“Mastering Digital Success: SEO Secrets and Brand Growth with Allison”

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Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show. The podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Welcome to the show today, CEO, strategist, author, and content marketer Allison. How you doing today, Allison?

I'm well, thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for taking the time out your day and coming on the show. So Allison, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background.

Yeah, so I currently do, like you said, SEO as well as content marketing, which are very intertwined. Kind of stumbled my way into this career actually. So in college I majored in English and psychology, which turned out to be the perfect degree for what I'm doing now. Had no clue this was an option. Thought I wanted to work in publishing. Graduated in 2009 right after the job market crashed. So there were no jobs to be had in publishing or anywhere else. So I ended up answering phones for a few years, found myself between jobs at one point. And my roommate at the time, her dad, who is an attorney, was awesome and offered to give me stuff to do around his office until I got back on my feet. And one of the things he needed was someone to write blog posts for his law firm. And he knew I had a strong writing background, so he offered me the gig. And I was like, "What? I can get paid to write? Seriously? Yeah, sign me up." So, I jumped at that chance and started writing for him and then for an associate of his and then for some friends of mine. Did eventually get another day job, but I kept writing on the side. And it was one of those where anytime anyone asked what I did for a living, I'd be like, "Well, you know, by day I answer phones, but I'm really a writer." And I would put much more emphasis on the writing that I was doing. So that started growing more and more and I did more and more of that until I, I just couldn't juggle both anymore. So I was able to finally ditch the day job, take this full time. And I think if you had told me when I started out that I would need to learn SEO in order to keep doing this professionally, I would have been too intimidated to even try because everyone, I think, in SEO likes to make it seem like it's this big, like, rocket science kind of a thing. Like, you only— the super smart can understand SEO and Fortunately, I kind of stumbled my way into SEO as well and realized that SEO and blogging and content marketing are so intertwined that you really cannot have one without the other. And that, again, psychology degree— there's a fair amount of psychology in SEO, right? Because Google is trying to figure out how people are finding information, how they're looking for information, what they mean when they search something, and how they can help them find that particular piece of content that helps them. So I have found SEO to be fascinating and actually one of the most fun parts of my job. So thankfully, no one told me that I would have to do this, but I am very glad that I stumbled my way into it.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. As far as to me though, SEO optimization, it is like rocket science because that's what everybody— oh, you got to optimize your YouTube channel, you got to optimize your website. And man, that's just one of the hardest things to accomplish and trying to get the, what they call the algorithm and things of that nature, trying to, like you say, find out what Facebook trying to do. If it, if it's not going to this direction, that direction, then your post not being sent to friends and things of that nature. So this is all kind of new to me. So with that being said, Alison, can you give us a little bit of insight on how SEO actually works?

Yeah. So first of all, I do want to break it down for you. SEO stands for search engine optimization. For those of you listening who are like, SEO, what now? I, I know I've heard that term, but I can't quite remember what it stands for. So yeah, I like to refer to it as making Google your friend. There are more search engines out there than Google, but Google owns more than 90% of the online search market at this point. Whether or not that will continue has yet to be deter— determined, decided. We'll see. But right now, when we talk about SEO, we we talk about Google. So to a certain extent, yes, it is not rocket science exactly, but kind of a dark art just because Google is super secret about its algorithm and what all goes into the algorithm. So really the only way we can figure out what Google wants is, yes, Google has a blog. Yes, Google will tell us what it wants, but we always have to take that with a grain of salt. So usually people are just kind of going by trial and error and figuring out what works. And then as soon as something works, Google changes the algorithm and it doesn't work anymore. And then we have to try something else. But like I said, at the end of the day, Google is just trying to help people find the content that answers their questions. That's it. And every core update, every algorithm update is aimed at getting better at accomplishing that goal. And they are getting better. Sometimes it's a little bit of a two steps forward, one step back situation, but I think overall they are getting better and better at identifying language, assessing and analyzing language figuring out what people mean when they say certain words, phrases, what it is that they're looking for. So at the end of the day, if you are creating good content that is targeted to your ideal client, that answers the questions they are already asking, Google eventually will figure out that that's what you're doing and they will get people to your website for you. Yes, there's more to SEO than that, but there's the technical stuff you gotta do and you gotta make sure your website plays nice with Google and all that good stuff. But at the end of the day, it's really all about the content and helping the user because Google is trying to help its users. So that's how I think of, of SEO is creating that content that they're looking for and then let Google do its thing to figure out that you have what people need.

