We’ve all heard the phrase before, “It’s better to give than to receive”.
I think for most of us, it is often heard during the Holiday season, especially during Christmas. You usually hear it from one of your friends or family members right after you give a great gift to someone and receive a shitty one in return.
In an attempt to make you feel better after receiving a box of chocolate covered cherries in exchange for the iPod Nano you purchased, your friend looks you in the eyes and while using every facial muscle possible to avoid cracking a smile says, “It’s better to give than to receive”.
For years I was in the frame of mind that this saying was just used to make people feel better in situations like the one above. But a couple years back that all changed.
I’m an Eagle Scout so giving is nothing new to me. In Scouts I was heavily involved in community service. However, the reason I was doing community service at the time was not only to help others, but also help myself. By doing the community service I was rewarded with merit badges or advancement in rank.
It wasn’t until I started to actually give without expecting anything in return that I finally understood the true meaning “it’s better to give than to receive”.
When I say “give”, I’m not necessarily talking about physical items. I am talking about giving information, giving your time and giving a helping hand when one is needed.
My greatest sense of satisfaction has come from the thanks and gratitude I have received when helping others. Sometimes it’s not even a written or verbal thank you. When my Grandma was sick, she needed help with her physical therapy. I knew she could not do it on her own so I would go meet her and help her through it. The way she looked at me as I helped her made me realize exactly how true the saying was. It was definitely better to give.
You probably don’t visit my site to hear about my Grandma or chocolate covered cherries. You want to know how this applies to Internet Marketing and online business in general.
Well I can’t give you hard figures, but I struggled for a long time just making a few dollars here and a few dollars there online. Once I started sharing rather than always selling, that’s when things begin to change for me. My traffic increased and I started building real relationships with my readers.
I wanted my readers that were struggling to make money online to know…I was one of them. I tried everything and was ready to throw in the towel. I was scammed. I wasted a lot of money on over hyped products and I tried to sell anything that would get me a good affiliate commission. That was then.
Now, when I recommend something to my readers, I have done my research and used the product. If I don’t like something about it, I’ll tell you. It’s far more important to me to gain your trust than it is to make a quick couple bucks on something I know is not going to help you move forward.
I’ve also learned that I don’t need to be constantly trying to sell something. I used to spend 100% of my time selling online in hope of making “big” money. Now, I’m up front. I write about things I’m working on and doing. If I’m using a product that I am seeing good results with, I’ll tell you about it. If you decide to buy it great. If not, that’s okay too.
As long as you keep coming back for more information and it’s helping you I’m happy. I hope you are too!
