Neil Patel

If you haven’t heard the name Neil Patel, good on you. This guy’s been taking over the internet by storm, but somehow managed to stay off of major radars for the longest time. He’s a real mystery. He strikes in the dark, when no-one’s watching. And, just like that, he’s the world’s most successful content creator. If you have any intention of using textual content on your site, you need to know about the myth, the legend that is Neil Patel.

When I first heard about this guy, I was kind of dumbfounded. I’ve studied SEO at length for years and it was painfully clear to me that this guy knew SEO. Not just because he’s a self-professed guru of all things content, but also, because he’s got a ridiculously well-crafted organic approach. Between his main site and all the side-projects that led up to it, he’s always managed to stay afloat and maintain a pristine public image. I envy a lot of what this dude’s done, but there’s a lot I feel I need to demystify for you guys. When you first see his landing page, you are given the impression that this guy is the bees knees and in many ways, he is.

But, he’s not the self-professed content god he claims to be. He’s something far more impressive. He is an SEO expert. That’s code for: He doesn’t do much at all, but what he does do, he does ridiculously well. You should be learning from this guy. Let’s dig in.

Fake it till You Make It

Mr. Patel’s been around for almost a decade, and I’m sure he’s been warming up long before that. The dude clearly knows what he’s doing—his entire shtick centers around presenting himself as an expert, long before he had any celebrity credentials. Right now, he’s literally got Obama’s name on his front page as one of the many famous people that have given him props in one way or another. He’s also got Forbes saying he’s one of the top 10 marketers along with a shoutout from Entrepreneur Magazine. So, in other words, he’s building up his own name as his brand. That’s nothing new. We’ve seen it before.

However, I always got this weird vibe from him, about how he’s been presenting the same confidence and professionalism from day one. I mean, he’s been speaking as an expert, since before he was a confirmed expert. You could make the case that he knew what he was on about thanks to his education. That’s perfectly acceptable, of course. But, in internet spaces, it’s usually smarter to build up a reputation through an actual profitable success and then leverage that fame. Instead, he seems to leverage one boast after the other. It’s the age-old trick of faking it till you make it. You claim you’re an expert, then you claim it again and reference your previous claim. You daisy chain your boasts until there’s overwhelming interconnected evidence to show that you are, in fact, the bee’s knees.

His Actual Profession

He’s good. Right off the bat, I’ll open with that; he knows what he’s doing. He’s a great writer who always gets straight to the point. He’s not an 8 or a 9; he’s a 10 every time. I’ve read a lot of his reviews and articles, and every one of them has been perfectly pristine. But, that’s me talking about his writing style. What about the actual content? What about the service? Well… that’s kind of lacking. But, it’s also unclear what his task is. He’s not in any active function. He writes about writing and that’s problematic.

Naturally, he’s got consultation fees. That’s the end goal here. He wants you to pay him for consultations; he will analyze your work and give you his input. That’s all well and good. Corporate consultation is a smart shtick and he’s an intelligent guy. But, all you have to go on, before you decide to hire him, is all of the free work he’s done, for himself, covering content that relates to other content that is about content. Do you see the issue here? There’s no end in sight. It’s all just rhetoric about rhetoric.

His General Approach

Let’s look at a random example from his actual blog. He’s got an article on here about Tik Tok marketing. That is, how you should market yourself through that platform. All right, let’s dig in; I wanna know about Tik Tok marketing. He covers the basics, for sure. The thing is, that’s kind of all he does. He talks about where all the appropriate buttons are and how you can press them and where the ads go. Except, you already know that. If you can find the clitoris on a map, you can find the marketing buttons inside the Tik Tok app. It’s not rocket science.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, except, this guy’s supposed to be the cream of the crop. He’s claiming to be one of if not the best marketing experts on the fucking web. So, why is he talking about where buttons are located? That seems kind of …entry-level, no? Maybe he’s just trying to be thorough; let’s read on.

He mentions that there’s a section that lets you add hashtags to your video. He also notes that you should add hashtags because they make your video better. Then, he says that your content should be exciting so that the algorithm will prefer it. I’m sorry, but this doesn’t sound like expert advice. This sounds like no brainer content fluff.

The only original input in the entire article comes at the very end. He says that you can use Google’s autosuggest to find new ideas. He also recommends an SEO tool called Ubersuggest. That’s it. That’s his genius input. I don’t understand how anyone could possibly consider this top tier commentary on online marketing. My anal insertion site reviews are more educational than this stuff.

He’s Winning

Here come the props. Even though I don’t consider Mr. Patel to be an actual expert on content or marketing, I still believe him to be an expert in practice. This is going to be very confusing, so bear with me. It all boils down to the whole “fake it till you make it” approach. You can copy this approach. You can feel free to adopt it and push forward. It takes a lot of balls, but it works if you’re persistent.

Ok, back to Patel. He developed an arguably fantastic career and he’s making money hand over fist. He didn’t do it by teaching other people how to market. He did it by marketing himself. So, when you go to his blog and try to learn how to do what he does, don’t read his writing as gospel – read it as an example. So, don’t write your reviews the way he says you should. Write your reviews the way he writes his. Do as he does, not as he says. It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but you need to ask yourself: Do you want to be the next Neil Patel or be the reason that Neil Patel has a bit more money in the future?

No Shade

As a final note, I have to say; I really like what Neil Patel’s done for his own career. I envy the guy. I don’t think he’s done much of anything for the online marketing community, because that’s kind of impossible. You can’t really teach people how to be good at SEO. It’s a bit of a catch 22. If you’re good at SEO and you’re teaching others, then you’re showing them how to perform well, while giving them advice they don’t need. Copy the style, not the lesson. That’s the lesson. Well, that’s my lesson for you. And, you know I’m not lying, because you’re not paying me.

Neil Patel will always be one of the greats. He rode the internet waves with style and grace and came out on top. If you want to do as well as him and be the Patel of the porn industry, fucking do it. No-one’s stopping you. But, remember that there’s a lot more to SEO, content and marketing in general than just doing everything right.

The markets shift and the public changes their mind on a whim. Porn genres fall and rise in popularity overnight. Keep your finger on the pulse and feed the public what they want. That’s how you get to the top. Forget this notion of finding the ultimate marketing shtick hidden beneath the surface. There’s no shortcut to your online porn empire. Nothing worth having comes that easily. Build slowly, but surely and analyze your marketing statistics. Check your views, your clicks, your site’s retention rates and if you’re not good at content writing, outsource! Do everything you can to cover all of your bases and who knows, maybe someday, Mr. Patel will hope to be as successful as you.