I’ve come to realize that the most time I really ever got insane traffic with blogging was when I blogged more about personal stuff. It seems the topic of divorce, even when amicable, gained a lot of traffic on my original blog. A breakup and some very negative times happened over a year ago and that too would have gained me some traction to get more blog traffic, had I written more about it. I simply stopped wanting to share my world on the internet as much. I had to only share the good, at the time, and since then I’ve decided that I no longer have an interest in oversharing online. I would much rather enjoy my life and keep it simple. When you keep more people out of your personal life, you can live it better. Perhaps that’s why most people stay together longer, they don’t overshare on social media and work out their conflicts in a private manner.

My Blogging Beginnings

I admit I started my blogging journey off with personal blogging. I wrote about anything and everything. I tried writing things about my life that I thought would help others, as that’s my true passion in life. I tried to share the real-life journey of a work at home mom. I even shared things about my children when they were younger. It all made sense at the time. Blogging has changed. I have changed. I no longer feel like anyone online and some people in real life care too much when things are going good. Even logging on Facebook to get work done or to see what others are up to often depresses me. I’m tired. I just wish we didn’t use social media so much, but then again, that’s how I earn a living, so I guess I shouldn’t wish social media goes away.

Maybe I’ve Changed a Little

I am not sure if this is winter blues still here in my head or that I’ve changed as trust got broken and I stopped thinking that so many people actually care. While people do care, and my circle is rather small, I know that the internet world doesn’t really care as much as I had thought. I know that some of my online connections aren’t there for my better good and I know this because they stopped engaging with me a long time ago. It’s sad really but to each their own.

Instead of doing as much personal blogging as I used to, I put myself on a little project. This project is writing for keywords rather than personal blogging. You may see that some of my recent topics are not my normal writing, but they are focused on something specific. I do know that I’ll be blogging more about homeschool, so that’s personal blogging, but otherwise, I am not oversharing like I used to. I found it’s not worth it to let strangers know so much about your personal life.

Here’s the test I am doing with blogging, at the moment:

Writing for Keywords Rather Than Personal Blogging

I always review keyword data for my blogs. I have done this from day one back when I ran Happily Blended Blog. The thing is that I never really did anything with that data. I just downloaded it from Google Webmaster Tools, took a peek and filed it away. I now get paid to write for other people on a regular basis, so when I do write on my own blogs I tend to go with what I’ve learned from the professional writing side of this blogging world.

Using keywords is important. Knowing what keywords get people to your site is important.

I decided that I would download keyword data for this blog and evaluate it. I would focus on what keywords were earning me some affiliate revenue and what keywords seemed to really interest those who clicked over to my blog. While I won’t get into the details of what keywords are bringing me money and what keywords are the top ones for my blog, I will say that it’s helped me to use keyword data to increase affiliate revenue. At the end of the day, I simply want to write about keywords that I can twist into a positive lifestyle and that interest me. Of course, I also want to focus on keywords that I know will have someone click over and purchase something.

The key is to use keyword data by evaluating the keywords that bring users to your site and keywords that bring revenue in for your affiliate programs/products.

While I only recently started writing for keywords rather than personal blogging, I can say that I’ve seen an increase in my ad revenue as well as my affiliate revenue. This obviously is a good thing, because raising 3 kids who homeschool on a work at home mom income isn’t easy. I welcome coffee tips (see sidebar) and paid posts as well as any other income that flies my way because I got into debt by making choices to trust in something that wasn’t what it seemed. I’m now picking up the pieces and keyword data seems to help me make some money to try to pay off that accumulated debt slowly.

Why Write for Keywords?

The key is to focus on long-tail keywords as you won’t get much search engine rank with one word or two-word keywords. I have a few long-tail keywords that I’ll focus on at some point, but they tend to run in the relationship department and I’m not really feeling about blogging in that arena these days. So instead I’m putting my focus on long-tail keywords and some smaller keywords that focus on items and topics that bring me in some revenue.

These topics are something that I enjoy sharing for now, and when the time is right I will move onto some of the other travel and relationship topics that fall under my top keyword data for Brandy Ellen Writes. The reason you should write for keywords is to gain more traffic. If you’re not blogging to make money then keyword data is irrelevant to you, in all honesty. I am blogging for pleasure and income, as I have for the last 10 plus years of my life.

When you opt to write for keywords that bring people to your site, you’re listening to what your audience is interested in and it will allow for return visits. Return visits are good because it gives you loyalty with your audience. I know that some people will tell you that keywords are too competitive and you shouldn’t even bother with keyword research, but I beg to differ. This project of mine will be successful and I’ll be able to share with you the tricks that I did to gain more ad revenue, affiliate sales and more traffic using my own blog’s keyword data just as soon as I have some results organized into a blog post form.

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