Why you should work with other platforms

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Since 2017, I've written somewhere north of 600 articles.

And at the same time, I've recorded nearly 200 podcast episodes.

...that's a LOT of content.

But there's some really bad news...

Almost none of them bring me organic traffic from Google or any other search engine.

None!

How could that be?

Well, it became clear to me this year that I fundamentally misunderstood how search and search engine optimization worked.

I figured if I wrote enough words and put them up on the internet, they would capture at least some people here and there, right?

Nope, wrong.

Most of my writing on jayclouse.com is around mindset and lessons I've learned in starting a business, packaged into bite-sized insights to help you too.

And my subscribers love it – open rates are high, click rates are high, unsubscribe rates are low...

But that does not mean it brings in search traffic.

How Search Engines Work

Humor me while I tell you what you already know.

Search engines are deeply incentivized to provide you with the best answer to your question or solution to your problem as quickly as possible.

When you ask Google, "Who is the voice of Elsa in Frozen?" Google wants to tell you "Idina Menzel" as quickly as possible.

This deepens your trust in Google as being the best place to find answers.

...and if you trust Google to help you find answers, they can serve you more ads.

When I write about being the guide and not the hero of your marketing message, that doesn't exactly answer a question.

Said another way, no one is really Googling, "Should I be the hero of my marketing?"

So my writing, while insightful, isn't really helping Google out. And so there's no reason for Google to send much traffic to my website.

This is probably the biggest mistake I've made as a creator.

Working With Search Engines

When you make something (articles, video, audio, anything) chances are you'd like as many people to see it as possible.

You're making it for a reason, right? That may be new clients, new customers, new subscribers...

And it's AWESOME when your existing clients, customers, or subscribers share your work with others.

That's at least one new person, along for the ride!

But search engines like Google can act like your biggest fan.

Actually, they can be a much BIGGER fan than any human can, because they can rave about your work 24/7 to an unlimited number of people simultaneously.

But that only happens if you work with the search engine and give it what it wants: answers to peoples' questions.

Imagine a constant stream of new clients, customers, or subscribers coming across your work every single day.

Isn't that worth investing time into?

And yet, so often we choose to make something at random, as the mood strikes, and hope that it catches.

Unfortunately, it's a little hard to accidentally create something that generates a lot of organic traffic from search.

Going Beyond Search

This strategy stretches beyond search too. Search engines work because they have a built-in audience looking for the information that you provide...

...but so do a lot of brands, companies, and individuals.

This is why partnerships can be so powerful.

A couple of months ago, I partnered with Creative Mornings to teach their audience how to produce a podcast. More than 500 people registered for that workshop, and more than 150 of them signed up to receive the slides afterwards.

You can get those slides here too if you want

You can partner with other brands or people to share your message too. That could be a guest post, an Instagram live, a webinar, and so on.

Conclusion

It all sounds obvious – but it's something I wish I would've taken seriously sooner.

For many online creators, especially if you want to build an independent living, building an audience is one of the best ways to get there.

And if you're going to try and climb that mountain, you should do whatever you can to work with the platforms and people who can help share your message with and for you.

Imagine if my 600 articles were written to play nicely with search engines!

This message was made loud and clear to me in this week's episode of Creative Elements with Vanessa Van Edwards.

She shared how she built her business, Science of People, into more than 470K subscribers and 30 million views on YouTube.

I asked Vanessa how she would recommend other online creators get started, and here's what she told me:

"I have weird advice on this, which is you need to create content for a platform that can pitch your content for you. And the reason for that is because starting from scratch, getting an email list, getting search rankings, creating videos, getting ranking in YouTube, then trying to create an email funnel then to sell them is a lot of steps.

You can do that. You can absolutely do that. There is room for that.

A better choice is to know your content so incredibly well, that you have a very unique and helpful perspective on it, that you can go to platforms like Udemy or Creative Live, or Skillshare or LinkedIn Learning or Masterclass and you can say to them, 'I am the number one expert on this thing. I would like to create the perfect piece of content for you. Will you help me get it out there.'

Then on the back end, you have your email list articles waiting for them a funnel waiting for them. Maybe a book waiting for For them, but in this day and age if you want faster, a faster way to do that is to actually leverage other people's platforms."

Listen to the full interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

I hope you take her advice more quickly than I did!

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And if you liked this, subscribe to my newsletter, Work in Progress.

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Jay Clouse is the creator of Freelancing School, which provides the training and community to help people make a living freelancing. He is also the founder of Unreal Collective, a community for founders, freelancers, and creators that runs a 12-week accelerator program.

Jay hosts Creative Elements, which interviews high-profile creators who have made their own independent living.

You can connect with Jay on Twitter @jayclouse or sign up for his Sunday newsletter for creatives at jayclouse.com.