This is a guest post from Chris at The Traffic Blogger.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If you had a few hours I might actually debate the answer to this question with you but, for now, let’s use this as an analogy for making money online.
Which came first, the content or the relationship? Everyone tells me how making money online involves having awesome content, in fact, many would recommend having the best content. However, if you think about this simple question of which came first, the content or the relationship, you will begin to realize that the money isn’t in the content, but rather, in the relationship.
On The Traffic Blogger, I once talked about how content was king and an exposure channel was his queen. However, over time I have come to realize that your content is meaningless without this exposure channel, which is really nothing more than a series of relationships that allows you to advertise your content. Something became clear to me:
The content wasn’t king, but rather the relationships themselves.
Which came first, the content or the relationship? The relationship did, and it is for this reason alone that relationships should be your primary focus if you intend to make money online. Your content will not get read by anyone if they are never shown it in the first place. People are who you want to connect with, and in the Why People Course, I go to great lengths explaining why your interactions with people are your most important tactics as an Internet marketer. Now, am I saying that your content can be a series of grammatically incorrect posts with blurred images and a title banner created by your three year old son in ms paint? Perhaps if you are selling crayons to children, but otherwise, you are going to want to create kingly content regardless of whether you view relationships as more important than the content itself.
So how can you apply this mindset and change the way you behave online? For starters, you should be going out to meet your audience, not waiting for them to come to you. If all you do is focus on your content then your relationships will never exist or they will die out if you had any to begin with. Work hard to appear everywhere your potential audience could be, whether that be a series of forums, YouTube channels, pod casts, other blogs, etc, all in an effort to get your information in front of their faces.
Relationships are the new “Content”
that you should be considering “King.”
Ever go to a party and hang around that one person in the room who is the most social? Guess what, the Internet is no different. If you are that cool person in the room with the answers and more importantly, who is willing to listen to questions in the first place, then you will have a flock of followers in no time. Did that social person sit on a coach in the middle of the party doing nothing but texting on his phone? No, he was up and about at the buffet line and in the corners where guests were gathering.
Typing up content on your blog for no one to read but your mother
is the equivalent of focusing solely on content as your “King.”Make relationships your king and the money will follow.
By focusing on relationships instead of selling products, I was able to take a blog from 2,000 to 10,000 subscribers in 6 months. This mindset change will have that much of an impact on your blog, I promise. What’s more, your audience will literally beg you to sell them your opinions, ideas and products.
People love a leader, and if relationships are your “King” then leading will be something you do naturally. Speaking of naturally, humans naturally want to be lead by someone who provides something different than the rest. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the best option for them, but as long as it is different than what they are used to then they will keep on following you.
By being yourself, you will inherently be different than anyone else.
Listen to your audience to become the leader in your niche.
Be different by being yourself, building relationships and listening, then the money will follow.
Make the switch today, go from focusing on content to focusing on relationships. After all, it’s who you know, not what you know, and the Internet is no different! I would love to have you follow me on Twitter.
