How To Write Better Content- Interview With Nikhil From Topic

Creating relevant content just got easier! Nikhil Aitharaju, the co-creator of Topic, joins me on today's show to discuss how Topic helps you create relevant content that goes deep with additional subtopics that get you found on Google. Talk about a game-changer! Nik also gives excellent advice for online businesses looking to up their game in establishing their authority in their industry. He teaches us how to use backlinks for more prominent SEO positioning and how you can level-up your research for content and interviews. Nik was so generous to share such great information!

Resources From Today's Show:

💡 Get 50% off your Topic membership: https://linktr.ee/amberglus

📸 Follow Nikhil at https://www.instagram.com/nikhil.aitharaju/

📃 HARO: https://www.helpareporter.com/

✨ Join The School of Copy and Messaging Facebook Group to gain access to the live sessions and have your business featured next!

📝 Try Kajabi Free for 14 Days!! Click HERE to check it out. 

Full Audio Transcription of this Podcast Episode:

(00:00):

Hey friends. Welcome back to another episode. Thanks for joining me today. We have a special guest on the show today, and I'm so grateful for the information that he provides. We're going to talk today with Nick, who is the co-founder of Topic. Topic is a platform that makes content creation easier. So who doesn't want that? Not only does Topichelp you with what key topics you need to cover in your content. It also gives you a grade on your writing, gives you S E O information on keywords that you should be including in your content. And it also gives you suggestions of higher traffic information that you can include in your content so that it gets seen by more people. Uh, you guys, Topic is a game-changer, in my opinion, when it comes to content creation. And we've been talking in this series lately, about what is content marketing?

(00:56):

Why is it important? How to use content to build a sales funnel and content is the basis of an online business today. So I'm really excited to have Nick on the show to talk to us about how Topic can help all of us with an easier process to create content. But more than that content that's actually going to be found on Google searches and content that you know is relevant to your audience. Sometimes it's hard to think of all the sub-topics on content to create. And Topic is something that can help you do that. So stay all the way through the end of the show, to also get the link, to get a membership on topic that will give you 50% off. So really good price for that. You guys, it is totally worth it. And I've been using this platform I'm really, really happy with it. So I hope you guys enjoy the episode. Let's jump in and hear what Topic can do for our businesses.

(01:59):

Welcome to the school of copy and messaging, a podcast where we help you craft your message and promoted it online to build the business as unique as you are. I'm your host, Amber Glus. Professionally, I'm a copywriter marketing guru and communications professional, who has spent the last 20 years in media relations for elected officials and marketing for a national brand, creating copy and messaging that turns prospects into paying customers. Personally, I'm a breast cancer survivor and lover of all things, coffee, who believes that Friends is still the best TV show ever. I bring my get things done attitude here each week with episodes that share tactical lessons on how to craft your message promoted online and build a business that brings you joy and freedom, whether you're an entrepreneur creating your own message to your copywriting and marketing, or a freelancer who wants these skills to increase your business, you were in the right place. Let's dive in together to

(03:00):

Today's episode.

(03:13):

So I just want to start with you kind of introducing yourself and, um, and topic there. And first, tell me how to properly announce your name is.

(03:24):

Yeah, it's a, Nickeel, [inaudible]

(03:27):

Start with just giving my listeners an overview of who you are and what topic is.

(03:33):

Sounds good. Hey everyone. My name is Nikhil. Um, I am the co-founder of Topic. So what Topic is, is a SEO content optimization platform, where we help you research and write high quality SEO content for your search audience?

(03:48):

Perfect. You've got that down,

(03:52):

Practicing it.

(03:53):

Yes, very well said. Perfect. Um, well, Nick, I appreciate you being on, um, you and I spoke, I don't know, a little over a month now, I guess. Um, you reached out to me to kind of tell me a little bit about Topic and I did a demo and, um, for my listeners out there, there's, um, there are two main things that really attracted me to topic that I wanted to have Nick come on the show and tell you a little bit more about, so I did a series not too long ago about why content marketing is important for growing your business. And there are two things that are really difficult when it comes to content marketing. I think, um, for people who were doing it themselves or for VA's who were doing it for other entrepreneurs, and first, that is structuring an outline of a topic.

(04:39):

And then the second is ideas of what to write. Like, what do you even cover? You know, let's say you have one topic that you want to cover, but you need to kind of dive into that topic deeper and cover it with two or three different articles. Um, and doing the research is sometimes really difficult, but also coming up with the topic itself is difficult. So those were some things that really grabbed my attention when I did the demo of Topic. And so first, um, I want you to start with just the generality of how does the differ from just doing a normal Google search that my listeners would be familiar with or using something like answer the public or Quora and kind of explain the difference.

