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How These 30-Year-Olds’ Travel Blog Earns $30k/Month From Instagram and SEO

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How These 30-Year-Olds' Travel Blog Earns $30k/Month From Instagram and SEO

When Hannah Spelt and Nick Noordijk decided to travel to Southeast Asia, they didn’t know that their trip would change their lives forever. They decided to document their travels on Instagram to keep their families and friends abreast of their travels, and they started to grow a following.

One thing led to another, and they decided to create their travel blog Salt in Our Hair. There were a lot of ups and downs along the way, including the global pandemic, but, through trial and error, Nick and Hannah found their way and grew their business beyond their wildest dreams.

Now, their website gets 600k visitors and they earn $30k per month.

Keep reading to find out:

  • Why they went on their backpacking trip
  • What they won that made all the difference
  • Why they decided to create their website
  • Why they quit their day jobs
  • How they help local businesses
  • How they grew their team
  • Where their income comes from
  • Their top marketing strategies
  • Their thoughts on SEO
  • Their approach to keyword research and link building
  • How they create content
  • Their go-to resources and tools
  • Their biggest challenge
  • Their main accomplishment
  • Their main mistake
  • Their advice for other entrepreneurs

Meet Hannah and Nick

Hi! Our names are Hannah Spelt and Nick Noordijk, both born (and mostly living) in the Netherlands. We’ve been in love since early 2014 and still are very much so. Hannah has a background as a graphic designer and I had a role as a senior web developer. 

How They Began

It all started with our Instagram page. 

In November of 2015, Hannah and I were able to take a temporary leave from our jobs and we went on an unforgettable backpacking trip for 4 months in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and The Philippines). 

Our original plan was to travel to Australia, but we saved up just enough money to be able to travel to more affordable countries. 

We got the idea to share our trip on Instagram to keep friends and family updated, but we had no money for a camera, so we participated in a raffle and we happened to win a GoPro camera just 1 week before we left! We paid just 11 euros for it!

That was the moment we started our Salt in Our Hair Instagram page

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We didn’t post anything professional, just GoPro selfies with a selfie stick, on a motorbike, on boats, between rice fields, etc. almost every day. 

Our following started growing, but it was nothing major. Until, one day at the end of our backpacking trip, one IG post went viral and we suddenly had a few thousand followers when we returned home to the Netherlands.

We got back to our jobs, but people kept asking questions under our older Instagram posts about the locations in the photos. 

Remember, this was February 2016, so there was no Instagram Direct Message or Stories, so it was a hassle to get back to everyone. This gave us the idea to start our website Salt in Our Hair, and simply let people go there to read everything about our travels.

Their Website Goes Live

So, in May 2016, we launched the first version of the website.

I started learning to use a mirrorless camera through YouTube tutorials, first on automatic, and later on manual. 

We started to do small trips on the weekends and take holidays from work to create new content (photos and text) for our Instagram and blog. 

Very little by little, we gained more traffic to the point where we were working 40 hours at our jobs and 40 hours on Salt in Our Hair as a side hustle without making any money from it. We didn’t have any ads or any proper affiliate links on our website for the first two years.

In late 2018, about 1.5 years after starting, we earned just enough to live from our site in Thailand and try out the digital nomad lifestyle. We had about 50 to 60k monthly visitors at this point. So we took a leap of faith and took on Salt in Our Hair as our full-time job.

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I had some basic SEO knowledge at the time through my work as a former web developer, but I had spent countless hours learning through trial and error. We also learned the basics of photography. The first way we made money was through some affiliate programs for hotels.

We had massive doubts, as we were leaving good careers as a designer and a developer.

Looking back now, winning that GoPro was a key moment in the creation of Salt in Our Hair.

Their Previous Business Experience

We had zero business experience and we haven’t started any other businesses since. We had to learn literally every single thing from working with clients, negotiating prices, talking to the media, doing the accounting (across different borders), learning how to work with a camera, etc. 

The experience we had was our web design and development skills.

The process of starting this business went with ups and also a lot of downs, but we always tried to keep in mind why this all started: because of our love for traveling (as opposed to making money)!

The problem was, we had no one around us to ask how things worked because that would’ve sped up a lot of things and saved us a few mistakes. We’re actually working on a massive course about everything we’ve learned since 2016, and people can sign up to show their interest.

