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Sail Loot Podcast 007: To Hell With Keywords, Be Yourself First

By on December 2, 2014

What’s the good word? TO HELL WITH GEORGIA! – Georgia Tech grad here so I had to throw that in.

I read a post recently in the Sailing Websites Facebook Group. Nigel Robinson was concerned that nobody was seeing his blog posts. At first, I wasn’t sure if he was asking if the blog itself, or if the links to his blog were working, or if he was asking a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) type of question.

I think that he was asking a Search Engine Optimization question. Now, he had only had his blog up for about 3 weeks at the time that he posted the question.

My answers are…

  1. The blog is working just fine and I can get to your posts. The internet is working.
  2. Be yourself. Write about your adventures in your voice. Your voice is different than anyone else’s. Always keep writing. Always keep posting. Three weeks isn’t enough time. People will find you.

Are there tricks? – Absolutely!

The best trick is to be yourself first, and write whatever it is that you want to write about. If you don’t enjoy your own stories, why should anyone else? If the tip that you share didn’t help you, then why would it help anybody else? Be yourself, and be your own audience first.

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Keywords

All of those thoughts running through my head got me thinking about keywords.

I’m guilty. I’ve used the keyword research tools and tried to pack my headlines, tags, categories, and posts with as many of the top keywords as possible.

I think that we should all try a little exercise. The next time we have a new post to write let’s skip the title, the categories, the tags, and say to ourselves “To hell with keywords.” Start with the body. Spit it out. Brainstorm. Write, speak, create a video, or whatever your outlet is just riff on it for a little while first.

Be yourself, have fun with it, and see what happens. When you go back over your work, you may just realize that the words you were searching for were right there in front of you in the first place. In fact, I think I just came up with the title to this one.

What Is The Purpose of Your Blog or Website?

Why did you start your blog or website? Did you start your blog to keep a sailing journal – web log (blog) – for yourself so that you can go back, read, and recall your cruising adventures? Did you start a niche website that you want to attract people to so that they click on Google Adsense ads and you’ll get paid for those clicks? Did you start a website for a business so that you can market your product or service on the internet?

If the purpose of your blog was to have a place that you can go back to and remind yourself of your adventures and take a look at some old photos and videos that you created along the way, then why worry about keywords too much? You know what the link is. You know how to find your blog posts. You don’t need to use Google, or Yahoo, or Bing to find your posts, reminisce about your adventures for the last 1, 2, or 5 years and put a smile on your face. So, why worry about keywords? They’ll come naturally, and you, your family, and your friends won’t need them.

Do you want to have a niche website to make money with Google Adsense and affiliate links? Then yes, you absolutely need to be concerned with keywords. I picture this type of website having a static webpage that presents itself as a business. There is a link in the navigation menu to the blog, but how long ago were those posts written? The home page has keywords all over it, and all of the posts were keyword-centric posts so that when the website was scanned by the search engines it would rank very high. Do the articles sound natural? Eh, maybe, but they really sound more like a sales pitch or an information blast. The information that these websites send people to is either a pay-per-click advertisement or an affiliate link.

The business website is very similar to a niche Adsense site, other than the fact that the business website actually has a product or service to market and sell, and doesn’t have as many pay-per-click ads all over it.

Don’t get me wrong, the niche pay-per-click sites and business websites can be VERY helpful to the people that use them. I’m just not sure that, when we talk about the sailing and cruising communities, they are looking for niche or business websites. I think sailors are looking for personal stories, pictures, and videos – and maybe audio?

Sure, you can sell things with your blog. In fact, I encourage using affiliate links to the tools that you use. But, in my opinion, I want to hear a fun sailing adventure story about your day and how the item your linking to helped you. I want to hear it in your words. Tell your stories, throw in some of those affiliate links, and the keywords will come naturally.

You Hypocrite!

I know. The words that I’m spitting out of my mouth right now are so keyword heavy it’s ridiculous! I know. But the crazy thing is that I’m not even really trying.

I write an article about Doing What You Love and Finding Your Life Purpose, and two weeks later an article is posted to Sail Loot about how Love is Not All You Need and Choosing a Profitable Business Niche.

