This weekend I got to spend some time with my ten year old nephew and I tell you that kid has got some business savvy on him! It needs a little refinement, but I definitely see big things in his future.

When he arrived at my house, the first thing he did was hand me a booklet which I immediately recognized as the school fundraising brochure (hey, I was young once) and I gave him a bewildered look.

I guess he could tell I wasn’t falling for his “because you’re family, you need to buy from me” puppy dog face and he asked me how to sell 250 items. I sat him down on the couch and I’ll share with you what I told him (made him memorize, actually), “If you want to sell 250 items, pay close attention - you need to find their need and fill it.”

As you may have guessed, he looked at me quite puzzled and I then went on to explain that everyone has a need. If he wants to sell his products, he needs to find their particular need and give them what they want. Pay attention to what people are saying, even if they aren’t directly telling you what they want — they are still telling you what they want — give it to them!

Hang out in front of the restaurant next to his mom’s shop and whip open the food section of the book. Why? People going into a restaurant are typically hungry and you know what they say about grocery shopping on an empty stomach right ;).

I also told him to apply common sense, forcing a product on someone that they don’t want or even care about is like teaching a pig to sing: it annoys the pig and makes you look stupid.

After I finished explaining the basics of how to sell 250 products I began flipping through the brochure he handed me again. I said under my breath “hmmm, choco chip cookies, oh, and look, chocolate bars” — you know what he did? He snatched the book from my hand and put the Chocolates Galore brochure there instead! You know what else? He also ended up with $18 from me for two orders of chocolate. It seems he was, indeed, paying attention.

So, by now, I’m sure you’re wondering what all of this has to do with creating a better blog. Running a blog is really no different than his situation of wanting to sell 250 products. You need to find your visitors’ needs and fill them.

Look a lot more closely at your niche and ask yourself what those needs are and how you can fill them. A more concrete way of doing this is simply to ask. Place a survey on your blog. You can set up a free survey at Survey Monkey.

Consider offering a free gift to your visitors in exchange for their time. If possible, offer a tangible product as tangible products tend to have a higher perceived value. But if tangible products are simply outside of your scope, a digital product will do.

On your survey, don’t forget to ask if they’d like to join your mailing list, but *always* give them the option to decline and make sure the list is double opt in (you don’t want any spam complaints do you?).

You’ve found their need, now fill it. Use the data you collected from the survey to make changes and alterations to your blog and don’t forget to take careful notes of the results so you know what works and what doesn’t.

(On a side note, the last I checked, my nephew had already made 30 sales…not bad for a shy ten year old)