So they always say keywords just off the top of your head. Let's say I'm doing a podcast or you know, author. Can you give us one keyword for each category that maybe Google may be able to search and bring people to your content?

Not off the top of my head, no. I always do keyword research. My favorite tool to use for that is called SERPstat, S-E-R-P-S-T-A-T.com. Awesome keyword research tool. There are a bunch of keyword tools out there. I pay for mine. Some of them you have to pay for, some of them are free. The free ones, again, take those with a grain of salt because those are the data they give tends not to be great. But when you're researching keywords, you do want something that has obviously a decent search volume. You don't want a keyword that no one is searching for, but you also want something that's not super difficult. So if everyone is using that particular keyword or phrase, it's going to be really hard for you to show up in that search because the competition is so fierce. So you got to kind of find that fine line between something that still has a decent search volume, but is also not super competitive. Sometimes you have to sacrifice and get a little bit of a lower search volume in order to get also the lower competition score, which means it's easier to rank for, but it varies. I've also found some keywords that have really high search volume and also are very uncompetitive, have a very low competition score. That's awesome. That demonstrates a huge, what we call a content gap. It means people are looking for this, they're searching out answers and they're not finding them. So by using those keywords in your content, you have a much greater likelihood that you will rank at the top of Google for those keywords and people will find you. And then you just got to make sure the content is engaging and actually answers their question and leads them to the next step of the buyer journey and all that good stuff. So yeah. And then in terms of creating content, you want one target keyword. That's your main keyword that you are targeting for that piece of content that's going to go in your title, in your URL. It's going to be sprinkled throughout your content, but then you also want related keywords. That are also sprinkled throughout your content, maybe included in some subheadings, some other meta tags so that Google can look at that and read that, you know, read in air quotes, but read that content and those words and figure out, okay, this is what they're all about.

So we go back to this again, Allison, with all this that you just told me just from podcasting and author, that does sound like rocket science, science and stuff. So With that being said, you gave us some key points about having target words in your subtitles and things of that nature in your title. So tell us, Allison, what SEO strategy do you feel is out of date?

Out of date? Well, definitely keyword stuffing, which we still see a surprising amount of given how long that's been out of date. Keyword stuffing is when you take a keyword and you stuff it keyword as many keyword times as you keyword can into a keyword piece of content keyword. It used to work in the old days of SEO when Google was really just looking for keywords and not a whole lot else. So people would stuff it and they would just get that keyword in there as many times as they can. And it worked. And then Google was like, ugh, this is actually really bad content and we don't want to direct our people to this content. So let's get away from that. So that doesn't work anymore. I still see tools like Yoast that are kind of encouraging keyword stuffing. Yoast is one of those plugins you can use on your website that will in theory tell you what to do to optimize your piece of content on your website for Google. It's always telling you, you need to use your keyword more. And I always ignore it because it tends to get to the point of encouraging keyword stuffing. So I just ignore it. So that's not a great one. Guest blogging also used to be a really good one. And I do still recommend guest blogging because it is a great way to get your name out there and get in front of new audiences. It's not the SEO hack that it used to be. People used to do it to get a backlink. When someone on another website links to your website, Google takes note of that and goes, oh, someone is using this website as a reference for such and such, then it must really be valuable and they must really know what they're talking about. We're gonna boost it in the search rankings for these particular keywords. So there were people who would do a ton of guest blogging and guesting on podcasts and everything, and they would get those backlinks. And Google, for some reason, decided it didn't like that as an SEO strategy. I don't know why. And they were like, you know what? Those backlinks aren't gonna count for SEO anymore. So we're just not counting the guest blogging backlinks. So it's no longer a good SEO strategy. You can— what you're supposed to do now is put a little nofollow tag into the link, which means it won't count towards your SEO. The link still works. If people read the guest blog and they want to find out more about you, they click on the link, it'll still get them to your website. So it's not that the link is broken, it's just that it's not going to count towards your SEO at all. So that Unfortunately, it's not a great SEO tactic, but I do still recommend it just because it is a great way to get your name out there, get that extra name recognition, get in front of a whole new audience and get in front of them in a way where you kind of already have that know, like, trust built in. Maybe not the know so much, but the like and trust because someone they already know, like, and trust is recommending you, is giving you a space on their stage, much like these podcasts, right? It's someone else being like, oh yeah, Alison has cool things to say. You should come listen to Alison. It's like, well, if CJ says I should listen to Alison, then I should.

