I've been putting together a book proposal dealing with creative self-promotion - tactics often used by artists, musicians, authors, etc. and how they can be adapted for use by small businesses and independent professionals. I've simply been extremely fortunate to learn a lot of tactics and strategies most businesses don't implement through my work in music publicity, a little bit in book publicity, and in nonprofit PR - and they tend to be implemented very rarely by business owners. I've been rethinking the potential market a little bit, and I'd like your feedback. Is that something that you think website owners and online business owners would also have an interest in? It wouldn't be hard to expand the scope to cover more online options, so I'm just putting feelers out now before the interviews are completed and the proposal goes out (aiming for early Spring; maybe sooner depending on the interview timelines). With so many webpreneurs here, I'm curious to know what you think as individuals. Is creative self-promotion from other industries something that you'd like to see adapted more to Web promotion (and we're not talking about any of the often overdone standards here), or is that completely unappealing? Thanks for the feedback either way. Jenn
Not enough info to give any type of real advice on. Your success will be dependent upon the execution the topic could be great or horrible depending on how you handle it. Sounds a lot like a "gurilla online marketing" book, but described using different terminology.
It's not at all a guerrilla marketing book or an online marketing book. I'm well-versed in most of the series, as well as a great deal of other marketing titles... there's nothing taking quite this approach yet. My experience and contacts just make it a possibility that a lot of marketing professionals couldn't work out as easily. Unfortunately I can't give a lot of specifics for a few reasons, such as the fact that it's not been approached from this angle before and because I'm still waiting on final confirmations from a few interviewees participating in the sample chapters for the proposal (the final interviewee list will include major label and large indie label musicians who built large independent publicity and cult followings, a few authors with success in independently generating a buzz, and a few people I'll be reaching out to in independent film and visual / traditional arts if the book is picked up). I have no concerns whatsoever about the general marketability of the book, and being a publicist in the independent and creative areas gives me an edge above and beyond the young entrepreneur / independent professional markets that I'm planning to heavily focus on. As of now, most of the tactics are offline. The basic question is whether I should expand that scope to deal with additional online methods to appeal to online business owners or not... which would depend on general interest from that group. This isn't official market research or anything. It's just a thought that came to me that I'm trying to explore a little bit before finishing up the preliminary chapters for the proposal.
I believe many business owners would enjoy reading about creative or non traditional marketing methods employed by artists for self-promotional purposes. Is that answer structured correctly? Speaking of non traditional marketing or promotion methods. Google in "Boy Who Never Slept", It's a film I made for $200 and got a lot ton of exposure (and not just on YouTube it's going to be used in a documentary by Orchard Films which is showing on the IFC and has been mentioned on over a thousands websites in many different languages). I think you'll find that interesting.
Well one of the obvious methods would be to make sure you are seen at these many SEO and internet conventions without your panties on. It works great for Spears n Hilton. Not sure if this would work the same way for us guys, though.
I have a stamp with a URL on it that I use to stamp money before sending it back into the world. It's tacky I know, but that's one way I self promote. I guess I could also go knock on doors and ask people to visit my site.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll certainly consider expanding the online tactics, and perhaps break them into a separate chapter, or even a sample chapter to go with the rest of the proposal.
Hi Jenn, "... major label and large indie label musicians who built large independent publicity" I would read that one for sure. Also know this niche well enough to know where they 'hang out' and what the would read and buy. Add some of the latest online tactics there, and you could have something that not only musicians find interesting, but basically everyone that produces, publishes or distributes artistic or creative content of any kind in any form. If you want to reach maximum impact you would write different versions for different markets, i.e. one only for musicians etc...but of course the 'center beef part' could be almost identical in many cases, as we all just bascially handle and promote "content". Just rewrite the specifics for each niche to be 100% on target. I would help you to market it to the 'music crowd. They are particularly interested in 'how to publish their own recordings from home online' and make a living from that in 2007.
It's actually not targeted to musicians and artists. They're the ones I'm evaluating, and who's tactics I'm writing about... kind of adapting them to more general business. The book itself is targeted to entrepreneurs and independent professionals.
I understood that part. What I was talking about is expansion through multipurposing of content. It's always the same principles that are used, just different seasoning. Looking back on 2GB of composed and recorded songs and 20GB of written text I don't see any difference there. Ya, it sounds different through the speakers. That's about it. It's always about being entrepreneur and independent professional not about hobby amateurs. I don't know any of the latter.