(05:20):

Sounds good. Yeah. I mean, if you're listening to, if your listeners are already using Google search or Quora is the public, they're already on a good track, but when I was consulting with companies, um, I've seen this again and again, where people don't do any proper research before we, they, they start writing the article, they have a certain topic in mind. It's just kind of take it, take that topic, and start writing about it before actually doing the research and trying to understand what your audience is actually looking for. So that's a good first step is to use Google or answer the public. These are great sources, but I mean, these sources work. If you're starting out in your initial journey and you only have one or two clients you're writing maybe like one or two articles a week, um, this process still works, but let's say you now scale it up to like, like couple of clients and start writing more articles.

(06:11):

This is pretty time-consuming. And, you know, as you start to scale your company and your, you know, as your practice, uh, it's important to automate things that take a lot of your time and research. Uh, you totally understand the pain points. So research has a component where you shouldn't be spending time on, there are tools and technologies available that could give you that research so that you could spend your creative time. You could spend your time thinking about the creative aspect of writing, telling the story instead of, you know, doing the research on that topic. So that's why I think, you know, you could still do the traditional go ahead and use the traditional approach, but then having tools like Topic can streamline your work. So can create a scalable, repeatable process, you know, once you have, you know, scalable, repeatable processes that are, you know, tried and true, um, and it works, uh, from our experience. And as you hire more people in the future, I mean, this is the process that is foolproof. Uh, so that's why I recommend using, uh, you know, uh, tools like ours.

(07:11):

So can you explain a little bit about, um, let's say I'm a health coach? If one of my VAs is working for a health coach, um, and I'm writing a blog post this week on nutrition for middle-aged women, help me understand how I would use topic to research and write that article for my clients.

(07:29):

Sounds good. The first thing that, uh, you would do when you come to Topic is basically put in the idea that you have in mind. So let's say you're writing about how to choose a health coach. You could just put that question into Topic, keyword research section, to see if people are actually searching for this question. If people are not searching for this question, then you shouldn't be spending time writing about this because no, one's going to, it's going to end up in a no man's land. So first step is to put in that keyword of putting that question or topic into our keyword research section, and we give you like a couple of ideas for you to, you know, we, we first validate if this particular question has, uh, people's search volume, are people searching on it, and then if they're not searching on it, we give you some alternate ideas for you to consider.

(08:13):

Uh, so once you fix your idea, once you have the keyword in our, so we, we call it, uh, so we call it as a keyword. So also once you get your keyword, you put that into our content brief. Um, and then we generate this beautiful research document, which is like a one-pager on everything that, uh, all the competition who's, you know, uh, ranking for that particular topic. We kind of under analyze these articles, uh, figure out like, what are some of the most common questions these articles are answering? What are some of the most common subtopics that these articles are covering? So in your case, if it's about choosing a health coach, you need to cover, talk about certification. You need to talk about, you know, wellness coach, she and her talk about like habit changes. Like these are some of the things that you have to talk about.

(09:05):

Um, so we do all that analysis for you. So from this, you go ahead and craft your outline, and we have an FD Outland builder within our application where you can click, just click on like the research document, the questions that we surface, and then it builds your outline. And we also generated outlands using AI. So if you're, you know, if it's a very popular topic, you could just ask, um, you know, it could ask the AI to generate an outline that matches, what your search audience is looking for. And then we take that outline, started writing it in Google docs. Uh, and as you're writing the content, we show you real that we give you real-time feedback on how good the content is based on it, coverage of the different topics. Um, and we show you, we highlight any topics that you haven't covered. Um, and then as you iterate, you get to, uh, assign a grade. So if you hit a plus plus in our system, you can go ahead and publish

(09:57):

That

(10:00):

The goal is to publish with confidence.

(10:03):

Absolutely. All right. Perfect. Well, I, um, what I appreciate about that is, well, all of it, first of all, the process, um, you guys you've, you've got to check it out before you really understand the power of it. But what came to my mind when I saw the demo was how much easier this would make my life. So as a content creator, I mean, content is King. And if you guys have listened to the series that I did on content marketing, you heard me talk about why it's so important for your business, but it's difficult to come up with content. It's difficult to see through the weeds of our own business and to really get familiar with what are the things that our client needs and whoever your audience is, being able to go into those subtopics and say, Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about the fact that I should touch on habit changes. Like it, it just sometimes doesn't Dawn on you because you're so in the business that you forget some of those little subtopics. So I love that the program does that. And then I love that it gives you a great, I'm not, I don't know that I want to reveal all of my grades. It might give me, um, but the goal is that it helps you get to an a right.

