{"id":208435,"date":"2024-02-27T07:24:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T07:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/build-blog-products-that-sell-5-finding-customers\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:21:32","slug":"build-blog-products-that-sell-5-finding-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/build-blog-products-that-sell-5-finding-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Build Blog Products That Sell 5: Finding Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This guest series is by Greg McFarlane of\u00a0Control Your Cash<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

History dictates that the current economic malaise will eventually end, but we\u2019re still waiting for some unambiguous signs. That\u2019s why for the past few weeks, we\u2019ve been learning how to create products that are inspired by (and that tie into) your blog<\/a>, and how to plan to sell them to an audience<\/a> whose collective disposable income isn\u2019t quite what it used to be.<\/p>\n

So finally, after approaching this scientifically and methodically, you\u2019re there. You\u2019ve created a product<\/a> built on the expertise your readers have expected from you and your site. And you\u2019ve priced that product (or series of products)<\/a> at a level that will generate income without scaring off too many potential buyers. Now all you have to do its open up the storefront and watch the money roll in.<\/p>\n

If only.<\/p>\n

The good news is that at this point, most of the work is done. But you still need to build your clientele beyond its traditional bounds. To amass your army, if you will.<\/p>\n

Flipping the switch<\/h2>\n

After you\u2019ve created products and made them available for purchase, a radical shift occurs. Whether you realize it or not, you\u2019re now (at least) 51% entrepreneur and (at most) 49% blogger. The set hours that you spend updating and freshening your blog every week are now secondary to your sales efforts. Once you\u2019re committed to creating and selling your product, people will identify you with it, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

If your product is, say, a collection of spreadsheets you can use to organize your home and eliminate clutter, then sink or swim with it. Henceforth, home organization will be your blog\u2019s primary focus. Even though you may love collecting miniatures, and have occasionally blogged about it in the past, your days of doing so are now over. Apple used to sell stand-alone digital cameras. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re now a salesperson, and the more seriously you take your new job, the better you\u2019ll do.<\/p>\n

For generations, your typical commission salesperson was given a list of leads and an admonition to break a leg. If the new hire didn\u2019t work out, no big deal. There would always be plenty of others willing to step in. Unfortunately, your incipient business doesn\u2019t get that same luxury. The sales staff is you<\/em>, as is the product.<\/p>\n

And your current audience, regardless of its size, is limited. Some of your longtime readers might buy out of a feeling of allegiance or mild obligation. If they do buy, it probably won\u2019t be because they\u2019d been dying for someone to create whatever it is you created. And while your loyal readership may have given you the impetus and spawned the idea for your product, they\u2019re not the only ones you\u2019ll want to buy it.<\/p>\n

So where to find a lasting and larger clientele? It involves expanding your horizons, but not in a rote way.<\/p>\n

Finding customers<\/h2>\n

If you blog long enough, eventually you\u2019ll be approached by similar bloggers offering you various stratagems for mutually benefitting your sites. A link exchange, a guest post exchange, and so on. Those are all well and good, if you enjoy the novelty of exposing your blog to an audience that is already loyal to another blogger who operates in the exact same field of interest that you do<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One fellow personal finance blogger, who seems to be an awfully agreeable fellow, recently offered to create a discreet badge allowing me to sell my products on his site, and vice versa. I trust that he accepted it as a business decision and didn\u2019t take it personally when I told him I wasn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n

Why not accept the exposure? Among other reasons, his blog has fewer readers than mine does. Many of those readers of his already read my blog anyway. Besides, what\u2019s to stop him from making a similar offer to other bloggers with greater readerships than his, diluting the impact of his agreement with me?<\/p>\n

Also, to put it kindly, he\u2019s not an authority. He\u2019s a guy with a blog, and a relatively new one at that. My products will be an afterthought on his blog, as his would be on mine. That won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

A passionate evangelism<\/h2>\n

In selecting and pursuing offsite promotional opportunities that will actually help you find customers, you need to be a passionate evangelist for your product. Whether you\u2019re considering buying ad space<\/a>, using email marketing<\/a>, social media promotions<\/a>, or even creating a physical promotional freebie to give away (which we\u2019ll cover on ProBlogger later today), you need to advocate strongly for your product, all the way.<\/p>\n

My products need to be advertised in a place of prominence, because I care about them. Not just in and of themselves, but for a more pragmatic reason: it sounds obvious, but every item I ship makes me wealthier. I don\u2019t want the seminars I hold and the ebooks I create to be just another offering in a catalog, vying for attention with someone\u2019s unreadable treatise on dividend investing and the overpriced collection of Visio diagrams that someone else slapped together.<\/p>\n

I want my products to stand front and center. I also want to remind potential buyers that no one else\u2019s work can substitute for what I\u2019ve created. If you want to know The Unglamorous Secret to Riches<\/a>, no one else has it. If you want to know how to get out of whatever unhealthy relationship you have with your employer, that outspoken guy who runs Control Your Cash is the only one who\u2019s going to show you how.<\/p>\n

Just another vehicle<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s why you have to acknowledge the limitations of your own blog. Most of your buyers aren\u2019t<\/em> there. They\u2019re on unrelated sites, where it\u2019s your job to get their attention and show them what you have to offer. It takes time. In my case\u2014and you can apply this to your own situation\u2014it means posting regularly at major, well-established blogs<\/a> in my area of concern. It means guest posting at general-interest blogs<\/a> where I know I\u2019ll reach a diverse and erudite audience. My business model is predicated on the following belief: if people like anything I have to say, once they find out a little bit more, they\u2019ll like everything<\/em> I have to say.<\/p>\n

Which means your blog becomes just another vehicle for selling your product(s). Once you sell to someone unfamiliar with your blog, you then sell that buyer on your blog itself. Anyone who buys your product should immediately become a subscriber. Now that buyer knows where to find your entire oeuvre, including the subsequent products that you\u2019re doubtless working on.<\/p>\n

Key points<\/h2>\n