I’ve realized two things since I’ve started my business:

1. My business evolves and matures, and is differnet than what I thought it would be (and will probably be different in two years than what I can conceptualize right now).
2. I have a lot of cool stuff that I can put a value on.  Aside from JibberJobber, I have books, webinars and consulting.  All of these are revenue stream opportunities.

Over the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about revenue streams… or should I say opportunities?  There are many things that make up the composition of “ideal” in my business:

• Automated.  Has to be something that won’t require me to do any fulfillment.  JibberJobber upgrades are one example.  Book sales through my publisher is another example.
• Repeat value.  I have to provide *stuff* that is valuable, or else I won’t feel good about hawking my warez.  Is this stuff that helps people, or businesses (more of an emphasis on people)?  Really??  If it’s just vapor-value, I don’t want to do it.  Don’t want to worry about returns, complaints, and certainly not diminishing my brand.
• Complementary.  I hear you can make good money selling stuff on ebay.  Or getting into an MLM.  Or flying a plane, or doing brain surgery. Okay, that’s extreme, but you get my point.  I want to stay within a certain boundary of what I provide, produce, offer and sell.  Would any of the people who buy one product be interested in another product, or other products, I have?  
• Seizing the window (of opportunity).  I hate to miss a window of opportunity, so the info has to be timely.  LinkedIn is timely, so the book does well.  What else is timely, and what might I be doing that isn’t timely?
• Not fad-based.  Would have been nice to have gotten in on some fads, but really, I am not interested in producing a fad unless I can sell for a grundle of money.  I want something with long-term, sustainable value.

Understand, I have my “product line.”  I’m not looking for other mousetraps, or products, or services… I’m just thinking about how to better market my stuff.

Want to join me on the journey?  Your welcome to – I’ll blog about it here!

I’m working on I’m on Twitter — Now What??? Yes, I’m a nut.  A crazy nut.  I swore I wouldn’t do a second book.  Swore more I wouldn’t do a third book.  Now I’m going to to stop swearing, since I have a fourth book I am going to do, and am anxious to write another top secret book (not a “Now What” book).

I signed up for Help a Reporter Out (HARO) a few weeks ago and have enjoyed watching Peter Shankman grow this concept into a very powerful resource for journalists.  I subscribed thinking maybe there were opportunities for me to be an expert… never did I think I’d ask for sources for an article.  Here’s the top of the HARO website:

Then I saw solicitation for input on various books, and thought maybe I should try it out.  So I did.  I put this:

11) Summary: Input for Twitter book

Name: Jason Alba

Email: Jason@JibberJobber.com

Title: I’m on Twitter — Now What???

Media Outlet/Publication: book

Anonymous? No

Specific Geographic Region? No

Region:

Deadline: 12:00 PM MOUNTAIN – July 31

Query:

“I am working on I’m on Twitter — Now What??? (following I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? and I’m on Facebook — Now What???) and am looking for input.

Has Twitter helped you improve your network, your brand, increase revenues (make sales), etc?

What do you LOVE about Twitter, and what do you HATE about it? What confuses you about it?

Specific examples or stories are what I’m looking for. Please send answers (or questions), and your Twitter handle, to Jason@JibberJobber.com”

I can’t believe the amazing responses I’ve gotten.  Twitter n00bies, Twitter early adopters, businesses, professionals.  Some Twitter haters (or, I-don’t-getters), mostly people saying “I resisted for a long time but then I tried it out and have been amazed at what it is.”

I’m getting excellent input.  How much input?

I have received 36 e-mails from people answering my questions. And the question came out about 8 hours ago.  I’m sure I’ll get more through the next week.

Love Twitter, hate Twitter, results from Twitter (ROI)… it’s all there.  This HARO resource is phenomenal… thank you Peter Shankman, this isn’t the last time I’m using HARO!

I took a break from checking my stats on Amazon, since my book should be past it’s prime, as far as what I’m told.  But I’m pleasantly surprised to see that it’s still doing well:

In the highlight, this shows it’s the four thousanth most popular book that Amazon sells (during this period, which I think is limited to an hour or a few hours).

The red arrow shows it’s the eighth most popular book in the Job Hunting book category.  Here’s some interesting observations with that:

1. The number one book in this category is Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Sucessful Personal Brand on the Business Battlefield … funny that it only has 1 customer review, but it is a McGraw-Hill book, and a second edition.  It’s also #144 of ALL books sold in this period – big kudos to author D’Alessandro.
2. Unbelievable that the always-#1 book in this category, What color is your parachute, is knocked to #2!  That won’t last long, but it’s good to see a new #1 for now
3. I own the next three books, in #9,  Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams  #10 How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them  and #11 Knock ‘em Dead, 2008: The Ultimate Job Search Guide (Knock ‘em Dead).  It’s great to see my friends’ books there.
4. Surprisingly, I’m on Facebook — Now What??? is sitting at #16. That might be the highest I’ve seen it there… while I have seen my LinkedIn book down around #40 or somewhere around there.

Amazon stats are quite fickle, so I don’t pretend there’s any science here, but it’s fun to pontificate every once in a while

One of my goals this year was to have a full article dedicated to me in The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.  This is because I was told by someone that that is where JibberJobber would get credibility – not through any articles I wrote on my own.