Probably listen to her.

Guest blogging is the same kind of deal. So I do still recommend it, just not for SEO.

Oh, okay. Because I was going to ask you, what was guest blogging? But the analogy that you made, I think that said it all. Like, just cross-promotion, just getting in front of different audiences.

Yeah, it's when you write a blog post for someone else's website. So you put all that time and work and effort into creating a blog post, and then someone else publishes it on their website, which Yeah, it sometimes seems counterintuitive to put all that work into creating content for someone else. But yeah, like you said, it's cross-promotion. It's getting your name out there in front of another audience, and then they'll promote it in front of their audience. So yeah, it's actually super valuable.

Mm-hmm. So like with a podcast, is that something that has to be agreed upon? Like I reach out to you and say, well, Allison, can I write a blog post on your page and you promote it?

Yeah, you absolutely have to. I mean, whoever runs the website, it can't go up on that website without them either putting it up there or giving you access to their website, which I can't imagine they would ever do. Yeah, usually it's a, all right, yes, show me what you got and we'll edit it, make sure it's in line with my audience and my brand and then publish it. And then yeah, then it should be promoted like any other blog post would be.

Let me ask you a question with that being said, because you said something about being, you know, you put all that work into writing a blog for somebody else's blog post for them to post. Have you ever, or have you known anybody, anyone who has wrote a blog post for somebody else's page and then they denied it, or they say that this don't fit my blog post, or this don't fit my audience, after you put in all that work?

Yes, that does happen. And that's okay because then you can just look for another guest blogging opportunity and just kind of rework the content so that it then works for that new brand instead of that one. Yeah. Getting those really valuable guest blog post spots, it's like anything else, like the more relevant and valuable it is, usually the harder it is to get those spots because they already have a bunch of people asking to be guest bloggers. So yeah, it helps to get to know the editor. First and kind of build that relationship and then be like, oh, hey, would you be interested in a guest blog post? And hopefully you already have it written because they're much more likely to accept something that's already written rather than, well, maybe someday I'll get around to writing a guest blog post for you. That's a lot less appealing than here's this thing I already wrote. Do you think this is something that could work for your audience?

Oh, okay. So you say the editor and things of that nature. So, you know, these are actual like sites and stuff that people just take blog, uh, guest blog posts from people? Because like I said, I hadn't heard of this. It's new to me, so I'm trying to learn, you know, saying something too. Because I know you do blogs on your own website and things of that nature to try to boost your content. As far as like, say, like with the podcast, you write a blog post about it. I didn't know that it was a thing called guest blogging where you can actually do the same thing for that. So that's why I was asking that question, and I'm pretty sure there's probably a lot of people that didn't know that either. But that's a good strategy to go by, like you say, cross-promotion, and I think that'll be good. But there's another thing that you said too. It's like, you know, the game changes in the middle of the game with Google, with all these search engines, you know. So somebody like yourself, I know that's in tune, and, and this is your profession,. But to somebody like me that maybe I may figure out something, and then as soon as I figure out something, the next thing you know, that whole thing can change. But not being in the industry like you are, I wouldn't know that it didn't change, and I still be doing the same things that I thought that was working maybe a month ago.

