I think I may have stumbled upon a useful technique for writers who develop websites. I call it Inverted SEO.
While we understand Search Engine Optimization and the ability to monetize the traffic that SEO brings, it can still be a drag to develop websites for yourself from this perspective, even though you know that a website dedicated to Britney Spears naked shaving her head next to Paris Hilton making a sex tape while a drunk Lindsey Lohan drives the car could bring traffic by the thousands.
This is, of course, why everyone always says, “Write what you know,” and “Write what you love.”
As writers, we write because we are good at it, and more importantly, because we like it. Let’s face it, there are a lot of easier ways to make money if that is what one is after.
So, it is no surprise that writers sometimes have a difficult time developing money making websites for themselves. Sure, if someone else hires a write to develop a money making website, a professional freelancer can do that all day long. After all, that is when professionalism kicks in, as well as a solutions orientation that makes all the difference when it comes to focus.
But, when developing a website without that “it’s what the client wants” mentality, things can be much different. After all, the client is you.
SEO When Content Really Is King
Read any of the Top 5 SEO websites, and you’ll repeatedly hear that content is king. That isn’t completely true. What is really king is choosing good keywords, picking a domain name with those keywords in it, then building up a plethora of links from other bloggers. After all of that, THEN content is king. Of course, that is a little bit like saying the Mayor of Denver runs the government.
What is a writer to do?
Write what you love.
No, seriously.
Build your website around a topic that you love, and the content will pour from your fingers. You’ll write articles or blog posts when you are procrastinating (like I’m doing right now), when you are at your computer late at night, and when you are bored. This will not only build up a sizable website with plenty of well written and valuable content, it will help keep your mind and talent sharp and fresh as well. (Nothing dulls a passion for writing like never writing anything you enjoy.)
After a month or so (depending on how much you have cranked out), load up Google’s webmaster tools and take a look at your Top Searches. See which ones you are already ranked in the Top 20 for, and which ones, if any, already bring visitors (clicks) to your website. Now, go back and write another article on each, being sure to use those same keywords in the title and in header tags and all those other SEO tricks that you know.
Optimizing Your Content Driven Site for the Best SEO Results
Then, go back to writing your usual stuff that you want to write. A few days, or a few weeks later, go back and repeat the process.
What’s the point?
By developing a site that you love, and ignoring any keyword research up front, you can easily build up the kind of content that you need to have a full site. But, ignoring keywords and SEO is a sure way to have a site that takes years to discover, if ever. Inverting your SEO process, however, can be the golden ticket to big success and positive cash flow.
Writing the content first, and then observing which keywords stick and using that information will provide a way to meet all the same goals, without having to sell out to do it. By building on the “accidental” success you have, you will build up the number of visitors (and ad review) to your site. Since you undoubtedly have oodles of worthwhile content, some of those visitors will stick around and come back on their own. Keep repeating these steps and in just few months, you can be the “authority” for keywords you never knew existed that are directly related to a topic that you love writing about.
Do this with a hundred or so sites, and you can stop working as a freelancer.
Good luck. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I hope all of you do the same.
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