It’s no secret really.  People buy “How to” information in every niche, sub-niche, and marketplace there is.  Why?  I believe it’s because the human mind is curious and always seeking to find a new way of doing things.

The reason I wanted to address this topic is simply because consumers search for, purchase, and read (or watch) “How to” information in their subject of interest without the usual apprehension and hesitancy that they might otherwise experience with a regular report, ebook, course, or video.

Consumers understand the structure and format of “How to” articles and reports.  They have seen and already consumed them often and I believe, subconsciously, they expect the format to provide them with the information they are seeking. They know that they are going to get a step-by-step or natural progression of instructions that will lead them from where they are to where they want to be.

Providing “How to” information to your audience can be the very basis of your business.  In fact, there are very popular services online like Lynda.com (recently sold to LinkedIn), Teachable, and Udemy that allow experts to offer courses of instruction to targeted prospects in order to teach consumers “How to” do various tasks and solve problems or fulfill desires and dreams in the consumer’s life.

If you are not offering “How to” information to your audience and subscribers, you should be!  The “How to” format or model seems to be universally accepted across all subjects and topics and it has some advantages over other alternatives.

• “How to” information is relatively easy to outline, write, and publish.  As the creator of much “How to” information, I can tell you that it is a very intuitive and easy format to produce.  If you can create a list of steps in outline format, starting at the beginning and moving from one step to the next logical step through to the end of the sequence, you can create “How to” information.
• “How to” information lends itself to all types of media … from articles, to short reports, to white papers, to infographics, to ebooks, to video, to audio, and podcasts, membership site content, and just about every other publishing format there is!
• “How to” information allows the reader to quickly move through the information and spend more time on those steps that need further focus or less time on points that he has already accomplished or that he currently understands.
• “How to” information is easy to “put down” and then come back to at a later time.  Steps can be checked off or highlighted as they are accomplished.  The information doesn’t need to be totally consumed in one sitting because the reader can simply leave the material and return later to continue progressing through the information until the end.
• “How to” information lends itself to browsing and skimming.  It is an easy format to follow and to “pick apart” for highlights, key thoughts, important instructions, and quick consumption if that is the desire of the reader.
• “How to” information lends itself to easy and enticing marketing.  Think about all the books and reports and articles you’ve seen over your lifetime that were titled “50 Ways to …” or “The 10 Best …” or “The Top 5 …”  Well, you get the picture I hope.  It’s easy to title your information and if you’re dealing in a marketplace of rabid fans and consumers, you have a ready-made template for your information.
• “How to” information lends itself to lead magnets, teaser copy, summaries, and other snippets or shortened versions of the full “How to” information.  It’s very simple to include 1-3 ways, or steps, or tips, or tricks in order to entice the reader to want to see more … which can lead to a curiosity about the full document and process.
• “How to” information can be published in many different formats (all at the same time, if desired) including on a blog, in a newsletter, in an email series, in membership sites, in books, reports, videos, podcasts … well, in just about any type of media there is!

Here are a few suggestions about how to find information and examples of this type of writing in your niche.

Go to Amazon books and look at the titles in any niche.  There is an excellent probability that some of the most popular books will include some variation of this format:  “101 Ways to ______________.”  or  “10 Steps to _____________.”

Try all of these descriptors:

• Ways
• Steps
• Ideas
• Secrets
• Facts
• Things
• Reasons
• Basic
• Rules
• Tips
• Best
• Popular
• Easy
• Tricks
• Hacks
• Little know
• Undiscovered
• Brand New
• Amazing
• Fool proof
• Proven
• Professional

Well, hopefully you get the idea of the various ways of setting up your “How to” information steps and instructions.  There are many more things you might say to introduce what you are going to “teach” or expose in your information.

The Internet is the perfect vehicle for sharing your knowledge, your expertise, and your instructions if you desire to base your business on providing information to consumers in your niche.  It allows anyone with an Internet connection and a little bit of technical savvy to record and publish their “How to” material so that it can be presented to millions of people across the globe!

The Internet plus your valuable “How to” niche information can become the basis of a home-based business that will provide a very nice full-time income for its owner.  It’s a tried and proven business model that anyone can dive into!

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.BusinessEmpires.com

There are many skills that come in handy for small business owners. I’d like to take a minute to share what I feel is one of the most helpful and valuable skills anyone can develop with some practice.

I am the first to suggest that if a business owner doesn’t personally possess a skill, he can outsource to find it, take on a partner who has it, or simply study and learn and practice until a skill becomes part of his talent.

But if you know how to do this, you will have all the content, products, and online help a business owner could ask for.

Anyone can do it. Most newbies avoid it. It takes some effort, but it gets easier every time you do it. It’s a skill that has literally made people millions! Seriously.

We learned it’s basic steps in elementary school (if you paid attention), practiced it a lot in high school, and refined it in college.

Here’s a hint if you haven’t figured out what this skill is:

According to Samuel Johnson . . . “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”

The answer is of course . . . drum roll . . . research!

Nowhere is the lack of this skill (or at least the willingness to do it) more evident than in many people’s failing businesses.  Often owners and webmasters avoid it at all costs.  Certainly research takes some effort, knowledge, and patience.  But I believe even those who aren’t experts in research have a distinct advantage over others that don’t or won’t do any research.

