{"id":2685,"date":"2021-07-12T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2021-11-22T10:11:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T10:11:13","slug":"my-seo-journey-tim-leland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seobuddy.com\/blog\/my-seo-journey-tim-leland\/","title":{"rendered":"My SEO Journey: Tim Leland from weatherextension.com \u2013 Building Link through Digital PR, Rewarding Users, and meaningful relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My SEO Journey is a new series where entrepreneurs and Indie makers will share their honest SEO Journey filled with failure and success, and most importantly proven results. Episode #22 features Tim Leland<\/em> from Weather Extension<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tim<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hey guys! My name is Tim Leland, and I’ve been working as a software developer for the past 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my free time, I enjoy working on side projects to learn new programming languages and solve my technical problems. Over the years I have created several web apps and extensions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of my most popular are Weather Extension<\/a> (209,000 active users) and T.LY URL Shortener<\/a> (6+ million short URLs). Weather Extension is described as the best way to check the forecast right in your browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"weatherextension.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I created Weather Extension to scratch my own itch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was tired of going to other advertisement-filled weather sites to check the forecast. I decided to build my extension to quickly check the weather forecast. I realized that the mobile app stores were filled with weather apps but the Chrome web store was lacking when it came to high-quality weather applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the existing weather extensions were malicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also wanted to use the Dark Sky weather API which is my favorite weather application for my iPhone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growth of the extension was slow at first. Just a few friends and family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My big break was from when I reached out to Lifehacker to see if they would share the extension. I sent an author that recently wrote about another chrome extension a cold email. I never heard anything back until one day my server went down from the load. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tracked it back to a Lifehacker article<\/a> about my extension!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This article helped me to gain 10,000 users in a week!
To this day, this article continues to bring in hundreds of installs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since launch, what has worked to attract more organic traffic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Growth over the years has been steady. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"weatherextension.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My recent strategy is to get backlinks to my weatherextension.com<\/a> domain by reaching out to other avid weather fans. Fortunately, I was able to get a link to my homepage listed on a popular weather site<\/a> that gets millions of hits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The best strategy I have found to get the attention of website owners is to not just cold email them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often look for a donation link such as PayPal. I like to send them a small donation thanking them for their site. I then ask them if they would be willing to try out my extension and add a link to their site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strategy has worked several times for me and is much cheaper than traditional advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t stress how important it is to build an online presence through blogging and other social media platforms. Another strategy I have used to attract users has been to give away free pro upgrades for anyone who shares a link to my install page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been very successful, and my users appreciate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized this is much cheaper than paying for ads on Facebook or Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you share more on your Content Strategy?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To help promote Weather Extension<\/a>, I write content on my personal blog<\/a> around browser extensions and other related content. I have also built several other browser extensions<\/a> and use them to promote each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if a user installs my Link Unshortener<\/a> extension, they are taken to my blog where I tell them about the extension and also suggest some of my other browser extensions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cross-promotion has helped to grow my blog and extension followers. My goal is to build a following around my extensions so they can help to promote each other and build a solid fan base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any challenges that you’re still facing today?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2018, Weather Extension faced its biggest challenge. The extension was spammed with thousands of 1-star reviews to destroy the rating. It went from 4.5 stars to 2 stars in a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since then, I have been trying to improve the reviews<\/a> of the extension. This has affected the extension’s store placement and user’s confidence to install the extension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My current goal is to get the extension back to 4+ stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Weatherextension.com<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What’s your SEO Tech Stack?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Currently, I only use free tools when researching SEO tips such as Ahrefs Backlink Checker<\/a> and Neil Patel’s SEO Analyzer<\/a>. These can be very useful when researching your websites.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There\u2019s more\u2026<\/div>\r\n

Now it\u2019s time to discover the other 102 steps that will get more organic traffic flowing to your website. Get the SEO Checklist here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Want to get a sneak peek of what it looks like?<\/strong>
\nEnter your email and get a free demo version of the SEO Checklist.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n

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