Now in 2023, here’s where we stand:

  • We’re getting 600,000 unique visitors per month right now 
  • We’ve connected small, local business operators in Morocco, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Colombia to our readers.

If we have a great experience on a trip with a local company, we try to explain our business to him/her and see if they are open to us sharing their phone number or email in our guides. 

For example, in Bali, we have been sharing our contact for 5 years, and the person now has 15 to  20 drivers each day driving for him, and that’s just clients from our travel guides. 

We love structures like this, as we connect a small business directly to the reader. 

We’ve expanded: we’re a team of 6 people all working on Salt in Our Hair. They are freelancers from around the globe! Apart from Hannah and I, we have:

  • A photo editor supporting Hannah
  • A writer and manager helping with everything from travel planning to emails 
  • A writer and translator 
  • And a new business manager
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How Much Money They’re Making

We’re currently making $30k on average per month from Salt in Our Hair. Obviously, this changes month to month, depending on the travel seasons and client jobs. 

A general breakdown would be:

  • Affiliates: 43%
  • Advertisements: 38%
  • Jobs: 11%
  • Webshop: 8%

In terms of jobs, we have various revenue streams that are irregular: work for tourism boards, licensing images, website advertisements, etc. 

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It’s hard to say how long it took to reach this level, due to the pandemic, but since December 2022 we’ve been maintaining this average revenue. So it probably took us about 5 years to get to this revenue level. 

It’s a long time, possibly too long for people who are out there to simply earn money. But for us, it has been worth every single day so far. What an incredible journey we’ve been on, what incredible people we’ve been able to meet, and places we’ve visited. 

Pre-covid we made about $15k to $17k per month.

If we were to set up a new website with our current experience, we will be able to cut this down to 1, max 2 years. That’s the reason why we’re putting together a course.

We probably each work around 40 to 50 hours a week, but it changes per day and per week as we’re never working 8 hours a day from Monday to Friday. 

When traveling, getting solid hours of work is a bit more difficult. We also work a lot for clients like tourism boards. 

Their Top Marketing Strategy

Our main strategy has been connecting our social media following with our website. What we do differently from many large blogs is that we have an audience on social media who follows our journey for aesthetics, to first get inspiration. 

Once “inspired,” we provide a useful travel guide on our website. Our idea is to make written content a lot more interesting with a lot of images and video content. 

It’s hard to give advice for this strategy, as social media companies decide what’s trending. But we still believe that you should post what you would like to see, and you will eventually create a select audience for it. 

You should definitely go with trends, but ride that wave in your way. Pinterest is also still super interesting to focus on as it drives quite a lot of quality traffic.

The Importance of SEO

We get over 80% of our audience from Google, so SEO is the most important factor in our business. 

When we started out, I did have some basic knowledge about SEO, and the rest was from reading and optimizing our articles. 

We did a lot of testing. Not the way I’d do it now, but that was just the flow I was feeling good with. Right now, I’d probably take a small course on SEO or dive into some recent articles about it. 

A course, however, can take you by the hand and advise where needed. SEO also changes all the time so it’s good to stay up to date. 

Keyword Research

We come up with article ideas first and see how we can shape that into an article, making sure there’s enough search traffic for it. We research the keywords on tools like Mangools and Ahrefs

Link Building

We’ve never focused on link building. 

We know it can be an important factor in your SEO strategy, but we’ve only done a handful of link building collaborations. 

Our website has grown and has a solid DA/DR without it. Currently, we only collaborate with equally-rated websites that provide us with solid links. 

This is really only two or three times a year, even though we receive 100s of emails per month requesting collaborations.

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Their Content Creation Process

Our process is pretty streamlined, which I’m proud to say! 

About 99.9% of the articles on Salt in Our Hair start from notes (and voice notes) from our travels. 

Part of our travels is noting down everything, the smallest little details, so we don’t forget them when we start writing the guides. 

Every two weeks we have team calls to set out the work for the upcoming weeks. Usually, we base articles on the season. If high season is coming up, we push those articles out first. 

Then we decide what articles are up next and who does what. For example, the first draft is written based on our notes and SEO keywords, then it’s checked and finalized, photos are added, it’s published, promoted, linked to on the website, and finally translated to Dutch.

We publish about 6 to 8 articles per month.

We’ve always had a slightly large Dutch audience since we’re from the Netherlands ourselves, but this move definitely increased our Dutch audience quite a bit! 

