I began writing in 2018 as a side gig creating SEO-driven content for companies. In 2020, I niched down to B2B companies (software and service) catering to to small and medium-sized retailers.
Since then, I’ve written/ghostwritten long-form content for startups and established organizations in the industry.
Check out my bylined pieces below to see how I combine storytelling and SEO strategies to produce compelling content that ranks well.
CONTENT JOURNALISM: Instead of focusing on SEO, I followed the story.
This article took a life of its own. Initially, the goal was to talk about how ecommerce brands can keep up with the unexpected growing pains.
I interviewed SMB owners and managers to find out how they coped with the changing market conditions. And I discovered that these companies no longer prioritize growth.
They have a new problem: The minute the threat of the pandemic weakened, the world once again opened up to physical retail. This left digitally native brands to deal with mountains of stocks, expansion costs, and more
Besides direct insights from my interviewees, I leveraged research and statistics to shed light on this shift and to see where it’s headed.
But I didn’t want this piece to center on exploring this new landscape. Readers need to walk away with proven tips and workarounds to really find value in it. The ‘toolbox’ explores the various pieces of practical advice with real-life examples and anecdotes from my interviewees.
The investigative work I did while writing this piece allowed me to discover new perspectives. And it’s something that I do during the idealization phase of any project to make sure the piece I write gets read and disseminated well. Even with SEO playing second fiddle to storytelling, this piece ended up on Google’s first SERP. All because the piece struck the right chord for the target audience.
FINDING THE BEST EXAMPLES FOR READERS: I hunt down relevant examples that get them to act, not broad ones that get them to scratch their heads.
Many articles written for small businesses use examples from big-box retail chains. It makes sense. They fall under the same category: retail/ecommerce. The crux of the idea, the representation–they’re all there. However, these examples work against the readers. They might grapple with thoughts like, “Well, how will this work on a smaller scale?”.
For this article, I opted to use niched examples that readers can relate to. I handpicked digitally native brands running stores on both Shopify and Etsy.
Since I’m comparing these two selling platforms, it’s easier for readers to see what they can do with them if they’re viewing it through the lens of one shop.
It’s far more difficult to seek examples of this caliber than mainstream brands, or say, 5 Etsy brands and 5 Shopify ones.
But doing so eases doubts and resistance against implementing the blog post’s main takeaways, particularly how they can leverage either platform for their small biz.
BTW, I also signed up for Shopify and Etsy to test them out and see how they stack up in terms of:
I previously collaborated with ToolTester as a ghostwriter. The Shopify vs Etsy piece above is the first one with my bio added in. You’ll also see another name in the bio in many of my TT articles: Inka Wibowo. She’s TT’s Sr. content manager and the main woman in charge of briefs! She’s also a delight to work with. Read her testimonial to see if she feels the same way about me:
From a skeletal outline to a fleshed-out piece of content. I leveraged examples and stats to make this piece meatier. Okay, I’m gonna stop now with the bodily references, so we can focus on one aspect of this piece: the format.
I used: Intro > Definition > Tips > Benefits > Conclusion.
It’s common to see the definition and benefits clumped together in the first H2. So why didn’t I follow this tried-and-tested structure?
Here’s my thought process for departing from it:
I am a big fan of Animalz’ blog. And this piece of advice from this blog post struck a chord with me: “Guide your reader from the first sentence to the last, increasingly convincing them of your thesis. This takes more than strong headings.” A logical structure sets it all in motion.
For the actual layout and spacing of the article, here’s the Google Document I submitted (note how headings and spacing are consistent).
Jul is a fantastic writer who managed to take one of our bare-boned outlines into an article that's already SEO optimized and formatted for readability. On top of that, she's responsive and quick turn around a high-quality piece of content"
We were really impressed at how you took a fairly loose brief and converted it into exactly the kind of article we were looking for, in terms of structure, tone and content. We also really like your conversational and engaging writing style!
For those in a hurry, I'll tell you right away: Jul is a great specialist! She doesn't just write text, she always does more.
Extra challenge: Toeing the line between content marketing best practices and client requirements.
The topic “Visual Merchandising Basics” was meant to be a TOFU post, but I was tasked to put the product in the spotlight.
If you’re a content professional, you already know what the problem is: TOFU blog posts are meant to invite readers to explore a new problem or concept–not talk about a specific solution.
To deliver a piece that won’t leave unfamiliar readers cold while also meeting client demands, I followed these steps:
Check out my original submission here.
Links/Attributions: All present (Many didn’t make it to the published piece. Internal links were kept, however.)
Layout/Formatting: Slightly different. For ex: Bold text had been removed in the PROS and CONS section, reducing scannability. I brought this up and suggested changing the format to bullets and colons if bolding the text isn’t feasible.
Photos: Visual merchandising examples all without proper attribution. Product images near the intro: added by the client.
I approached this piece as a beginner. Because, well, I am.
I don’t run a newsletter. I don’t have an ecommerce business (yet! But just you wait).
But I do subscribe to emails from brands, orgs, and thought leaders. So I looked into those emails I found irresistible (you know, the ones that get clicked right away) and reverse-engineered them to find out why I enjoy their content. I also browsed emails from Really Good Emails and Milled.
Not gonna lie tho: To find out which tips are industry-approved, I started with research, looking at Google’s top blog posts on this topic. But I had to do the reverse engineer thing to add unique tips based on my own preferences and experience as a *professional* newsletter subscriber.
I started out as a ghostwriter, and it's still one of my core services:
Some of my ghostwritten pieces have been published on:
(check links for articles I’m allowed to share publicly.)
Others I can share via email. Send me a message at hello@juldomingo.com to see some of my best work.
✨ The proof is in the pudding. Take a look at what my happy clients have said about these ghostwritten pieces:
Let’s turn your ideas into actionable content.
