How well do you help people?

[JMPruitt]

Ask yourself this question. How much time do you spend thinking about how to help the people in your niche? I don’t mean thinking about how you can get them to buy something. I mean actually trying to figure out what you can do to help them, whether you are paid or not.


he greatest thing you can do in life, and for your business, is to help other people. In many of his books, Zig Zigglar often said, “The best way to get what you want in life is to help others get what they want.” That is our job as affiliates and marketers. We should not worry so much about how much money we make. We should instead figure out what we can give to the people within our niche.


Granted not everyone will appreciate it and give back. However, enough people will to strengthen your business and in the end increase your customer loyalty. People will return to someone who helped them without asking for anything in return more often than if they get help from someone who helps begrudgingly, or only after you are paid.


Take time out of your busy schedule to give back to the people who pay your commissions. Give them something that is valuable. Now that does not mean you can’t get anything. I think the exchange of an email for a really good book is more than fair. Make sure you take care of them and don’t mistreat the trust they gave you by spamming them a bunch of crap promotions either. And I don’t care if you double opt-in, or what not.


If you only promote products, no matter how often or if you have permission, it is still spam. For me, if I get more than 3 emails with no real value, it’s the unsubscribe button. That goes for all email lists I am on. Be creative.


Don’t have time to write an email? Check out the article directories. There are thousands of great emails already written just for you. Look through your old archived blog posts; put together a series of emails out of them. Use your head. You probably have enough content lying around to fill several months’ worth of emails.


The point is, the people who spend their time and money on your site deserve to be appreciated. You never know where an act of random kindness to a stranger may lead.

[Radix]

Originally Posted by JMPruitt

Ask yourself this question. How much time do you spend thinking about how to help the people in your niche? I don’t mean thinking about how you can get them to buy something. I mean actually trying to figure out what you can do to help them, whether you are paid or not.


he greatest thing you can do in life, and for your business, is to help other people. In many of his books, Zig Zigglar often said, “The best way to get what you want in life is to help others get what they want.” That is our job as affiliates and marketers. We should not worry so much about how much money we make. We should instead figure out what we can give to the people within our niche.


Granted not everyone will appreciate it and give back. However, enough people will to strengthen your business and in the end increase your customer loyalty. People will return to someone who helped them without asking for anything in return more often than if they get help from someone who helps begrudgingly, or only after you are paid.


Take time out of your busy schedule to give back to the people who pay your commissions. Give them something that is valuable. Now that does not mean you can’t get anything. I think the exchange of an email for a really good book is more than fair. Make sure you take care of them and don’t mistreat the trust they gave you by spamming them a bunch of crap promotions either. And I don’t care if you double opt-in, or what not.


If you only promote products, no matter how often or if you have permission, it is still spam. For me, if I get more than 3 emails with no real value, it’s the unsubscribe button. That goes for all email lists I am on. Be creative.


Don’t have time to write an email? Check out the article directories. There are thousands of great emails already written just for you. Look through your old archived blog posts; put together a series of emails out of them. Use your head. You probably have enough content lying around to fill several months’ worth of emails.


The point is, the people who spend their time and money on your site deserve to be appreciated. You never know where an act of random kindness to a stranger may lead.

I'm glad you posted this, while being a little surprised no one responded. I guess the folks who do well know this already and the folks who do not didn't read it. In either case, it deserves a bump. Maybe someone will take it to heart and reap the benefits.

[DogScout]

That is close to what I posted in the 'thank-you' thread below. An amazing group here. I am willing to bet most do that with a few exceptions.

Good post.

[Kat Bartone]

Refreshing post, JM. I'm in complete agreement.

One particular dynamic that I find troubling is when, after making a purchase, I optin to a list 'to make sure I receive product updates' - and then I get nothing but promotions. I've been staying on these lists just in case there is an update, but I'm close to bailing on some of them.

Sign up for updates, receive promos, get no updates. I think sometimes it's well-intended, and other times it's just plain deceptive.

Best regards,

- Kat Bartone

[SandyDuPlessis]

An excellent and thought-provoking post.

I must admit though, I do have to agree with Kat. I have finally given up and am slowly but surely unsubscribing from all the "promises".

At the same time, to the best of my limited ability, I do try to help others wherever and whenever I can.

Certainly I hope that I never forget how important it is to assist others without wanting something out of it, especially since others have done just that for me.

A quote I have always loved:

Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours ~ Les Brown

Sandy

[sparrow]

one person at a time

Many times I get on the phone to help people because of all the confusion out there and iron out many questions that are just to numerous to sort out in a email when about 5 minutes one to one they get a clearer picture on what to do

[tommen]

If someone ask me for help, I always do my best to give the information they need (thoroughly explain, step-by-step) even if it means I might lose a few customers because of more competition. On the internet, it is all about building trust and if you give enough to others, eventually you will get everything you need as well.

