You Will Never Know Unless You Ask...

I'll admit - jumping out into the offline world is a little scary at first, especially when you don't entirely know what you're doing at first.

I've spent the last few months building up a local restaurant/bar directory (both web and mobile versions). Before I hit up businesses to upgrade and offer other advertising options, I wanted to build a list and increase the exposure to get users FIRST.

Like many, my budget is somewhat small, so I've been looking for ways to advertise through various local outlets online WITHOUT spending a ton. There is a VERY popular blog here in my city that has a large number of followers (plus around 4,600 FB fans and 4,000 Twitter followers).

I noticed they had a blogroll with some local links, so I sent them an email to quickly introduce myself and see if it would cost anything to get my site added. That eventually turned into a free link on their homepage, but also lead to the opportunity to add a guest post - all at no cost!

That guest post went up yesterday and managed to grab me over 150 unique visitors and 21 subscribers in one day, plus a boatload of exposure as the newest search tool in town!

.....And all I had to do was ask!

My point here is that there are times when we are scared to get on the phone and make that call or hesitant to reach out to people who may be able to help us out, but if you don't put that fear behind you, you WILL miss out on so many opportunities!

Remember - there is opportunity lurking ALL OVER your town or city, so don't be afraid to get out there and seize it before someone else does it for you!