John is a content marketer, brand strategist, UX designer, WordPress expert, SEO strategist, brand journalist, creative director, and story producer. But mainly a content marketer.
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About My Work
The strength behind all of my accomplishments is the determination to learn something new. Like really new. Not a half baked hack or top trending SEO trick. All of my employers and clients have unique problems that deserves a unique solutions.
So instead of using the same branding template or just copying a content marketing strategy, I put in the extra research and strategic thinking needed to solve their problem. This is why I have developed many job titles over the years. I have learned to balance creative thinking with proven strategies. And through enough trial and error, I have found a fundamental pattern of success in each of these storytelling endeavors.
And if I could sum up this pattern in one word, I would use boldness. Not to be confused with shock advertising. But rather, a boldness rooted in confidence.
Whether I’m formulating a company’s brand story or just writing
a single blog post, I always help my client challenge public assumptions. I have developed an explainer studio called Best Explained devoted to doing just that.
Explore my portfolio to learn more.
The aim of this campaign is to increase authoritative visibility for COR across Google search, YouTube, and Twitter. This campaign consists of 2 strategic assets, a YouTube video, and a published article. Much of this campaign is still in process at the time of writing this.
The Video
The primary objective of the video is to increase brand recognition and its secondary objective is to send new prospects to the website. I prioritized the objectives this way because the website is not required for conversions. Instead, the website explains how and where prospects can delegate their Cardano to the stake pool. So, name recognition is the most important element of the conversion funnel.
I designed the video to be evergreen content that will provide a steady stream of visitors wanting to learn about the value and benefits of staking. Since this stake pool does not have the resources to scale an entire YouTube content plan, they decided to focus efforts on one video. So, in order to provide long-term visibility to the video, I formulated a PR plan that would offer that exposure.
The Results
The video has received amazing feedback from the community so far. We have picked up 19 subscribers, 600 views, 31 likes, and 19 comments. It has a 9% click-through rate and attributes for 20% of website views.
The Article
The primary objective of the PR plan was to drive visibility to the video first, then the website, and the brand. But also, our strategy is to utilize the social credit of the article to leverage organic relationships with influencers in the space.
In the article, I challenge widely held assumptions about the origins of money and its role in the emergence of cryptocurrencies like Cardano. This required a lot of research, audience listening, and planning in order to provide valuable insight that leaders in the industry will want to use and reference.
The Results
The article was published for free with Hackernoon. It attributed 50% of video views and 50% of website views. It was organically picked up by 2 influencers; ADA Whale and Army of Spies.
ADA whale has 84K followers on Twitter. He retweeted the article from Hackernoon which received 52 more retweets, 182 likes, and 6 comments.
Army of Spies has a Youtube channel with 18.7K subscribers. He referenced the article and video in his video and called his followers to check out both.
I also cut a shorter version of the video that can be shared on Instagram Reels. We shared this on our personal accounts because COR does not plan to maintain an IG account. The video received 1700 views.
Plan for the Future
The plan is to use these assets to help influencers educate their listeners as well as establish relationships for potential collaborations. Our continuing outreach strategy will help increase the organic visibility of the YouTube video, article, and website.
Content Marketing
PORTFOLIO
Project Details
Unlimited Construction and Remodeling is a construction company that focuses on a wide range of construction and home improvement services. They had close to zero keyword rank and couple blogs on the site. They also lacked any social platforms with an engaged audience.
Content Opportunities
I used competitor analysis tools like Uber Suggest and Market muse to identify cluster topics and keywords that Unlimited Construction could rank for. I found opportunities in a Venn diagram of real estate investment tricks and home improvement. I structured the cluster in a way that captured interest trends around house hacking and funneled that into resource heavy evergreen content.