We do nothing specific to promote our Dutch website, but it was to also hook in the people searching on Google in Dutch. Our Dutch website is definitely not a 10 yet, but it’s a work in progress.

Their Email List

We do a monthly newsletter that we’ve named “Travel Letter,” with about 25,000 subscribers. 

We are no fans of newsletter popups, so we’ve simply grown it through the form in the footer of our website. 

We share a lot more behind-the-scenes stuff, like exciting things we’re working on, funny things that happened while traveling, our traveling agenda, and exclusive discounts, and you can also get a look into the Salt in Our Hair business. 

We actually just gave it a massive overhaul, so feel free to sign up! 

Their Favorite Resources

YouTube is the way to go to start out, when you’re learning how to set up your website, etc. 

However, if you go down into the trial and error process with written content, it would be good to have an expert giving some tips on it. 

Once you have that under control, optimize your website to deliver the best experience to your readers. Google values this very much and will put you higher in the results if your website is good. 

We don’t have one specific YouTube channel to recommend; just search for what you’re trying to accomplish. 

If you have a specific blog or influencer you trust, we recommend checking out if they have some information on their website or channel. 

Their Go-To Tools

With only freelancers working on Salt in Our Hair, online collaboration is key. We use the following tools:

Trello, for our planning (from notes to publication), business ideas, and web development ideas. 

Google Workspace, for everything from Docs, Mail, Jamboards, and Meet to Drive. Our entire team can easily collaborate here.

Adobe software, especially Lightroom, for editing photography for the articles. 

Their Main Challenge

I would mention two challenges here. 

One: Surviving a pandemic with a travel business if nobody is able to travel. This was the hardest, as the future was unsure. 

We saw a huge decline during that period, and afterwards, our website revenue went back to about 10-15% of what it was. 

And we were just on a growing streak with our site after a lot of years of hard work! Luckily, this picked back up after Covid. 

We redesigned the website completely and continued setting out our ideas for the future. Once we had some trust, we hired our second freelancer to help with the Dutch website. That’s what we did during Covid.

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Two: Wanting to do everything ourselves (and ending up burned out).

Outsourcing to freelancers was our best decision to date. We still make sure the freelancers feel like they are part of a team and that we’re all working on something awesome! 

We found our freelancers through our community on Instagram! We’ve put out a story that we were looking for someone to help us out. A follower notified her friend (who she thought was a good match for us), we chatted (she didn’t know anything about Salt in Our Hair), and it was the perfect match.

We made a lot of mistakes at the beginning, figuring out how to work together. But the three of us did it, and two years later we started adding other freelancers. She’s now managing most of our business and is one of our best friends.

Their Most Important Accomplishment

That would be inspiring 600,000 people per month, through our website, with our travels. 

It’s incredible to read and hear the trust our audience has in our travel guides. Often people reach out to us on the streets, telling their travel story, or they send a message thanking us. This feels surreal to us and we’re super proud of that.

What They Wish They Knew When They Started

I wish we had someone to ask or confirm things with, so we didn’t have to figure everything out by ourselves and we could have just focused on the work.

Understanding SEO has been a huge game changer in the growth of Salt in Our Hair, and with that, our revenue has grown.

Other things like learning how to photograph, edit, how to set up a social media platform, etc. were maybe easier to know from the beginning, but we actually like that there has been such a big learning curve. It made us much stronger.

Their Main Mistake

Our biggest mistake is not charging enough for the amount of work we were providing. There was no way to find the rates for this as it was not something that was spoken about as much as now.

When you become a plumber, you can have a look around and see what other plumbers are asking as a rate. This wasn’t (and still really isn’t) there in the social media and blogging world, so you really have to figure out what you’re worth. 

Figuring out our rates for the tourism board is something it took many years to get right. 

Their Advice for Other Entrepreneurs

I would say always be open to innovation and technology. Changes come, so it’s best to ride the wave instead of swimming against it.

For example, when TikTik and Instagram reels started, it was said that people were going to stop looking for travel content via Google. 

But, rather than sitting around and waiting, you should always look into ways to use this to your advantage. 

For example, we now actively promote destinations we travel to on our social media and link to our website for additional information. This also drives traffic and helps you market your brand.