Well, that's why you have to track your analytics. So Google Analytics is a great place to start with that. And it is fun being in the SEO community when Google is getting ready to launch a core update and they haven't told us they're going to launch a core update, but everyone is like, Google's doing something because my traffic is all over the place. We'll see dips and spikes and then it dips again and we're all like, all right, I know Google hasn't said anything, but they're definitely up to something. So yeah, if you're just doing the same old thing and it's not working anymore, you better be able to see that in your traffic. 'Cause if your traffic takes a dip, I mean, again, the volatility, it happens every time there's a major update, but if it tanks and stays down and does not recover, that's an indication that something is wrong, that you're doing something that's not working anymore. So that's when you gotta dig a little deeper and figure out where the traffic is coming from, where the traffic used to be coming from that it's not coming from anymore, and do a little bit of that testing to see what works and what doesn't. It is a constant process. There is no set and forget SEO. There is no one and done. It is constantly tweaking and testing and redoing.

Yeah, I'm glad you told me. I wish I would have known that months ago. I was just on a strategy call this morning talking to a young lady, and I just told her, because we were talking about strategies on Facebook and, you know, LinkedIn and things of that nature. She was giving me the analytics. And, you know, like on Facebook, professional mode, you know, you get to see all the analytics and things of that nature. And I told her, I said, well, I remember when it was all the way up here, you know, and then all of a sudden the bottom just dropped out of it, you know. It just like overnight it just dropped. And so me not knowing this type of the aspect of this game, I didn't know what was— because I was still doing the same thing. But then they was talking about the algorithm. I didn't know nothing about that, you know, how you got to compare that. So, you know, I'm glad you're on here giving us a insight about SEO and how these things work. So Allison, being a content marketer, what advice would you give to some of us that would be better to have a better marketing strategy?

Consistency is the most important aspect of any marketing strategy, and it is the one where people fall through the most, just because it's always the last thing on their to-do list. And especially if you're a solopreneur and/or you're just starting out, you have a million things on your plate and marketing always falls to the last thing. So social media, blogging, all those emailing videos, it all seems to be the last thing on the to-do list. So it gets done when they're not busy and then they get busy and then it falls by the wayside and then they go, oh man, I haven't written a blog post in a while. I should probably do that. So first and foremost is come up with a schedule and treat that deadline like any other deadline in your business. Your blog post has to get done. Your newsletter has to go out. Your posts have to go up on social media on these days at these times every single day, week, month, however often you end up doing it. Definitely no less than once a month for blogging and for newsletters. Any less than that and Google's gonna stop paying attention and people getting your newsletters are gonna forget who you are or that they signed up for your newsletter. So definitely make sure that you have something that is hopefully 2 to 4 times per month, but if you can only do once a month, then do that. As long as it's something, you know, you can do consistently, even when you're busy, then make that and stick to it. And it can help if you, like, at the beginning of the month, lay out your content calendar. What are you going to post about this month? What is the main topic of the month? Or what is the theme of the month? And then when you go to create content, you just kind of have to fill in those blanks.

Mm. Okay. That's a good strategy.

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So let me ask a question. So say you got a website and you post blogs on your website. So say if you have, you know, missed a month or two months, can you go back? Is it a good idea to go back and then redo those blog posts to catch up, you know, to where you should be? To be current?

Yeah, I don't, you know, I haven't really seen anything about the value or otherwise of creating blog posts and like backdating those blog posts so that it looks like they were published earlier. Google is pretty good at figuring out when stuff was published, so it will probably notice that there's a discrepancy between when it was published and when you said it was published. So I don't think there's a whole lot of value in that. There might be value in publishing a bunch of blog posts at once when you're just starting out, just because having 1 or 2 blog posts on your blog doesn't look great. So if you do want to start out with like 3 or 4 blog posts and be like, all right, here's an info dump, and then going forward we'll only do, you know, 1 or 2 a month, whatever it ends up being. Yeah, there's definitely value in doing that.

Okay. So tell us, Alison, the difference when optimizing your website as opposed to optimizing your YouTube channel. Or is it the same?

