"Maybe Traffic" Is Not a Currency

Originally I just wanted to share how I felt when I received another request today for contributing to another site. Then the article grew and now also contains info on the marketing instruments that did help me to increase the number of people following my content.

Writing for Free

If you follow this blog chances are that you are a new writer/blogger/marketer.

It´s a tedious task to find the first loyal readers who appreciate your content. Everyone will tell you (or more realistically try to sell you) the secret sauce of getting lots of readers and sales in no time. One of your greatest challenges will be not to lose focus when all around you shiny objects are blinking.

There is no legit and honorable shortcut to success. You will not make 200k or even 2k in the first week. Probably not even $ 200. You will also not find 100 new coaching clients in your first week online. That said, it is possible to make a great living and even a terrific living as a writer/coach/marketer who offers their services via the internet.

Naturally, for that to happen people have to see what you are offering and you need to find a constant and growing stream of readers.

Your invited to guest blog

How exciting is that? Once your articles start to become more popular, you will start to receive messages from people who invite you to write for their site, publish or market their content, etc. No wonder you are excited and happy. Finally, the hard work is starting to pay off.

I´ll share my view on this so that you have some more brain fodder to form your own opinion.

Content is Money

I am receiving a growing number of invites (via http://blog.aurorasa-coaching.com). The first few times I was excited. And hopeful for all of the traffic that will follow. Oh, and the backlinks.

There might be a few exceptions where it makes a lot of sense to write for other sites but here are a few arguments that make me decline most of the time:

• "Maybe traffic" is not a currency. Your time is valuable and if someone wants you to spend it they need to present an adequate value for it. 
• A single backlink is not worth a lot. For it to impress Google, you will have to write for the site on a regular basis. 
• Most of the time you cannot aggressively market your site but just post a link in your author´s profile. Even if your content is good, many people will not bother to look for your site. 
• You´re not a content machine. How many good articles can you write in a given time? You have to fill your website with a constant stream of good content as well. 

Who´s your client?

Backfire

SEO, backlinks, "click for click", social selling, keyword stuffing, link farms - the strategies keep changing. So does the Google algorithm. One of your biggest challenges will be not to fall for every scam or lose your time evaluating every shiny object.

Quality content never goes out of style. Many unsuspecting new content creators learn the painful lesson that Google does not appreciate trickery. And the promise of the "expert" and his tricks turn out to be a nightmare. Sooner or later search engines catch up, and they do punish websites that used any shady practices.

You might not even know that you were using shady practices when the great sales guy had such a convincing pitch (and didn´t he say he made his first 200k in a week?).

So my first piece of advice is: If someone tells you something that sounds too good to be true answer the following questions:

• Is it honest? 
• Does it provide value to your clients/readers?
• Can it be considered trickery or shady?
• Does the guy telling me about it make his money USING his own method or does he make his money selling his method?
• Is the system/person teaching me skill or tricks?

At the end of the day, you can rank on page one and have thousands of daily visitors - unless your content is useful or entertaining, your visitors will probably not come back.

Time is Money

So you are putting out great content and take a lot of time creating it. Still, in the beginning, the world does not seem to care. It takes a while until a new website becomes known, trusted and popular.

There were a few instruments that helped me grow the most:

Effective Marketing Instruments

Press Releases

There are quite a few sites where you can even submit your press releases without charge. The benefit of press releases include:

• Will rank very high in search engines, virtually the day after the release
• You can be lucky, and a reporter likes your release and decides to write about you
• Shows professionalism
• News sites have an excellent reputation with Google
• You might get lucky and even land in "Google Alerts."