Jeanne Keith Felipe
This is a content writing project for an affiliate website designed for a gardening niche. My main duty is to create SEO-optimized blog posts and build a community out of it. The content formats I wrote for this project include:
In some cases, I also edit images for blog posts and answer to reader's comments as needed. I also do some image editing even though it's not required since the posts also include images for plant parts, materials, and instructional directions. Amazon products listed for the posts are also curated based on different metrics set by my client.
One of the key objectives that has been developed in this project is to create in-depth content based on rigorous research to capture the target market and stand out among the competitors.
The content writing process for Our Garden Works is typically simpler than others since all the keywords are already laid out for me in a tracker. All I need to do is write and optimize the posts to improve SEO. Check out my writing process below.
Most of the time, topics chosen by my client lie in two things: a basic guide on gardening chores or in-depth horticultural topics. As someone who needs years to become a gardening expert, I spend tons of time learning more about what I am writing about.
My questions typically include:
After collecting all insights and information based on my research, each post will be outlined to achieve their respective flow. This stage includes planning the draft so it will be easier to write the posts. Sub-processes under this phase include:
.A good outline is the key to a smooth writing process. It helps me write fast and improve the flow of the content. I call my writing process as a process of weaving information tailored to a specific audience.
After creating the first draft, I read the content again to insert the SEO elements like:
Once all the key SEO elements are added, I'll be proofreading the content. It will be done in 2 to 3 rounds until it qualifies the standard that I want. The finished content will be sent for approval to my client.
Within three years, I've written 293 blog posts for Our Garden Works. The majority of the posts are in the top 10 SERP results for two years straight which helped us keep the project going until this year.
Check out some of the high-performing content below under their respective category.
How-to Guides
We've built the website from scratch and now garners 132K to 589K visitors per year. It is one of the milestones of my client which are all built based on hard work and perseverance for the past three years.
Insights:
Our website traffic typically dies down during fall and winter and peaks during the growing season in the US.
The peak of our website performance is in 2022 when everyone is still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and started gardening. We achieved almost half a million traffic in just a span of one year.
Based on the numbers above, the website's traffic flopped in 2023 due to a lot of possible reasons. These include the return-to-office protocol in the US, the launching of ChatGPT where most people get the answers instantly, and inflation which makes product reviews less appealing to readers.
One of my posts is also among the websites considered as a credible source posted by experts from the USDA Knowledgebase. Link: https://ask2.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=797169
It was a delight to see how Our Garden Works grew and developed a community of its own. I believe as more people start to grow their food, the website will continue to be a source of helpful information for a lot of people.