The difference is what do you want to show up on Google? Do you want to drive traffic to your website or do you want to drive traffic to your YouTube channel? There's a lot more you can do on your website, especially on the backend. But as far as creating content and using those keywords and putting those keywords in the right places, a lot of it is the same. Google cannot yet read audiovisual content. So for optimizing your YouTube, it's all about the title and the description. What are the words that you're putting in there? To give Google an idea of what it's all about. And again, consistency, publishing regularly. Google prefers newer content over older content because it assumes that newer content is more relevant and therefore more accurate. So jazz with your blog. If you have a YouTube channel, you should post regularly on there and also realize that Google owns YouTube. So there is a lot of crossover in terms of SEO. Especially if there's something that is particularly visual or, you know, those how-to videos that we, that tend to come up when we search something on Google, there's usually a bunch of YouTube links in there because Google owns YouTube. So it benefits them to send traffic to their other channel, one of their other channels.

Hmm. That's a good idea. You know, corner the market. So like you say, they can take things and bring it over here or they can bring it over there. So that's good insight right there, Alison. So Allison, what are some of the content that bloggers can begin blogging about right now?

Any of those questions that you hear over and over again, whether you're on a podcast or at a networking event, or even if you're at a cocktail party and you tell someone what you do and they go, oh, you know, I've been wondering about such and such, and they ask you the same question you've heard a million times already. If people are asking you these questions in person, they are probably asking those questions online. So I always recommend Starting with those news updates, I mean, AI is the thing we can't get away from, however much we might try, because people are looking for information on AI. So if that's something that's affecting your business, go ahead and write about it. And if it's not affecting your business, you should probably write about it anyway because people are going to be asking if it's affecting your business and how, or how is it not, or why, or why not. So that's the kind of thing that you always, always want to keep an ear out for what people are asking for. What are the new buzzwords? Laws sometimes pop up. We just had a big update to the GDPR over in Europe, which you might not think affects us here in the US, but it does because it is the World Wide Web after all. So we do still have to abide by the GDPR if we don't want to get sued in Europe. So yeah, yeah, any of those updates. One of my favorite tools, obviously I always use keyword research to come up with the main topic of my content, but a free tool, it's free up to a point. I think you can do 3 searches per day and that gets for free, and that gets you a lot of information. So the tool is called answerthepublic.com, and you can put in any word or phrase and it generates for you all of the questions asked across either Google or Bing. You can modify it to show you questions coming from certain search engines. It gives you all the questions people are asking using that keyword or phrase that they are entering into Google or into Bing. Super valuable, great way to come up with content ideas. And then Social media. What are people talking about? Social media, things like Reddit and Quora are also great to see. What are the discussions that are happening? What are people asking about? Those are great ways to come up with topics. And, and I always like spying on the competition too and seeing what they're talking about, because if they're covering a topic, there's probably a reason they're covering it. So maybe I want to cover that over on my blog as well.

Yeah. That's, uh, you say answerthepublic.com. Mm-hmm. Okay, that's a good one. And you said something else, and I didn't have this on my list, but I will ask you. You were talking about AI. Now, in your opinion, do you think that AI is a good tool to use as far as writing blogs and things of that nature?

Up to a point. You always need that human touch. You always need your expertise, especially the more we see this AI-written content. Written. I always say written with air quotes or generated with air quotes because it's not really generating anything. The way it works is it's scraping content that already exists and just repurposing it for you, and it has no discernment as to whether or not that information is accurate or not, or whether someone was joking when they wrote something. It has— it does not have that baseline knowledge that we have. So studies have shown that ChatGPT, something like half of the information generated by ChatGPT is just flat out wrong. And we've seen hilarious examples in the public of people just taking what ChatGPT says or what Bard says or does and putting it out there and going, see this answer we got? And they don't even realize that it's wrong. So at the very least, fact check it, make sure it's accurate, make sure it's in line with your brand voice. You can either train it ahead of time to write in your voice, or you can go after the fact and edit it to make sure that it's in your voice. But getting that unique perspective and that experience and the, this is what I've seen, then this is happened when I did such and such. That is what really sets you apart as a thought leader and an expert in your industry, and robots cannot do that. So at the very least, you need— stories and a call to action are also super important for your content, and AI is really bad at that. What AI is really good at is organizing information. So what I have seen some people do is if they're not great at writing but they could talk about their subject all day long, they can just kind of word vomit into ChatGPT and ask it to organize that information for them. It's still using your expertise, your knowledge. That's the basis that it's going off of. You just need it to organize it and make it look pretty. ChatGPT is awesome for that. Also coming up with ideas, to a point, because again, it's going to tell you what everyone else is already talking about. So from an SEO perspective, it might not be a great way to go, but I like to use it if I know what I'm going to talk about, I'm just having trouble getting started, and putting something into ChatGPT and having it write a little blurb for me can be a great way to just get over that hump and get those creative juices flowing. So I use ChatGPT for some of those things. I don't really use it for writing because I find that I spend more time editing it than it would've taken me to just write from scratch. But that's 'cause I'm a fast writer. So I, I know it's not the case for everyone, but I do like using it for getting over writer's block. Getting that inspiration. But always, always take that content with a big grain of salt.

