Providing Value: How Much is Too Much?

During the Q&A of my ITA presentation Writing to Delight, I had made the point that a blog visitor has the expectation of gaining some value from your blog posts.  And the question came up of How Much is Too Much?  Is there a point where you give away the farm?

I suppose there are instances, based on your area of expertise, where you could, to your own detriment, give away too much.  But I believe these to be very rare.

Fast forward to 10 years from now.  Assume that I have been blogging with a vengeance and have exhausted my experience, lessons learned, discoveries onto the pages of my blog – to the point that if a reader carefully combs through every category cloud, he will have all the information that a paid engagement with me would yield.  I still don’t think it would be a more effective, less expensive endeavor than hiring me from the get-go.

Case in point: Saturday morning DIY home improvement shows.  I’ve watched hours and hours and hours.  They fascinate me.  In these shows there is a wealth of detail: menus of supplies needed, master craftsmen both showing and explaining what they’re doing, tons of tips on what to do and what not to do.  I’m fully engaged when I watch, hanging on their every word.

However, whether it was after the first show I watched or the 50^th show that I watched, I knew that if faced with such a project – I am NEVER going to do this stuff myself.  I am going to hire someone to do it.  All of the revelation has made it crystal clear to me that there is value in having a PROFESSIONAL do the work.

I feel the same way about the blog.