In over ten years as an Author I have failed to make any impact. Ezine Articles, Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger, and WordPress are some platforms that I have tried, but failed to make a statement through. I have even become a self published Author- a title I have come to loathe.
I only made about three or four Dollars on Squidoo, I never made a dime on Hubpages, and for all my effort as an Author I have currently less than One Hundred Dollars ($100) as royalties across two major eBook distribution platforms. That is a serious blow to my dream of starting a trust fund for my kids through the proceeds of my writing.
Lessons Learnt
One thing I have learned in all my years of writing and content marketing is that: no matter how good an idea is, if you don’t pay money to google to promote it, you have wasted your time and effort! In order to buttress this point it is necessary to digress with a story.
In times past, before the coming of Christianity, people lived in small communities or villages. They had a special class of people called Druids, Shamans or Priests (the names varied from place to place) who organized and directed religious activities. They were untouchable. They were the voice of the Gods. When an ordinary person wanted to do an act of worship he had to do so through the Shamans. They took the gifts from him and offered up the Sacrifices to the Gods. In those times they had real power to decide who lived and who died.
Google is Your God
We are an ancient civilization, Google is God, SEO experts are Shamans and only them can take your Sacrifices (Money) before the big G in the proper manner, leading to the Internet’s rich blessings.
Any attempts to offer up your Sacrifices by yourself could prove fatal. The Big G is easily offended and could strike down the content you worked so hard and probably spent much money to create. Strike down should be taken literally- your content could get pinned to the rock bottom of search results meaning that you have what could be described as a negative balance worth hundreds of thousands. This debt could be so bad that you may never pay it off. Even when you contact an SEO expert, he may not be able to fix your content. If it is time contingent, then it may be as good as dead. Thus you could lose not only the money you invested in google, but also everything you put into the content.
Content is not King
They say Content is king. I do not believe that to be true. This is because most people who have read my book Bomber Boy: Rise of the Underwear Bomber (please take a moment to search it out) say it is Genius. One Reviewer said she did not understand why I was not popular. I once thought the answer was ‘because I am Black.’ I know better now. The proper answer is : I don’t have a truck load of Money!
If I had money, and I hired a good SEO firm, perhaps things would be a little different. Surely I would be at the first spot on google for keywords relevant to my niche, not buried under a ton of meaningless words that only mean something if you live 50 years in the past. Perhaps I would be famous, and generate the kind of money that is due my talent. I could have some money to donate to women in strip clubs and some left over to start a trust fund.
Trust Fund managers would be a lot Richer if more people made more money from the Internet. So many very good Authors, Bloggers, Singers, Artists, and general creatives would make much more if they weren’t fed the Content is King LIE. If only they approached SEO like the all-out war that it is, maybe they would make money, start Trust Funds, and make the world a better place. But they don’t take SEO serious, and so they fail, and in their desperation they turn to porn.
Maybe sometime in the future we will have Atheists who will rebel against Google. I mean why do we need google telling us what we must do and not do? Clearly they are only interested in making money! If you are going to be an advertising company then just say so. Don’t con us with all that nonsense about curating useful content, or keeping the internet safe. If Google cared about all that then (Scam) Literary Agents, (Dangerous) Health Products and (Plain Evil) Porn wouldn’t show up on google searches at all, much less at the very top. Good guys like me and my friend John from Concordia, Kansas, would be rich and famous, drink champagne, eat at fancy restaurants, and take selfies with Oprah Winfrey. I would be happy… and Swedish!
I don’t know how we are going to be saved from this mess, but I know that something has to be done. A new generation of Atheists have to emerge from somewhere or anywhere, and call out Google for the fraud that it is. A more responsible search engine could take over, and we would all live happily ever after.
Talent is Not Enough
Until that time however, we must all do well to face the reality of the world as it is. SEO is a war that can only be won by a huge war-chest, an unbending will, and the tactics of a seasoned professional. It is a zero sum game- the winner takes all. The loser whines about doing his best, deludes himself about curating useful content, or talks about saving the world. Nobody cares about useful content. People care about what google tells them to care about.
Do not make my mistake. Talent is good but it is not enough. Content is King but it cannot rule by itself alone. Get a good SEO firm that can put you on the map and make something of your talent.
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