Guest post by Barrie Davenport
Hey blogging friend, I’d like to ask you a question.
Why do you blog?
Before you shout out your answer, I’d like to invite you to think deeply about it for a moment. Often the reason we think we are doing something isn’t the real reason at all — or at least not the deeper reason.
Your answers might include:
it allows flexibility and freedom;I can meet interesting people.These are all great reasons to blog — compelling reasons that make blogging an exponentially growing pastime or career. Current estimates suggest there are about 450 million “active” English language blogs right now, and they continue to pop up by the thousands every day.
I’m wondering how many of you included this reason in your answer to my question:
I blog to serve.
I’d like to suggest that this reason is the most compelling, most rewarding, and ultimately the most fruitful of all reasons to blog — regardless of your niche or perceived goals.
I came to blogging through the back door. I’m a personal and career coach, and when I started my business, I wanted some kind of web presence for potential clients. I didn’t know how to build a web site, nor could I afford to hire someone to do it. So I discovered Blogger and found it was easy enough for a right-brained, technically adverse person like me.
I started to write articles about personal development and coaching. My best friends and family obligingly subscribed. Maybe three other people subscribed too.
In spite of my small audience, I loved writing posts, finding photos and all of the creative aspects of blogging. I was helping people and coaching in a way I’d not intended. I loved it and felt my entire psyche shifting toward wanting to do this more.
Within a few months, I discovered Mary Jaksch’s and Leo Babauta’s A-List Blogging Bootcamps. I read Leo’s story about how he got over 150,000 subscribers (he now has nearly 250,000!). I took the Bootcamp and became Mary’s star student, soaking up everything they taught and offering my assistance to Mary for free just to learn more.
I started over with a new blog, Live Bold and Bloom, with the brand of encouraging people to stretch themselves to live more extraordinary lives — the essence of a coach’s work. I also had visions of extra income dancing in my head.
One thing that struck me about Mary and Leo was their integrity, their realness, and their palpable passion for helping people learn and grow as bloggers. In a landscape of blogging bling and hype, this was refreshing breath of fresh air. I clung on to them (in a mostly polite and sane way) like white on rice.
I also discovered through Mary and Leo that it is possible to have integrity and respect for your reader — and still make money. You can serve and survive at the same time. They inspired me to serve my reader first, believing that the money will follow.
As a result of my adopting this attitude and having a service mentality with Mary and Leo, I have had some amazing opportunities come my way. (Of course, I also worked hard and spent a lot of time with the practical requirements of growing my blog.)
Mary asked me to be the editor-in-chief and partner for The Daily Brainstorm, a blogazine featuring some of the top bloggers on the net.
I currently partner with Leo and Katie Tallo (of Momentum Gathering) on The Habit Course, a program to help people create sustainable life habits. Through these platforms, I have met a wide variety of amazing bloggers and have built my own blog to over 7000 subscribers in a year and a half. I’m also making a really good income through my products and courses.
Just last week, Mary and I have launched A-List Blog Marketing: The Good Karma Path to Online Income. We are teaching the practical skills and techniques for marketing a blog — with a focus on doing that with integrity and, you guessed it, service.
It might appear that the “service” element came easy to me because I’m a coach with a personal development blog. Yes, that niche does make service a natural part of what I’m offering on my blog.
But I don’t think your blog topic matters one whit when it comes to serving. You can infuse everything you do on your blog with the spirit of service whether you are blogging about blogs, books, or bats. That element of service will transform you, your reader, and your blog.
Service creates good karma. What you put out to the world is what comes back to you. It is part of the law of reciprocity. You put forth good service, you get something good back in return. Most importantly, your readers will grow to trust you and see you as a valued resource when they are ready to buy.Serving others feels good. It feels meaningful and provides a sense of higher purpose to your efforts.Service makes your readers feel good. They know when you are giving to them because you enjoy giving and it’s genuine. It makes them feel like respected human beings rather than faceless numbers.Service teaches others to serve. Your behaviors, attitudes, writing, comments, and decisions about your blog reflect your service orientation which can inspire and motivate others. Leo and Mary did that for me.Service forces you to stretch and grow as a person. Having a service orientation might require you to make decisions, sacrifices, and choices that at first seem hard or counterproductive for your business. But ultimately they will pay off in more profound ways.You don’t have to be a personal development blogger to serve. You simply have to adopt a service mentality. You need to recognize that inherent value of producing, giving, and selling with the mindset of offering your very best with joy and respect for your readers, your blogging peers, and anyone else who might encounter your work.
Here are several ways to do that:
Get to know your reader. Engage with them through comments, emails, and forums (if you have one). Find out their problems, dreams, worries, and needs. Learn the basics about the demographics of your reader. Alexa is a great free resource to learn demographic info about your readers.
Think like your reader. Put yourself in their shoes and see through their eyes with everything you do on your blog. Write posts that address their concerns and needs. Put them first in all of your decisions about your blog whenever you can.
Involve your reader. Get their feedback. Ask for their ideas and comments. Survey them to find out what kind of articles, information, and products would be useful for them.
Give more than they expect. Write insanely useful posts. Give away products that other bloggers might charge for. Make sure the products you do charge for are a great value and fairly priced. Offer a money back guarantee and honor it when it’s requested.
Do something unexpected. Practice “random acts of kindness” on your blog. Give away a few copies of your product or offer a service, idea, or information for free. Surprise your readers with unexpected kindness.
Keep your promises. If you promise something or agree to something, keep your word. Follow-through. Be reliable. If for some reason you can’t, be upfront about it.
Be real and human. In all of your communication with your readers and other bloggers, let your authentic personality shine through. Talk like a real person, a friend — not a business partner or salesman. Communicate openly to your readers about your decisions, goof-ups, and ideas. Let them know why you are charging for a product when you do. Tell them about the balance you want to create between serving and making an income blogging. They will appreciate and respect your honesty.
Is your blog or business service driven?
Barrie Davenport is a personal and career coach and the founder of Live Bold and Bloom, a blog about bold and fearless living. She is also a partner with Mary Jaksch at A-List Blog Marketing: The Good Karma Path to Online Income.
You can learn more about service-oriented blogging with a free 3-part video course that Mary Jaksch and Barrie created for A-List Blog Marketing. You can check it out here (it does require you to subscribe): The Heart of Successful Online Marketing.
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