There is an old saying: "You can have anything you want if you help enough people get what they want." Helping others not only feels good, it can also be a very effective way to build your home business. By helping others you build a relationship with them, which in turn establishes credibility and trust. And in business, credibility and trust equals sales. Here are a couple of simple ways to benefit from helping others.



Posting to Forums: Posting to forums is a great way to promote any business. But like anything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Always use a signature file in your posts. A signature file is a small (no more than 5 lines) text ad with a link to your website in it. By including your link in a sig file, you increase the number of links pointing to your website. The quantity and quality of links pointing to your site is the biggest factor used by search engines in determining your ranking.

All forums have their own set of rules, or TOS (Terms of Service). Be sure to read and follow the TOS of any forum you post to. Violating a forum's TOS can get you banned, and it will negatively effect your reputation.

But we want to build our reputation by helping people. The best way to do this is to make sure that your posts are relevant and helpful. Never post just to say, "me too." If you agree with someone's post, say why you agree. I look for threads where someone is looking for help (remember, that's what we're here for) with a question or issue. Then I answer the question to the best of my ability. You might even do a little research to add value to your answer.

When your post helps someone, you gain an expert status with that person, which greatly increases your ability to sell to them. Also, as other people begin to see you regularly posting helpful, quality posts, they begin to think, "Hey, this guy knows his stuff. Maybe I should checkout his website, or join her newsletter or e-zine..."

Writing and Giving Away Free Content: People need fresh content for their website, blogs, e-zines, newsletter, ect. But many people do not have the skill or the time to create their own content. You could write an e-book with your banner and links in it, and give it away to visitors to your site. You could even allow them to have their own banner or text ad included. With their own ad in it they will work harder to promote it, getting your ad seen by even more people. This is a win/win for both you and your visitors.

Another great way to give away content is to write articles, and submit them to article directories. Each article you write should have a resource box at the end containing a short blurb about yourself and your website along with a link to your site. That way you get an inbound link to your site on each directory you submit to. And if your article is picked up by someone you will get a link on their site as well. A good article could be syndicated thousands of times. This is the best way to get targeted traffic and build your reputation.

Everyone is jumping on the article writing bandwagon these days, and as a result, the internet is full of junk articles. Remember, we are talking about helping people. Even though writing articles is the best way to drive traffic to your site, you want to approach the task from the standpoint of helping others. Write articles filled with useful and valuable information. Don't make write a long winded sales pitch and try to pass it off as an article. Keep any advertisements in your resource box. Be sure to proofread your article for proper spelling, grammar, and syntax, or your reputation will suffer.

Keep your articles between 500 and 1,000 words. If your article is less than 500 words, people might think that it's of little value. If it is more than 1,000 words, you will have a hard time getting it picked up by anyone.

Everyone appreciates good help. When you help others, you make more friends, more sales, and more money. So what are you waiting for? Go help someone today. I hope this helped.

Copyright © Douglas Canary