[travlinguy]

I think helping people is what it's all about. But there are times I wish people would just take the time to make their stuff more user friendly. I was submitting a press release the other day to one of the popular PR sites and I came to a page where I could upgrade my submission for a few bucks.

They spelled out the benefits I'd get and I felt it was a great value. But do you think they put an 'upgrade now' button anywhere in sight? Nope. There was no way that I could see to actually pay for the upgrade. I clicked around a few times and finally left in frustration without submitting anything.

You'd think that with all the effort people put into getting visitors to a site that they'd put a little thought into making it easy to use, and by all means, make it easy to buy something!

And this isn't just smaller sites, many are guilty. When I want to do something in PayPal for example, I often have to do a Google search outside the site to actually get the info I need because it doesn't show up on a site search. The same goes for Clickbank. You can go the their site and type in the name of a product word for word into the 'All Products' search field and not even come close to getting a hit. That's scary-dumb on their part.

So yes, I think helping people is a really good thing. Maybe more marketers should start that process by looking at how to make their sites easy to use.

[NY1]

I think that a lot of people ignore the give and take in a business transaction/relationship. To be able to receive money, you have to give value. The thing is, that most of the rewards come a little later, as in the person that you help out may not immediately buy your product or service.

But they will a few weeks later or a month down the road, if they have had a good experience.

Kind of the long term vs short term perspective.

Plus, it feels GOOD when you help someone out and they send you an e-mail back thanking you. You don't have to monetize everything.

[JMPruitt]

Originally Posted by NY1

The thing is, that most of the rewards come a little later, as in the person that you help out may not immediately buy your product or service.

But they will a few weeks later or a month down the road, if they have had a good experience.

Kind of the long term vs short term perspective.

Plus, it feels GOOD when you help someone out and they send you an e-mail back thanking you. You don't have to monetize everything.

I agree completely and that was part of my motivation for the post. so many people focus on the sales, they forget to think about the people on the other side, or they just plain don't care. I even see people monetizing their about me pages, that is going too far in my opinion.

[JMPruitt]

@Kat I agree. I have unsubscribed from sooooo many lists even from products just be cause of over promotions,
another thing I hate is joining an affiliate program so that you get the updates for their products and new releases, and getting spammed daily with promotions.

[JMPruitt]

@DogScout. Thanks for the reply. just found your post. Great job

[JMPruitt]

@travlingguy I agree people need to take time to look at their site as the end user would. is it easy to navigate? can you find the order button? complete FAQ and help guide? these would make life soooooo much easier. People need to look from another perspective when analyzing the overall functionality of what they are doing.

[JMPruitt]

@Radix, thanks for the bump. I probably would have gotten better response if I had written a better title 5am when I posted, coffee hadn't kicked in yet and brain was still half asleep.

[JMPruitt]

@MarkAndrews IMCopywriting Thanks, ANd I agree Acts of Random Kindness will get you where you want to go. If people focused more on that, they would be happier in life, I think.

[MissTerraK]

Glad I found this post! Better late than never!

I totally agree with you 100%, as there is no greater feeling of joy, knowing you have helped someone!

I get just as, if not more, excitement in receiving progress reports and thanks yous as I do with payments!

MissTerraK

Very well said James.. I could not agree more.. Far too many people worry about nothing but money, it's all about money, got to SpaMarket to people to make money.. Business or Life is not all about money.

Only thing I would add is, it does not have to be people in your own niche.. Help anyone and everyone you can.

James

Originally Posted by JMPruitt

Ask yourself this question. How much time do you spend thinking about how to help the people in your niche? I don’t mean thinking about how you can get them to buy something. I mean actually trying to figure out what you can do to help them, whether you are paid or not.


he greatest thing you can do in life, and for your business, is to help other people. In many of his books, Zig Zigglar often said, “The best way to get what you want in life is to help others get what they want.” That is our job as affiliates and marketers. We should not worry so much about how much money we make. We should instead figure out what we can give to the people within our niche.


Granted not everyone will appreciate it and give back. However, enough people will to strengthen your business and in the end increase your customer loyalty. People will return to someone who helped them without asking for anything in return more often than if they get help from someone who helps begrudgingly, or only after you are paid.


Take time out of your busy schedule to give back to the people who pay your commissions. Give them something that is valuable. Now that does not mean you can’t get anything. I think the exchange of an email for a really good book is more than fair. Make sure you take care of them and don’t mistreat the trust they gave you by spamming them a bunch of crap promotions either. And I don’t care if you double opt-in, or what not.


If you only promote products, no matter how often or if you have permission, it is still spam. For me, if I get more than 3 emails with no real value, it’s the unsubscribe button. That goes for all email lists I am on. Be creative.


Don’t have time to write an email? Check out the article directories. There are thousands of great emails already written just for you. Look through your old archived blog posts; put together a series of emails out of them. Use your head. You probably have enough content lying around to fill several months’ worth of emails.


The point is, the people who spend their time and money on your site deserve to be appreciated. You never know where an act of random kindness to a stranger may lead.