Three Years Later…Success!

It was three years ago this month that I launched “The Article Writer” having previously had an online presence through other sites that I owned, but nothing dedicated exclusively to what I do. Sure, my corporate flight attendant site  (sold June 2007) was already three years old when this site was launched, but it was the act of extracting my identity from these other sites and creating a site pitching my capabilities which made all of the difference in the world for me.

I had no idea that this particular move would be so beneficial to me. Up until then, all of my clients came through phone work, third party job sites, referrals, and previous clients. Soon after launching this site I was “discovered” by the first of several big clients, confirming that my decision to strike out independently was a good one.

Self Reliance Pays Off

I’m not writing this to boast about my personal success, rather to encourage people who do not have a visible online presence to get one. Specifically, two points come to mind when developing an online presence:

• If you don’t yet have a website or your site/blog isn’t easily visible (on its own domain and not hiding on blogspot. com or wordpress.com) then you are making it difficult for customers to find you. Almost always a client mentions that they found me through one of my blogs or through an article I published which links back to this site.

• If you have a website, is it properly optimized? We writers are usually very good at what we do — write — but not particularly good when it comes to promoting our personal sites. Your site doesn’t have to look spectacular but you should be easily found in the SERPs, have a strong linking strategy, and your name should be found elsewhere.

I don’t advertise my services, at least I haven’t done so in more than a year. I don’t use Guru, eLance, or other job sites and I haven’t used AdWords in ages. However, I do keep up with people through social media sites and email.

Success won’t come to you overnight, but you’ll be successful if you develop a strong online presence and maintain it. Maybe I shouldn’t be so forthcoming about my work — I could be giving some valuable grist to someone else’s mill — but that is the risk I am willing to take.

Have you found success online?