25 Lessons you can learn from Chris Garrett

1. Sell products and services.

Chris talked about his monetization methods in an interview with income diary.

The advantage to selling products and services rather than, say, adsense, is that you need a smaller, more engaged audience. It’s like the 1,000 true fans theme that has gone around lately. To monetize with products and services you need to offer content that helps people solve a real problem. Then your posts become a free sample of your expertise, and the reader will think “wow that worked - if the free stuff is this good, the paid stuff must be exactly what I need!”. A step a lot of people fail to make is actually offering a service - if you don’t tell people what you do and how it will help them then don’t be surprised nobody buys!

Many other bloggers are echoing this method. It appears to be harder to make money with traditional ad networks, and is better to have more control over the monetization process. It is important that you experiment in your niche to see if this is so.

2. Put your audience first

Later in the interview, Chris recommended that you be open and generous.

Be open and generous. Treat readers as people, not numbers. Understand your audience. Reach out and make friends. Give people content that connects with their wants, needs, interests and motivations. A good example of this is Chris Brogan. He puts a link into his twitter stream and the person he links to gets a huge spike in traffic. How did this happen? How did he get 40k followers? He consistently and congruently lives his values. People love him and tell their friends. His blog subscribers and traffic grows. People promote him, he barely needs to do any pI romotion himself. It’s a virtuous circle.

There are a number of bloggers - at various stages of success - who have shown generosity to me. You'll hear me talk about them all the time, because I belive in what they are doing as much as they do. Putting your audience first is a really useful way of growing your social media presence.

3. Do a guest posting campaign

In an interview with Jamie Harrop, Chris talked about how he would prefer to post on multiple guest posts rather than  just one.

The benefits of guest posting really come when combined. One guest post wouldn’t provide me any real incentive. That said, if pressed, it would likely be a blog that hasn’t launched yet and I would guest post to help them get started.

Two examples are Leo Babauta and Skellie. They used to guest post freuqently when building their brands but now, you usually see their posts when they are promoting a new product. It can be a great way to build buzz while providing immense value.

4. Don't hold back your best work

In a guest post on Problogger, Chris recommended that you avoid holding back on your guest posts in order to have maximum impact

If you want to create the best outcome from your guest posting you need to bring your best stuff. Make sure you hold your self to high standards and work hard to create unique and valuable content. Don’t hold back your best tips, advice or humor. Otherwise you are just adding filler.

Skellie and Leo, who were mentioned previously, didn't hold back their best work. They became famous for it.

5. Foster a reader-reader conversation

Chris gave tips on generating conversation in one of his Problogger guest posts

For readers to comment to each other takes that commenting environment to a new level, and also requires that you get out of the way a bit. So while you answering comments encourages more comments, answering too often discourages readers answering each other. You have to balance the need to make commenters feel valued and welcome, with the need to open up the floor for other readers to jump in and respond to another comment.

Promoting conversation within the community can be a really good way of strengthening your brand. It may take some time for this to happen, but is definitely something to aim for.

6. When looking for work, ask around

This was one of the tips he gave in his post detailing how to get your first freelance blogging gig.

Work outwards from your blog to people who know you. Put the word out that you are looking for writing work. This isn’t begging, you can really help someone else with your writing skills or just by saving them time. Friends of friends and word of mouth is where I get half my work so this is a really effective method. When you are down it is hard to sell yourself so it really helps if someone is doing it for you. I would mention one lady in particular here who instantly comes to mind as a friend everybody should have but I don’t want her inundating with appeals for referrals, heh.

I'm friends with a couple of top bloggers, I'll admit that. I'll also admit that many of them are insanely busy and that offering to freelance for them can actually help them out. Asking your help isn't begging.  It is seeing who you can provide value to.

7. Do comparisons in affiliate posts.

Chris talked about this in a Problogger guest post about affiliate sales. He said that comparisons against bigger, better and more expensive products works to upsell or positively differentiate the lower-priced alternative. As someone who spends a lot of money on hiking gear, I'd definitely agree.

8. Do a Regular Call/Radio Show/Podcast

Chris wrote about focusing on audio in his post detailing 10 ways webinars can boost your business.

Sometimes all it takes is for your customers to get to know your voice in order for them to warm to you. This can be achieved by running a regular call, radio show or podcast. Put it on a specific and regular time slot so people can tune in each time, and that will grow familiarity, personal connection and trust.

I have seen many bloggers have careers that have taken off after experimenting with audio. It takes some getting used to, but it can exposure your brand to a whole new audience.

9. Block out perfectionism

Chris expanded on this topic on his post at Confident Writing.

Now I try my best and trust that is enough or leave all that to editors who are much better than me at that stuff anyway. We all want to produce great work, but we also have to understand there are limits and we can not polish forever.

I write a lot but that does not mean I always write perfectly. It annoys a lot of professional writers that an uneducated so-and-so such as myself can get so much writing work.
It’s true, I often break writing rules without realizing it. To begin with I would agonize over every draft, worrying what people would say if they found a glaring contravention of international grammar rules.

I break the rules all the time. I used to agonize over the grammar until I started posting and realized that only a handful picked up on it. When they did, they usually were kind in pointing out my mistakes. This has led to me publishing more posts and reaching more people.

10. Turn your comments into blog posts.

In a Blog Herald post on creating better content, Chris examined the benefits of being social:

Writing a comment gets you writing – getting your wheels turning, and sometimes a long comment can be copied and pasted over to your own blog to become a great post.So just commenting is good, commenting early is good, and sometimes there are additional benefits.
I think all should comment. It’s just a good thing to do.

