Are you a “Jack of all trades?”. Very few of us are. It’s rare indeed to find someone with all the skills required to do well in this game.
Just check out the jobs and roles I listed in my blogging hats post.
There are a lot of things involved in blogging, online marketing, and business in general where it is just better to get help than to struggle on your own. It’s easy if you have a big bag of cash lying around. You can just hire the best in each skill and supervise.
What if you have no funds to pay for help but still need the advice, missing skills or work performing?
We all have something to offer. See if you can trade:
- Time – You might be cash poor but time rich, find someone who is the other way round 🙂 There are loads of little jobs that clutter up a busy persons day. Taking those nagging chores off a persons plate could give them more free time to make even more profit.
- Knowledge – The right knowledge implemented well is half the battle. Imagine you could ask the top expert any question and get a perfect answer, how would that help your work? Now think of what you need help with and your own knowledge. Are you good with SEO, writing, design …? Find someone with the knowledge you need and offer your services as a trade!
- Experience – Specific knowledge is brilliant and very valuable but experience is also crucial. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. What have you worked on that could help someone else, what has worked or gone wrong in the past?
- Talents – There are so many talents that can be useful, from a clear speaking voice through to an eye for detail. People you might look up to and think are super successful all rely on others talents. What talents do you have? How can they be used to benefit someone else?
- Reputation – If you have a lot of friends who respect you then that in itself is an excellent resource, carefully cultivated. Just look at what it takes to be successful with Digg, Facebook and such like.
- Audience – Once you have a significant audience people will come to you looking for favours because they want to use yours to grow their own.
- Links – If you have a website then you can link to someone else. You might think this is an overlap with “audience”, and it is, but remember a link has its own worth where search engines are concerned.
You might not be able to see the resources you have, perhaps you are too close and do not like bigging yourself up. Ask your friends, ask your enemies. Sometimes it takes an independent eye to see where you really do have value to offer.
What other resources can you think of that we can trade for help?
