Since my progress diary on my e-commerce website has been pretty useful to keep me on task (that and I love reading through some of the progress threads on here and seeing people be successful), I figured I'd do one for my content strategy business as well. "Metz, you foolish fool, why are you doing two projects at once?" you might be thinking. Fun fact: I'm actually working on three (!!!). While it might seem counter-intuitive, I'll come back and write (and discuss if anyone is curious about my apparent lunacy) why I've decided to work like this -- but that's something for another day.
Today is a day of renewed beginnings for a long-standing project that I ultimately began when I was 20-21, stumbled from multiple life circumstances and depression, and am now building up speed again.
While I started freelancing many moons ago (I'm 29 now), I set up an LLC back in 2018 but fumbled its execution. Hard. I had no focus at all -- my marketing, the services I offered, my own life. It was rough.
I knew I had to find a niche, find a need that I can help fulfill, and as a writer who knows SEO, I knew there were plenty of businesses who needed that kinda help. With my e-commerce site starting to take off, it gave me a few ideas on how to better hone my business' focus. Instead of being a one-size-fits-all "LET ME HELP YOU WITH ALL YOUR PROFESSIONAL STRATEGY GOALS" nonsense consultancy (nothing against coaches and consultants btw, just if you saw my site before, younger me meant well but it was a bunch of nonsense), I've now chosen a specific path: content creation and strategy.
Simply put, I want to find businesses and brands who need written content from blog and social media posts to print materials (brochures, flyers, etc.) to reworking existing content to be more SEO-friendly. I can also help with video and other kinds of content for those interested in building brands on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and Twitch through storyboarding or helping businesses find the right platforms that fit their model and the kinds of customers they're trying to attract. While that also overlaps with marketing, it all comes back down to writing.
Ideally, I want to focus on mid-sized businesses for now; businesses that have some money to spare for marketing, are primed to grow, yet are still underserved by other content strategy companies who either charge a ton (I've been doing some math by comparing the larger companies' prices to mine and I can easily be at least 30% cheaper and have pretty good profit margins of at least 60%) or have been burned by content companies that act as mills (some of my early clients back in the day found me because they realized paying $20 for a 1000 word article that just rambles in broken English and packed with keywords to the point that its saturation makes SEO crawlers flag it for the low-quality spam it is). I can also keep costs down by continuing to work remotely rather than rely on office space though if the business grows big enough, a little bit of office space might be nice.. though honestly, I'm having a hard time foreseeing that as something I'd even want. But baby steps.
Another useful asset is that I also understand SEO well enough regarding content so that the content itself isn't just SEO-friendly, but I can advise the client on how to make the most out of the content once it's been delivered. Since I'm competing with content mills and businesses don't realize how worthless a lot of that writing is, I want to demonstrate the value of quality > quantity -- and, if one were to scale, high quality + quantity >>>>> low quality + quantity. The best way I've found to do that is taking the time to be transparent with the client and help them understand what to do with the content once it's ready and in their hands: where to share it and how, what pages it can link to, how it can be turned into a sales funnel, stuff like that.
I know there's no shortage of work like this that needs to be done because when I attempted to scale last time, I found I bit off more than I could chew throwing pitches around. While I didn't expect such a strong response so quickly, I got overwhelmed with that on top of a bunch of other personal things going on in my life. I've since learned from all of that, being in a better, more confident headspace and finding ways to automate my work so I can serve clients well without burning myself out.
One way of doing that was contracting three writers to handle the research, outlining, and drafting portions of the projects and then I edit, format the content for SEO, and work with the client. The writers do what they enjoy and don't have to worry about any client interactions and they build their own schedules so long as the work gets done by the deadline. I also pay them better than what a larger content company would because.. well.. I've worked as a contractor in the space long enough to know. Even while I'm training them on the process, they've already saved me a ton of time which I can now reinvest in other business-building activities.
SO WHAT DO I DO FROM HERE? The list is simple:
But yeah.. ya boy's hungry and I've been obsessing over trying to make this work. I feel so close to getting this machine in motion. I'd say here's hoping but it isn't about hope at this point anymore. It's about doing. And I'm not going to stop until it works.
