This week, I chronicle the mistakes, missteps and muck ups that cost me big in 2007. Although I listed these in an article I wrote almost three years ago, it seems that I’m still repeating some of the same mistakes.
So, I’m listing the 5 mistakes that cost me big in 2007 and what lessons I learned. I’m releasing these daily to help you help me not repeat these in 2008.
Mistake, Misstep & Muck Up #1 – Spending way too much time on the techie things in my business
I can put together an HTML page in my sleep. I can also install and configure a WordPress blog effortlessly. Editing and mixing audio files are just too darn easy for me to do. Yet, every time I do these tasks, it takes me away from what I’m really good at – marketing and promoting my brand. And if I ain’t doing marketing and promotions, my business isn’t growing.
LESSON LEARNED – Delegate my technical tasks to someone else.
Steve, I’m not going to “sell” my book to you. Instead, click on the link below to read comments that others have about the book itself.
http://www.leesabarnes.com/the-book/
Leesa wrote: “how can I turn ‘Podcasting for Profit’ into a bestseller without promotion? Since self promotion to you is tacky, please recommend some ideas on how I can get my book into as many hands as possible without promotion. I’m genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts on this one.”
I took some time to think about this because I wanted to give you a really thoughtful answer. Everything I thought of to say didn’t directly answer your question.
A core belief of mine has always been that work which is truly brilliant and worthwhile will sell itself by word of mouth. If my work is not so “freakin’ awesome” that people will find it for themselves and enthusiastically spread the word for me, then the problem is with the quality of the product.
But to preempt one of your arguments: I realize that the majority of people are out there creating less-than-clearly-outstanding work which is still adequate for someone’s needs, but is never going to take the world by storm. How one makes an honest living at that is certainly a hard problem in my experience.
Unfortunately, I spent way too many years as the guy who had to create reality out of the fantastic promises made by unscrupulous marketing and sales people. So I may be a bit scarred, and thus run the other way from anyone who reeks of unearned confidence or unwarranted bragging.
So to answer your question directly: My own attitude would be that if my book didn’t take off and become a best seller on its own, I would accept that the reason was because it just wasn’t a great-enough book to deserve that level of success.
On this, I’m certain we’ll disagree.
Leesa wrote: “I don’t recognize the URL you plugged into your comments.”
1. Go to: http://validator.w3.org/
It’s the official validator that tells you if your HTML is standards compliant, and thus will display reliably on the widest range of browsers.
2. Type the URL of your site into the “URI” field.
3. Give the resulting error report to whoever built your web site, or developed your back-end package.
Steve, it’s been awhile. Good seeing you here.
Now, you and I will always disagree on how to promote one’s brand. Self promotion can never be tacky or crass in my eyes. I wouldn’t have found the audio production person if she DIDN’T self promote. Now she has a thriving business and continues to self promote.
Another example – I have a book out. Sales are coming in. Yet, how do those sales come in? I attend events, I lead sessions, I contact people with mailing lists and ask if I can introduce podcasting to their audience.
Let me ask you Steve – how can I turn “Podcasting for Profit” into a bestseller without promotion? Since self promotion to you is tacky, please recommend some ideas on how I can get my book into as many hands as possible without promotion. I’m genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts on this one.
BTW, I don’t recognize the URL you plugged into your comments. This blog doesn’t run on HTML. It’s dynamically generated using PHP and MySQL. I’m not interested in hiring someone and wasting money if I have no clue what the problem is.
There’s something so inherently tacky and crass about people who are avid self promoters. I’d much rather pay someone else to do that, while I do the fun stuff of researching, writing, field recording, traveling, editing, mixing, and producing a great radio show and podcast. If it’s good enough, my fans will promote it for me. For me to promote it myself is just rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.
And BTW, you should hire a different person to do your HTML. The code on this site doesn’t validate: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leesabarnes.com%2Fmistake-1-spending-time-on-techie-stuff%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
Peter, you are too funny! I laughed after I read your comment.
Actually, I know an excellent audio production person. Her name is Andrea Kalli and she absolutely loves audio production. Go to http://www.virtualassist.net and click on Podcasters Corner for more on her services.
YES! you SHOULD delegate your audio production to someone else and because I am such a good friend, I’ll volunteer to have you pay me to do it! 😉
Best always,
– Peter