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2001: A Space Odyssey

One can view the search marketing community as a big iceberg…only a small portion of its members are visible but those at the top can be seen from afar.  This fortunate subset of people (almost all of which know or at least know of each other) share tremendous rewards of prominence such as high-level networking / access, job / gig opportunities, and the ability to facilitate advantageous situations for themselves and those they associate with. 

Few start out in our community with any visibility…most have to earn their way into getting noticed.  The most common way that the anonymous search marketer can pull themselves above the waterline and be seen is by writing search marketing articles / blog posts.

You might make excuses as to why you shouldn’t / haven’t / can’t / didn’t write anything up until now…however, none of them really hold water (…notice I’m using different water analogies as I develop this piece…).

It’s true…your first effort or several efforts will probably suck.  My first effort was appallingly bad.  When I wrote this, I hadn’t written anything more complex than a business letter in at least a dozen years.  The idea I expressed in this piece was fine…but my stilted writing style felt like I was trying to write my way through quicksand (mostly water BTW).

Fortunately for me, Jennifer Laycock liked my stuff enough to ask me back…and I got better at it.  See, writing is like s-s-s-s-swimming…repetition is the key to performance and the more you do it, the better you get and the more enjoyable it becomes.  Eventually, I found my style and voice and now, creating blog posts on demand is easy. I’m not treading water when I need to fish an idea out of my head to develop (…fish come out of water…well, you know that…)

If you look at the top Search Marketing Bloggers, they’ve done enough writing to develop a distinctive voice.  Lisa Barone’s voice is very distinct.  So is Rebecca Kelley’s.  And John Andrews.  And Michael Gray.  Even Barry Schwartz & Matt McGee who are less likely to blog “with their heart upon their sleeve” still have very unique and distinctive voices.

So, need some ideas?  How about:

“How To Write A Good Title Tag”
“The Top Social Networking Sites For Business”
“How To Set Up A Google AdWords Account”

Been done before?  Of course.  Your first efforts will be excellent fodder for an A-list SEO to write a post about how unoriginal SEO writing has become.  But, you’re not writing for them…you’re writing for you.  You’re investing in your future because ultimately, you’re going to have a unique, valuable post to share with the community. However, if you haven’t slogged through the mud (again, mostly water) with the rudiments of article / post writing, you aren’t going to be able to present your really good ideas in a manner that will do them justice.

Where to post your articles?  Plenty of options.  Start your own blog.  Sure, it’s likely that it will be invisible for a while but when people are Googling you for whatever reason, it will be found and show you as seriously committed to this discipline.  Lots of people will run your guest posts if they are decent (and if you ask nicely).  Search Engine Journal ran a couple posts of mine.  Huomah (David Harry’s blog) ran one recently.  Jeff Quipp uses SEO Scoop as a vehicle for community posting and so does Rand Fishkin with YOUmoz.   Search Engine Guide is always looking for writers.  If someone were to send me something good, I’d definitely publish it at the SEMpdx blog.  Also, more likely than not, any friend of yours who publishes an active blog will publish your guest post so long as you buy the drinks (not watered down hopefully) the next time you get together.

And sometimes the darndest things happen…

One of my earliest blog posts that I did for Search Engine Guide was about how to create Wikipedia pages.  It was pretty boring post on a useful topic that sidestepped all the thorny issues and politics that governs Wikipedia page creation.  Its publication created nary a ripple in the search community that I was aware of. I did syndicate the article to EzineArticles (something I haven’t done in a long while) and forgot about it.  Yet as time went on, things began to happen…

Businesses began to realize the importance of Wikipedia listings and also realized they couldn’t / shouldn’t do them on their own. Meanwhile, my original blog post & my syndicated article took up residence at the top of the Google SERPS for relevant searches.

And my syndication of that post drew in a heck of a lot of visitors:

And nothing I’ve ever done has reeled in (fish out of water) more inquiries for me than this piece.

However, none of this would have happened if I didn’t write that first article and stick to my writing even though it took a long time to reap any tangible rewards from the process.  Without all the writing I've done, I would be swimming in the same pool with all the rest of the anonymous search marketers…nothing to distinguish myself from the other fish in the school…certainly, nothing I could show anyone in order to better myself.

Did I mention how a regular course of writing pimps out your Google Profile?

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3 brilliant comments

Todd,

I was amused by your water analogy, and your persistence in keeping that thread through your piece. I think that keeping a theme for a post flowing (like water) all the way through is the key to developing that "distinctive voice" that you mention early in your piece. People like "punchy" writing, and if you flood your blog with useful, witty repartee, then the best of the best will float to the top.

Jeremy Rivera  ^#

[...] Writing Your Way Into Search Marketing Visibility, Search Engine People [...]

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 27, 2009  ^#

Excellent detail. Almost overwhelming to a rookie like myself trying to figure out how it can apply to non-techy businesses.

Malibu Beach Ceremony  ^#