How Not To Look Like A Sell Out On Your Blog!

A bunch of you took me up on my offer to answer your home based business questions here every Friday!

If you sent me a question I want to personally thank you and keep them coming!

It really does mean a lot to me knowing you’re reading my blog and taking the time to send in your questions!

Without your questions this segment will never take off so I’m depending on you to keep it going!

So, the first question comes from Jamie Harrington and she asks…

” How do you decide what?s right for you and your blog money making wise? At what point do I start to look like a total sell out blog with no important info?”

Well this is a very good question and a mistake I see a ton of online marketers make!

The last thing in the world you want to do is constantly “pimp” your products.

So, with this said, here are a few pointers to think about when selling from your blog or website.

First, always think about what you can GIVE back to the world rather than what you want to TAKE from it.

I learned this from my? business and marketing coach Craig Garber who learned it from a very famous french marketer and copywriter, Christian Godefroy.

In other words it’s all about the relationships you have with your customers.

Nothing gets sold until you build a relationship and trust with your customer or prospect,FIRST!

The more YOU give the more your prospects will want to give back…hopefully in the form of money!

Another tip I got from Craig is, ” Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care!”

Again, it’s all about the relationship.

You’ll want to make sure you’re giving your readers, customers and prospects a ton of information FIRST– and then make an offer.

This is why I love two step lead generation.

Basically two step lead generation is when you offer something for free ( usually information such as a free report, free DVD or CD with information you’re selling.)

The reason it’s call two step lead generation is because the first step is when a prospect raises his or her hand and says, ” Yes I want your free report on X.”

The second step is the follow up with your prospect and making them an offer to then buy what you’re selling.

Make sense?

This way you’re only selling to those folks who raised their hand and said they were interested in you or what you’re selling.

So, depending on what you’re selling, you could put together some sort of free report, DVD or CD giving away some information about your product.

And then, at the end of your free report, make an offer for your product or service.

For example, let’s say you are selling an e-book on organic gardening.

You could put together a free report on organic gardening only giving a little bit of info here and there…giving them the why but not the how, got it?

At the end of your free report you’ll make an offer for your more comprehensive e-book showing them step by step how to start and maintain an organic garden.

See how this works?

You’re actually selling the free report and not “pimping” your products.

So at the end of your blog post where you’re talking about how to find the best organic soil for your tomato plants, you’ll say something like this…

If you’d like to discover more about the benefits of Organic Gardening and how you can keep your family safe from harmful pesticides, I’ve created a free booklet or CD or DVD called ” 7 Secrets to growing mouth watering fruits and vegetables with Organic Gardening.” Simply enter your name and email and I’ll rush you this FREE report right away!

So now you are not really selling your product directly but you are generating leads and now you have a list of people who are really interested in what you have to sell.

Now once you get the lead don’t blow it and not follow up with them. You’ll want to load your auto responder again with good information.

Sooner or later you prospect will be like, man, Jamie is really sending me a ton of good information, I really should buy her e-book…

Now you might still get some folks who don’t buy or even opt out of your auto-responder, that’s OK because they really aren’t your customer anyway.

You only want to deal with those folks who love you!

So there you have it!

Now get busy, Bill Parlaman

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this topic so make sure you leave your comments below.