Promote Your Website With Your Knowledge!

In my past I have worked for a BIG UK company in the IT department. Over a number of years I built up a fair bit of IT knowledge. Most related to the area I worked in specifically, such as databases, IT help desk software, ITIL procedures and good practice…..cricky, if I thought about it, in my time there I learnt a lot.

I did not realise until I started building websites for people how much I knew and how little others knew about the Internet and websites. It even surprised me how people didn’t even know the basics and I had to adjust how I explained things and put it in layman’s terms. Why? Because for years I had been surrounded by other IT “geeks” for want of a better word, who knew as much, and in some cases a lot more, than me! I took my skills and knowledge for granted until I spotted the potential to use that knowledge to build myself a business.

Sell Your Knowledge

I see it all the time: people work in a particular industry / job for so long, they only speak to their colleagues about “work type” things, they fail to realise the potential advantages of what they know. You get a gas man to come and fix your boiler and ask them how they spotted the fault and they just say, “ohhhh just through experience”. They’ll it’s just brush it aside, taking their knowledge and skills for granted. The reason? Because to them, all of the things they know seem common place, they have known them for years, and half the time think everyone knows most of what they know……….I know I do it when it comes to “IT stuff”. They’ve been working so closely with it for so long, they forget that everyone doesn’t know this stuff as well, and so they don’t take advantage of chances to spread their knowledge around, and improve their image at the same time.

Promote your Knowledge

Promoting on Forums

I have built websites for tradesmen before, many of which will ask me how to get more visitors to their site, other than adding to directories, etc. First thing I say is join a forum. A DIY forum, a specialist forum for their topic, or any forum where their advice would be greatly appreciated by the audience. Why? Well, on forums you can not only subtly become an expert resulting in perhaps having someone ask you to provide a quote for a job, but you also become trusted. Not only that, often you can put a link in your signature to your website, so everytime you answer a question or provide some comments, you get a free website promotion. Granted, sometimes you are not allowed to do this, but as long as you are constructively contributing to the forum and not blatantly promoting yourself, most communities do not mind.

Promoting with Articles

Further, think about writing an article for a magazine, news paper, articles websites? Find industry magazines or Industry websites and offer to write an article in exchange for a small mention of you and your services and a link to your website. If you take a closer look at these magazines and websites you will now notice how many people in your industry do this. EzineArticles is a great place to start.

Its all effort and time but can really pay off. With all the experience you have there is going to be a lot of possibilities for things to talk about, tips to provide, useful information for potential customers. In today’s world if something breaks, many try to fix it themselves because all they have to do is google for a tutorial on how to fix it! They don’t have to go buy a manual to do it anymore. So write a tutorial, provide that advice, and if the fault is bigger than they thought they may just call you to come and sort it.

Set time aside each month to dedicate to a different subject within your industry. Write out a mini article/ tutorial dealing with what you know. You can even simply provide a list of different places they can go to learn more on the subject.  Article writing is offering your knowledge for free and people like that.

Promoting with Leaflets

There are loads of ways to spread your knowledge. Ever notice the popular hardware stores such as B&Q who have free handy hints leaflets in their doorway telling you how to wallpaper or fix a leaking tap, well they don’t do this for fun, they do it since they know you appreciate it, you will remember it, you may keep it and file it, it instills their brand in your mind and when you start decorating again, their store is the first place you visit.

Perhaps on your general adverts provide a tip of the month from your knowledge. On the leaflets that go out to local communities provide a mini tutorial for fixing that tap. Give them reason to keep your leaflet over the competition. Make people respect your opinion and your advice – build trust, making your advertising different at the same time.

Knowledge is Power!

I hope this article has got you thinking about how special your knowledge is, how much you take it for granted and how much more you could do with it. This is a strong way of getting your name to your customers and helping to improve your image. Put that experience and knowledge to good use for marketing your website and business.

You may also like to read:

• 10 Benefits of a Website
• Blogging To Help Search Engine Ranking
• 5 Free Solutions To Create A Question-Answer Website
• How a Little Blogging Can Make a Big Difference for the Small Business
• Do I need a small business website?

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