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First, AI came for Sports Illustrated. Soon, it will want to give you sports betting advice

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First, AI came for Sports Illustrated. Soon, it will want to give you sports betting advice

Open this photo in gallery:

Real Sports Bar and Grill in Toronto on Nov. 24, 2016.Glenn Lowson/The Globe and Mail

When Sports Illustrated was outed last week for its alleged use of generative AI to create online articles – and, even worse, for topping them with fake bylines and AI author headshots – readers of the legendary glossy were appalled and disappointed at how the mighty had fallen.

But there was one element of the story that largely got lost amid the outrage, and it hints at an even darker prospect of what lies ahead for sports media and fans.

The SI pieces in question were product reviews: Inoffensive rankings of say, seven brands of volleyballs, which included links to Amazon that a reader could click on if they suddenly felt the urge to take up the sport. So, not only was the editorial copy generated by fake people, it was actually fake editorial copy. It was real advertising.

The practice of peppering editorial content with commercial links – known in the business as affiliate marketing – is a mainstay of Internet advertising, from movie reviews that direct readers to online ticketing sites, to podcasters and TikTok influencers giving out discount codes for listeners or viewers to buy merch from specific retailers.

But affiliate marketing has exploded in recent years in one notorious segment of the industry – sports betting, and its gush of ad dollars that are falling on a desperate media sector like rain on a parched prairie.

Affiliate sites that funnel new customers to online gambling operators are raking in the cash because of a quirk in that segment of the business – and they’re doing it on the backs of those new bettors.

In the spring of 2021, the Canadian sports media startup Playmaker Capital went public on the TSX Venture Exchange and quickly began scooping up digital properties with large followings that the company believed could be converted to bettors. When I interviewed Playmaker’s CEO, Jordan Gnat, shortly after shares began trading, he said he wanted to be in “the fan monetization business.”

There were tens of millions to monetize. The company began by buying soccer-focused sites in Latin America such as Bolavip, which targeted fans in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Central America and the United States, then expanded into the English-language North American market with the newsletter publisher and aggregator Yardbarker. Here in Canada it bought The Nation Network, which operates the hockey fantasy site, Daily Faceoff, and the Quebec-based La Poche Bleue.

But last month, Playmaker went from the hunter to the hunted when Better Collective, an affiliate-marketing giant based in Denmark that Gnat had cited to me as an inspiration for his company, gobbled it up for about $260-million.

The flurry of activity is partly because affiliate marketers who funnel customers to sportsbooks are an entirely different beast. They’re not just making one-time commissions, as they would if they were helping to sell concert tickets or tennis racquets or fly traps. Instead, they get a percentage of the sportsbook’s net revenue made from any new bettor.

“Net revenue” is another term for “total lifetime losses by a new bettor.”

Forget the pennies that digital ads are infamous for bringing in. If a site converts a reader or listener or viewer into a regular gambler – that is, a regular loser – the payday can be hundreds of dollars or more.

Here’s where it might occur to you that the incentives for a site to give you good betting advice might clash with that same site’s incentive to get you to sign up with a sports book and then lose a lot of money.

You would not be wrong.

In the social-media industry, there’s a saying that if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. In the world of affiliate marketing, you are the product – the one that’s being sold to the sportsbooks. But boy, are you paying for it.

An academic paper published in January, 2020, in International Gambling Studies titled Affiliate Marketing of Sports Betting – A Cause for Concern? points out that many sites aren’t transparent about their duelling allegiances. It also notes that “people assign greater levels of trust to expert advice during decision-making tasks involving financial risk. This may be a particular concern for those who are just beginning to gamble upon sport, as they may be more inclined to rely on expert advice on bet choice due to their lack of experience.” Newbies may be especially susceptible, given that affiliates position themselves as being on the side of the bettor, when in fact they’re being paid by the sportsbook.

Which brings us full circle back to where we started. Generative AI is notoriously bad at a lot of things, including getting facts straight. But it’s very good at sounding confident, even as it bluffs its way through life.

And it’s about to use its charms to lull you into thinking you can beat the house.

Last May, Lloyd Danzig, the managing partner at the New York-based venture-capital company Sharp Alpha Advisors, noted in a piece for Sports Business Journal that publishers doing affiliate marketing for sportsbooks, “will soon leverage generative AI to instantly create thousands of SEO-optimized articles that discuss the current day’s calendar of games, betting trends, stories to follow, and sportsbook promotions. Pregame previews, postgame summaries, and highlight reels can be created on command without the use of specialized software or manual oversight. Articles, sportsbook reviews, and odds comparison pieces can be generated for any audience, with a fraction of the effort required from human writers.”

