This week I jumped on a plane to visit some friends and family, and I still marvel at the fact that I can take my work anywhere.

When I first started freelancing, I didn’t go into it all glowy-eyed, dreaming about the day that I could work from anywhere.

I started freelancing because I needed to make money.

Today, there is an uprising of people who are saying no to traditional work. If you want to choose a life of freedom and flexibility, it’s out there.

But, it doesn’t just magically happen.

Whenever someone asks me about how I got here, my first instinct is to just say “I logged into my computer every day” and that’s the truth. For the first few years of building my business, there wasn’t a day I didn’t log in and get something done.

While I don’t want to glorify the hustle culture out there (yikes!) I believe a big part of being a successful ‘anything’ requires real focus, hard work and consistency.

I wish I could give you all my #1 hack to making it in content, but really, there are no real shortcuts if you want to build a lasting career.

So, my advice as I sit here on this gorgeous sunny day in front of my laptop again is this:

Find ways to enjoy the journey.

Remind yourself that you get to choose how to spend your day, what to work on next, where you want to work and who you want to work with.

Find those little things to enjoy in your work.

For me, it might be having a glass of wine while I brainstorm or write.

Or, the fact that I can jump on a plane and see old friends while I don’t miss a beat in my work.

I love meeting with my team and having a laugh.

I love figuring something out and learning new things.

I’m excited every day I get to think about content, write about content and connect with other nerds.

This past week, I got to interview some really serious nerds, who could ramble on and on about the niche they love — I live for times like that! Talk about a work buzz — it’s so inspiring to see others who have found their place and are not afraid to unleash their geekiness into the world.

That’s what keeps me going these days! What about you?

Why Do We E-E-A-T Anyway?

Oh boy, let me tell you, Google has really been stirring the pot in the search world these past few months! I mean, update after update, it's like a never-ending roller coaster ride for us publishers.

Even the top SEOs are scrambling to decode the mysteries of quality content (and keep up with the updates for their Twitter followers).

So, what does this mean for us, the creators of the content?

If you want to become a known expert or build a quality digital asset, you are going to have to embrace all the E-E-A-T goodness (it’s got to be like breathing, my friends).

Wait, what's E-E-A-T, you ask? And why should we care?

E- E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It's one of Google's core principles they share with their Search Quality Evaluators. Now, there's been some debate over E-E-A-T as an actual ranking factor, but from my experience, building authority and expertise sure does help with those rankings and site growth!

At Venture 4th Media, we’ve been focusing on E-E-A-T in a big way for the past few years:

• Hiring real experts who can go super nerdy in their niches, removing general SEO writers

• Making sure we showcase and showoff our experts (writer bios, robust About Us pages)

• Actually doing the things we say we’re doing (product testing)

• Adding images + screenshots — anything to show that we’re doing the thing

• Adding authentic images and videos in our sidebars

• Letting writers flex their expertise with anecdotes and real-life experiences

• Dishing out those juicy insider tips only a true expert would know

• Offering offbeat picks and product choices for the nerdy, passionate readers

• Being genuine, candid, and transparent with product recommendations (and explaining WHY we're suggesting them)

• Selecting products from various sources (not just Amazon) and considering our readers' purchasing experience

• Keeping our content fresh with editorial reviews and updates (and letting readers know why and when we made changes)

Just to name a few things. And, it works. Here’s a site that is seeing some massive improvements after the latest Google Core update:

On this site, in particular, we made sure that our writers would buy and test all the products we could. We added tons of product testing images (taken on cell phones) to our sidebar, feature images, and internal images of the posts.

Our writers share their lives and are not afraid to be opinionated either — if they don’t love something, they don’t hold back.

Looking at the SERPs for this site, I’ve noticed we have recently been featured much more in the “Critic Reviews” section in Google — we’re becoming known experts in this niche!

Google really does care about WHO the content is coming from.

We've seen a bunch of our sites grow like crazy this year by putting these tactics into play. Some even bounced back from previous Google setbacks.

Sure, we can't say for certain that it was just our E-E-A-T efforts that made the difference or if it was any of the gazillion other factors that influence site growth. But that's not the point.

E-E-A-T isn't just some magic trick to boost rankings and traffic—it's our mission to give our readers the best content possible.

We're not trying to find loopholes or shortcuts. We're doing the real work, hunting down experts, training them, and showcasing our efforts across the board. And, we’re enjoying the journey along the way. That’s how we’re building lasting brands.

Some Things to Read and Ponder

Here are some dig-in resources that I hope you’ll love!

I’ve written a comprehensive guide to answer the basic question “What is Content Marketing” with some real-life examples and thoughts on when to implement content marketing in your biz.

This post has been circulating on all of my content and SEO Slack groups lately, for good reason! Superpath’s Cierra Lofin did a lot of groundwork to show how real companies structure their content teams.

This EEAT & Helpfulness Content Checklist from Aleyda Solis is a must-have resource for anyone creating digital content. Use this as a checklist of sorts when creating and publishing. There have been some recent updates, so make sure to bookmark this!

My Favorite Tweets of the Week

Thank you for reading. I really do want to make these newsletters helpful, so please reach out if you have some questions or want me to cover something here.

I love all of your responses, and it warms my heart to know that there are real people spending time with me each week here.

Have a great week!

Cheers! Amy

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

If you really want to get into the weeds on these topics, here are a couple of newsletters to subscribe to.