Writing chum Dana Prince has a really cool blog post up about passive marketing. She makes a lot of sense in how valuable clients find us – the Google search. Click on her link in the post and see her suggestions.
While she advocates posting to content mills to up your chances of being found on Google, I’m not going to do that (sorry Dana – I hate content mills). But here are a few ways to increase your visibility on a Google search.
A weblog on your specialty. If you’re going to write for free, write for yourself for free. Putting up a weblog based on, say, health care or fashion is a great way to increase the hits you get on a Google search. Concentrate not just on great content, but on keywords that will come up in a Google search, such as “HIPAA” for health care or “designer trends” for fashion. In my specialty, I’d put lots of reference to risk management and insurance. Lots of insurance, so that when the potential client goes looking for an “insurance writer” my name floats near the top of the results.
Articles on your specialty. No, not content mill articles. Articles for online publications, print pubs (that often post articles online), or even your own website. Put some effort into writing for higher-paying markets (or for yourself) and watch your name rise in the Google search results.
Blogs for others. Blog posts are easy things to write. We can charge less as a result, but they’re also a great way to get your name attached to your specialty, especially if your client allows you to openly author the posts. Let me explain – my own blog work has been of the ghostwriting variety. That pays the bills, but it doesn’t give me any more credibility to a client looking for an insurance or risk management writer. If your client allows you one or two “guest posts” for the sake of increasing your own visibility, go for it. Or guest-post on a cyber-friend’s blog, using those very keywords you need to get your name associated with your specialty.
Tons of keywords on your own website. It seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many of us (myself included) fail to put enough terms in our code or in our copy that points clients to us. Maybe that’s our first step?
What do you do to improve your Google results?
8 responses to “Passive Marketing the Google Way”
Thanks for the mention, Lori 🙂
Great tips! Guest blogging can be a great way to get a backlink and bring new traffic to your website.
I have a Google Alert set up for my own name so that I know what I'm ranking for as well and I regularly check the top search engines to see what comes up on page one for my name. It's good to know what your clients and prospects will find if they go looking.
I also regularly check my site stats to see what I'm ranking for so that I can figure out what keywords to keep using or use a little more of.
I need to defend my content mill strategy.
It's true that if you don't have to give away your content to the content mills, you shouldn't give your work away for free.
But,here's why I do it:
Posting on some of those content mill articles have helped me get plenty of samples to page one and two of Google for some strong keywords that have helped me get clients so that's how I justify it 🙂 There are other reasons, too.
Ezinearticles.com, for instance, has definitely helped me rank for some keywords that are bringing people to my site to ask for writing quotes. While the site uses my article for free, that's not the only reason I post there. I get the benefit of that backlink which helps me rank for the keywords I want to rank for. The also is also syndicated so I get more than one backlink.
I also use their little widget on my customer-facing blog which shows prospective clients a quick listing of various niche samples of mine and those samples also link back to passive income blogs of mine as well.
I've seen results with my self-promotion efforts and it helps with my passive income efforts, too.
Cheers,
Dana
Right now I’m working on getting my niche site up and plan to have some articles and probably ebooks or reports as time goes on. The blogging part is going slower than molasses. I started a blog, finally, about a month ago. I originally planned for it to be a freelance writing blog, but it turned into a niche blog and then went to a personal blog. Oops.
I decided to redirect it to a niche blog again and change the blog title to something niche related-I don't know what yet. But, then, I thought I needed a freelance writing blog just to throw my 2 cents worth into the writing arena. I just started that, but still don’t really know what I want to do with it. Except that I want to target new writers.
I don’t plan to write for any content mill type sites as I know some clients are adamant that I don’t provide any of those as clips to showcase my work. I can understand the search engine point of view, but I believe I’ll find another way for that.
Beyond that, I haven’t decided much else yet.
Considering how many well-paying clients have told me, in the past few months, that the minute they see a clip or a line on a resume that writer works for a mill content site (because they know , through previous experience, that writer can't deliver they quality they need), that writer's scratched off their list, it just reinforces my belief that mill content sites are a waste of time.
I land jobs that pay a living wage, so I can't be bothered with sites who don't.
Those "15 minutes" that content mill shills claim it takes to write an article — I can write a scene in my new commissioned play or a pro bono piece for an animal shelter that could actually save a life — much more productive, in my eyes, than getting paid a buck by someone who'll keep earning on my quality.
Here's how I build traffic — I write quality content that connects with people. Whether it's on my blog, where I get to be a cranky pants sometimes or talk about process other times or whatever, or a guest post where I do my best to be a "good guest" — I give it thought, attention, and try to keep the bar up for myself.
Dana, thanks for the idea and for your contribution. Tomorrow's post, which I've already written, is not aimed at you (I needed to emphasize that now). It deals with my opinion of content mills.
Your idea may work, but I worry that the association with those mills damage the reputation more than it helps you. Devon's point is spot on: pro bono work for oneself is always more beneficial than associating with sites that are exploiting writers. I think Wendy's experience is key – clients don't think these clips are worth viewing. That's a pretty strong message from an employer.
While I agree you're getting mileage out of it, I wonder if you could get better mileage out of the same content on your own site?
That would be "damages" with an s. Sorry. 🙂
Great discussion and I look forward to tomorrow's post.
I do utilise my own site as well as write for other sites. My formula is working for me right now. And, I'm definitely open to trying more marketing techniques that elevate my profile as well.
Thanks,
Dana
I have to agree with Dana that sites like EzineArticles.com have their uses. I have a short ebook (more of an e-pamphlet) I sell on how to restring vintage dolls — collecting dolls is a hobby of mine. A couple of years ago I posted a few articles to EzineArticles.com with my ebook sales site in the resource box. I still get regular sales, and I believe it is at least in part thanks to those articles, because I haven't done any other marketing for the ebook in a looooong time.
I use it for affiliate marketing, too, Katharine. It's pretty symbiotic. A few popular articles on there help me make monthly sales on an affiliate marketing product I promote on one of my niche blogs.
Between the backlinks and the foot traffic to my sites, I think it works well. I don't always use those articles to show as clips to clients but they're there as extra clips if anyone goes looking for examples of my writing style and the links in the resource box helps me rank for the words I want to be found in Google for.