Think we’re already swamped with sports betting content? You haven’t seen anything yet.

Après ChatGPT, le déluge.

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What Are the Duties of a Content Strategist?

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What Are the Duties of a Content Strategist?

You’ve decided you want a career as a content strategist, and we’re here to help you reach your goal. A content strategist is a key player in determining the success of a brand’s content strategy, and it can be an exciting career path.

We discuss below the duties of a content strategist along with tips for becoming the most successful one you can be.

What Does a Content Strategist Do?

A content strategist brainstorms, plans, and executes the content strategy for a brand. This can be done either in a solo environment or with a content strategy team.

The material that’s crafted by content strategists for various social media platforms and other digital marketing efforts is designed with the objectives of the business in mind.

Understanding what content strategists do means we first need to understand content marketing.

Content marketing is a useful type of marketing that involves creating content designed to build interest in a brand’s products or services without explicitly promoting them.

Content strategists are content marketing experts.

For example, a content marketing strategy for a social media coach could involve a series of blog posts about why it’s so important to post on social media.

content strategist

Now you can understand how a content marketing strategist engages in content marketing in the day-to-day execution of their job.

Content Strategist Job Description

Here is a sample content strategist job description:

The content strategist will develop a content strategy that meets key business objectives. They will reach the brand’s target audience through various marketing channels using their supreme content delivery skills.

The content strategist will use the organization’s content management system to oversee marketing campaigns across a variety of specific social media channels. In addition to content planning and content creation, content strategists will report on how their work met content strategy deliverables.

A typical content strategist salary ranges from $40,000-$80,000 based on location, experience, and the type of company you’re working for.

Here are a few examples of roles for the job title “content strategist” that illustrate a varying salary range based on location throughout the United States:

content strategistcontent strategist

As you gain more experience and rise in seniority, you could become a senior content strategist or even advance into marketing leadership. It’s up to you where you want to take your career.

The Roles and Responsibilities of a Content Strategist

To add to the content strategist job description, we list the roles and responsibilities of a content strategist below.

The content strategist role varies on a day-to-day basis, but the overall tasks that need to be completed remain consistent. Content strategists will:

  • Facilitate content planning sessions across a variety of editorial calendars and marketing channels.
  • Perform a content audit of all existing content, evaluate its effectiveness, and update as necessary.
  • Conduct extensive keyword research to guide the direction of the brand’s content creation.
  • Pitch existing and prospective clients on their content creation ideas.
  • Build target audience profiles to create content for.
  • Understand the many ways future content can generate leads and be monetized.
  • Stay informed on social media trends and changes in consumer behavior.
  • Create content across various digital platforms and social media accounts.
  • Oversee a marketing team and delegate tasks for ongoing and upcoming projects.
  • Collaborate with other team members, like copywriters, UX/UI designers, editors, and more when creating online content.
  • Analyze its successful content strategy and report back on its performance. A working knowledge of SEO reporting tools is crucial.

Who Does a Content Strategist Report To?

The content strategist will typically report to a manager in the marketing department. This could include a marketing manager, the vice president of marketing, or the marketing director.

However, keep in mind that every company is structured differently.

For example, a large corporation will be structured differently than a small start-up.

The content strategist role at a start-up might report directly to the CEO. Furthermore, a content strategist at a large corporation might report to the marketing manager.

Depending on how large the marketing team is, the content strategist might report to a more specialized person, like the digital content manager.

Understanding the marketing team structure of the company you want to apply for will help you understand where you fit in the organization.

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Types of Companies Content Strategists Work For

Because every type of company can benefit from having a content strategy team, there are a variety of companies a content strategist could work for.

A few types of companies a content strategist could work for include:

Large Corporations:

Major recognizable brands need content strategists to maintain their position in the market as thought leaders.

Marketing Agencies:

Marketing agencies provide a wide range of services, and content marketing is just one of those services. A content marketer will help marketing agencies create engaging content as part of overall content strategies for clients.

Small Start-ups:

Content strategists are an important part of the business for small start-ups because they help attract new and existing customers.

Having content monetization skills can be especially important for start-ups as they run lean in the early days.

Content Agencies:

Content agencies are similar to marketing agencies. However, they provide a more niche service that’s specific to content marketing.

