One of the best ways to generate more income is to stop selling your expertise by the hour. Your expertise -- knowledge, skills, methods -- are your most valuable assets. By taking your expertise and packaging it in various forms, you can sell your expertise 24/7/365.
So if your knowledge, skills and methods are your most valuable assets, why in the world would I suggest that you give it away as a marketing strategy?? Because giving away your expertise lays the foundation for multiple streams of income. Why this works:
Access to lots of free information is already available and potential customers expect to find it. Making your expertise available enables your *ideal* customers to find you -- among all the free information available, they need to hear it the way *you* say it. Having information that tells them what they need to do isn't the problem for most customers -- implementation is where they need help.
Once potential customers have found your free information, make it easy and enticing to sign up for your email list. Now you've laid the foundation to build a trust relationship, and can start offering them the help with implementation they so desperately need -- and will pay for.
Giving it away effectively and profitably
Use multiple channels and formats. For instance, give away information on your blog, in articles posted on other sites, in free giveaway ebooks, in audio teleclasses and excerpts. Get something in return when possible. Encourage blog visitors to sign up for blog updates via email. Put a subscription box to your newsletter on every page of your website (particularly where you post your newsletters, etc.) For bigger "chunks" of information like ebooks and audios, require that they sign up for your newsletter to get these freebies. In ebooks, make a link to your website prominent at the bottom of each page. Make the give-away process hands-free. Use an autoresponder to handle signups and instant download delivery for your giveaways. Once it's set up, it costs you no more to give away a thousand than it does the first ten. Plus, potential customers get instant gratification. Leverage from one format to others. Write a blog post. Add more details and turn it into an article (to post on your site, use in your newsletter, and submit to other sites). Take a series of articles and turn them into an ebook. Engage someone to interview you about the content of your ebook and record it. Get help where possible and practical. You can hire a ghostwriter to write articles for you. Your VA can take existing articles and put them into an ebook format and set up the autoresponder and download capabilities. Recordings of classes and interviews don't need to be professionally done when given away for free; many bridge services offer recording capability.
Terri Zwierzynski, the Solo-CEO, is a self employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the self employment resource website which attracts thousands of solo entrepreneurs and home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents (2007 finalist for “Website of the Year” in the 4th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business). Visit Solo-E.com and get our new ebook, “25 Surefire Ways to Capture More Clients, Get More Done in Less Time, and Make More Money—in 90 Days or Less.”