(11:13):

Exactly. And you can do this manually too. You can open a Google search type in the keyword or topic, and then open up all the articles manually sift through all these headings questions and compare the when, but it doesn't scale.

(11:27):

Yeah. That's well, like you said, if you, once you have more than a few clients, um, you just don't have the time to do it at that level and keep scaling and growing. So

(11:37):

Exactly. Yep. And we've made this mistake too. Like even now, when we're writing about a given topic, we have an expert level understanding of that topic. And, you know, sometimes we forget our audience who was actually coming and searching on that topic. So we just, you know, it's, it's, it's, you need to bridge that gap between what your audience is looking for and what you want to write, and that's where the magic happens.

(11:59):

Yep. That's a really, really good explanation of it. I appreciate that. Perfect. Um, so Nick, tell me a little bit more about how topic gives you help with SEO keywords in your content and why this might be important.

(12:14):

Yeah. So if you look at the history and the evolution of Google know, back in 2010, all you needed was a keyword. Like all you needed was that topic in your title description, and Google was able to find that article. Um, and then, you know, people started building, you know, Google started relying on links as an, as a proxy for authority. And people started building links to their websites and started seeing traffic. But then, you know, Google got smarter, you know, they're, they're actually designing self-driving cars. So like, you know, they're totally capable of analyzing content quality. And as more and more content keeps popping up, it's, it's, it's something that Google, uh, in 2016 or 2017, they, they came up with this knowledge graph, which means they understand how a topic and subtopics relate to each other, like within a given topic, they understand all the sub-topics, uh, within that topic they're able to, um, so any content that you're producing, they basically take your content and then see if they're your topic, your, your content, not just their, uh, knowledge graph of all the subtopics.

(13:20):

And then they start experimenting with your content and once they start experimenting, uh, they're gonna, um, you know, as they're gonna rely on user signals to see if this is high quality or not. So users coming on a website and they're sticking on it, that's a really good signal. If they're going back to the search and type, you know, going to the next link, it's a signal that the quote, the content that you produce is not of high quality. And then they're going to start, um, lowering a ranking. So this is how Google works. So that's why it's important for us to even have Google experiment with the content, which is where the SEO keyword is important. And once, uh, you know, you get in the, you know, um, in front of your audience, it's important to kind of cover that topic comprehensively and answers the questions. So by doing that, you're actually gaining the trust of the user, and then they're gonna stick on your website, and then that's a strong signal to Google to bump up your rankings.

(14:13):

Okay, perfect. You did a very good job of explaining a very difficult process. Very well. Yeah, exactly. Very good. Well, I'm in the outline section helps with that too, right? Like it kind of helps guide you to make sure that you're getting that comprehensive content that Google is going to, like

(14:34):

The outline is like laying a foundation for your, you know, building. So once you have an outline, it's sort of like a half of the work is done. All you have to do is start filling in the gaps and then start writing content. But the outline is the foundational piece, uh, where all the magic happens. So that's why we, you know, our products centered around helping you write the best outline. I'll come up with the best outline that answers all your audience's questions.

(15:00):

Awesome. I love that. Um, to have something that helps me know what those questions are as I'm writing content, um, that's pretty amazing. That's really cool,

(15:11):

Especially for your audience. If you're a VA working with multiple different clients, it's hard to context switch and get a thorough understanding of your client's audience. And this is a quick way to kind of save time and get in their shoes in a way if it's in a few minutes.

(15:28):

Yeah. When that brings up a question, actually, if you don't mind, I'm going to kind of throw out at you that you didn't know. I was going to ask me is, I didn't know I was going to ask it. Um, so I received a message yesterday from one of my listeners on Instagram. Um, and she was very sweet and said some topics that she would like for me to cover in the future. And one of the topics that she mentioned was an, uh, any kind of resources that might help non-English speaking writers. So English is not their first language. Um, what's your opinion. Do you think topic would help some of those individuals when they're trying to research, if they're working on behalf of an entrepreneur, who's English speaking, whose first language is English, or if they're doing business and needing to put topics, um, in the US content in the US and that's not their first language, do you think Topic would be able to help them with kind of knowing, um, what to write? What are your thoughts?

