The Value of Providing Free Advice

Many people I speak with are concerned about giving away too much free information on their Web site. Their concerns range from providing ideas to their competition to giving away all their best ideas to do-it-yourselfers who will, well, do it themselves.

My experience has been that the more you give away, the better you do. Of course, every business and industry is different and YMMV. (Your Mileage May Vary.)

By providing free information on your site you increase your search engine visibility and establish your expertise. For everyone who takes your advice on organic gardening or search engine optimization and runs with it, more people will realize that they're too busy or inexperienced to do it on their own. Those people are looking for professional help, and you've just established yourself as that professional.

Just today, a prospect shared with me that the reason they were talking to me was because of how I had positioned myself as an "expert" on Web marketing, and how they wanted to do the same in their own industry. They wanted my help in how to best leverage the Web to make it happen. This meeting wouldn't have taken place if I was worried that my competition was reading my blog and stealing all my best ideas.

Whether it's on the Web, or in giving speeches, or teaching classes, what you lose in giving away free advice is made up 100 times over in marketing and establishing your credibility.

Go ahead, give it a chance.

Rich Brooks
Free Web Marketing Advice

Comments

[Elizabeth]

You rock Rich!

[Shama Hyder]

Absolutely Rich!

-Shama

[Chad White]

The value of blogs in terms of outreach and search visibility far outweigh the downside of giving information away. I give away a ton of information about retailers' email marketing strategies on my blog, RetailEmail.Blogspot, and in return I've been interviewed by the trade press many times, spoken at conferences, etc. Trust and credibility are extremely valuable and giving away information is the quickest path to that provided you do it well.

[The Dust Collector]

Thats the kind of karma I believe in.Sharing is good for the soul in our industry with it's ever changing rules we have to stand together to be succesful. thanks for the good work.