An Interview With Someone You May Not Know: WheresTheMatch.com's Wes Lewis

I'm starting off a serious of interviews with people you may not know. This doesn't mean I don't have the draw to attract the big hitters from giving me their views, merely that I think we often hear too much from them. So here's the first:

I've known the creator WheresTheMatch.com, Wes Lewis, for about 9 years, since our days at TopJobs when Wes was the web design manager and my job was to keep him and his team busy with loads of SEO recommendations (some of them had a purpose and others I created to get me out of an office full of women!)

With the passing of time which saw both of us being made redundant, Wes getting married to the lovely Tracy, a number of relationships for me, a few jobs for Wes and my own self employment we've always kept in touch.

Wes lives in a modern house about 100 yards behind mine, he has a dog, a wife and always has the latest car. Whilst I'm still here in this one and only got rid of my banger a couple of years ago (I hate spending money).

So here's the interview:

Q: What projects are you involved with at the moment?

Apart from my day job at Autotrader.co.uk as a User Interface Designer (posh title for web designer) I am heavily involved with 2 websites (all eggs in one basket and all that...) namely, PriceInspector.co.uk and WherestheMatch.com. Our price comparison site is over 18 months old now, and while we have had relatively little success in getting the site to the masses, now is a good time to push on with this as people desperately look for the "cheapest" price during the credit crunch (can't believe i mentioned the crunch term in the first question..)

Q: You've been bubbling under the surface with some of your product feed stuff for a while. How's that going?

We built a very complicated but streamlined in-house piece software that takes in feeds from the popular affiliate networks. The importance for merchants to correctly populate their feeds is very important, our software spots errors (commonsense ones as well as technical problems), and rejects the merchant if there are too many. Whilst a lot of sites claim to be able to "compare" prices, most of them are simply product catalogues, so we feel we have the edge in this area.


Q: What are the biggest obstacles you face with your sites? Are they different when working in the content and the feed sectors?

The recent gloom and doom press of price comparison sites means its very hard to keep people interested when visiting - we have created a "brand" rather than a means to find the product which again gives us that little edge. Content is something we are looking to improve over time, although its not in our immediate plans due to resources.


Q: I know I've given a few pointers on the way, but how many of you in your team? What sort of skills/experiences do you all add to the mix?

We are a 2 man team, I cover the design, brand, and SEO for PriceInspector.co.uk and WherestheMatch.com. My business partner, Matt Waring, is a software developer and was responsible for the import manager software, as well as the back end .net development of the websites.


Q: I think your http://www.wheresthematch.com is a great site, where do you see that going in the next couple of years?

We see the site as brand leader in its field. Hopefully, if targetted in the right way, it will be a household name as many more TV companies fight for the rights to broadcast live sport on TV. We have a few "golden goose" ideas for WherestheMatch.com which will further enhance its service so watch this space!



Q: And for PriceInspector.co.uk?

PriceInspector.co.uk has been on the back burner for the last few months, but its now back as a priority - much work has been carried out in the SEO department (currently number 3 behind PriceRunner and Kelkoo for term "price comparison site") so we are hoping the brand can establish a bigger slice of return visitors.


Q: Over the years I've seen price comparison sites dominate the SERPS and then die away again (some are still doing ok)? Are you worried that they're a fad and have been over taken by social media (such as blogging) as a successful method for affiliates?

I think blogging is an easy way to get afilliate sites to marketplace, however I think that these type of sites will run their course - the importance of a strong brand will always out-live any short term based blog websites.


Q: What's the single best pieces of advice you've been given for SEO, PR, Web Development and running a company?
SEO - content is king [Ed: So true]
PR - based on our current PR company, not a lot sadly.
Web Dev - No pain, no gain!
Running a company - teamwork really is the key to a happy partnership, and singing of the same hymn sheet helps!

Q: Dave Macfarlane thought you were a bit late into the market 18 months ago. Do you have any thoughts in the light of how the site has progressed since then? And did you make the top 50?

We have not made the top 50, I think most people in the affiliate business have heard of PriceInspector, but we need to get it to the masses before we can get more piece of the pie. Its simple though, make the top 50, and start ordering the Ferrari.


Q: As I attended your wedding, I suppose you better come to ours? Can you make 1st November next year? And will you get us a better present then when we got you and Tracy - that was pre-affiliate days you know!

Yes, provided its in the UK as my missus won't fly :-( As for a present, if you give me some more advice on SEO for PI, then I make more money, which would then reflect in a bigger present - a win win situation :-)



So, cheers Wes! I hope people will start listening to people that speak less and do more.