You know, you said something about fact-checking. So how can you fact-check GT—

ChatGPT? Yeah. Yeah. You're an expert in your industry. So you should know if it says something that's flat out wrong. If you're not sure, then go to whatever your favorite sources are, whether it's online or good old-fashioned library. Just make sure that you're getting accurate information. Also, I think this is a cool thing that Google has been doing with their AI search. When you put something into Google, and again, sometimes Google's AI search gives us hilarious results, but it shows us where those results are coming from. It, it cites its sources, which ChatGPT does not do. So you can always click through and be like, where did you get in this information? So, that's how we've seen things like Google's AI search telling people to put glue on their pizza and people are like, "What? Why do you do that?" But it's because someone on Reddit said it as a joke. It was clear to a human that that was a joke and not meant to be taken seriously. But again, a robot does not have that discernment. So, sometimes it's really, really obvious when things are wrong. Other times you might have to do a little more digging, but that's where your expertise in your industry comes into play.

Okay, so Allison, what is the best blogging platform to use?

Well, always put your blog on your own website, whatever website platform you're using. I prefer WordPress just because that's really the only one that you have where you own the content. Some of the other ones like Square and Wix are easy to use, but that's because they own your content. If you read the fine print in those agreements, you don't actually own that content. So always read the fine print and make sure that you actually own your content before, and then use social media to distribute it, get the word out there. But don't build your house on rented land, right? If you're going to put all that time and effort into creating blog posts, make sure that you own that content.

So WordPress, WordPress. Okay, so we're about to wrap this up in a minute. I appreciate a lot of insight because I'm listening myself, you know, because I think marketing and strategy is some of the most difficult parts of doing, you know, what you're doing. Especially like, I know my lane and I know that certain things, it's not my lane. Like marketing, I mean, you try to do certain things like post stuff on Facebook, post videos on YouTube and things of that nature, but it's a different game. It's a game within the game. And so if you just know one part of the game and don't know the other part of the game, you actually losing, you know. And then you got people that know the game, but then they trying to play a game on you with the money, in the money aspect. I've talked to a couple people in the last couple days, and the numbers that they giving me for certain things, I'm like, there's no way I'm doing that. I'm not, I'm not paying that type of money, you know what I'm saying, for that. But you know, but when you don't know certain things and people do, You know, not saying that you do, but some people will try to take advantage of you in certain aspects. So that's why I'm listening intensely to what you're saying, because I want to, you know, soak it up and try to implement some of these certain things, just like what you said. Like, I had a website on Wix, and one thing that I didn't know, what you just told us, that you don't own that content once you put it out there. I didn't know that, you know. So that's valuable insight. For me and probably a lot of other people that probably use it, because I didn't read the fine print. So Allison, what should we do after we post a blog post or after it's published?

