As blogging FAQs go, this one isn’t as common as the others I've mentioned in the series, but it’s one of the hardest to overcome.
How will I make money if I give away advice?
When you blog for business you have to get into the mind of your prospective customer, you have to understand their fears and then position the solution to those fears in the post. As you write the post you have to demonstrate that you understand the fear and how it makes your reader feel and then you need to talk about potential solutions and why you think your product works the best…
Simple, right? Well, some bloggers find it difficult to share the solutions to readers' problems for free, they think they are giving away their business. In some respects they are, but in truth, all they are doing is preventing their ideal customers from knowing they are the experts in what they do.
You’ll see on this site many tips, tricks, and techniques that you can implement yourself.
Now be honest here… how many have you implemented?
And this is the thing… the chances are you haven’t implemented many at all.
But you come back and you know all about SEO and how to optimise your blog posts, you know how to maximise social shares, use a call to action, you know how to use Canva and Facebook for things but you still don’t do them.
Maybe it’s the lack of time, maybe it’s the lack of skill or maybe you are just not sure if you should do something. Those are all valid blogging fears, but you are not alone in this. Your customers feel the same way and if you demonstrate you can do something, and they can’t… your call to action can be that you can do it for them for a modest fee.
And there you have it, a call to action that converts readers into customers – if it’s placed in the right kind of content. Giving away advice and showing a reader how to do something isn’t giving away everything. Over time, you’ll find this kind of blog content will generate you lots of leads.
Now, I don’t want you to leave me a comment. I don’t want you to share this post. I don’t want any kind of indication that you’ve read this. I want you to go and write a post with some advice in it for your readers. If you want to come back and leave a link to your article, then that would be fabulous, and I’ll share it with my social connections too.
Sharing advice isn’t giving away your business, it’s helping to grow it. It will help with your SEO as other bloggers will link to it, it will boost your credibility, it brings you new readers as people will share it and in turn it will boost your bottom line.
What more could you ask for?
OK, I am going to ignore your request and leave a comment. And I am going to sit in a darkened room and think of what the advice is that I could give to my readers. And I am going to fail, because I can’t think of anything.
Well that is not absolutely true, of course. But I surely don’t want to write for the seven people I could explain something to. I know this is going to come across as flippant, but it is not. It’s a real problem.
I learned this with one of Kimra Luna’s webinars. It is something that I am desperately working on!
I know I give the kitchen sink away, but it’s never been a fear of mine. Truthfully, you gotta give a little before you get, even down to simple conversations. I learned from a young age that time really is money and I’ve always been willing to go the distance. I’ve gotten a lot of big returns in the end.
Hi Sarah.
Great tips and very practical.
Does this count, as I write it a week ago? Some simple tips to get more online exposure. http://www.nathanambrose.com/business-noticed/
It may seem small, but I’m sure people will benefit. I write only about things that have already helped me.
Nathan.
Sarah,
This is my 3rd attempt to leave a comment.
If you promise to help someone by either doing it for them or guiding them to do it for them self, many people will gladly opt in to what you are offering.
Warmly,
Dr. Erica