Fatrank Podcast

Julian Goldie says:
Today you will learn how SEO Elite Circle member Matyas Dios sold his SEO website for an estimated 10 million EUR. You will learn his best affiliate marketing tactics for 2024, whether SEO is dead for affiliate marketers, and his number one ranking hack that I have never shown on this channel before. It is brand new. He is going to walk you through it. Let us get into it. You sold your site recently. It was an awesome figure. Could you tell us a bit about your story?

Matyas Dios says:
My name is Matyas D. I have been doing affiliate and SEO since the end of 2011. Almost 13 years now. My first affiliate website was about SIM cards for mobile phones in Sweden. Then I moved into mobile subscriptions and TV subscription websites. After a while those websites were acquired. I started researching new markets for better opportunities. I looked at Casino and Finance. Both were very competitive, but after a year of diving deep into advanced SEO I felt confident. I chose credit cards because it was more fun to write about and the products had different bonus systems, benefits, loyalty programmes, and real differences that made content easier compared to Casino which has hundreds of near identical pages.

Julian Goldie says:
And from there you grew several sites and one of them sold for a great figure. Can you tell us more?

Matyas Dios says:
We built multiple sites because I did not want all eggs in one basket. In the beginning we had four credit card websites. It was hard to manage them all. But as income grew we had more resources for content and backlinks. Four months ago one of the sites was acquired by a competitor for a very good amount.

Julian Goldie says:
How did it feel when the deal closed?

Matyas Dios says:
Mixed feelings. It felt great to become a dollar millionaire. It was also stressful because the deal looked uncertain for weeks. When it finally happened I was shocked and happy. But after a week it felt like breaking up with a girlfriend. You wake up every day checking rankings. You live through every Google update. You feel attached. It felt like losing a piece of myself.

Julian Goldie says:
You must have put a huge amount of time, energy, and creativity into it.

Matyas Dios says:
Definitely. Hours every day. In the beginning it is hard work. Content maps. Keyword research. Backlink planning. Later it shifts to management. Hiring. Negotiating with credit card providers. CRO. UX. You miss the early days sometimes.

Julian Goldie says:
What are you working on now?

Matyas Dios says:
A SaaS platform aimed at affiliate issues and missing tools in the industry. Also consultancy for Casino sites, payday loan sites, and larger websites. I still run smaller affiliate sites because I miss the process. I am exploring ideas related to AI. I want something that connects to AI because that is the future.

Julian Goldie says:
A lot of affiliates were hit by the HCU. Is affiliate SEO over?

Matyas Dios says:
No. Affiliate SEO is not over. The old model is over. Thin AI blogs, AdSense sites, and spam content are dead. But real brands, strong sites, and unique value will keep growing. The small fish are being removed. The big ones are increasing. Build a brand and a real site. That is the path.

Julian Goldie says:
In our space even YouTubers are doing better than niche sites.

Matyas Dios says:
Yes. Video diversifies you. People do not want to show their face so YouTube is an easy way to stand out. TikTok is huge for e-commerce and will grow for affiliate too.

Julian Goldie says:
Let us talk AI content. How should people approach it in 2024?

Matyas Dios says:
Use AI as an agent. Not a writer. Your most important pages should still be manual. But AI should handle 85 to 90 percent of scale content. Use perplexity for research. Claude for writing. Build a knowledge base so the model understands your business. Create content section by section. Never one-click full articles. Learn prompting. Most people never even read the documentation.

Julian Goldie says:
What workflows do you recommend?

Matyas Dios says:
Perplexity for background data. Claude for full article generation. Tools like Koala for speed. Manual proofing at the end. Stay on top of new models because things change fast.

Julian Goldie says:
What about foreign markets?

Matyas Dios says:
Non-English markets that do not use NLP are easier. You can rank terrible content as long as entities and semantic relevance are correct. The Swedish market is small though. For big money you need English.

Julian Goldie says:
What challenges did you face scaling?

Matyas Dios says:
Hiring and training. Many talented SEOs cannot scale because they cannot train others. Remote staff sometimes work on competing sites. It is hard. Doing SEO solo is easier. Scaling is the challenge.

Julian Goldie says:
How do you stay ahead of algorithm updates?

Matyas Dios says:
Build a real brand. Create tools. Create PR. Create unique assets. Google measures effort. Most sites copy each other. Give Google something unique. Fresh content. News content connected to your niche. Tools. Calculators. Anything that proves effort.

Julian Goldie says:
Advice for someone starting affiliate?

Matyas Dios says:
Pick a niche you love. Not the most profitable one. You need passion to survive years of work.

Julian Goldie says:
Advice for someone who has an affiliate income but cannot scale?

Matyas Dios says:
Get consultants. Automate. Outsource. Build SOPs. Step away from the keyboard. You cannot scale by doing everything yourself.

Julian Goldie says:
Who have you used for consultancy?

Matyas Dios says:
Koray Tugberk Gübür. Charles Floate. Schema specialists. Automations experts. And I reached out to you as well. SEO is too broad to master every area.

Julian Goldie says:
What is your link building approach?

Matyas Dios says:
Build the brand first. Social profiles. Directories. PR. Real news. Niche relevant links. Avoid affiliate programme-heavy backlinks. They make Google classify you incorrectly.

Julian Goldie says:
What about the balance between high quality and ranking content?

Matyas Dios says:
Use AI for scale pages. Add 10 to 15 percent manual unique insights. Stay ahead of news. Be first. Do not wait for search volume.

Julian Goldie says:
You mentioned hacks. What is one secret?

Matyas Dios says:
Two things.
First. Use a high authority news site to publish a long ranking article in your niche. When it ranks, remove the article and 301 redirect it to your new site. You inherit the ranking. We have done this many times.
Second. Link echo. Push many links to a new site. Remove them after two to three months. The power stays for months. Then reuse them on a different project.

Julian Goldie says:
Quick fire. What is the one thing in SEO for 2025?

Matyas Dios says:
Brand. And video.

Julian Goldie says:
Did you sell your site via a platform?

Matyas Dios says:
No. Direct to a competitor. I targeted them from the start.

Julian Goldie says:
How many hours did you work?

Matyas Dios says:
More than full-time. Every day. Nearly two years. Huge investment.

Julian Goldie says:
How do you avoid burnout?

Matyas Dios says:
Get an office. Leave your laptop there. Go to the gym. Spend time with people you care about.

Julian Goldie says:
You are in it for the game not the money.

Matyas Dios says:
Yes. It is never about money. It is about the challenge. The rankings are the score.

Julian Goldie says:
Where can people contact you?

Matyas Dios says:
Visit mat.com and reach out.