Gail Gardner and Her Map to Small Business Growth: Interview Part II
This is an interview with Gail Gardner of Growmap, Continued from Part I.
While many blog “gurus” promote and use a method of attacking their competition, you have on the other hand promoted a collaboration method. What can you tell us about this, and why do you think it’s a better method?
Gardner: There are some very famous 'gurus' who have made a career out of waiting for someone to be at the peak of popularity or have something go viral and attacking for the traffic which they can convert into income. I consider it highly unethical and ignore them. Their type of followers would have no interest in what I write anyway because I encourage thinking for yourself and not fawning over some celebrity and hanging on their every word.
In competition, businesses are encouraged to believe there is a limited 'pie' and to fight for as much of it as they can get. I believe it makes vastly more sense to increase the size of the pie through collaboration. Most small businesses would generate more profit by collaborating with their "competitors" to increase awareness for what they sell. Doing so will benefit them all.
Small businesses afraid of working with others geographically close to them can choose to work with businesses far enough away that even though they are in the same niche there would be little to no overlap of their client base. By supporting each other in their blogs or business sites and across social media they can gain reach and visibility.
As I like to point out, there is room for more than one business on the first page of the search results and those who collaborate are more likely to be able to get there. Even more importantly, when the time comes when you can't get consistent traffic from search you're going to need the referrals relationships you've built can provide.
What do you think of using comments to promote your business? Is there an ethical way to do it?
Gardner: I have been one of the leading proponents of a blog plugin named CommentLuv for many years and for just as long I have been encouraging bloggers to support small businesses by allowing them to comment in their blogs and obtain dofollow links using their best keywords. (Historically many bloggers automatically delete comments that link to businesses as spam.)
Continued on the next page
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