Content Breakdown
Top of Funnel | Resource Heavy |
|---|---|
Rise of the California Back House Hacker | How to Use New ADU laws to Make Passive Income With Rental Property |
How to Get a Permit for Garage Conversion in Los Angeles | |
How to Make a Roll-in Shower Look Like a Luxury Hotel Bathroom – Under Budget | |
A Bathroom Remodeling Investment Breakdown for Los Angeles |
Results
Keyword Growth
- Ranked for 214 new keywords in Google
- Grew visibility from 342 impressions over a 2 month period to 6.92K impressions over a 2 month period.
Traffic Growth
- Grew all traffic from 61 users over a 2 month period to 946 users over a two month period.
My keyword and social listening research showed that there was a lot of interest in real estate house hacking. The client did not have an audience on social media so I focused my efforts on sharing the articles on public and closed forums.
The first objective of this article was to capture over 500 views from social shares. The second objective was to drive click through traffic to related links and resources I created just for this article. Since there was less of an available audience for these secondary links, I planned to use the audience from this article to drive visibility. I structured the entire taxonomy around ADU and garage conversion keywords so that it would increase the rank of my client’s garage conversion and ADU service page.
It worked! Within 2 days, the article received 532 views and started ranking in first place for California House Hacker and ninth for House Hacking in California. This post alone now gets an average of 20 organic clicks a month. The growth of this post helped lift all of the related garage conversion pages and resulted in a garage conversion sale from organic traffic within 3 days of the post.
This article was for a bankruptcy lawyer that now focuses on tech and corporate law. I discovered an opportunity to rank for Netflix junk bonds and corporate debt. Both of these keywords had over 200 monthly traffic volume with low competition. The goal was to use this article as a top of funnel source for other debt and bankruptcy related articles.
Within 2 days of posting, the article went viral with over 5K views and even broke the website. It quickly climbed to the top rank for Netflix debt related articles. It consistently brings an average of 30 organic monthly visits.
This article was for my explainer studio Best Explained. Since my content strategy was to produce content at the intersection of culture and brand development, Bo Burnham’s sketch on brand consultants was a perfect branding and SEO opportunity. It established my business as a pioneer in a new branding ethos. It was also an opportunity to rank for “social branding consultant” and Bo Burnham.
Within 5 days the post received 200 views and now ranks in third place for social brand consultant. It gets over an average of 30 organic visits a month.
The goal of this video was to expand my services into explainer videos. I developed a production system that converts my research and story development into short 1-10 min videos.
The video currently has over 430 views on Youtube and gets an average of 10 organic visits to the website.
This was another opportunity to communicate brand values and personality. The goal was to challenge assumptions that popular culture has about the current labor shortage. I used my personal story to communicate a larger trend about independent professionals embarking on journeys to work for themselves.
Within 5 days, the post received over 500 views. Within 1 week the video ranked 3rd for “labor shortage explained” on YouTube.
This article was the first in a series on Youtube creators. The objective was help creators better understand the YouTube MCN structure along with the pros and cons of using one. I discovered an opportunity to capture traffic and engagement by talking about Mythical Enterainment’s buyout of Smosh after the collapse of Defy Media.
Within 5 days it received 132 views. Now It averages 20 monthly clicks from organic search and gets an average of 1.77K impressions on Google.
The goal of this post was to increase rank within the YouTube content cluster for Look Law. I found an opportunity to rank for “strategic alliances” and “increase youtube revenue per view.” The keyword targets had less traffic but more opportunity for conversion because they were directly correlated with the Lawyer’s service offerings.
The post initially received 15 views within the first day of posting. Overtime with help of the higher performing articles, the article started to climb in organic rank and now gets an average of 10 views a month from organic traffic for a total of 13 top page ranking keywords.
This was the last article in the youtube content cluster. The objective was to capture traffic from an audience interested in the business and creative direction of YouTube. The keyword target for this post was YouTube Originals.
The post initially received 111 views within 3 days of sharing. The post now has 63 ranking keywords with an average of 5 organic views a month.
This article was the first in a series about music copyright law and Kanye’s fight to get his masters back. This was a culturally relevant topic at the time of writing and the objective was to capture the traffic of other musicians looking for legal representation. The primary objective was to communicate expertise and thought provoking insight in this subject area.
