Comments on: Moving up the food chain

By: Brian Carroll

Brian Carroll — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 20:13:05 +0000

Andrew, thanks so much for mentioning my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, on your blog. It’s being released on Monday, June 12th. I hope your readers gain a ton of value from reading it.

I started writing my book after I launched my blog. You’re giving your readers great advice.

Writing and publishing is all about demonstrating your expertise. Doing so gives you an edge to combat commoditization by attracting more business and proactively building your reputation. This is especially important in generating postitive word of mouth (WOM) too.

As an expert, people and companies will seek you out when they have problems. You’ll evolve from a vendor that is simply selling products and services to being an expert that is selling value. If you’re really good, people (you don’t even know) will start recommending you to their collegues and peers.

You’ve done a great job at doing those things. Keep up the great work! Cheers!

By: 3PointRoss

3PointRoss — Wed, 31 May 2006 22:25:59 +0000

While not as credible as writing a book, showing that you have well writen articles about your field also establishes credibility. While many of the articles I have writen may not be tailored toward my client audience, the fact that I have wrote them always has been one of the selling points towards picking my Company over another.

By: chris ward

chris ward — Wed, 31 May 2006 13:56:35 +0000

Thanks for the advice Andrew!

Thanks for the advice Andrew!

By: pdxi

pdxi — Wed, 31 May 2006 09:19:33 +0000

Jason,

I agree entirely with what you’re saying. Communicating effectively through a written medium is something that I learned after spending years of working with employers and clients almost exclusively through email. Maybe I’m not the most eloquent or articulate at times, but more often than not I’m able to convey an idea.

Maybe it’s too wordy (see above? :) ) but I try to be as precise as possible when writing. It creates an impression of credibility and professionalism, and it makes communicating a whole lot easier.

Most of the people that I’ve seen comment here have this ability as well, which makes me curious to see what other people might be doing. Does anyone have any good links from within the Sitepoint community?

Jeff

By: Jason Batten

Jason Batten — Wed, 31 May 2006 07:13:32 +0000

I’m in the same boat as pdxi. It is easy enough for people to just say “write something” but not everyone has the skills. Learning to become an effective writer for some people is a long process, for others it comes a lot more naturally. There are many different writing styles as well. For a lot of people I can see how they might think it is just another skill to learn.

In my experience a lot of authors lack the “effort” they put into their writing. Or perhaps I should explain it more as depth to the article’s or books subject. I see it as unprofessional to start writing about a subject then all of a sudden stop and write “well it’s out the scope of this article / book” - half of the time no links or other book titles are given. I’m going off on a bit of a rant but my point is not everyone should write if they aren’t going to do it properly.

By: pdxi

pdxi — Tue, 30 May 2006 22:27:58 +0000

I think everyone here should publish something. I’m working on it myself, even. It’s as simple as setting up your own web site, installing free software, and writing about whatever crosses your mind.

The web site that I’m setting up will be separate from my “professional” web site (which I’m also setting up right now… these things take time!), so that I will hopefully broaden its appeal.

Something to consider… !