(16:26):

So, to answer your question, we might not, we don't. Um, but however, um, what we are going to help you with is actually, uh, you know, speaking in your audience's language, right? Like for example, if I'm an engineer, when I'm reading an article on engineering, I expect a certain vocabulary, in the article, and failing to cover that I'm going to lose trust. I'm going to think that this is not written by an engineer, or this is not high quality. And that is where we can help you is actually understanding those terms that your audience is going to use. But, um, you know, if you are trying to figure out, like, how do I increase my speed of writing? I think there are other tools, uh, this tools I copied our AI, uh, which are AI-based writing tools that can turn your ideas into sentences. We actually incorporating some of the functionality. So eventually we will be able to help you turn your ideas into sentences, especially for long form content, but there are some other AI tools that are, uh, you know, uh, set out to do that. So I should check out like some other, you know, copied our AI. Are there alternatives, even Grammarly? I think Grammarly is pretty good. Like it can, I think they have released some really good functionality in the recent, uh, couple of months.

(17:39):

Yeah. I love Grammarly. That's a good one. Well, that's really helpful though, because, um, the same listener was asking me about topics that help you understand when you're writing for a client that you don't always understand their industry. So you make a really good point with, you know, an engineer's going to expect certain language. Um, and so that's a really good example of how she could use that though when she's writing may be for an entrepreneur that she knows how to do the writing, she doesn't necessarily understand the topic, as well as her entrepreneur, is going to, um, that can definitely help bridge that gap. So I appreciate that because you didn't know, I was going to ask that question. And so I appreciate you being patient with that.

(18:22):

I mean, we didn't work, we didn't work with a lot of writers, so we understand some of the pain points and, uh, yeah. So, um, yeah, totally. Um, yeah, I get that. Um, you know, the pain point behind that question,

(18:32):

You bet. Well, you talked a little bit about having a repeatable process. And so whether, you know, you're an entrepreneur who's trained to crank out your own content each week or a VA. Who's doing that for multiple runners at the same time. Talk a little bit about how that process can speed up the research and the writing process and how do you make it a repeatable process using Topic?

(18:56):

Yeah. So going back to my, uh, the question that you asked before, um, basically, you know, when you're writing a research and a piece of content, there's a certain number of steps involved. And sometimes, you know, you might have a bad day and miss out on a step, or sometimes, you know, they might be like a real gem of a piece, uh, during a competitive research ranking on page two that you might not get to. And these are some of the mistakes that we all make, uh, when we're trying to do the same process manually. So what topic does is we basically do all of that for you. We're able to identify, like, if any articles are ranking on page two that are really good, that you should take a look at, be able to surface dose so that you don't, you know, you don't miss out on any of these opportunities.

(19:41):

So that's how we fill in the gaps so that you don't make this mistakes. And, um, yeah, we all stay, you know, um, taking, um, all of your manual work and turning into a, a quick step-by-step process that, um, is, is that is tried and true. Uh, so yeah, I mean, to answer your question, um, you know, if you're doing a ma there's a lot of mistakes that you make when you're doing it manually, that we help you overcome. And then we serve as these really gem of content pieces that are ranking and paste your Ph.D. that you might not get to. So these are very important when you're creating, um, you know, uh, when you're creating outlines. Uh, so that's how we help you. Uh, does that answer your question? Yes,

(20:24):

It does perfect in

(20:25):

A products and a product kind of mimics the same workflow that you would be doing manually. So we're not creating a new habit. We're sort of like taking the existing habit and making it faster. So that's the other way that we also speed up as we not creating a new habit change. We're just, you know, making that a habit faster. Perfect. Making it better.

(20:48):

All right, good. And so I understand then how that helps grow organically with content you're, you're exactly exaggerating your SEO. You're getting found easier by Google. You're answering the questions that your audience actually has. So you're providing valuable content. Um, any other ways I'm missing that topic helps me grow organically.

(21:12):

Yeah, I think, um, one thing in general, this is general SEO advice is once you start ranking for a certain topic, and once Google will start, you know, creating you as an authoritative subject matter expert in that topic, it's easy to rank for adjacent topics. So let's say you're writing about, you know, well health coach and, you know, maybe you've covered that topic comprehensively. And now if you want to start writing about nutritionist coach or, you know, now Google is gonna, you know, um, since you've already covered this topic of a health coach and nutritionist is actually adjacent to health, uh, they're going to start, you know, giving you a chance to rank for those topics as well. So in general, SEO, once you start producing content, uh, it's it compounds. So once you have the authority become a subject matter expert on a given topic, you can start conquering your adjacent topics. And that's the general SEO advice, um, that I would, uh, you know, um, give out to anyone who's thinking about investing in SEO.

(22:11):

Yeah. Perfect. That's really good advice. I appreciate that. And really good for helping you understand how to create more content, what content to create.

