I’ve grabbed myself a couple of new and expensive SEO tools over the past two days. Market Samurai has been good to me for the past few years, but it’s clunky and there are better options on the market. Besides, I’m trying to be more professional now.
Anyway, I bring that up because I’ve been doing some keyword research for articles ideas and other projects, and it brought to mind some things that I overlook. If I overlook them, other people do too.
As a freelancer, entrepreneur or guy who solves problems in life, you’ll probably think a lot of things are common knowledge when they aren’t. These bits of knowledge that you take for granted could actually be a lifeline or valuable service to other people.
So, if you’re struggling for ideas – be it a service-based business start-up or content for a marketing campaign – this article will help you.
Technical Stuff
I write about writing. Sometimes, I’ll write a topic about a miniscule aspect of writing that I know is obscure and only three people in the world will benefit. But I figure “Why not?” because writing is a pretty straightforward activity and becoming published in this modern world is easy as hell.
It’s literally a case of typing, uploading files and profiting. Right?
Boy… how wrong I am.
Stuff like the fiction swipe file is obviously awesome and every writer of fiction should do it. But are people checking out “fiction swipe file” in their masses?
No… they’re looking up stuff like:
- How to publish an ebook
- How to write a short story
- Uploading ebook to Amazon
- What is self-publishing?
- How to make a book cover
Or, for the copywriting stuff:
- What is copywriting?
- How to be a copywriter
- What does a copywriter do?
Don’t even get me started on website building and online business. If you’re thinking more complex than “how to create a website” then you’re probably thinking too hard.
Most people have no technical knowledge of what they’re trying to accomplish. The affiliate marketer who sells you on a basic hosting package and a domain name as “the start of your million dollar career” might seem stupid to you, but a whole bunch of people need that level.
Step-By-Step
As regular readers of this little blog will know, I’m not really a step-by-step meticulous person. I might think about things in a lot of detail, but explaining them is another thing. My how-to or walkthrough-style articles are built more along the lines of, “Do this, then that, then that… and it’ll work” and I leave people to fill in the blanks.
That’s a bad idea for SEO and general readership.
People will search minutiae in order to get step-by-step knowledge. “How to upload book to nook” and “how to upload book cover to nook” are both searched for… despite being (to my mind) pretty obvious and on the same page.
Some people need the “Go to the button and click it with your left mouse button” style walkthroughs.
Justification For Spending Money
Most conscientious site owners don’t want to come off too salesy.
If only they knew.
People buy all kinds of stuff all the time. A lot of it is totally useless if not harmful. (Think about the guy who is addicted to online gambling… think he’s worried about a site selling him something?)
In general, if you’re selling something, you can sell it a lot more than you think you can.
People are consumption machines waiting to spend their money, and they really love to spend money because it feels good.
Free Stuff
In general, you can add “free” to the end of any search term and you’ll get a trillion more visitors.
Obviously, we sneaky salesmen don’t want to give away everything free, but there really are no limits to the amount of people you can get started along your funnels with a little SEO and the generous sprinkling of free opt-ins.
If you aren’t offering “freebies” in exchange for getting people into your sales funnels and webs, then you should be.
It doesn’t matter what you sell. From religion through dog food to books on catching butterflies, you can always find something free to give your target market and then you can upsell them.
Final Thoughts
The above list isn’t really anything ground breaking.
This article is merely a call to remember that what you as a subject matter expert take for granted, other people don’t. Those people are crying out for someone to walk them through the most basic of steps, and this cry for help is a means for you to prove your authority, build a loyal fan-base and ultimately get more customers.
Hell, you’ll probably get some satisfaction from helping people out too.
Speaking of which, for the uninitiated, I help people regularly with daily blog posts. Check out the archives here and then come back tomorrow for some more awesome thoughts on how to do online business stuff, professional writing and more.