Many people started blogging as a hobby, in the traditional sense of the online journal. In the last couple of years, however, blogging has become an industry with legions of entrepreneurs telling you how to make money online. The number one means of making money online? Sell something.
But what if you don’t know how to sell? Or like to sell? Can your blog be a business if you are not out there selling?
Yes it can.
How to blog your business without being a salesperson
Going online and trying to sell something can be a demoralizing experience. There is a lot of competition out there in every market and every niche. The secret to being a success in your online business is to focus on your potential customers, rather than on your products. Communicate with your possible purchasers and build a relationship.
It is much easier to build trust with your pool of customers than it is to expect them to find your product or service and give them a sales pitch, or jam them into a squeeze page. Providing value to your readers, getting involved in their communities, and building relationships should be your core business model.
6 Steps to Providing Value
Instead of studying books on sales techniques, I’d like to recommend that you turn your attention to a series of other skills that will make your business much more powerful and successful:
- Learn how to position yourself and your business
- Learn how to promote yourself and your business
- Learn how to interact with your community
- Learn how to make effective presentations
- Learn how to engage your audience
- Learn how to connect with your potential customers
Over the next few weeks we will discuss the steps that you can take to develop these skills and take your blog and your business to the next level. Our goals?
- Empower our audience to get involved
- Engage our audience with useful content
- Enlist our audience to spread the word and grow our business
What is your potential customer looking for?
This is your homework assignment for the week: Think about your business and the product or service that you provide (or are considering providing).
How does your blog deliver value to that customer or market?
Does your blog make it obvious what actions to take to get that result?
Next week we will discuss how to position your blog to take advantage of this value.