(22:21):

Exactly. Yeah. One of the things that we also, uh, I mean, this is what our product directly does is sometimes you create a piece of content that starts to rank well, and then in six months, maybe there's a competition that's coming up and encroaching in your space and taking away all that traffic. So, uh, and this is a standard practice followed by a lot of SEO teams. They do a content refresh. So every six months you go back and ref or three months, depending on the industry that you're in, you kind of do a content refresh cycle. And then during that re-refresh phase, you could put that existing article back into topic. And we tell you, Hey, what, what are the new articles that have come and taken your ranking? So we in, what are the new top new sub topics that they've actually talked about that you aren't talking about, especially in COVID right before COVID a work from home.

(23:06):

You know, when you search for work from home, there was a different set of articles, but cope with it. And then, I mean, then you have to factor COVID in. So all the people who were ranking for work from home before might have lost their traffic to a new, you know, new articles that talk about COVID. So when you come back in three months and put that article in, we tell you, Hey, you didn't talk about the pandemic and you didn't talk about like, how that would affect the work from home behavior. So that is something that we also provide value.

(23:33):

It's a really great example, especially for how it can shift. And maybe just, like you're saying one thing that we've all kind of had as a buzz word work from home and how that changed dramatically in the last year, what that actually means know where it's been for the last five years, but in the last year, it's, it's had a totally different connotation than it used to.

(23:55):

Exactly. And yeah, adding onto that previous, uh, topic, uh, of, uh, you know, working for mom, you know, when you search for like, uh, how to work out before COVID maybe, you know, articles were talking about going to chairman whatnot, but now when you search for how to work out, Google knows it's COVID and people can go to the gym. So these surface article that talks about working out from home. So these, I mean, you need to keep that in mind as you're writing content as well.

(24:19):

Oh, Nick, that's really, really helpful. I hadn't thought about that because you're right. Google is so smart. Um, and so they know if your content is relevant to what's happening with work from home or work out at home today, versus what it meant a year ago. That's a really great

(24:36):

And to be a little bit more technical. Uh, so, you know, the way Google figures out, as let's say you type in, um, uh, how to work out and then let's say Google surfaces results from like the pre-COVID data and user like users go back to search and say how to work out from home. And if most of them, if more people are clicking on how to work out from home, Google kind of understands that maybe how to work out means people want to work out from home. And that's how they kind of, um, figured out those, uh, the search intent of the user.

(25:08):

Yeah. Wow. That's really interesting. It knows us so well, doesn't it?

(25:13):

I mean, its job is to help us, uh, get all the answers as quickly as possible. So

(25:18):

Yeah. And the right answer, the most relevant answers. Exactly. Very cool. So, um, I want you to stay, stay in this space, but unpack a little bit more about how this helps me. Um, I don't mean this in a negative way, but how this helps me be my competition for lack of better words.

(25:38):

Yeah. So it depends. So if you're a VA trying to, you know, I have worked for a client or solopreneur, your job is to, you know, uh, your, your job is to produce high quality work, right? So Topic helps you produce high quality, but at the same time, you know, you want more clients and quantity becomes an issue then like, how do you do this repeatedly, uh, you know, scale it out to other clients. And that's where Topic comes in as well. So that's how you can stay ahead of your competition by producing high quality at a rep at a faster pace. Now, when you're talking about a, like a solopreneur who is looking to invest in content, um, it's important. So it's important to add by, let's say you have a CPA practice, uh, a practice or dental practice, the traditional way of, uh, you know, people finding you on Google is, you know, you list your business on different directories and hope that open, pray that people find you there, or word of mouth, right?

(26:32):

But now let's say you start producing content about different issues that, you know, different questions your audience might have about their teeth or whatnot. Now people are going to read your articles, they're going to trust you, and they're going to feel more connected. Like they trust you more. And then that's, that's how they, you know, convert to a lead. And if your competition is not doing that, you already have a leg up there. Uh, so that's how you can, um, out compete. And we've done this in our previous practice too. We've grown our company, uh, the previous company that I co-founded through SEO and content marketing, uh, and we've grown into a couple million in revenue. So I mean, totally there are so many companies built on, uh, Google. Uh, so anyone who's not leveraging it, who has the resources to leverage, uh, if they're not leveraging it, then you're losing out.

(27:18):

Perfect. Yeah, I appreciate that. So tell me, cause I'm really interested in what you just said. Um, this is not on my list either, so we're just gonna, we're just going to have a chat. Um, so tell me, tell me about that. Like, if you accompany builds on Google, who is providing content, because I think a lot of my members who are solo preneurs are starting out, you know, they're, they're similar to myself. Like maybe you've been at it a year or two, but you're still trying to figure out your business and your content, and you're wearing all the hats. And like, it's like you and I talked about earlier, it's, it's difficult when you're one, maybe two people. And so the idea of providing relevant content that can help you get your audience attracted to you faster to grow your business is what a lot of my listeners are trying to do day in and day out. So can you, do you have any advice for them since you've done that yourself? Or what would you say were some of the most important things you learned in doing that?

