Brian Dean: A Medical Student Evolved as a Successful Digital Marketer

If you are aware of the award-winning website - Backlinko, you must know Brain Dean. An SEO expert, he has been dubbed by Entrepreneur.com as an 'SEO genius,' and Inc Magazine mentioned him as a 'great entrepreneur.' When Semrush decided to acquire Backlinko, the industry eyes were on him. 

So, what fascinated this dietitian to become a successful digital marketing entrepreneur? Let's check it out! 

From Medical School to Entrepreneurship

Dean aspired to be a professor and started with an undergraduate degree in nutrition. He completed his bachelor's from the University of Rhode Island. Then he pursued his master's from Tufts in nutrition. At that point, he had not much idea about digital marketing. I wanted to pursue my teaching career and become a professor," says Dean. 

He also worked on human trials at Tufts and was completely in love with his work. He continued to pursue his Ph.D., but his preferences started changing. He started disliking the work that he was into.  

He did not like the idea of living in Indiana, which made him quit his Ph.D. program at Purdue. He decided to take up a job as a dietitian in 2008, which was the year of financial crises. Being a new graduate with very little experience, it was a tough task to get a job, mentioned Dean.  

It sparked Dean with an idea of entrepreneurship. 

The journey from a Dietitian to a Freelancer

Dean's first source of information was a 4-Hour Workweek By Timothy Ferriss. This book inspired him to create an e-book on back pain. At this time, he was also working as a full-time dietitian. Hence, he was not able to devote himself to writing. 

My e-book business struggled as I was handling a full-time job along. Dean confessed. With the help of writers from Elance, he created content, but he was not impressed by their writings. He was sure that he could perform much better than these writers. Then he joined the writer's community at Elance to fetch some paid writing projects to make his living.  

It was not a four-hour week lifestyle, of course, but it helped me to pay my bills even after quitting my job, said Dean. At this time, he created multiple niche websites and worked on a lifestyle niche business. He started working as a freelance writer for a fitness website writing up to 12 articles per day. 

From Google Panda to Backlinko

After joining Livestrong, he started focusing on writing for Livestrong and creating content for his websites. The craze for multi-niche was on a high during 2009-10, and Dean was not an exception. He ends up building 150 niche websites at a point. All these websites are one-page exact match domains, which draws his interest in the SEO field. 

As we know, 2009 was the heightened era of Blackhat SEO, and people focused on generating keyword-stuffed content to manipulate the SERP rankings. Creating backlinks from anywhere was tricking Google into ranking them higher in SERPs. 

While Dean was not engaged in Black-Hat techniques, like many web admins, he bore the brunt of Google's Panda Update in 2010. My website's traffic was completely wiped out overnight, he recalled. But he added that I never bothered about my failures and never introspected the reasons for them.

How He Started With Backlinko

After almost two years of getting a major hit by Google Panda Update, Dean realized that he was into creepy website building. His failure paved the way for the world of SEO. He started his agency and then moved to Backlinko in 2013. Currently, the site generates 1.1M visits with an average session duration of 11:29. 

Backlinko: Is It the Best Place For Proven SEO Advice?

Backlinko is one of the most authoritative SEO blogs on the internet. It helps you with step-by-step tutorials and case studies, helping the SEO experts to boost their Google rankings. You can join their email newsletter to explore more about their valuable content. 

Overall, Backlinko provides you best strategies, tips, and techniques to improve your search engine results. Dean makes millions of dollars annually from his premium SEO training courses on backlinks such as Grow Your Blog fast and SEO That Works. 

Dean's Best Advice for Content Writing

Brain Dean is a seasoned writer who knows the secrets of successful writing that drives traffic. His advice to all budding writers is to focus on quality and crisp writing that entices users and provides them value. 

1. Writing short and relevant introductions. 

A long and indirect introduction often gives away to a boring blog. People develop an interest in a copy that is short, precise, and visually appealing. No one is interested in a huge backstory. Hence preview your post and cut it short.

2. Keep the sentences short

Long sentences often confuse the readers and start disconnecting your audience. Keep the sentences short and precise. A well-formatted crisp article is key. 

3. Catchy titles and headlines

Headlines and titles that can generate curiosity among your readers lead to more spending time. Adding the bucket brigades such as 'here's the truth or ' did you know this?' keep your readers engaged. Especially in longer blog posts, sprinkling these bucket brigades is the key.

Brian Dean's Net Worth

As there is no official tally on Brian Dean's net worth, we can only speculate that his successful venture - Backlinko, has taken up his Net worth to around 6 to 7 figures. His decision to sell Backlinko was a surprise for his followers as the platform was doing exceptionally well and garnered as an authority site over the years with over half a million-subscriber base. 

Although there was no official declaration on the sale price of backlinks, it is not an overestimation to assume that the venture must have bagged a 6-figure sale price. 

Considering all the aspects, the net worth of Brian Dean is estimated at around $10 million and can be more than this if Backlinko is sold for 7-figure.