The Project

Pillar4 Media is a content and commerce platform in the health and wellness space with a ton of websites under its umbrella. I got my foot in the door when an editor I worked with at Healthline accepted a head of content position at Sleepopolis, one of the Pillar4 properties. She reached out when the all-things-sleep site was in need of (you guessed it…) sleep content. Soon, I was writing (and ghostwriting, shhh) not only for Sleepopolis, but for the platform's other sleep-focused sites, including Mattress Clarity, Mattress Nerd and even Fortune Recommends.

That led to optimizing work on additional sites in the Pillar4 world, like HelpGuide, MarketWatch and the National Council on Aging. Instead of writing all new content, I was charged with optimizing existing posts according to assigned creative briefs.

The Process

In a bit of a departure, I didn’t write product round-ups or sleep-focused reviews for the Pillar4 sleep sites. This content was all about the how and why of sleep, which meant deferring to the experts. I routinely quizzed certified sleep consultants and coaches for their insight and expertise and took deep dives into published research. It’s pretty fascinating stuff! For both the content writing and the optimizing, there were also style guides to follow, keyword targets to keep in mind, and word counts to hit.

Pillar4 was hit hard by the same Google algorithm update that delisted other big sites in late 2024, so they pulled the plug on all of their freelancers (and, unfortunately, laid off a lot of their staff).

I cut my teeth on sleep content over at Healthline, and writing for the Pillar4 sleep sites gave me a chance to explore a different part of the sleep world. It was a great experience! Here’s what one of the health editors said about working with me: “Jessica does a great job of taking complex topics and making them approachable for our readers. She’s thorough, efficient, and reliable—if Jessica’s working on a piece, I know I’m going to have it in hand on time and with minimal edits.”