These types of agencies will need to hire teams of content strategists to serve their clients’ content marketing needs.

Freelance:

There is another option that’s entirely different from the employers we’ve discussed on this list. That alternative is freelancing.

A career as a freelancer means that you will be self-employed and responsible for obtaining your own clients, delivering the project, and billing the client.

While there is potentially more money to be made as a freelancer, it does also come with more risk.

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What Skills Do You Need to Become a Content Strategist?

Becoming a successful content strategist requires a variety of soft skills and technical expertise. We break down the necessary skills in each category below.

Soft Skills

Here are a list of the soft skills you’ll need in your career as a content strategist:

Storytelling:

You will need to tell compelling stories to a variety of audiences as a content strategist. Whether it’s pitching ideas to clients or educating your audience, you will need to learn to relay information in an engaging way.

Creativity:

Ultimately, you’re creating content for your target audience to consume. This means that it needs to be engaging, exciting, and creative. Having creativity will help you put together the best content.

Communication:

As a content strategist, you are communicating every day. Whether it’s to your boss, other teams within the company, or your target audience, having top-notch communication skills will be very important.

Organization:

An aspiring content strategist needs to be very organized. They will be managing multiple campaigns simultaneously, so they need expert organizational skills to keep everything running smoothly.

Technical Skills

Beyond the very important soft skills you’ll need, there are a variety of technical skills that you’ll also need in your career as a content strategist.

Here are a few of them:

Writing:

Strong technical writing skills are one of the most important hard skills you’ll need. Being able to write high-quality long-form content will be a key component of your job.

Search Engine Optimization:

SEO is another one of the most important technical skills you will need to have in your career. You’ll need to understand how to perform keyword research with SEO research software, along with how to seamlessly incorporate these keywords into the text as part of the content creation process.

Social Media Platforms:

Having an understanding of the posting style of each of the different social media platforms will be helpful to your success as a content strategist.

Your long-form content will be shared with your audience in the form of social media campaigns. If you’re able to lend your knowledge when creating these campaigns, you will be able to provide more value for your team.

Monetization:

Part of the content strategist’s job is understanding how the content you’re creating can be monetized and earn your employer money.

Whether it’s incorporating banner ads or partnering with affiliates, you will need to be an expert in monetization methods for the content strategies you implement.

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Tips for Becoming a Content Strategist

You know the skills you need to develop and what the job description entails. Now it’s time to discuss tips for optimizing your career in content marketing. Read our top 5 tips for becoming a content strategist below.

Prioritize Your Education

You will need to have the knowledge if you want to earn a job as a content strategist. This means that prioritizing your education should be at the top of your list.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a bachelor’s degree, some employers might require you to have one. For example, if you want to work at a large corporation or a major brand where you work your way up to a leadership position, they might require a bachelor’s degree for those types of roles.

Examples of bachelor’s degrees that you could obtain include marketing, journalism, public relations, or communications.

Gain Professional Experience

After you’ve obtained the education, you want to add professional experience to your resume.

Professional experience can occur in many forms, including internships and paid positions. Learn from the other content strategists you’re working with as you contribute to content marketing campaigns.

Whether you’re working directly as a content strategist or something adjacent to this position, give it your best effort to learn as much as you can while also impressing your employer.

References from internships and entry-level jobs will be helpful to you in the future!

Start Networking

In addition to developing your skills, you’ll also want to start networking.

Networking with other professionals in the industry will be helpful for you when searching for jobs. Sometimes, jobs aren’t even posted on online job boards, and instead, companies ask for referrals from their existing employees.

Similarly, when employers are looking at a large stack of resumes, seeing a name they recognize makes the hiring process easier for them.

Also, remember that you’re networking with people of all experience levels, not just people who are more advanced than you in your career. The person that you’re taking a course with could one day be promoted to the marketing manager you’re applying to work for.

All this to say, conduct yourself professionally and courteously when networking.

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Show Your Expertise Through Personal Projects

Even if you haven’t obtained that internship or first job yet, you can showcase your expertise through your personal projects.

Starting your own blog site, YouTube channel or newsletter will help you develop skills and gain hands-on experience.

Working on your own projects requires you to develop a content strategy, create content, and grow your audience.

How long does it take to make money from a blog? You will be able to answer this question for future employers based on firsthand knowledge.

You can then tell future employers about your expertise and the success of your marketing campaigns.

