Unless you’re a famous blogger or other noted personality, it’s really hard to retire on a business model where you churn out original content on the internet. Just like in real life, unless you’re selling tangibles or an actual service making money online is a difficult mission to accomplish. But it’s not impossible. It first requires an instinctual understanding of search engine optimization – the way in which search engines are used by people to find things and how you can use it to get yourself found. But secondly it requires that you establish yourself as an authoritative beacon of ideas and/or information that cannot be found anywhere else.

Easier said than done, but not difficult if you have a big enough imagination and enough energy to DIY SEO. The important thing is uncovering an aspect of your life knowledge and experience that is both interesting to a mass audience and also insightful; it must capture the most searched for elements of a popular subject and provide a unique spin to the whole thing. This is why blogs are such a hot moneymaker for independent content creators – the most successful unincorporated blogs are ones that tackle common issues and more importantly focus on things that make for popular searches on Google and other search engines.

A great example of this are the recent exploits of internet entrepreneur and blogger Neil Patel, an online entity the Wall Street Journal calls a top web “influencer”. Patel was able to convert an acquired expertise on poker playing -which up to that point was a mere recreation of his – into an online blog where visitors can learn about online poker tips and strategies. We can immediately deduce that Patel’s poker skills aren’t especially potent compared to the world’s poker prodigies, or else he’d be making his money in Vegas, but nonetheless the website is a hit for hits. Why is that? Because Patel understood two things: one, “online poker” is an extremely popular search topic on Google and other engines, and two, he didn’t need notable poker skills as much as he needed the skills to discuss poker in an entertaining and educating way. People who search for “online poker advice” who inevitably find his blog simply like what they see, keep coming back, and recommend the site to poker buddies.

Creating content people want to read is not easy, and that is where your talents will carry you farther than any advice you can glean from this article can. But I can tell you that the popularity of your subject will be what decides 99% of the fate of your web venture. Don’t count on retiring if your content isn’t inspiring. But sometimes inspiration is as simple as knowing the 5 biggest mistakes of the amateur poker face.