(28:17):

Yeah, that makes sense. So, the first thing I would do is, um, I will look at my competition because competition of these people already investing in search like if you have your fellow wi VA's or companies in the same vertical producing content, I would look at them and do some analysis there tools like [inaudible] or SEM rush that provide you with that competitive level analysis of what type of content is your competition creating. So if the competition is creating content, that's a good opportunity for you. Uh, and if you have that extra time, I would figure out like, Hey, how do I stand out? How do I create something that's better than what they've talked about? What, where are my Greenfield opportunities? And then I would start doubling down and creating that content pieces. So that, that is what I would approach. Um, you saw the [inaudible] kind of doing, um, but if you're starting out in a new industry where there's not a lot of competition, it could be Greenfield, but maybe people are not searching about it on Google, right?

(29:14):

Like in that case, I would prefer, you know, trying it out with Facebook ads or Google that look, Facebook ads are the best bet, uh, for the Instagram ads, especially if you're trying out something new that no one is searching about yet. So depending on the, you know, I think the first thing you should look at is the competition of this competition. Then that's good. If there's a lot of competition, then it's going to be like tricky for you to figure out how to carve your own niche. But if there's, if there's some Greenfield opportunity, totally do that. If not Instagram and Facebook ads are good, especially if you are, um, uh, carving a new industry that, uh, people are not searching about.

(29:52):

Perfect. Well, I appreciate you. Ad-libbing on that. That's really good. Good. So, um, Nick, tell me about how, what are the options for my audience to use this product? Um, how do they sign up for it? What are the pricing structures? That kind of stuff.

(30:08):

Yeah. So, uh, our price, our pricing starts at $50 a month for five articles. I understand the budget is an issue, um, especially when

(30:17):

You're starting out. So

(30:20):

We happy. I mean, we're happy to share a discount code for your audience, um, just to help them get started and kind of giving back to the community. So yeah, uh, it starts at $50 to five articles. And as you scale up, we, I know it gets cheaper. Uh, if you're doing 50 articles, that's currently at $300 per month. The idea here is, um, you know, it's like if you're charging a hundred dollars per article and you can, you know, it's only 10% of that, um, costs, but if you're, you know, uh, you know, if you can produce a high-quality article, which means you can get, you can show some results and then get more clients and make more money. So that's how that's, that's how I would think about investing in topic, but we are happy to offer a discount code for your audience.

(31:05):

Um, great. So Nick, tell me where my audience can find you, how, how do they look up you online if they just want to creep on you and look at all the cool stuff you're doing, how do they find you? Um, and I will, I'll also include in the show notes on your Instagram handle, as well as my link for where they can sign up for topic, but, um, where can they find you?

(31:26):

It just type in topic SEO tool in Google, and we would show up, um, we w we want to rank for the topic name keyword, but it's too competitive. So just type in topic, SEO or tool, and you can find topic, or you can go to use topic.com, U S E topic.com and that's the best place to find me because I'm always hanging in the chat button. And, uh, yeah, we're always thinking about the ways to grow a topic and serve customers too. Yeah.

(31:56):

And where do they find you on Instagram?

(31:59):

Uh, it's at [inaudible]. Uh, so my last name, uh, um, more, um, you can find me on Twitter too. Uh, same last name, I think, at a garage.

(32:10):

Perfect. And I'll put those in the show notes for everyone as well. Um, so I'm also curious to know, how did you guys start topic? How did this come about? Was it out of a need that you had yourself, um, or what you saw in the industry? How did you guys get started?

(32:25):

Yeah, so, so we started, so it goes back to 2012 when we first started a first company called tint up. And when we first launched the company, we didn't see any growth. So we were just students out of college, just hanging on cool stuff and thinking that growth would come to us, but we didn't get any growth. And then we realized

(32:47):

It never came right to me either.

(32:50):

You know, most, most of the people have to work for it. Yeah. I think there are very few companies who are lucky and even behind those companies that got get lucky, there's a lot of backstory involved, so it's not like an overnight success, but yeah, growth never came to us. And then we decided, okay, let's try out some good tactics. And we learned about SEO. We read up on SEO, me and my co-founder and then started writing content. And then we started seeing, I know people can buying a product through content and like, Oh, this is cool. And so that's, we kept on creating more content. And then we grew that company. And as we scale that company and sold that company in 2018, uh, we started consulting with other companies to help them with SEO and content. And we realized that most of the content that they're creating is not being found by the search audience. And this is a common pattern that we've been seeing across different companies. And so we realized we should no solve this problem. We should take whatever learnings that we have from a previous job and sort of turn that into a product so that people are, there's a full proof tried and true process. And then that's how topic came into being.

