The amount of written content required to make a website successful is ridiculous. You can’t expect a website to start performing well in search until you’ve written at least 25,000 words of content.
For a writer, that isn’t even that much. As an SEO who orders tons of content, I’m always scratching my head wondering why these writers wouldn’t just publish their own work on a website they own.
Publishing content to a website is one of the fastest and easiest ways to create a passive income stream for yourself.
There are two obvious reasons why a writer wouldn’t do this, though…
Client work is faster money
Receiving an order and fulfilling it is what pays the bills. Getting $10-$50 per article is enough to keep a writer’s lights on in their home. This is even more true for busy writers.
Researching new topics is more work
It’s not easy to find the perfect topic to write about. There are a lot of factors that need to be accounted for:
- Have I covered this topic before?
- Which keywords are worth targeting?
- What has worked for my competitors?
When a client orders a piece of content from you, they’ll tell you exactly what they need. This is because they’ve done their research already.
Content sites take time to start earning
When you’re at the mercy of Google, you’re stuck waiting. You need to research topics, write for those topics, then wait for Google to decide if your content is worth sending traffic to.
It’s a brutal feeling, waiting for the train to leave the station. If you’re a writer, though, you have no excuse. More so if you’re trying to build a portfolio.
Do you hate taking cheap writing gigs? Then do that same cheap writing anyway, but keep the content for yourself.
Here is what you stand to gain:
- An online portfolio to show your work
- Ranked keywords with traffic that can be used as proof that your content performs
- Monetize the traffic you’re getting and earn a passive income from it (this is what your clients are doing with your writing)
How to set up your own website
Spend a little bit of money on your own business. Take the following steps to get started:
- Pay for a reputable website hosting service. You find a host on my recommended services and tools page.
- Install WordPress
- Start publishing your content
- Use some simple SEO tricks to turn that content into traffic. My blog teaches this so be sure to follow and subscribe.