Not being a Hypocrite, and trying not to focus solely on business, sales, keywords, and money when the website’s name is Sail Loot, is something that I struggle with.

What is Sail Loot’s purpose? First and foremost I’d like to think that we are helping others. But I’ll admit that we’re helping ourselves too. We’re just starting the process of minimizing our lifestyle so that we can get on a sailboat. We have tons of questions. I’d like to think that we’re helping others by sharing the answers to those questions when we find them. We’re helping ourselves by getting answers. We’re trying to help others by sharing those answers.

Is Sail Loot a niche, pay-per-click, money generating website? No. I don’t think so anyway. In fact, at the time that I write this, I haven’t signed Sail Loot up for Google Adsense. I might at some point, but I Personally hate going to a website or blog and just seeing pay-per-click ads all over it. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a well placed Adsense area or two. But it just pisses me off when they’re in the right AND left columns of the page and in the header, footer, top, bottom, and following me all over the page while I’m trying to read an article. Therefore, if Sail Loot ever has any Google Adsense pay-per-click areas, it will be one well placed area in the sidebar or footer.

What about Sail Loot’s affiliate links? I do think that every blog or website should use affiliate links, even if the purpose of the blog is just to keep family and friends up to date on your travels. Who cares if you get a VERY SMALL commission when you tell somebody about an awesome book that you read on your passage? It doesn’t cost the buyer anything, and you can direct them right over to the Amazon page where they can get that book, or camera, or paddle board, or kayak, or winch, or whatever.

If you’re writing a post about a passage that you just completed and you decided to attach your awesome GoPro camera to the end of a Hawaiian Sling in order to get that amazing underwater shot of the dolphins that decided to ride your wake for a little while, then you had better throw in an affiliate link to that GoPro camera. (if you’re listening to the audio version of this you can head on over to https://www.sailloot.com/goprohero4 to get your GoPro camera, or you can head on over to sailloot.com/episode007 and find all of the links there) See what I did there?

It doesn’t start with keywords about a GoPro camera. It starts with being yourself and sharing your own adventures or your own knowledge in your own words. The keywords, and links will come naturally.

Is Sail Loot a business website? Well…not yet. We don’t currently have a product or service that we’re selling. Will we? I don’t know the answer to that yet. I struggle with wanting to sell anything to the sailing community. It kind of comes down to the mantra of paying it forward and helping a cruiser out in need. Everybody has been so helpful, and willing to give up their time to answer questions and be interviewed that I’m not sure that I want to go down the road of being a salesman to the cruising community.

At the same time Sail Loot does cost some money to maintain, and everybody’s got to make a living somehow. There are sailors out there that sell their books, music, and videos all the time. I’m sure that they would give all of these products away to the cruising community for free if they could, but that’s just not the way the world works.  Sailors also seem to be happy to pay money for those products in order to support their fellow cruisers when the item offered has great value to them. That value could be a new item for the boat, new knowledge, or a new story told from a new perspective.

So am I a hypocrite? Maybe. Let me know if you think so in the comments. But I followed my own advice for this article/podcast. I didn’t start with a headline or keywords. In fact, I hit the record button and started blurting things out about Nigel Robinson’s concerns and another post in the Sailing Websites group from Mark Roope about keywords. I then went back and started the editing process, and made things easier on the ears and a little more readable (I hope).

I found the headline, title, and description while I was brainstorming for the outline, and body of this post. To hell with keywords, be yourself first. It will end up being much more interesting for you, and anybody else that happens to find your content to read, listen to, or watch. The more you let your own personality shine through and offer a new and different perspective, the more people will share your stories, the more people will find your site, the more people will hit that like button, and the more people will link to your posts.

Do you think I’m a hypocrite? Do you have a better way to come up with your keywords? Where do you place them for maximum impact?

Teddy

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About Teddy

I am a 37 year old that just wants to find a way to make a remote income, gather some Sail Loot and cruise the world! I have been sailing for a couple of years now, but mostly on 10 day trips as vacationing crew. I just recently took sailing to the next level by completing my Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising, and Bareboat Cruising Certifications! I am also Vice President of a Medical Consulting Company, have a Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and have taken several Coding, Computing, and Online Business courses. It's time to share what I have learned!