We do a lot to ensure our own success such as writing comprehensive articles, tweeting, niche marketing, checking stats, and researching keywords, but often we forget that we can help others succeed too.

For thousands of years, people have understood the Golden Rule. The essence of the golden rule is to treat others as you want to be treated. We are taught this from such a young age, and its wisdom proves itself on a daily basis, if you employ it.

Helping others selflessly is the primary tenet that the Yakezie Network was founded on, and that is how it went from being a post on Financial Samurai’s blog to being the full-blown financial blogging network it is today.

There are many marketing strategies out there, but few will ever equate to the success and power that you achieve when you help others. The reason for this is because you begin forming a team. And while we are talking about old adages, two heads are better than one.

How Can Helping Others Help Me?

First, I want to state that it won’t always help you. If you begin helping others with the expectation of reciprocity, then you will probably end up disappointed and bitter. That is why you should start out with a genuine desire to help others.

Once you begin helping others, you will begin to forge strong relationships and build a network that is more than a loose association of people you’ve followed. Instead, you will forge relationships where the collective success of the group will be far stronger than the individual success of each person.

As you forge these relationships, people within your network will naturally reciprocate, but not everyone. This is OK, and normal. Enjoy the reciprocity, and even reward it by providing more assistance to those that do reciprocate.

Should I Help Those That Don’t Help Me?

To this I would say yes. The reason I say this is because you don’t understand the circumstances. Moreover, you also don’t know what the future will hold. As an example, if you provide help to a PR 0 website and they give you a link in return, big deal! That’s not much of a help!

But using that example: a year ago, my website, Wealth Artisan was a PR 0 website, being run by a very busy person. To reciprocate, I provided links in articles where possible. At the time, that wasn’t a very large reward, but now I’m a PR 3 website, and those articles have been around for over a year. What didn’t seem like much of a reward, grew into something relatively valuable, and it will continue to grow.

When I’m able to take my online businesses full-time, the people that have helped me along the way will certainly receive the brunt of my thanks. Until then, I will continue doing my best to reciprocate.

Maybe the person who isn’t reciprocating right now doesn’t understand the etiquette, or maybe they are so busy that it isn’t feasible right now. But, when it becomes feasible for them, you just might receive a deluge of support that will take you to the next level!

How Can I Begin Helping Others?

The ways to help are countless, so for now our focus will be online. You help people by:

  • Leaving thoughtful comments
  • Tweeting their articles
  • Giving them links
  • +1 their articles
  • Mentioning them on Facebook and other social networks
  • Providing useful feedback.

The last one was particularly important to me in the beginning. Jesse at PF Firewall was kind enough to let me know that he liked my articles, but they looked like a horrendous wall of text. I’ve since corrected this by breaking up my articles, adding headers, and I have seen huge benefits from his expertise. He may not have received a huge reciprocation from me at the time, but I just reciprocated him in this post. Thanks Jesse!

Another popular way to reciprocate is by marketing on Twitter. Announce others to your followers! You can do this with a personal “Check this person out, they operate this awesome blog” or the less personal follow fridays (#ff).

Share their articles on your Facebook page, and give them thumbs up. Leaving thoughtful comments is probably one of the most effective ways, because it creates community, and it lets them know who is interacting with their content.

What About You?

Do you try to selflessly help others? Do you have trouble reciprocating? What are some tips that you can share for helping others, and finding time to reciprocate? What are some ways that you try to reciprocate for another person’s generosity?

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