I’m happy to share an article that just went live today, which has turned into one of my favorite articles… the title is Boosting Your Sales With Social Networking.  How cool is that?

I recently posted on the LI blog about hitting almost 2,000… in fact, it was at 2,058. You can see the braggy post here.

… now, we just need to break 1,000!

No, I’m not writing a book on the Apple. Jesse, my coauthor writes:

You think Apple’s copying your first book or our current book?

This last year I wrote “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???” which has become a wildly successful book to help professionals wrap their brains around LinkedIn, and figure out what they should do (aside from just logging in to accept invitations).  How do I know it is wildly successful?  Because my son just bought one from me a couple of days ago… that’s saying something!

Anyway, this time I’m teaming up with Facebook guru Jesse Stay to write I’m on Facebook — Now What???  I thought about writing this earlier this year but decided not to because I figured the 30million (at the time) signups on Facebook either (a) didn’t need it, or (b) didn’t/wouldn’t read books.  I assumed that all/most of them where college kids… assumptions, assumptions.

Obviously, FB has taken the world by storm, and there are a lot more than just college kids looking to get hooked up there.  People are using it for personal branding, business branding, marketing (books, warez, services, etc.) … and it’s not exclusive to college kids anymore.

It’s also growing quickly, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah – you already know this stuff.  It’s hot.

If you are interested in contributing please send an e-mail to my e-mail (Jason @ JibberJobber dot com) with anything you would advice the readers.  Do you have FB advice?  Suggestions on how to use it?  What to do or not do with your profile, applications, privacy issues, etc?  Do you have any specific examples or case studies of people getting jobs, selling things, etc. on Facebook?  Send them in!

After reading the book people are going to walk away with ideas and actionable suggestions, not just a history and understanding of FB.

If you are a blogger, or in the media, please shoot me an e-mail and I’ll put you on the list to get an early draft (probably not edited) so we can get your early input, possibly an endorsement, etc.  We’d like to spread the word as much as possible… if you can help let me know.  And, the publisher has an affiliate program that offers a lot more than Amazon’s piddly affiliate program.

If you want to get a better idea of the LinkedIn book, to see how it’s marketed, pricing, etc. you can check it out at http://www.HappyAbout.info/linkedinhelp.php.

I’m going to keep a running list of places to submit press releases here, since I have to do my own :p

From YoungPRPros mailing list:

http://www.openpr.com – “…works well, it appears very quickly in Google News, and you can add an image (which most often than not, also appears in Google News). The only downside is that you can’t embed hyperlinks.” (hat tip to Livia Squires for the site and Rachel Hawkes for the comments on the site) Update from Livia – you can embed hyperlinks – see her example here.

From another Yahoo! list (11/8/07):

http://www.prfree.com UGH – I registered, but can’t complete without printing out a pdf, signing it and then faxing it in. I don’t have a fax machine yo!

http://www.free-press-release.com easy to do, here’s my first submission (no registration required)

http://www.prleap.com

http://www.press-base.com/add-press.html

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com

http://www.pr.com/press-releases

http://www.free-news-release.com/

http://i-newswire.com/submit_free.php

Props to Linda Blatchford.

I’d like to get a few more one or two sentence quotes (gems) that are going at the end of the chapters… here are some examples of how they are going to look:

For the chapter on ANSWERS:

“When you ask a question on the “Answers” forum take the time to thank each person who tried to help. Then remember to close and rate the question. People have taken the time to help you; it is simple common courtesy to thank them.”

– Sheilah Etheridge, owner of SME Management

For the chapter on SEARCHING

“Browse the networks of others. Take the time to look through the networks of your direct connects. This is where you can easily find people you’d like to connect with and you’ll know you can ask your contact to help with the connection.”

– Scott Ingram, NetworkingInAustin.com

Note, I’m not looking for “LinkedIn is great” comments, rather specific gems that pertain to the chapters. Here is what I need (the number represents how many quote I’m looking for):

• Account and Settings 4
• Searching 4
• How Degrees of Separation Works 5
• Recommendations 4
• Jobs & Hiring 5
• Services 5
• LinkedIn Groups 5
• LinkedIn Answers 3
• LinkedIn for Personal Branding 5
• Shady Practices 5
• On Netiquette 5
• Complementary Tools and Resources 5

If you can, please send me one or two sentences for any of the above chapters… (jason at jibberjobber dot com) … thanks!

I asked Wendy for some do’s and don’ts on book promotion – here’s a quick list:

DO:

1. Be visible – at conferences, workshops, etc. – either as a speaker and/or an exhibitor.
2. Set up an e-commerce site to sell your book online.
3. Join many professional associations as a vehicle to increase your visibility and generate more book sales.
4. Connect with “specialty” audiences that may be interested in your book (e.g., for my military resume book, I do a look of military job fairs).
5. Write articles – paid or not – to increase visibility of you and the book.
6. Send free copies to various search engines, websites, publications and more in anticipation of getting free press.
7. Send a press release announcing your book (PRWeb.com is a great resource for this).

DON’T:

1. Don’t waste your time doing book signings at bookstores. They rarely yield more than a bare handful of book sales.
2. Don’t rely on the publisher to do all of the book marketing. They’re going to rely on you heavily to get the word out.

Thanks Wendy!