What is the most frequently given advice you hear if you want to succeed online?
“Give your best content away for free.”
What they don’t tell you is how you can run a business when you freely offer your knowledge to everyone.
Here is how you do it:
GIVE AWAY YOUR KNOWLEDGE, SELL YOUR EXPERTISE
People can find anything on the Internet these days. That makes it much harder to sell just information. Anyone can find out how to do just about anything for free, within seconds on Google. Knowledge is still valuable, but I see it more as a way to establish your expertise, which you can then sell to clients on a personalised basis.
What that means of course, is that providing material online, to as wide an audience as possible, is likely to help your business. I should perhaps make it clear that I’m not talking about adding articles to directories to boost your Google ranking. It’s my contention that people will hear about your business by word of mouth, or via social media, and will search you out by name to verify that you are what they are looking for.
So it’s important to produce content that will create debate on social networks, but most of all, it’s important to create content that is shareable. How do you do that? Here are six tips (feel free to share them).
- Be timely. Comment quickly on items in the news – within minutes if possible.
- Be controversial – offer a view that challenges conventional wisdom.
- Respond to views from other experts.
- Give people lists of tips to help their business.
- Include social media buttons on your blog.
- Ask people to share your ideas.
This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in “The MediaCoach”, his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk.