Today is a day of renewed beginnings for a long-standing project that I ultimately began when I was 20-21, stumbled from multiple life circumstances and depression, and am now building up speed again.
While I started freelancing many moons ago (I'm 29 now), I set up an LLC back in 2018 but fumbled its execution. Hard. I had no focus at all -- my marketing, the services I offered, my own life. It was rough.
I knew I had to find a niche, find a need that I can help fulfill, and as a writer who knows SEO, I knew there were plenty of businesses who needed that kinda help. With my e-commerce site starting to take off, it gave me a few ideas on how to better hone my business' focus. Instead of being a one-size-fits-all "LET ME HELP YOU WITH ALL YOUR PROFESSIONAL STRATEGY GOALS" nonsense consultancy (nothing against coaches and consultants btw, just if you saw my site before, younger me meant well but it was a bunch of nonsense), I've now chosen a specific path: content creation and strategy.
Simply put, I want to find businesses and brands who need written content from blog and social media posts to print materials (brochures, flyers, etc.) to reworking existing content to be more SEO-friendly. I can also help with video and other kinds of content for those interested in building brands on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and Twitch through storyboarding or helping businesses find the right platforms that fit their model and the kinds of customers they're trying to attract. While that also overlaps with marketing, it all comes back down to writing.
Ideally, I want to focus on mid-sized businesses for now; businesses that have some money to spare for marketing, are primed to grow, yet are still underserved by other content strategy companies who either charge a ton (I've been doing some math by comparing the larger companies' prices to mine and I can easily be at least 30% cheaper and have pretty good profit margins of at least 60%) or have been burned by content companies that act as mills (some of my early clients back in the day found me because they realized paying $20 for a 1000 word article that just rambles in broken English and packed with keywords to the point that its saturation makes SEO crawlers flag it for the low-quality spam it is). I can also keep costs down by continuing to work remotely rather than rely on office space though if the business grows big enough, a little bit of office space might be nice.. though honestly, I'm having a hard time foreseeing that as something I'd even want. But baby steps.
Another useful asset is that I also understand SEO well enough regarding content so that the content itself isn't just SEO-friendly, but I can advise the client on how to make the most out of the content once it's been delivered. Since I'm competing with content mills and businesses don't realize how worthless a lot of that writing is, I want to demonstrate the value of quality > quantity -- and, if one were to scale, high quality + quantity >>>>> low quality + quantity. The best way I've found to do that is taking the time to be transparent with the client and help them understand what to do with the content once it's ready and in their hands: where to share it and how, what pages it can link to, how it can be turned into a sales funnel, stuff like that.
I know there's no shortage of work like this that needs to be done because when I attempted to scale last time, I found I bit off more than I could chew throwing pitches around. While I didn't expect such a strong response so quickly, I got overwhelmed with that on top of a bunch of other personal things going on in my life. I've since learned from all of that, being in a better, more confident headspace and finding ways to automate my work so I can serve clients well without burning myself out.
One way of doing that was contracting three writers to handle the research, outlining, and drafting portions of the projects and then I edit, format the content for SEO, and work with the client. The writers do what they enjoy and don't have to worry about any client interactions and they build their own schedules so long as the work gets done by the deadline. I also pay them better than what a larger content company would because.. well.. I've worked as a contractor in the space long enough to know. Even while I'm training them on the process, they've already saved me a ton of time which I can now reinvest in other business-building activities.
SO WHAT DO I DO FROM HERE? The list is simple:
- I already have one client but I'd like to sign on 2-3 more by the end of the month.
- Continue training the writers on their workflow and assess the process (this isn't the first time I've managed people or done project management, but this is the first time I've let people in to help me with my business like this).
- Depending on how they do and what client work I can find, I have a fourth writer I've yet to contract but is very interested in helping out.
- Build a few sales funnels for my site.
- Figure out how AdWords works so I can make those funnels and finding new clients more effective (my SEO knowledge is mostly on organic strategies rather than paid ad stuff.. so if anyone's got any useful advice or primers on using Google AdWords, I'd be very grateful).
But yeah.. ya boy's hungry and I've been obsessing over trying to make this work. I feel so close to getting this machine in motion. I'd say here's hoping but it isn't about hope at this point anymore. It's about doing. And I'm not going to stop until it works.
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