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Did you put all your online writing marketing in one Google basket? The recent changes remind us what to do instead.
Major changes to Google’s search algorithm have led to a lot of good websites being hit. This Helpful Content Update has certainly affected the wrong sites in a lot of cases, but it brings up a great lesson in the world of online writing.
You don’t want to rely on one traffic source for your website. It’s not just Google that has taught this in recent years. Pinterest recently taught this, and we’ve seen changes at Facebook and Twitter in the past make it clear that you need to diversify your marketing.
You don’t want to put your eggs in one marketing basket
I’ve always said as a freelancer not to put all your eggs into one basket. While one client may make up a large bulk of my income, it’s not the only part of my income. I’ll have other clients that can make up a pocket of income, allowing me not to panic too much if I lose a client.
Well, the same applies to marketing your online writing*. You don’t want to put all your eggs into one marketing basket. It’s essential to spread out.
SEO isn’t dead, but it is changing considerably. Pinterest didn’t just disappear, but it felt like it when there were changes just a couple of years ago. Social media is constantly changing algorithms. The truth is you’re putting your marketing efforts into the hands of other companies, and you have no control over those companies.
Not everything is going to change at once, though. We know Google algorithms change yearly, but it’s only really once ever five to 10 years that we see a major shift that brings about an SEO apocalypse. Not all social media* sites will make changes at the same time. We can see that Google’s was this year, but Pinterest changed things a couple of years ago. It’s been a few years since Facebook made huge changes.
By putting your eggs in multiple marketing baskets, you avoid all your marketing efforts from being decimated at the same time. You can focus marketing on the places that haven’t changed while you figure out what you need to do to help the marketing efforts in the places that have changed.
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Email is the place to turn for online writing
I say this as a bit of a hypocrite as you’ll know I don’t do much with email. I really should, but it’s just one part of my marketing business that I haven’t focused on. That will change this year, but for now, I have to focus on one thing at a time or I’ll go crazy trying to fix everything at once.
However, email marketing is a must if you want to succeed with online writing. You have so much more control over your email marketing than you do with any other sort of marketing. You see, you say when your email consistency changes, and you get to say how detailed your emails are. You want value in those emails, but you get so much control over that value.
Some companies you set up the lists through will change, but not all of them. And really, those changes are likely linked to the cost for you or due to regulations brought in around the world. You won’t just suddenly see your emails stop.
The problem with email marketing is getting people to sign up to your email list. You need people to choose to sign up, and then you need to provide value to keep them on. People are going to unsubscribe if they don’t get value. You just have so much control in what you provide.
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What are you struggling with in the world of online writing? What do you think of the latest Google changes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
