This is a guest contribution from blogger and graphic designer Luke Guy
You've heard about this blogging stuff. You're already making money and time isn't on your side. Is blogging really worth it? Can afford to do it (time-wise). The answer is: Yes. Here's why.
As you know eBay, Amazon, and all these the other sites spend millions to do one thing. And that's win people's trust. How much are you spending to build trust with new people? And how exactly are you doing this? I understand they're not making time anymore, but trust doesn't come easy either. Knowledge is ever exploding and your competition probably just started their blog yesterday. But is it for you? What if you're an ecommerce site? Do you still need a blog? I talk more about this in my article: The Epic Guide To Growing Sales With Content Marketing. Google is a business site and they make billions, simply by building trust and letting users feel the Google experience without spending a penny. How have they done this?
They built the following all for free:
Mobile
Business 
Media
Geo
Specialized Search
Home & Office
Social
They spent millions of dollars trying to gain users and one day beloved customers. Don't tell me freeware and resources can't build a business. The top websites in the world do it. According to Alexa, the top 5 sites in the world are freeware based.
I'm not saying go make free software that cost millions. I'm just saying start building and create something useful. And you can doing that by starting with a simple blog post. Instead of having agenda, just be helpful. Why? You're building relationship. It's hard to turn a man down that's always giving.
It's not that blogging is some kind of magic, it's what it does. Let me give you some of the other benefits here besides trust:
- You solve problems (with your product)
- It's effective advertising
- Another form of marketing
- Great way to capture emails
- Growing connections
- Receive feedback from customers
- Gain Influence
- Attracts people
- Express your thoughts
- Gives you a talking piece
So much is happening from your blog article. You really don't have time not to write. How much and how long is up to you. But no where in history has man had more opportunity to build an audience and make a living doing it.
What To Write About
I've seen many business owners talk about the world and everything in it when blogging. Wrong move. Why? You attract traffic who don't care anything about your products. You want to attract buyers here. Traffic isn't the only thing you want, but traffic that buys and trusts you.
The number one thing you should be focusing on is your customer's problems. Let it be your title even. Within that post, talk about the problem and the pain it causes. From there, explain how your product can solve that. When you advertise that, and share that, you will attract people from all over who are now valuable leads. People who are hurting and needing a solution. You are that solution! By addressing their problem, offering a solution, and being entertaining… You will generate sales. It's really beautiful.
Once you blog and gather traffic, you want to establish that trust even farther and get their email. So you can spam them? No, so you can hook them and pull them close. And then… Offer even better content like webinars or free courses. You want to saturate that list with your amazing content. Once you do that good things began to happen.
How An Email List Is A Customer List In Disguise
The biggest thing you can do is build the email list. By sending that list content that helps, it makes them love you. You're cultivating relationship, and better yet traffic. That traffic will buy from you more than any other traffic. Why? It has relationship with you. It's even better than Facebook which is built much like the list. That's fading though tremendously though. I talk more about that here: How the Email List Beats Facebook Every Time.
As that list grows your traffic will grow, your readers will grow (in number:), and your profits will grow. So having your opt-in forms handy is a must. Make sure to build an email collecting machine are your site. This is great when you have a deal you want to mention.
Imagine a list 3,000 people. 20-30% usually open from a trusted blog. That's around 900 people who will that deal. Imagine if only 2% bought from you. That's 18 sales from a single email. Once again though, they're not waiting to get pitched. They're waiting to hear from you because you help them so much.
The Biggest Struggle With This Method
Main problem most people face is creating the content, and making sure that content is amazing. Not easy. Someone with passion must be behind it. If money is your drive, content creation isn't for you. If making someone's life easier today your drive, then you will make it. It's not easy writing for free at first, but soon it becomes who you are. You must serve a purpose and be the hero for someone.
Many feel overwhelmed with creating content and they under the load. Just know it's worth it, that it's not easy reaching out, but the connections you're building is worth the struggle. If you're wanting to gain a customer base in a noisy world, this is how you do it. You don't want to park the business in ghost town do you? Then you must build your traffic and get more eyes on you. From there you build trust, and then you gain a client. It's that simple, but you can't be selfish. You must simply be a power giver.
Luke Guy is both graphic artist and blogger, publisher for LukeGuy.com, and graphic designer for hire. He's loves to blog and helping people with dreams in starting a business.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
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Why Every Entrepreneur Must Become a Blogger
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