How I got here & what happened along the way…
About
Hi, I’m Tim Wells
Data Analyst & Content Creator
Most analysts don’t understand creatives.
Most creatives don’t understand analytics.
I created my first website in 2013, growing it to over 400,000 pageviews a month before selling it four years later. I know what it’s like to pour your heart & soul into creating unique content that your readers will love.
I’ve spent over a decade in corporate data analytics, driving revenue for a $200B company. My analyses helped drive million-dollar decisions every day.
I can help you:
Attract readers desperately searching for great content like yours.
Simplify analytics so you can track your site’s performance.
Grow your website or channel..without needing to publish thousands of articles.
Stop Ignoring Your Analytics
Content creators don’t spend a lot of time thinking about their analytics. In theory, less time doom-scrolling Google Search Console means more time writing. More content means more traffic, right?
Wrong.
It used to be that you needed to publish hundreds or even thousands of articles on your website to be successful. Not anymore.
Cheap writers & one-click AI article generators have flooded the market, making it hard for search engines to keep up.
How do you stand out as a content creator?
The secret is in your data.
My Philosophy
Nobody trusts SEOs…and for good reason.
I’ll bet you get dozens of emails each week promising to ‘fix your website’ so you can ‘rank on the first page of Google.’
YouTube is filled with gurus shilling their latest course or clickbait titles warning that the next algorithm update will decimate your website.
Fear & get-rich-quick schemes are everywhere you look.
On the rare occasions when they show data, it’s always cherry-picked to show the ups—never the downs.
SEOs know how to game tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to show insane traffic numbers.
Their dirty little secret is that traffic is worthless.
Traffic that doesn’t convert doesn’t make money. Courses are useless if people can’t replicate your success.
Content creators deserve a different SEO strategy:
“Make it simple for me.”
I don’t put much stock in the latest SEO fads. I’ve been around long enough to know that they never last.
My approach involves content that puts your readers front and center.
It focuses on you and your unique connection with them. It uses tools that simplify your daily workflow to make you more efficient, so you can spend less time checking your analytics and more time creating great content.
Let’s be clear: simple does not mean easy. Running a business is never easy.
That’s why I have no patience for tools that add unnecessary complexity.
You can’t use your website’s data If you can’t understand it.
Content creators want simple analytic tools that show pageviews, dwell time, bounce rate, and conversions.
Don’t over-complicate things. You shouldn’t need a data science degree to get simple website metrics.
But, I didn’t always see the power of simplicity.
Let me take you back a few years to where it all began.
Simple Beginnings
Like many people, I got a part-time retail job while putting myself through college (the first time).
Eventually, ‘part-time’ turned into ‘full-time,’ and college fell by the wayside.
It was the early 2000s…before Amazon’s dominance.
You could still make decent money without a degree, so leaving college wasn’t a completely terrible idea.
I’d worked my way up to being an Operations Manager at Circuit City, one of the oldest consumer electronics stores in the country.
If you remember them, you already know how this story will end.
Despite rising costs and declining sales, they honestly tried to innovate.
As strange as it sounds now, most retail stores were commission-based back then.
Buying a computer, a microwave, or even a portable stereo was just as complicated as buying a new car.
Customers hated it, and they left in droves.
If Circuit City wanted to survive, we needed to become a place where customers could ‘browse, play, and discover something amazing.’
So the company changed gears, and “Make It Simple For Me” was born.
The goal was to meet people where they were in the buying process and then nurture them along the journey.
The same is true for content marketing today.
Simple = Speed
A few years after the global financial crisis, I finally got my college degree from the University of Florida (Go Gators!).
I started my analytics career with The Walt Disney Company. My official title was Senior Revenue Management Analyst for Groups & Conventions.
In short, I helped determine the room rates for every group that came to Walt Disney World and Disneyland from 2016 through the early part of 2022.
For those keeping score, that’s about 18% of all rooms sold on Disney property in North America – except for Hawaii (Aulani doesn’t count).
Opportunities come fast.
More often than not, you have to make decisions without having all the data.
A simple process that can be replicated quickly is worth more than a detailed analysis that takes forever to produce.
Every minute saved while analyzing a potential deal is an extra minute your Sales partners can spend closing their clients, which can easily add up to millions of dollars in extra revenue.
Speed and efficiency matter.
The same is true for SEO.
We see the first-mover advantage time and time again. If you’re quick enough to capitalize on trends or emerging keywords before your competition, you can sometimes hold that edge for months or years.
Simple Message
SEO hacks never last.
You’ve probably seen a lot of marketing gurus and influencers sharing their latest secret method to ‘beat the algorithm.’
Do you remember these trendy strategies?
- Just hit publish.
- Don’t build backlinks.
- Stop checking your analytics.
- Publish thousands of articles with AI.
- Write exclusively on low-competition keywords.
These strategies worked well for a while. Then it all came crashing down.
Unfortunately, once something becomes mainstream, it usually stops working pretty quickly.
Thankfully, there’s a simple strategy to help you build your brand the right way (credit to Miles Beckler):
Market + Message = Match
When you get the right message and match it with the right people (your market), success is virtually guaranteed.
You’ve probably heard that ‘the riches are in the niches.’
Conventional wisdom is to make your audience as broad as possible to attract the most eyeballs.
However, I’ve found success doing the opposite on my content sites.
Narrow down who your audience is. Define your ‘ideal customer’ and creating content for them becomes easy.
Is it something they’d find useful? Publish it.
If not, let it go. No matter how much traffic you think it will generate.
Beyond the Data
Believe it or not, I have a life outside of creating content and analyzing data.
Here’s a quick summary:
Family
I spend as much time as possible with my beautiful wife, who is finishing up medical school. Our schedules will get a little crazy once she starts residency, so we’re making the most of it while we can.
Fun
This industry doesn’t allow for much in the way of free time. I choose to spend mine playing guitar, watching hockey or Formula 1, and traveling (preferably in a sports car down a windy road).
Future
What does the future hold? We’ll have a better idea once my wife gets into her residency program. For now, we’re enjoying the ride!
The TLDR: Make it Simple For Them
I believe in keeping SEO & content marketing as simple as possible.
Get clear on who your ideal customer is. Use data to figure out what they’re searching for. Write great content to keep them coming back for more.
That’s it.
Most people over-complicate content marketing. If you’re overwhelmed by chasing the next shiny object or SEO hack, then I’m here to help.
It’s my job to help you get the most out of every piece of content you create so you can make a bigger impact and reach your goals.