If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably heard it before because I keep repeating it again and again. One of the BEST ways to build a fan base of people eager to join your retreats, come to your workshops and book a session with you is to dole out valuable content (blog posts, newsletters, videos, e-books, challenges, quizzes, whatever you love to make) on a regular basis.

For free.

Why not charge money for everything you’re creating? (Those yoga videos are super valuable, after all!)

Because when you give free content to your tribe, content that’s inspiring, empowering, useful and motivating, you get so much more in return:

It helps people get to know, like, and trust you

When you build a body of work online that people can access anytime and enjoy — at no cost — it gives people a chance to get to know your style, your personality, and what you can offer them.

Research has shown that for most businesses, it takes anywhere from five to twelve (or more) “contact points” before someone trusts you enough to buy from you. Every piece of content that you share is one more potential contact point and will help you build that trust.

It saves you tons of time by doing most of the “persuasion” for you.

You probably spend a lot of time emailing and skyping with potential retreat guests, answering their questions and giving them a chance to find out if your retreat would be a good fit for them. You easily end up spending hundreds of hours on Skype and email every year, just getting people “warmed up” to you.

But when you’ve got tons of amazing content for people to enjoy, you give them the chance to get a good, clear sense of what you’re all about. Which means that when people reach out to inquire about a retreat, chances are, they already get you, they already love you, and they’re ready to book — no further persuasion required. Your free content has already done the work for you!

It strengthens your reputation

When you establish a reputation for yourself as a generous spirit who is constantly sharing THE BEST stuff (top-quality yoga videos, brilliant tutorials, blog posts full of background information and life-changing inspiration) that’s super helpful.

Over time, people in your tribe will begin to think to themselves, “Wow. She has already given me so much valuable stuff… for free! I can’t even imagine how awesome it would be to actually go on one of her retreats / join a workshop / book a session with her. I’m pretty sure I’ll be blown away.”

It will help you get found on Google

Hands up if you want more people visiting your website! Yeah, don’t we all… The thing is, if you have a website with let’s say 5 to 10 pages of content, all of those very similar to other yoga websites, it will be tough to stand out in the top search results. If not to say impossible. But if you add a new blog post every week, after just one year that’s 52 additional pages that Google can crawl and use to link potential new customers to you and your services.

Don’t get intimidated by other yoga bloggers with tons of followers and huge communities. They started small too! Blogging rarely comes with over-night success. It will take time and consistent, hard work. Time to get started and get serious about your yoga blog!