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Always Continue Learning

Even though education was already a priority for you on your path toward being a content strategist, learning will always be important for furthering your career.

Whether it’s taking online courses, reading books, or listening to podcasts, find the learning method that feels right for you.

Courses are a great way to further your education as a content marketer. Here are two great courses to get you started:

The Affiliate Lab

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The Affiliate Lab is an expert source on creating content optimized for SEO. This course contains more than 100 hours of training on how to conduct keyword research, select your niche, rank in search results, and more.

If you’re looking to improve the SEO rankings of your content, this course is for you. Niche Pursuits readers receive an exclusive discount of $200 off The Affiliate Lab course here.

Project 24

If you want to learn how to drive real results, Project 24 is the course for you. This will help teach you how to create the best possible content for a blog site or YouTube channel.

Its 27 online courses will teach you how to create and monetize content that’s been optimized for SEO.

The end goal of this course is to teach you how to generate passive income from your content marketing efforts. Check out our Income School Review to learn more about Project 24 and its founders.

No matter which course you choose based on your goals, what’s important is that you’re expanding your knowledge base to create results-driven content.

Your Career as a Content Strategist

Whether you work for a fast-paced marketing agency or an exciting brand, your career in digital content creation is sure to be an exciting one. We wish you the best of luck in your career as a content strategist!



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HustleGPT: An Intriguing Blend of Humor and Concern in AI Capitalism

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HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism

This article serves as a condensed overview of the original piece titled “HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism.”

Introduction:

OpenAI’s release of GPT-4, an advanced generative AI model, sparked an innovative experiment that blends humor and concern in the realm of AI capitalism. Brand designer and writer Jackson Greathouse Fall initiated a project, transforming GPT-4 into “HustleGPT” with a mission to automate hustle culture. This intriguing venture has captivated the internet, with its potential to redefine get-rich-quick schemes and shed light on the role of AI in the pursuit of wealth.

The Birth of HustleGPT:

With a mere $100 and a straightforward prompt, the experiment unfolded. The objective was clear: turn the initial amount into as much money as possible in the shortest time, all while adhering to legal boundaries. The human counterpart, Jackson Greathouse Fall, acted as a liaison between the AI and the physical world, providing updates on the cash total without engaging in manual labor.

The Business Plan Unveiled:

HustleGPT’s proposed business plan involved setting up an affiliate marketing site for eco-friendly products. A cheap domain, greengadgetguru.com, was swiftly acquired, and with the assistance of GPT-4, a logo and a detailed site layout were generated. The project took a tangible form as Hall invested $29 in hosting, bringing the Green Gadget Guru website to life.

Strategic Moves and Investments:

With $62.84 remaining, Hall sought guidance from HustleGPT on the next steps. The AI suggested allocating funds for Facebook and Instagram ads to enhance visibility. The project gained momentum as Twitter hype attracted an undisclosed investor, injecting $100 into Green Gadget Guru on the first day.

Scaling Up the Operation:

As the experiment progressed, GPT-4 displayed its capabilities beyond initial expectations. It recommended hiring freelance content creators and developing a Software as a Service (SaaS) product. The project expanded rapidly, with GPT-4 advising on capitalizing on Twitter followers, launching a GitHub repository for others to replicate the challenge, and attracting more investments.

The Viral Success:

HustleGPT’s viral success is a testament to the fascination surrounding AI capabilities. However, beyond the entertainment factor, the project is demonstrating the potential to build a legitimate business. With $7,812.84 in investment, a growing team, and content in the pipeline, the experiment has garnered attention. The question remains: can Hall and HustleGPT transcend the common startup pitfall of hype without profits?

AI’s Role in Capitalist Ambitions:

HustleGPT’s journey reflects the ongoing debate about AI’s role in capitalist endeavors. While the experiment leverages GPT-4’s virality to achieve financial goals quickly, it raises concerns about the ethical implications of automating hustle culture. The project showcases how AI can navigate the business landscape, from generating content and attracting investors to scaling up operations.

Conclusion:

In the evolving landscape of AI and capitalism, HustleGPT stands as a unique and thought-provoking experiment. It encapsulates the potential and challenges of integrating advanced AI models into entrepreneurial endeavors. Whether it succeeds or encounters the common pitfalls of startups, the project serves as a fascinating case study, offering insights into the intersection of AI, hustle culture, and the pursuit of wealth in the digital age.

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