The reason hobbies offer such great business potential is that at any given time there will always be newcomers to your particular interest and their quest for knowledge will be insatiable. By including a free advice column on your website you will encourage repeat visits, build up a loyal readership and get instant credibility as an expert in your field.
The following tips should help you run your own advice column.
- It must free! Don’t be tempted to charge a membership to access the advice section. Rarely does this work and even if visitors do pay you to access this area of your site their expectations may well exceed what you’re capable of offering and thus damage your main objectives – either to sell them a product or service or promote your business.
- Make it interactive. Even if you are an expert in your chosen field you should make your advice column more interactive by getting your visitors to post their questions and then inviting other visitors to answer them. The advantage of doing this is that you will attract more regular visitors who will want to give advice as well as simply reading your answers. You’ll also find some engaging debates will take place as visitors disagree with one another’s advice, making your site even more popular. Just make sure you include a disclaimer somewhere to the effect that you take no responsibility for the advice given and that this advice may not necessarily reflect your own views.
- Keep an archive. As your site grows in popularity and you get more and more material in your column break it down into sections and keep it in archives. This will allow visitors new to your site to search under different categories and make it easier to find the information they’re looking for. It will also reduce the number of people posting repeated requests for advice that has already been discussed.
- Monitor your column. It’s important to make sure that posters aren’t being rude or aggressive to each other. Your aim is to provide a friendly, supportive advice column where visitors don’t feel intimidated.
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