(33:56):

That's awesome. Very cool story.

(34:00):

It's it case in point, and then there's this new way of tools, like topic taking off in the industry, but sort of, we were the right place at the right time. So there's a component of luck involved too. So, um, you want to attribute

(34:13):

Is good. Exactly. What do you think Nick sets you guys apart from some of your other competitors?

(34:22):

Yeah, so we're product people at the very core. Like even when I go back home, I think about, you know, different ways that we can add as a feature and, you know, add value to our life of a customer. So we're less on revenue, even though revenue is important, we are more on product. So after we sold our company, we decided me and my co-founder and we just want to hack on really cool stuff. And we decided topic would be our first playground and we created this product. And then we keep adding these little features. Even there's a lot of depth involved on from the outside. It looks like a simple tool, but there's a lot of nuances in depth involved in every single feature we built and people only realize once they start using it and, uh, you know, they, they appreciate this little thing.

(35:06):

So that's what sets us apart is they care about, um, you know, building these delightful products, um, that could, that can make the user's life easy. And we want to focus on this one problem. We don't want to go too broad and spread ourselves too thin because there's so many other tools that, that does everything. So we want to be focused on this problem and, uh, you know, do a really, really good job and keep it. Yeah. The fact that we can keep our teams small means that we can, we don't have to increase our prices. We can stay at the same level and, you know, um, uh, offer value to customers, all the customers. Yeah.

(35:41):

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Um, I hope that my listeners help support you guys. I think it's a really great product. Um, it's really, really cool platform and I hope it makes my life easier. And if it does, I'll continue to share that with my audience, for sure. Because as a writer, um, like I got a request yesterday, that's from a new client, came in from the podcast, um, and kind of like we talked about he's in an industry that, um, I'm not overly familiar with. Um, and so that makes me think of, you know, topic might be able to help me with that because I, I don't know the keywords to use, I don't know the language to use. Um, I know how to write, but I don't necessarily know the industry. Um, and so something like that might really help with those kinds of clients. So I'll continue to share those on the show with my listeners, um, and the experience that I have with it as I use it. But I think it's a really cool platform. So

(36:34):

Yeah, even for, uh, podcasters, I mean, before you interview someone, it would be nice to kind of go and ask, look at looking at topic on some of the common questions asked in that industry where the podcast is, you know, is a thought leader in that industry and then use those questions to frame your podcast conversation. That way you would get the benefit of ranking in Google and then also, you know, um, yeah. So you're creating content for Google simultaneously as you started, uh, interviewing people.

(37:04):

Yeah. That's a really good tip. I appreciate that. Um, I have a lot of, a lot of colleagues who are fellow podcasters and we all help each other out with our businesses and stuff. And so I'll share that with them. I think they'll appreciate that. That's a great idea.

(37:18):

Sounds good. Yeah, we do have, we do have a, we did a podcast on this very episode that I can share after the, uh, the podcast, um, with you on some of the groups that podcasts can use to diverse topic.

(37:31):

Yeah. If you would, that would be great. And then I'll share that with my audience too, after I hear it sounds good. Well, Nick, anything else that you would like to share about yourself? Topic is the company, anything else that you'd like to tell my audience?

(37:46):

Now, one thing I could share, maybe some tips on SEO content, like how to, how to be successful if that is not already covered. Like, if you think

(37:56):

Any additional tips that you have around that. I think my audience would appreciate, um, as what I, because it's so hard, like when you don't have the knowledge like you do of how this works. Like I think my audience generally, as a rule of thumb understands contents important. It sets me up as an authority in my industry. But I think really beyond that, it's like the how and how do I do it well, and how do I do it, where I'm not spending a million hours a week trying to research and write content. Those are the things that they struggle with beyond just understanding that it's important. So any tips you have would be lovely for them. Sounds good. Yeah.

(38:36):

So one of the tips that I would give to anyone who's starting out an SEO strategy is trying to go try to rank in Google is to, um, build, I know, write high quality content that matches your search is, um, quite like search intent, like so bright content, that's high quality that, you know, answers the questions of your audience as well as start building your authority. So if you have chance to kind of, you know, itch a Harold H a R O. So it's a great resource where you could give a, if you're an industry leader, uh, you could, you know, give them a court and we have, uh, you have high, very, very, uh, you know, high reputed publications, uh, sourcing for these courts from freelancers as well as other businesses. So you should be featuring yourself in those, um, you know, articles, because now if people are pointing to our website, it gives Google a signal that you're a thought leader in a certain subject matter.

