| We constantly hear the mantra "Treat your blog as a | | | | Henri is a big personality in the village - he's in the |
| business", and of course, if we are here to make | | | | cafés, the bars, the bakery - he has coffee at |
| money from blogging, then that's exactly what we | | | | the same time every day, and lunch in the plaza. He |
| should do. So I started thinking about what exactly that | | | | knows everybody and we all know him, and we all join |
| might mean, and that lead me to think about Henri. | | | | him and chat with him about football or local news. |
| Henri owns the hardware store in my village, and he | | | | We have Twitter, Facebook and a number of other |
| has a fantastic business, despite the fact that there is | | | | platforms which allow us to interact with our clients |
| a cheaper, much bigger DIY superstore a few | | | | outside of our blogs. So if you're not a social animal, it's |
| kilometers away. His business is great because he | | | | time you became one - use these platforms to start |
| (and his wife who works there part time) give amazing | | | | to establish your online personality by doing things other |
| personal service. Let's analyze what he does and see | | | | than Tweeting about your latest blog post - people |
| if we can relate it to giving great service to our blog | | | | buy from people they like. |
| "customers". | | | | He has Time |
| He has Incredible Product Knowledge | | | | Even if you're just buying a box of screws, Henri has |
| Even when you don't know exactly what you need to | | | | time for you. He'll ask about the family, he'll greet you |
| fix that tap, or make that joint, Henri does. I've rarely | | | | when you walk in and he'll say goodbye when you |
| seen him defeated, and even when he is, he'll find a | | | | leave. |
| workaround to the problem. When he's not serving | | | | We should also give people our time, no matter how |
| customers, he's reading DIY manuals or websites. | | | | busy we are. When you answer comments or |
| When a new tool comes in, he takes it out of the box | | | | questions, invest your time and effort into what you |
| and learns how to use it. He's passionate about his | | | | write, and think about the impact of what you say. |
| subject and proud of his knowledge. | | | | He Sells Add-Ons |
| As bloggers, we need to follow his example - we | | | | Henri is brilliant at turning a one product sale into a two |
| need to invest time in learning our craft, both as writers | | | | or three product sale, by simply asking a question - "Do |
| and as experts in whatever field our blog is all about. | | | | you need a new brush to go with that paint?" "Have |
| We do this by reading other blogs, researching our | | | | you got the right socket for those nuts?" As a |
| subjects and investing our time and money into learning | | | | customer we don't feel we're being sold to, more |
| other people's knowledge. | | | | often than not we're grateful to be reminded of the |
| He has the right Stock | | | | extras we need. |
| The store is one of those old fashioned places, with | | | | We can learn from this in two ways. One is to add |
| hundreds of drawers full of little washers that cost 3 | | | | related content to our posts, and that means actually |
| cents! He also has a huge basement area full of other | | | | checking our past post inventory to see what would |
| hidden treasures - his stock taking must be a | | | | benefit a reader of this new one. The other way we |
| nightmare, but I have never caught him out! Staples for | | | | can learn is to start to link our products together in |
| an ancient Stanley staple gun? Of course! Left hand | | | | packages. I sell some excellent TV viewing software |
| widget for a pie flange? How many would you like? | | | | via one of my blogs, and it took two minutes to add a |
| Our stock is our content, and it does take time to build. | | | | link to sell the cable people need to connect their PC's |
| The trick is to stay broad within your niche, if that | | | | to their TV's - result? Just over half the buyers of the |
| makes sense. There may be one area of your niche | | | | software also order a cable! Look back through your |
| you are particularly interested in, and the temptation is | | | | pages and see where you can add related sales. |
| to keep writing on that, but you need to open up your | | | | He's a Nice Guy and a Real Person |
| stock by blogging about all the other areas as well. | | | | Henri is a good, honest, likable guy. You instinctively |
| Have a look at Problogger for an example - that is a | | | | know that he's not trying to rip you off, he's |
| well "stocked" site - you could actually spend a week | | | | straightforward to deal with and when he occasionally |
| in there searching on various terms! | | | | gets something wrong he rectifies the situation. It |
| He's Open When We Need him to be | | | | means people keep coming back to him, year after |
| Henri opens all over the weekend - which is when we | | | | year. |
| need his stuff! | | | | If we're going to successfully draw customers to our |
| We don't open and close our blogs, but we should aim | | | | blogs and sell products to them, we need to adopt |
| to be there when our clients are around - that means | | | | some of that style. We need to cut the hype, get rid |
| being on hand to answer comments quickly, and that | | | | of the bullshit and offer our clients value for money |
| can be pretty inconvenient, but so what? If you're | | | | products which we know will work for them and give |
| posting your blogs at 7PM because most of your | | | | them real benefits. That way, they too will keep |
| readers are in the US and you're in Europe, then you | | | | coming back to our blogs, year after year. |
| need to be online at 7PM! | | | | Have you seen examples in other businesses which |
| He interacts with his customers outside work | | | | have lead you to apply the principles to blogging? |