Some people, especially social and heart-based entrepreneurs, feel uncomfortable about selling. They feel comfortable giving out information for free, but not asking for money. Are you one of those people?

A friend of mine felt uncomfortable enough to write a draft email that said, “Warning — rare sales copy follows” and offering readers a free gift just for reading to the end. It was like apologizing for selling. (She removed that part from the final version.)

When you consistently send out valuable information, you don’t have to feel guilty about sometimes charging for a product!

Just make your product valuable, charge a fair price (both to your customer and to you), and offer it to your readers.

Think of selling as giving

When you create a product, you are giving useful knowledge and skills to your buyers. Just be simple about it. Explain the benefits, describe what buyers will get, offer a guarantee, and see what happens. You don’t need to be uncomfortable about this!

Ask your subscribers what they want

When you first start out, you have to make an educated guess about what product will sell. That’s because you don’t have a large list of people to ask.

Later on, it’s useful to ask subscribers what products would be valuable to them. You can do a survey. (I recommend SurveyGizmo.) Then build your product based on the results.

Try and try again

If people don’t buy your product, you can try 2 alternatives:

1. Reword your offer. Sometimes, using a different heading or description will make a big difference
2. Create a different product. Maybe something else will click with your audience

What has your experience been with selling?