend they do\n from the pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also while living in Asia Schwartz learned \u2014 accidentally \u2014 a presenting hack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always look to generate emotion when I\u2019m speaking, like telling a joke or some other way of connecting, to know\n the audience is paying attention. It gives me energy to know they\u2019re listening,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Asia, people were slower\n to give emotional reactions, like smiling or clapping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one presentation, Schwartz was sharing slides with lots of words that were typed in a small font. While some\n might consider this a faux pas, the design paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe audience members stood up to read them better, which let me know they were interested in what I was saying and\n that they were paying attention,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I continued to use a lot of small-font words on slides and force people\n to stand up and look. It\u2019s a good way to get a reaction in Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tricks aside, Schwartz says he loves presenting on SEO topics and on his experiences building marketing strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cSpeaking forces me to put together a narrative in a way that will land with an audience, and the thrill of\n watching people learn something new is what keeps me picking up new opportunities to speak.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His interest in Asia also led to the creation of a second DreamHost website, <\/a>demystifyasia.com<\/a>, which aligned with his passion for sharing technology and\n business-related information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI created this site with my wife because there is a lack of evergreen content on how things work in Asia with\n regards to tech,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the U.S., we have many different outlets that compare the values of one app vs. another\n but not in Asia. This site was an attempt to tell that story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DreamHost Makes the Grade<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz is a researcher at heart, and when it came to shopping for a web host, his instincts kicked in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did some comparisons online, looked at which providers offered the most features at the best price, and which had\n the best reviews,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce I found DreamHost, I never really looked back. I love the one-click tools to set up WordPress<\/a> blogs,\n and the Knowledge Base<\/a> is really thorough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says he appreciates that DreamHost is not only easy to use but that it also offers unlimited hosting. \u201cI\n originally started using DreamHost because I was with another host that charged per hosting account,\u201d he recalls.\n \u201cDreamHost really justifies the cost of hosting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also values the customer support, especially through trying times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have had excellent experiences with DreamHost and found its support teams to be incredibly responsive whenever I\n needed help,\u201d he says. \u201cI even was hacked a couple times, and they helped me to shut down the incursion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining the Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Schwartz\u2019s blog audience has increased by double-digit percentages every year, and he is optimistic that as he\n accrues more presentations around the globe \u2014 his next is scheduled for Estonia in May \u2014 he will also accrue more\n readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope to have enough of a readership that I would never think of writing anywhere else,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many of his paths, blogging was an unexpected journey, but one he doesn\u2019t regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIdeas don\u2019t count if they aren\u2019t shared, and a blog is the easiest way to delve into ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery blog\n starts with zero readers, and if you never start writing, you will always have zero readers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What should you consider before you purchase a domain? What are the top marketing words in LinkedIn job titles? What are some of the most-effective SEO tools? If questions like these interest you, Eli Schwartz is your man. 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