El Valle de Anton Panama
I Googled a popular search term a few moments ago.
“blogging”…..of course.
I checked page 1 results for the most competitive keyword in my niche.
Google spit out solid output. Everything appeared to be legit.
But then I dug a little deeper.
Clicking to the news tab I noticed something. That something motivated me to write this post. Even though it’s coming up on 1:30 am soon I still need to ship this sucker fast.
Why?
I see an opportunity.
A well-known brand popped up under the news tab. The headline used by the contributor seemed attractive enough. But after clicking through and reading one paragraph I got denied. Gated content ruined my day again. A paywall appeared. I had to either subscribe for a premium service or hit the road. I hit the road of course.
I get it. Massive brands need to make money to stay massive. But their strategy plays into our strength as individual bloggers. Readers who they turn away want resources. Spurned big brand readers can become your blog readers. But being generous migrates these foisted folks from big brand sites to your blog; you cannot make the same error as the big dawgs of the business world (Note; massive companies can easily afford to make this stingy mistake…..you cannot!).
Give away the blogging farm. Publish as much free content as humanly possible. Gain exposure. Get credibility. Succeed in a world heavily attached to outcomes like traffic metrics or profit statistics. You know what I’m talking about.
Helping people for free is the most important step to becoming a full-time blogger. Publish content frequently to become credible in the eyes of targeted readers. Doing this consistently gives you massive exposure. What big business turns away becomes your readership; in some cases at least. Spurned readers trickle to your blog. But only if you give away the farm.
Perhaps big brands can get away with gating content but you cannot. Never do anything to lessen your exposure. Do as much free work as possible. Be seen.
Bloggers ask me about whether or not to gate content. No. Never do this. Content is your best friend. Content sends people to your blog around the clock. Blog posts behave like employees for your blog. You need to sleep; your content works tirelessly because words on a screen never need to rest.
But gating content – or setting up other types of fences – self-sabotages your blogging dreams. The one thing you need to go pro becomes the thing you lack. Being stingy forces the world to become stingy with you. Gating content for peanuts robs you of invaluable blogging exposure. Most readers will exit stage left, never to return. That’s tragic for bloggers who need visibility.
This strategy makes no sense for individual bloggers.
Blogging from a nonsensical approach stifles all blogging growth.
Use your noodle, my Young Blogging Padawans….or lose your noodle.
You Need Exposure
James Patterson is the best-selling author.
Notice I made no comparison.
Dude sells hundreds of millions of novels. He is as prolific as hell. He churns out novels like hot cakes. Yet what helped to put his career into motion?
He filled his car with books and gave away these novels for free during early days. JP knew that gaining exposure was the name of the game. Who doesn’t love a freebie? Everyone loves a free lunch.
Capitalizing on this basic human driver, the wise author gained heavy exposure among resonant readers because folks feasted on his free novels. Loyal fans bought his future novels. Loyal fans told other readers about his fabulous books via word of mouth marketing. Referral marketing generated referral sales.
He eventually became iconic based on many factors.
But giving away free books put this process into motion. He needed the exposure. He needed the push.
Bloggers need exposure too. Publishing detailed, targeted blog posts is the fundamental way to increase your exposure.
Every blogger suffers from a visibility problem in the beginning. Nobody knows who we are. Nobody knows that we blog.
Publish content to:
- get seen
- establish credibility
Beware Setting Barriers
Note the gated content example above.
Billion dollar brands with huge followings sometimes gate content because…..well….billion dollar brands with huge followers do not struggle to:
- be seen
- generate massive sales and profits
You are not a billion dollar brand backed by seemingly unlimited capital. You need to play by a different set of rules than the business big dawgs.
Enter free content.
Gating content or establishing other barriers to being visible is a huge mistake for bloggers who need visibility. Imagine the analogy of shooting yourself in the foot unconsciously. You need to be seen but prefer to make a few pennies by gating content while most readers turn away. Perhaps you earn a few pennies but only 10 or 20 people see your blog daily.
Professional bloggers do not drive 10 to 20 visitors to their blogs daily. You and I need more exposure than that.
Make your blog easy to see. Make it free to access.
Visualize the reader user experience. Remove all barriers to readers easily seeing, consuming and benefiting from your content.
Get rid of content gates. Trash the dynamic ads. Consider removing all pop-ups; a sidebar embed to capture subscribers will do.
Look at my blog for inspiration. Notice how readers quickly get what they want which gives me quick visibility. But that’s not all; I publish content as prolifically as possible to gain significant exposure before the peepers of blogging tips hungry bloggers. THAT is giving away the farm.
Key Point
Give away the farm by offering free content consistently.
Charge for your business products and services.
Entrepreneurs accept money for premium products and services. Do not give away business offerings for free if you plan to go full-time, at least.
Perhaps you can do a free trial run – like James Pattern chumming the waters with his free novel giveaways – but get back to selling for a profit to be a genuine entrepreneur. Besides; you already gave away the farm for free with your detailed blog posts. Readers have enough information to make a clear decision to buy or hire you.
Conclusion
Help people with content.
Develop an abundance mentality versus holding back like a stingy blogging miser.
Be seen.
Gain exposure.
Rewire your mind to detach from money outcomes.
