Part 2 : The Rank Write Roundtable

What was the background to launching the Rank Write Roundtable publication?
Jill: We had been working together on website optimizations for quite some time. Both of our businesses were growing exponentially because of this collaboration. It's truly amazing how much more work two people working together can do, than two people working separately. Heather already had an email newsletter she sent out periodically, and I had been meaning to put one together when I had the time.

We had been trying to think of ways to help publicize our businesses and she came up with the idea of combining our newsletters into one entity. At first we hadn't intended for it to be anything more than a weekly newsletter, but once we started brainstorming a bit and thinking up names for the publication, it just seemed like a good idea to also create a website for it. That seemed to give it a life of its own, and the rest is history!

Heather: The newsletter I had prior to Rank Write was a good marketing tool for me - but it was boring to produce. It actually took me less time to produce than the time I now spend on Rank Write - but I didn't enjoy writing it. Then, when Jill and I talked about combining talents and creating Rank Write, it's like a lightbulb popped on for both of us! Suddenly, we were sending scads of emails back and forth deciding how to create the publication and what should be on the site. It was fun! It was exciting! And, we both felt like we had something unique to offer.

How much work does such a weekly email publication involve, and what are the benefits for yourselves and your businesses?
Jill: It really doesn't take all that much work for me. Right now we're only answering one question each per week in order to keep the newsletter to a reasonable size. Having been working in the search engine optimization arena for so many years, and constantly keeping up with the latest trends, most questions are fairly easy for me to answer off the top of my head.

It's really not much different than posting to other email discussion lists, which I've always enjoyed doing. What's been most time consuming is trying to get the website up to speed. There's a lot more we would like to do with the website when we have a chance.

The main benefit to our businesses has been to further establish our credibility and expertise in our respective fields. We were well on our way to doing this before Rank Write, but this has expanded our audience. The subscription base is growing much faster than we ever imagined, (over 50 new subscribers each week), and I'm sure that there is a lot more room for growth there.

We never actively solicit business through the Rank Write newsletter or website, but of course, many people who see that we obviously know what we're talking about do visit our business websites and also very often ask for quotes. However, most of our readers are of the do-it-yourself type, which is fine. We're happy to give them all of the free advice they can absorb!

Heather: Time-wise, producing Rank Write is simple. We probably spend about five hours a week each - and that's the maximum. We purposely set it up so we wouldn't overwhelm ourselves, we could stay on a regular publication schedule and the quality would stay high. We had both seen "weekly" publications that later went to every other week - and then once a month - and finally fell out of sight. We didn't want that. We wanted a fun, informative publication that people could rely on seeing on a regular schedule.

Probably the most important benefit we've realized from Rank Write is helping us establish our niche and position ourselves as experts. We certainly would never solicit business in our publication, but we have had a number of people that wanted to hire us because they felt like "they already know us." That personal tone, I think, is a crucial component of our success. We both tend to write like we talk, so what you read in Rank Write is pretty much what you'd get in real life.

Another personal benefit that I enjoy is that Rank Write is FUN! There's nothing better than receiving an email that reads, "Thank you so much for your help. I was totally confused about how to write for keyphrases until your latest issue." We know that there's tons of conflicting seo and online writing out there. And, it makes me feel good to know that we're helping people untangle the latest seo stuff and we're giving them information they can use!

Continued...