(39:31):

And that is also important. Uh, as you grow your authority, it's not just, uh, creating high-quality content also, you know, trying to put yourself out there. Uh, this is called backlink in our, uh, in the SEO community. So essentially like trying to pitch yourself to other people and see if you can get, you know, if they can, um, link, mention you, uh, your quote. Uh, so any way you can get that is going to help you build your domain or team. So these are two things that are really essential to be successful in SEO and content space.

(40:03):

Okay, perfect. That's really good. I did not see very helpful. There's so much to learn when you don't come from that world. You know, it's just like, I'm sure because you've been in it for so long. It's kind of second nature to you. Um, kind of like writing is to me or marketing, but Holy cow, like I'll start researching. I was researching, um, I'm going to do a podcast episode pretty soon. Um, and actually topic could probably help with this as well. Um, but I'm going to do a podcast episode soon about, um, how writers can make better quality show notes for podcasters, um, because it was, it's something that I have struggled with. And so I've done a lot of research on it and I'm going to do a podcast episode on that. Um, and it's, I mean, you can go down the rabbit holes that are all up like this technical language that I don't understand. So it's really, really hard when you don't have that knowledge and that background.

(41:01):

Exactly. And there's this other cool tip I want to share, um, there's this tool called keywords everywhere. So essentially what it does is it's a Chrome extension. So when you type in any search query in Google, let's say there's something you want to write about it and type it on Google, and you enable the extension. It shows you like how many people are searching for it inside Google directly. So you can, I use that very extensively when I'm, you know, randomly searching on Google and trying to find ideas. I enable the extension. It gives me like the search volume for every query that people are typing on typing in Google for. So that's a, that's a cool, neat hack. Uh, so you should use that extension. Um, and then yeah, I use Herro arrow to get yourself out there and then write high quality content. I mean, those are, those are good for being successful. It's a good starting point to be successful.

(41:52):

Yeah. Good starting point. Perfect. Well, I appreciate those, those tips and my, my audience will too, because it's, there's a lot to learn, so very good. Well, Nick, thank you so much for being with me today and for talking to my listeners about topic. Um, it's a really cool platform, so I really hope that they go out and support your business. I certainly will. Um, and I appreciate the platform you guys, as writing for people like me to make sure that we're providing good content.

(42:19):

Yeah. Likewise, thanks for having me on the show. And, uh, yeah, we also want to reciprocate that we want to support your audience, your audience, or solopreneurs as well. So, um, yeah, we're happy to work with you, uh, to make sure that we are supporting you, um, in your endeavors.

(42:37):

Perfect. Thank you so much, Nick. Have a great day. You too. Thanks. All right. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today, Nick, I really appreciate all of the information that you shared about how content can help build your business and your expertise in an industry and how you can make sure your content is the strongest. It can be for search engine optimization and getting found when somebody searches information on Google really valuable nuggets in that podcast. So thanks again, Nick, for being on the show, if you would like to get 50% off of your membership for topic, go to my link, which is link T R dot E Ford slash Amber Glass link T R dot E forward slash Amber Glass to get 50% off each month on your topic membership. Um, the show notes also have that link in it, and I really encourage you guys to go check it out.

(43:36):

Topic has been incredibly helpful for me in my business, making sure that I include subtopics that are going to be relevant to my main topic in my writing. It helps give my writing a grade gives me really good ideas for headlines. It's an incredible resource, you guys for creating content in your business. So thanks again, Nick, for being on the show, go to linktr.e/AmberGlus, or check out the link in the show notes to go get your topic membership at 50% off. What a deal. All right, you guys. Thanks for joining me. I'll be back next week. I hope you have a great week. Thank you for listening today, friends, and spending a piece of your day with me. If you found this episode valuable, please share it on all things social and tag me @AmberGlus.

(44:32):

With your thoughts. It would also mean the world to me. If you would leave me a five star rating and a raving review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcast listening app is ratings and reviews. Help me to grow the show and get great guests on here for you to get more information on copywriting, creating your message and marketing it for your business. Follow me on Instagram @AmberGlus or go to my website, amberglus.com. I want this podcast to be packed full of value for you. So please consider sending me a DM and tell me what topics you'd like for me to cover on the show. I answer all of my DMS personally, and I'm happy to share my insights with you or answer questions that might help you with your own business until next time friends go share your unique message.