Poor Richard’s Branding Yourself Online, by Bob Baker, Top Floor Publishing, 2001, ISBN 1930082142.
Reviewed by Jean Hollis Weber
This book is aimed at individuals such as writers, artists, musicians and other creative people. Thus it is also quite relevant to any consultants, contractors, or freelances, all of whom need to market themselves and their services or products.
Topics covered include:
- Understanding what branding is about and why you need to do it
- Defining and developing your brand identity
- Gathering your tools: hardware and software, domain name, website
- Using e-mail effectively: signatures, autoresponders
- Tips for using e-mail to convey brand identity
- Your website: designing, hosting, search engines, tools
- Publishing an e-mail newsletter
- Making yourself known through others’ e-zines and websites
- Tips for writing attention-getting articles
- Self-publishing and marketing e-books
- Online networking: participating in lists, forums, newsgroups
- Linking strategies
- Offline strategies
- Real-life success stories
Like most of the books in the Poor Richard’s series, Branding Yourself Online brings together a lot of tips and techniques that I am already familiar with, but it also gave me several new ideas and a collection of Web addresses that I had not discovered on my own. Had I bought my copy of this book, it would have paid for itself immediately by pointing me to several new markets for my own e-books.
The author, Bob Baker, was for 10 years the managing editor of Spotlight, the US Midwest music magazine he founded in 1987. In 1995, he began publishing The Buzz Factor, a free e-mail newsletter and website that established his identity as a music-marketing resource for aspiring songwriters, musicians and bands. Bob has also established an e-zine and website called Quick Tips for Creative People and a companion website for this book, http://BrandingYourselfOnline.com/, where you can download sample chapters, get other information, and buy the book at a discount.
Although some of the how-to details in the book are a bit dated (for example, today one would be more likely to publish a blog than a newsletter), the principles are still valid and important. You can order the book from the author or from resellers atAmazon.com.
Last updated 1 October 2007.