In the business world, knowledge is power!  Knowledge and understanding of the niche marketplace, of consumer preferences, of cutting edge techniques and strategies, and of news, events, and the competition all increase the business power of an entrepreneur.

Let me tell you this (of which I’m 100% certain):  those business owners that do their market research (or have someone on staff do it) will have a distinct advantage over competitors that don’t do research.

I believe that, in many instances, small businesses fail because the knowledge and understanding of the solo operator about his/her own niche market is not sufficient … or is just plain out of touch with reality.  Smart research helps to eliminate that problem.

Research has many “pluses” (things beside owner knowledge):

• You get a more sure and detailed answer to your questions
• You benefit immensely just from the actual process of “digging” for an answer
• You become exposed to both (or many) sides of a question or issues so as to enhance your total understanding
• You learn a lot about related or peripheral issues that affect the subject so that you are better informed
• You learn what doesn’t work or what has failed in the past (things about the subject to avoid)
• In the end, you become a better business owner because of what research has exposed you to

You will never be at a loss for content, blog posts, articles, information products, or help in solving a problem because knowing how to do research means the knowledge of others will always be available to you (especially when you draw a blank and don’t have clear ideas of your own).

How do you do research?  Excellent question.

Why don’t you go research that subject.

After you’ve had a chance at personal discovery, I’ll come back with a few ideas and tips of my own.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com

If you’ve ever created a blog before, then you know that the saying, “build it and they will come” just isn’t true – at least not for blogs!  However, there are some smart and practical ways you can get more people interested in visiting your blog by following these five suggestions which have been proven by successful blog owners over and over again.

 1.  Pick a topic in a niche that has good demand

What is the sense of blogging on a topic that no one cares about?  If you’re blogging for fun or just blogging to fulfill a desire to write and publish your feelings . . . then go ahead and blog about whatever you want.  But if your intent is to help other people in a specific niche and get paid for your value, you need to focus on a topic that is currently in demand.

The topic of your blog doesn’t need to have massive demand.  In fact, many of the most successful blogs are in very tight niches where you would not suppose there is major demand.  But for a moment, consider the “reach” of the Internet . . .

“Internet users. As of June 2018, 55.1% of the world’s population has internet access. In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world’s population, would be online by the end of the year.”   Source:  Wikipedia.org

Even some minor niches have enough targeted prospects to make for a good sized audience for a blogger!

2.  Offer high quality content

By “high quality” content, I mean you should blog about topics that are relevant to the wants and desires of your audience.  To find out what they want, follow these steps:

• Find out what types of information products they’re already buying – then write blog posts on the same topic.
• Use a keyword tool (like WordTracker) to find out what topics people in your niche are looking for.
• Drop by busy niche forums and other blogs in the niche to see which topics are generating the most views and discussion.
• Survey your readers to find out what they want.
• Visit Amazon books to see what niche topics are popular and selling well.
• Visit the “Dummies” book site and see if there are books on the niche topic
• Visit your local bookstore or Magazines(dot)com and see if there are magazines devoted to the topic

3. Update frequently

Sometimes people start a blog, post a flurry of articles and then abandon the blog for months at a time.  If you allow dated posts, then your visitors aren’t likely to come back again if they notice that you don’t update regularly.

What you need to do is commit to posting to your blog at least once a week.  If you don’t want to be chained to your blog like this, then create the content ahead of time and automatically “drip” it to your readers.  Alternatively, hire a ghostwriter to both create the content and post it.

Point is, you need to post often to keep your blog from looking like a deserted island.

4. Create regular features

Here’s a great way to turn a one-time visitor into a repeat visitor.  Specifically, by creating “regular features” and multi-part blog posts that your visitors can look forward to.

Example:  Maybe you create a seven-part article about how to make money with pay per click marketing.  Maybe you space it out so that you’re posting one or two articles per week.  You can bet that your readers will return at least once a week just to finish reading the series.

Another way to get more visitors is by creating a regular feature, such as a “tip of the week” feature or even a “questions from our readers” feature.

There are lots of other ways to add regular features – brainstorm and get a little creative and you will find some great ideas.

5. Write about hot topics

One way to get a surge of traffic and increase in your blog popularity is by writing about hot or even controversial topics.  You can include relevant keywords and “ping” the blog directories (like technorati.com) to make sure that those who are searching for the hot topic see your post.

Another way to leverage a hot topic is by joining in on the blogosphere conversation.  Simply find a popular blog discussing a hot topic, and use a trackback to add your response.

6. Get someone influential to endorse your blog

Finally, you can get others to visit your blog by first getting someone influential in your niche to endorse you (and your blog).  You can do this indirectly, such as by offering to be a guest author on the other person’s blog.  You can also ask your joint venture partners to directly endorse you on their blogs and in their newsletters (and you’ll return the favor).

It’s free advertising.  In addition, it’s also extremely powerful because you’re using social proof to increase your readership.

There you have it.  You just discovered five smart and proven ways to get others to visit your blog – and to visit it again and again!  Your next step is to take action on these suggestions.  Starting today; apply these tips . . . and keep an eye on your traffic logs!

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com