3 ms·

How do you find most of your customers? What are your thoughts on the author's point that writing technical articles is one of the best methods?

by csallen 16y ago

access_denied 16y ago
Why does 'writing technical articles' work? Several reasons and you can use other methods to archive the same effects, technical articles don't have a monopoly here. But some reasons they work so well: - Credibility. Your customers see computers as magic box full of secrets. There is no way (depends of course) they understand if you are 'good' or are doing 'good work'. They are scared shitless that they loose theire jobs because you are a crook or unable to do the job. The fact that some respected editor in the industry passes you as an expert builds trust. - Top-of-mind. Quick! Name one search-engine. What? You thought of Google? Crazy shit isn't it? Get this in the mind of your prospects by being the one guy who always comes up with his stuff when a certain topic arises. Think about the power behind this one! - Pre-selling. The article is your sales-letter. While the propects are reading the stuff they are following YOUR line of reasoning about the subject to YOUR awesome conclusion about it in their heads. And because it is a 'technical article' their psychological 'anti-sales fences' are down. So they believe, because they gave credit to the trade-magazine you wrote in when they choosed to invest in it by bying and reading it. Here's the kicker: when a prospect contacts you after having read your article, they are basically conviced that you are the man and the stuff you wrote about is THE thing they need. Sales talk will be far easier with such clients! - Traffic to your wehbsite, how do you build it? Articles in magazines: excellent way to get laser-targeted traffic to your landing-pages. Okay, that' should be enough. One thing though: you have to write it well. Why? Because you will not win with an article that nobody reads. Steve Friedl is a good writer, that's part of why it is working for him.
jsn 16y ago
I find my customers through the people I know personally, mostly. The relationships are mostly long term, so I don't need many. I never wrote technical articles, so no opinion on that; should work pretty well, theoretically. I do have a blog, though; it's rarely about anything work-related (mostly arm-chair microeconomics and libertarian studies these days). Even while being an off-topic, the blog still helps me to meet interesting people, and some of them become my customers later.

How do you find most of your customers? What are your thoughts on the author's point that writing technical articles is one of the best methods?

by csallen 16y ago

How do you find most of your customers? What are your thoughts on the author's point that writing technical articles is one of the best methods?

access_denied 16y ago

Why does 'writing technical articles' work? Several reasons and you can use other methods to archive the same effects, technical articles don't have a monopoly here. But some reasons they work so well: - Credibility. Your customers see computers as magic box full of secrets. There is no way (depends of course) they understand if you are 'good' or are doing 'good work'. They are scared shitless that they loose theire jobs because you are a crook or unable to do the job. The fact that some respected editor in the industry passes you as an expert builds trust. - Top-of-mind. Quick! Name one search-engine. What? You thought of Google? Crazy shit isn't it? Get this in the mind of your prospects by being the one guy who always comes up with his stuff when a certain topic arises. Think about the power behind this one! - Pre-selling. The article is your sales-letter. While the propects are reading the stuff they are following YOUR line of reasoning about the subject to YOUR awesome conclusion about it in their heads. And because it is a 'technical article' their psychological 'anti-sales fences' are down. So they believe, because they gave credit to the trade-magazine you wrote in when they choosed to invest in it by bying and reading it. Here's the kicker: when a prospect contacts you after having read your article, they are basically conviced that you are the man and the stuff you wrote about is THE thing they need. Sales talk will be far easier with such clients! - Traffic to your wehbsite, how do you build it? Articles in magazines: excellent way to get laser-targeted traffic to your landing-pages. Okay, that' should be enough. One thing though: you have to write it well. Why? Because you will not win with an article that nobody reads. Steve Friedl is a good writer, that's part of why it is working for him.

jsn 16y ago

I find my customers through the people I know personally, mostly. The relationships are mostly long term, so I don't need many. I never wrote technical articles, so no opinion on that; should work pretty well, theoretically. I do have a blog, though; it's rarely about anything work-related (mostly arm-chair microeconomics and libertarian studies these days). Even while being an off-topic, the blog still helps me to meet interesting people, and some of them become my customers later.