Within 3 days of posting the article received 353 views. It now has 20 ranking keywords with an average of 5 organic clicks a month.
This article was the second in a series about music copyrights. The objective was less keyword focused and more content driven. Instead, the goal was to drive traffic from this article to the keyword rich one.
Within 3 days of posting, the article received 520 views with a 3% clickthrough rate to the other articles. It has 10 ranking keywords and an average of 5 organic views a month.
This article, like the previous, was aimed at generating traffic and interest to the higher keyword rich article.
It received 385 visits within 3 days of sharing and 10% click through rate to the other articles.
This site already was starting to rank on EULA related content, but the page duration was under a minute and the bounce rate was at 95%. The objective was to revamp the content in order to capture more key words and add a video to broaden exposure and increase engagement.
The video decreased the bounce rate by 50% and increased the page duration to an average of 5.5 minutes. It also increased the total number keywords by 300 and doubled the average monthly organic traffic.
Additional Content
Project Details
This brand design was for a Cardano stake pool. Stake pools run computer nodes to verify transactions on the Cardano network. They require outside participants to delegate their Cardano ada stake ownership in order to win rewards. They needed a website in order to invite people to join their pool. I designed this brand and website around 3 overlapping customer profiles; a new Cardano investor, a new crypto investor, and a crypto enthusiast. Each section of the website was carefully structured to address specific pain points in these three customer profiles.
The Best Explained Studio
I designed every aspect of my own explainer studio. Visit the site to learn more.
Content Marketing
PORTFOLIO
My keyword and social listening research showed that there was a lot of interest in real estate house hacking. The client did not have an audience on social media so I focused my efforts on sharing the articles on public and closed forums.
The first objective of this article was to capture over 500 views from social shares. The second objective was to drive click through traffic to related links and resources I created just for this article. Since there was less of an available audience for these secondary links, I planned to use the audience from this article to drive visibility. I structured the entire taxonomy around ADU and garage conversion keywords so that it would increase the rank of my client’s garage conversion and ADU service page.
It worked! Within 2 days, the article received 532 views and started ranking in first place for California House Hacker and ninth for House Hacking in California. This post alone now gets an average of 20 organic clicks a month. The growth of this post helped lift all of the related garage conversion pages and resulted in a garage conversion sale from organic traffic within 3 days of the post.
This article was for a bankruptcy lawyer that now focuses on tech and corporate law. I discovered an opportunity to rank for Netflix junk bonds and corporate debt. Both of these keywords had over 200 monthly traffic volume with low competition. The goal was to use this article as a top of funnel source for other debt and bankruptcy related articles.
Within 2 days of posting, the article went viral with over 5K views and even broke the website. It quickly climbed to the top rank for Netflix debt related articles. It consistently brings an average of 30 organic monthly visits.
This article was for my explainer studio Best Explained. Since my content strategy was to produce content at the intersection of culture and brand development, Bo Burnham’s sketch on brand consultants was a perfect branding and SEO opportunity. It established my business as a pioneer in a new branding ethos. It was also an opportunity to rank for “social branding consultant” and Bo Burnham.
Within 5 days the post received 200 views and now ranks in third place for social brand consultant. It gets over an average of 30 organic visits a month.
The goal of this video was to expand my services into explainer videos. I developed a production system that converts my research and story development into short 1-10 min videos.
The video currently has over 430 views on Youtube and gets an average of 10 organic visits to the website.
This was another opportunity to communicate brand values and personality. The goal was to challenge assumptions that popular culture has about the current labor shortage. I used my personal story to communicate a larger trend about independent professionals embarking on journeys to work for themselves.
Within 5 days, the post received over 500 views. Within 1 week the video ranked 3rd for “labor shortage explained” on YouTube.
