‘I need/ want to be more visible’ – the words I hear very often from my clients, mentees, and other online business owners in my circle. As someone who had a lot of media features over the years (COSMOPOLITAN, Sensa, Ljepota&Zdravlje, TIMES, HuffPost…), wrote 550+ published articles, and built a viral blog with a large audience, I feel the need to clarify some things regarding ‘visibility’.

I became a famous blogger in Balkan after (in 2013.) after my vegetarian blog went viral. Once I started writing articles, I became a sought after freelance writer. When I became a life coach in 2015., I continued writing articles on the topic of personal growth, which helped me to get a lot of media exposure. I have to say that viral blog, TV appearances, published articles, and media features did help me a lot in building my personal brand, selling my freelancing writing services, and later on coaching programs. Most of my clients found me by reading one of my articles or blog posts. People still find me and buy my book(s), enrol in online course(s) or coaching programs – after reading one of my articles (some of which I wrote 5, 7, or 9 years ago!).

But, I have to say that until I started offering freelance writing services and coaching programs, even though my blog went viral, and I had a lot of media appearances, I was getting a lot of gifts (books, packages of vegetarian food produce and products) but I was not earning any money from the ‘visibility’ I had. Only once I started actually offering writing services I started earning money. Not to mention that in order to sell my coaching programs and make the money I wanted to make, I had to learn a lot about marketing and selling, as well as work on my money mindset.

I know coaches who have a lot of media features but do not have many clients interested to work with them or sales (they are highly visible, but not highly paid). A few years back, a girl with 100 000+ subscribers on her YouTube channel (on the topic of spirituality) shared in the business coaching group I was in that she was not able to make any money (‘monetise her channel’).

As someone who had a lot of media exposure and visibility, I can say that being highly visible, building a large audience, and getting featured in media can certainly help in building a personal brand, establishing yourself as an authority in the industry, impacting, helping, and reaching millions of people with your work and your message. But, when it comes to selling your products and services, the important question is:

Once people find out about you, search you on Google, land on your blog or website, check your profile on social media, or click on the link in your bio – did you actually present them with an offer to buy from you and did you ignite the desire in them to buy what you’re selling?

I’ve seen many times on my client’s websites links for digital products or their programs being buried somewhere on the back of the website or not being displayed at all. Website being a pretty digital visiting card, rather than being an automated sales machine. Their social media channels not educating their audience (enough) about the services/ products they offer and not selling their offers and products (featuring their dog, their cat, and their daily life instead – among some pretty inspirational quotes and graphics that ‘inspire’ people to feel good about themselves, but do not ‘motivate’ them to buy anything that they’re offering).

No matter how ‘visible’ you get, if people who just saw you on TV, listened to your podcast interview, watched your YouTube video, checked out your social media profile, read your article or blog post, or clicked on your website cannot find the link(s) for your digital products and services, and if you did not communicate the value of your products and services in the way that will ignite the desire in your ideal client to rush for their credit card or book your services – being more visible will likely not result in earning more money. ‘Getting more eyeballs’ on you and/or your offers certainly can help you, but only if these are the eyeballs of your ideal clients and customers (who need and desire what you’re selling) and if you’re selling something to them at all to begin with. 

Have in mind that being ‘more visible’ will not lead to ‘more money’ and ‘more clients/ customers’ unless you turn your website/ content channels/ social medial channels into a well oiled sales machine, so that after your ideal clients see you, find you, hear about you, they sign up to work with you or buy from you – at least a digital product (if you need help in selling your digital products, my PDF guide ‘SCALE WITH PASSIVE INCOME’ can help you).

P.S. If you desire to increase your visibility and get (more) media features, I have a collection of resources that can help you!