How I Wrote a Ton of Content Nobody Read
I used to think content marketing was a game you could win with data. Fire up the keyword tool, find a term with decent volume, write the 2,000-word "ultimate guide." I was convinced that if I just followed the rules—topic clusters, semantic keywords, a perfect H1—the traffic would come.
I spent months building a beautiful, soulless library of perfectly optimized articles that nobody read.
Then I realized something: I was answering questions nobody was asking.
The Problem with "Content Marketing"
Most advice about content marketing is obsessed with the wrong thing. "Keyword research," "content velocity," "search intent analysis." It's no wonder so many blog posts sound like they were written by a robot trying to explain what it's like to be human.
The real issue isn't that your writing is bad—it's that you're trying to solve spreadsheet problems instead of people problems. And your audience can smell the difference from a mile away. When your "helpful guide" is based on a keyword someone else ranks for, you're not helping; you're just creating a slightly worse copy of something that already exists.
What Actually Works: Three Approaches That Don't Suck
1. Listen for Cries for Help (Not Keywords)
Instead of hunting for keywords, go to the places where your potential customers are complaining. The real gold isn't in a dashboard; it's in the messy, unfiltered, human questions people ask when they're truly stuck.
I’ve seen entire content strategies built from comments found in the wild:
"My team hates daily standups what do I do" (in a project management forum)
"I have to send a financial model to a VC tomorrow and I feel like a total fraud. What do I put in the cells when we have no customers yet?" (in a startup subreddit)
"This book was good, but it didn't explain how to do this if you're a team of one." (in a 3-star Amazon review)
These are real problems. You can't fake the raw panic of a founder facing a deadline or the frustration of a manager whose team isn't gelling.
The key: Your content should be a direct answer to a real person's cry for help.
2. Use Their Words, Not Yours
The best content sounds like it was written by the reader. It uses their slang, their metaphors, and their inside jokes. SEO tools tell you to target the term "project management methodologies." A real person calls it "getting engineers to actually update their damn tickets."
Posts that work:
"Our Sales Team is 3 People in a Spreadsheet. What’s the Simplest CRM That Won't Slow Us Down?"
"We Don't Have Enough Traffic for A/B Testing. What Do We Do Instead?"
"The Silent Killer: Why Your ‘Happy’ Customers Are About to Churn"
The key: Don't just identify the problem; learn the language people use to describe it. Then use that exact language in your headline.
3. Offer Free Therapy Sessions
This is the one that feels like a cheat code. Get on a call with people in your target market and just help them. For free. No pitch, no hidden agenda.
The goal isn't to sell; it's to learn.
Good outreach looks like this:
"Hi [Name], I'm doing some research on [their problem]. Not selling anything, just want to learn from an expert like you. Got 15 mins to chat?"
On the call, you become a therapist. Ask questions and then shut up.
"Walk me through how you deal with that..."
"What's the most annoying part of that process?"
"What's a piece of advice everyone gives about this that you think is total garbage?"
The key: This isn't scalable, and that's why it works. Your competitors are busy analyzing keywords. You're busy collecting your audience's deepest fears and frustrations.
The Real Rules of Content
Every audience is different, but here’s what actually matters:
Lurk first. Spend time in communities just reading. Understand the culture. What's the common complaint? What's the bad advice everyone hates?
Solve the real problem. People don't want "10 Tips for Better Email Marketing." They want to solve "My emails look like garbage because I'm not a designer."
Your customer is the hero. Your product or service is just the magic sword you hand them. The story is about their struggle and their victory.
Accept that it's awkward at first. Your first few "help-first" interviews might be weird. That's the price you pay for getting insights no one else has.
What This Actually Looks Like
Here's a real example from my own experience:
I was trying to write content for a project management tool. The keyword tools pointed me toward generic topics like "Agile vs. Waterfall." It was boring and no one cared.
I joined a Slack group for engineering managers and just listened. I saw a thread from a manager who was completely frustrated. He said, "I feel less like a manager and more like I'm herding cats just to get ticket updates."
So, I wrote a post titled: "Feel Like You're Herding Cats? How to Get Engineers to Willingly Update Their Tickets."
Result: That single post sparked more conversations and demo requests than the previous ten "SEO-optimized" articles combined. Not because I pitched anything, but because I proved I understood the real, nagging problem.
The Long Game
This isn't about quick traffic wins. It's about becoming the most helpful, insightful person in your niche. It’s about building a reputation as the person who gets it.
This takes time. Months, not days. But the payoff is huge: when someone has the problem you solve, you're the first person they think of.
Getting Started (Without the Dashboards)
Pick one subreddit or online community where your people hang out.
Spend one hour this week just reading. Find one real, emotional question.
Find five people on LinkedIn or Twitter who look like the person you want to help.
Send one of them a "no-sell" outreach message asking for a 15-minute chat.
Write your next article as a direct answer to the most painful problem you heard in that chat.
That's it. No "topic clusters." No "keyword analysis." Just listening and helping.
The Bottom Line
Great content works when it doesn't feel like content. It feels like someone read your mind and gave you the exact answer you were looking for. When you genuinely understand your audience's problems, they'll want to know what you're working on. When you're just trying to rank for a keyword, they can tell.
The best content marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all. It feels like empathy.
And that's not a strategy you can find in a tool—it's just being human.