This article was the first in a series on Youtube creators. The objective was help creators better understand the YouTube MCN structure along with the pros and cons of using one. I discovered an opportunity to capture traffic and engagement by talking about Mythical Entertainment’s buyout of Smosh after the collapse of Defy Media.
Within 5 days it received 132 views. Now It averages 20 monthly clicks from organic search and gets an average of 1.77K impressions on Google.
The goal of this post was to increase rank within the YouTube content cluster for Look Law. I found an opportunity to rank for “strategic alliances” and “increase youtube revenue per view.” The keyword targets had less traffic but more opportunity for conversion because they were directly correlated with the Lawyer’s service offerings.
The post initially received 15 views within the first day of posting. Overtime with help of the higher performing articles, the article started to climb in organic rank and now gets an average of 10 views a month from organic traffic for a total of 13 top page ranking keywords.
This was the last article in the youtube content cluster. The objective was to capture traffic from an audience interested in the business and creative direction of YouTube. The keyword target for this post was YouTube Originals.
The post initially received 111 views within 3 days of sharing. The post now has 63 ranking keywords with an average of 5 organic views a month.
This article was the first in a series about music copyright law and Kanye’s fight to get his masters back. This was a culturally relevant topic at the time of writing and the objective was to capture the traffic of other musicians looking for legal representation. The primary objective was to communicate expertise and thought provoking insight in this subject area.
Within 3 days of posting the article received 353 views. It now has 20 ranking keywords with an average of 5 organic clicks a month.
This article was the second in a series about music copyrights. The objective was less keyword focused and more content driven. Instead, the goal was to drive traffic from this article to the keyword rich one.
Within 3 days of posting, the article received 520 views with a 3% clickthrough rate to the other articles. It has 10 ranking keywords and an average of 5 organic views a month.
This article, like the previous, was aimed at generating traffic and interest to the higher keyword rich article.
It received 385 visits within 3 days of sharing and 10% click through rate to the other articles.
This site already was starting to rank on EULA related content, but the page duration was under a minute and the bounce rate was at 95%. The objective was to revamp the content in order to capture more keywords and add a video to broaden exposure and increase engagement.
The video decreased the bounce rate by 50% and increased the page duration to an average of 5.5 minutes. It also increased the total number keywords by 300 and doubled the average monthly organic traffic.
Additional Content
Project Details
Unlimited Construction and Remodeling is a construction company that focuses on a wide range of construction and home improvement services. They had close to zero keyword rank and couple blogs on the site. They also lacked any social platforms with an engaged audience.
Content Opportunities
I used competitor analysis tools like Uber Suggest and Market Muse to identify cluster topics and keywords that Unlimited Construction could rank for. I found opportunities in a Venn diagram of real estate investment tricks and home improvement. I structured the cluster in a way that captured interest trends around house hacking and funneled that into resource heavy evergreen content.
Content Breakdown
Top of Funnel | Resource Heavy |
|---|---|
Rise of the California Back House Hacker | How to Use New ADU laws to Make Passive Income With Rental Property |
How to Get a Permit for Garage Conversion in Los Angeles | |
How to Make a Roll-in Shower Look Like a Luxury Hotel Bathroom – Under Budget | |
A Bathroom Remodeling Investment Breakdown for Los Angeles |
Results
Keyword Growth
- Ranked for 214 new keywords in Google
- Grew visibility from 342 impressions over a 2 month period to 6.92K impressions over a 2 month period.
Traffic Growth
- Grew all traffic from 61 users over a 2 month period to 946 users over a two month period.
Project Details
This brand design was for a Cardano stake pool. Stake pools run computer nodes to verify transactions on the Cardano network. They require outside participants to delegate their Cardano ada stake ownership in order to win rewards. They needed a website in order to invite people to join their pool. I designed this brand and website around 3 overlapping customer profiles; a new Cardano investor, a new crypto investor, and a crypto enthusiast. Each section of the website was carefully structured to address specific pain points in these three customer profiles.
The Best Explained Studio
I designed every aspect of my own explainer studio. Visit the site to learn more.