The Client:
A business coach and educator seeking to elevate the authority of his students while creating a profitable and influential owned media asset in the process.
The Goal:
The client wanted to build a niche digital publication covering Business, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Health, Tech, and Real Estate. The publication needed to:
- Establish instant credibility for his students by giving them a platform to publish as expert contributors.
- Create a new media asset for the client himself, allowing him to both own the narrative and leverage the site for future PR and visibility.
- Secure Google News approval, which at the time was a highly coveted and manually reviewed designation that would unlock a powerful traffic channel.
The Challenge:
This project took place during the era when manual Google News approval was required.
- Google’s standards were notoriously strict, with clear expectations around site design, technical SEO, author transparency, editorial processes, and content volume.
- To gain approval, the site needed to prove it was a legitimate news source, not a thin-content blog or marketing site.
- Multiple website revisions were required to match Google’s guidelines, and we had to rapidly scale content production without sacrificing quality.
The Approach:
The strategy combined technical execution, editorial management, and ghostwriting at scale:
- Built a site that met Google’s technical and design requirements – focusing on fast loading, clear navigation, and a professional, newsroom-like structure.
- Developed an immediate publishing plan, releasing multiple articles per day across the core categories to quickly build editorial momentum.
- Implemented a multi-author system, with content attributed to the client’s students and expert contributors to establish editorial diversity.
- Personally ghostwrote all of the initial content, ensuring it followed AP News standards while still being engaging and useful for readers.
- Balanced the content mix between:
- Breaking news to show timeliness.
- Evergreen educational content to build long-term search value.
- Expert opinion and analysis to position contributors as real thought leaders, not just content fillers.
The Results:
- After several rounds of site optimization and editorial scaling, the publication was approved for Google News.
- This unlocked a powerful source of organic traffic, with news articles surfacing directly in Google’s news feed.
- The site became a valuable credibility platform for the client’s students, who could now say they were published contributors to a Google News-approved publication.
- The publication itself became a monetizable asset, capable of hosting sponsored content, affiliate partnerships, and paid contributor opportunities.
The Lessons:
This project delivered more than just traffic – it reinforced the incredible power of becoming the media rather than always chasing the media.
- When you own the publication, you control the narrative.
- When you combine expert positioning with Google-approved credibility, you create a media asset that works for you 24/7.
The Takeaway:
This experience gave me an insider-level understanding of how Google evaluates media properties, how journalists find stories, and how to build authority at scale through strategic owned media tactics.