This technique often works for me. If I feel a blog comment is getting long, I try to figure out how I can turn it into a post. This may be linking it to other topics or responding to other peoples questions.

11. Try to create and Authority site.

In a tutorial about How to Grow Your Google Authority, Chris discussed how you can improve your search rankings:

Authority in a search context takes into account all the elements of a site then determines a grading on the spectrum from completely authoritative through to no authority at all. The more authoritative and trusted your site, the better you will rank.

This is one of the best articles I've read on growing your Google authority. I highly recommend all bloggers read it.

12.  Reciprocation Works Both Ways

Chris talked about this further in his post of the same title.

When people do good things for you, show you have recognized what they have done and reward them.

Here are ways you can return someones kindness

• Give them a referral on linked in
• Provide a review of their top product
• Link to their flagship content or ebook

13. Acknowledge those who go above and beyond.

Later this the post, he discussed how people who go above and beyond need extra special appreciation, along with acknowledgement.

Let them know you want to show thanks even though you know they were not being kind or helpful in the hope of receiving an award. People are sometimes offended otherwise, and whatever you do, do not show gratitude with money! That is a sure way to turn friendship into offense.

This is a great tip and one that you should focus on throughout your career. Sometimes, a simple acknowledgement can do more than other ways of thanking.

14. Provide a tutorial about a product

In his post Good and Bad Guys in the Affiliate World, Chris discussed the benefits of using tutorials.

Tutorials on using a product - Some of my best affiliate sales have been where I wrote tutorials than involved using products in a certain way, be they craft materials or certain software to achieve an objective.

I've heard reports of this working quite successful for those that are experimenting in affiliate marketing. This can work for both online and offline products.

15. Keep the visitor involved and on-site

In his post on converting Diggers, Chris discussed to maximise getting dugg.

If you can convince your visitor the Dugg article is not a one-off you increase your chances of keeping them around, show your best stuff, related content, anything toconvince readers of value

This tip applies to all sources - readers from social media, search engines and twitter. I'd recommend reading Skelliewag for loads of usability tips.

16. Batch-read

Chris wrote about batch reading in his post on becoming an authority maven.

It’s not effective to read stuff that will not have a massive impact every day. I can go weeks without reading Seth/Gapingvoid even though they are excellent. Thought-leaders are often not that essential, as compared to knowing the big news.

I do this. I have about 20 blogs I subscribe to via RSS, and read the rest in huge blocks. I love how it makes it feel more like fun and less like work.

17. Split your readers

Later in the post, Chris recommended that you use an online reader for the important and immediate stuff and read less pressing material offline in downtime like commute, air and rail travel. This is a useful tip for those who have many blogs they subscribe to.

18. Audit your blog

http://www.chrisg.com/better-blog-branding-what-is-your-blog-body-language-communicating/

Just audit your blog and look for what message each element conveys and the combined story they are telling. Does what you are communicating fit with what you want to be communicating? Tweak to suit. Make sure you are not sending mixed messages and people will respond.

2 More blogging tips:

Chris gave two simple tips on his post, 41 blogging tips.

19. Read - The more you read the better writer you will be. Being a blog reader helps you understand the mind of the blog reader. What they want, how they like information to be presented, what turns you off.Read good blogs and note your thoughts.
20 . Stumble - Train yourself to discover, recognize and share brilliant content. What you can identify you can imagine, what you can imagine you can create.

These two points are so simple yet sum up everything about the net. They focus on reading content, and then sharing it. Both of this tasks can really help you process the information, and find your on blogging voice.

21. Create a post full of original ideas

Chris expanded on this in his post on how to get the top blogs to notice you:

If your idea is truly inspired and valuable to pass on then you might just get linked to. Even better if your idea is something the blogger can build on and reference as part of their own post. Bloggers like Darren and Brian often link as part of their articles.

I admit that this has worked.  I've had my posts linked to by a number of top bloggers and they have always been when I've written on something unique. It doesn't have to be a completely new idea  - just an original perspective.

22. Create a post of top resources

Later in the post, he said:

Being original is harder than it sounds so an alternative is to just put in more effort. Lots of bloggers have founded entire blogs on the back of collecting existing information together to create the ultimate collection of tips or links. You post an original “top ten” list and think you have done a good job then weeks later your top ten is combined with someone else’s and someone else’s until it becomes a top 100 and gets to the front page of Digg. It’s all in the research. Make it bookmarkable and bring it to the attention of those people who can spread it and you can have a hit on your hands.

As Chris said, everyone loves resource posts. But not everyone has the time to create one. Doing so can lead to a lot of consistant traffic and possibly income.

23. Comment flames only hurt us if we choose to let them

Chris talked about handling criticism in his post on flame proofing your ego.

You will find when you actually sort through the trash many of the flames have little to do with your article anyway. They call the author a spammer or attack Pavlov style any time they see the word “Blog” used. When you understand that most of the more vitriolic posters never even took the time to read your article you feel more pity than anger.

I agree with this. I've been flamed before, and it hurts. But you have to realize that often, people aren't attacking you. They are flaming an idea because they are resistant to change.

24. Prepare for the worst

Chris discussed this in his post, how to guest post without disaster.

Make sure the host has adequate backups and can be contacted if something goes wrong. Even better, email your stuff so the host can read through, edit and put into the system as draft or timed-release.

It is worth preparing for the worst in all situations, including guest posting.

25. Don't try to cover everything in your niche.

Chris doesn't talk about all facets of blogging. He leaves many parts to the experts and just focuses on the information he is an authority on. This has really helped him to build a strong brand. Can you narrow your focus?