Sorry for putting out another seemingly promotional post in a row, but there are lessons to be learned from this one I assure you.

A couple months ago Stephane Grenier contacted me, wanting some buzz for his new blogging book (an actual physical book) and asked if I’d review it if he sent me a copy. It looked a decent product, so I agreed.

Anyways – I got the book a week or so ago – you can see a picture of it below. Camera quality is a bit shit, but hey, it arrived which is a bonus considering the postal system here.

Anyways… first, let me talk about the book.

The book consists of interviews with forty top marketers – not just bloggers, but also those that make money online through product sales, real business deals and other things. Some of the interviewees that you guys probably will have heard of are Aaron Wall (SEOBook), Seth Godin, Yaro Starak (Entrepreneur’s Journey), Trent Hamm (The Simple Dollar) and Stephane Grenier himself. You can see the rest of all that were interviewed over here.

I haven’t had the time to read the book too indepth (been busy with exams), but from what I’ve read it looks to be a solid product and definitely worth the small amount asked ($16.95 for a paperback). The book consists of forty interviews, all asking the same questions of forty top marketers, and you will learn a lot from it.

Some of the questions asked…

What is the common pitfall most new bloggers fall into?

If you knew what you know now when you started, what’s one biggest tip you’d give yourself today?

How long does it take to become a successful blogger?

What makes a blog successful according to you?

Remember, these are tips from those that have been there, done that. There are around twenty questions asked of each person, all related to blogging in some way.

You can buy the book here. (also available as an eBook but I’d recommend you get it in paperback).

Now… for the marketing lessons.

First one – it is awesomely easy to put together your own product.

I have no doubt that Stephane worked hard on this – you can see it in the final product, it’s quality. In fact, creating a ‘real’, tangible product is infinitely harder than creating a simple virtual one.

However, you can use the ideas in this to help you create your own digital product.

Stephane has used the leverage of others to create something of immense value – you can do the same.

Even if you have no clue of internet marketing, you can interview others that do and use that information to create a product of your own.

All you have to do is pitch your idea, plan effectively and you can create a simple product that you can easily sell in the $7-$17 price range.

Want something of greater value? How about audio interviews, or even a video one?

Here’s an idea for all of you.

Ask 5-10 marketers for ways to make money online. You can cover the basics, but ask politely and most will be happy enough to share specific tidbits of knowledge that they know work.

Get ONE (you’ll have to be persuasive!) marketer to agree to a one hour live session on Ustream.tv. You now have a high quality product as well as an online SEMINAR that you can easily sell for $50 if not more. You can even pay the marketer – $100 or $200, or just promise to promote it a lot. If you can get even 50 people interested in watching, that’s enough for most mid level marketers.

If you show the value that the marketer, and your customers will get, they’ll happily agree.The marketer can promote his stuff to eager customers; the customers get an hour to ask specific questions that they’re having problems with. Win / win.

Second one – physical stuff is easier to gain leverage with than digital stuff.

See, had Stephane created this only as an eBook, not to be harsh but I probably would have ignored the email… I get around twenty to thirty requests to promote eBooks weekly, and although some of them are decent, I don’t have the time to read all and then pick and choose.

A physical product on the other hand, if you physically mail something to a marketer… they’ll be a lot more likely to help you out. It’s not about the money… I could buy this book, as it’s cheap enough, but it’s sort of a novelty getting things for free in the mail. Way cool.

As you can see from the reviews page, there have been quite a few reviews of the product, lots of them on established blogs. Heck, take into account this blog alone – a paid review costs around $100, the product with shipping included can’t have cost more than $25 to send.

If you want some stuff (physical) of yours reviewed, the address is PO Box 450207, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I’ll be waiting…

This is the last post you’ll see on here from me for a while now – I’m off on vacation to Hong Kong. The blog will remain in good hands – Ryan McLean will be a hired poster on here for the next month or so, and I have a few friends looking after this to make sure nothing happens while I’m gone.

If any of you stay in Hong Kong and want to meet up for a drink, send me an email to my Gmail address. Happy New Year, and all the best in your efforts to ramp up your internet business for 2009.

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