Yeah, do it up, everything you can to get the word out there. It does take Google a month or two at least just to scan new content and figure out what it's all about and categorize and index it so that it starts showing up in searches. So it's going to take a while for that to take effect. So Even if you have all your SEO ducks in a row, don't assume that that's everything you need to do. You still need to push it out on social media. You still need your newsletter to push it out there. Repurposing that content is awesome. I like to make a video on YouTube that is basically just me talking about the same thing that I've talked about in the blog post, but it's in a new format. Some people are going to want to read the blog post. Some people are going to want to watch or even just listen to the video. That's a great way to get the most out of that content. Infographics are also great. You can break it up and put it into an infographic. People love infographics. I think those are a little less trendy now than they were a few years ago, but they're still really engaging, especially if you can get people to— you can make them interactive so people can click on parts of the infographic and go to certain parts of the blog. So yeah, do everything you can to get the word out there for at least the first week or two that it's been published so that you can push it out there and drive that organic traffic to it because Google takes note of that too. If people are organically going there, that's gonna set off alarm bells for Google in a good way. So, and it will sit up and pay attention and be like, oh, people are already checking out this content, it must be worthwhile.

Mm-hmm. Just real quick. So with your— I know you mentioned this earlier too, but I just want you to elaborate on this real quick. So when you do a blog post, You also want to post it on your social media accounts too? The whole blog post or just some of it?

No, no, no, no, no. You don't just copy and paste. You put a blurb up and say, hey, there's a new blog post over here. Go check it out. If you republish that blog post as is, that's duplicate content and Google doesn't like that. Google prefers original content. So never copy and paste. Always, always repurpose it, switch it up a little bit. But yeah, ideally have just a blurb, just a little teaser, and then the link that sends people back to your website. It's all about getting people back to your website because that's where you can capture those leads. If you're just letting them hang out on social media, they have no reason to go to your website and then you have no way to capture that lead. Anything can happen on social media, so use it to promote, but do not rely on it.

Okay. Yeah, that's a good point. I'm glad you cleared that up. So my last question for you, Allison, what are the details of your training program?

Yeah, so I have a self-driven training program. So I have one that I'm currently working on, on my website, AV as in my initials, that is avwritingservices.com/contentmarketingacademy. So I have two courses up there now for free that you can check out. Those will be up there and remain free while I am in the process of building the rest of the courses. So the, the two courses that are up there for free are Identifying and Building Your Marketing Persona so that you understand your target audience and who it is that you're trying to create this content for and where they're hanging out online and how you can create content that resonates with them and put it where they're more likely to see it. And then your brand voice guidelines that everything that you create sounds like you, looks like you, everyone understands that. So yeah, those are up for free and will be for at least a couple more months. I'm hoping, hoping to launch the whole thing Black Friday, knock on wood.

Oh, okay. Good luck with that. Congratulations. So with that being said, if I missed it, where can we, you know, go to your website and download this?

Or yeah, my website is AV as in my initials. So that's avwritingservices.com/contentmarketingacademy.

Okay. So is there any other projects that you have coming down the pipeline besides the Black Friday release that we can look forward to? And where can we find you on social media?

Yeah, I am also in the process of writing my second book. My first book is Content Marketing Made Easy. You can find that online. That's all about demystifying content marketing and SEO. The second one is about the psychology of marketing because I do have that psychology background and it is one of my favorite things about marketing. So I did want to talk for a whole book about the interplay between psychology and marketing. So that— not sure when that's going to come out. I was also hoping Black Friday, but it might be a bit much to release that and the courses. So the book might have to wait until next year, 2025. And then social media. I'm on LinkedIn a lot. Alison Verhalen. I think I'm the only Alison Verhalen on there, so I'm pretty easy to find. YouTube as well. I'm on Facebook. I'm not super active on Facebook, but I'm there. So yeah, those are the mostly, I would say, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Okay, so Black Friday program coming out, something that we can look forward to. If you want to get a free program, go to it right now because as I heard it on the Martin Show, he say it may cost you a lot, it may cost you a little, but it's gonna cost you something, you know what I'm saying? So right now, while you got the chance, Go to Allison's website, check out her program, very valuable information in there. Allison, I appreciate you coming on the show today and giving us your insight on SEO and the strategy and content marketing. Hey, so with that being said, you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show with Allison. Go check out her new book when it come out. It ain't gonna be Black Friday, but it will be coming out soon. Hey, we outta here. Peace.

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