Sketchbook

The Unconventional Guide To Internet Marketing

Clark R. Covington

Full disclosure time: I tweeted a request for recommendations for books on selling. Covington tweeted an invite to check out his books on Amazon. I scurried over, but he was out of stock. He very kindly sent me a copy.  I read the introduction right away before I headed to work. However, I put off reading the rest for a few weeks. There’s a lot of pressure. What if I don’t like it? What if it has nothing to do with my line of business, but I still “have” to review it (that is purely my own pressure as I was never asked to review it/he probably doesn’t even know I review books on my blog/has never seen my blog)? I also have about 8 other various books I am reading at any given time.  Some for the business side, some for the art side and some just because I love to read.  So with out any further ado…..

I have to say I like Clark R. Covington. Not just because he sent me a book (although that is a huge plus) and not solely because he has an easy chair called the Sumo, although I too have a gigantic Lay-Z-Boy that takes the place of my office most days once in a very long while.  I like Covington because he doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously and because he celebrates people owning their uniqueness. And I quote:

“Embrace the information in this book, and then immediately challenge yourself to be different, to stand out, to do things your own way, and there is a good chance the rewards of your risk-taking will come sooner than you’ve ever thought possible.”

When people say things like that I know they get it. They get that being yourself and bringing that thing that no one else can bring is what makes the world go round.

Another paragraph that I need to share with you is this:

“Think back to your happiest time, the time that you daydream with your fingers crossed will come again. think about that time: Did you have to overcome something to get there? Did you have to fall a few times and get back up before that happiness overcame you as you tasted sweet success?…If you are going to succed, you must fail first.“

I also love it when people tell me it’s okay to fail. After all, my personal motto is, “If you are going to fail, fail hard.” I have failed enough at enough things to know failing is a pretty good thing, even if it hurts at the moment.

I could share a few more with you, but perhaps you should get your own copy.

Covington writes like he is talking directly to you. I find that very easy to read especially when the topic at hand is not something I am familiar with.

It’s not all butterflies and rainbows though, he knows how to get down to business. Clearly. After all, he did write a book about it.

It could be argued that a lot of this book is an ad for his services as well. Why shouldn’t it be? If you trust a guy enough to take his advice about internet marketing, wouldn’t you want to know about all his other products as well?

This book may not be for everyone, but I definitely think there are a lot of great ideas in here. I know on several occasions it has had my mind racing with new ideas.

Being a fine artist and therefore being the only person who can create my particular artwork, implementing some of the ideas Covington introduces may seem a bit of a stretch at first, but I know with some creative thinking (it is what I do) I could use most of them to my advantage.

*Like all the other books I mention there is now a link on the side bar.

Why? Because what else are you going to do on a Tuesday.

Just for fun:

Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies in a minute and a half? Sign me up, please.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-waffle.aspx

Marketing:

http://emptyeasel.com/2007/04/30/7-tips-for-selling-art-online-how-to-help-buyers-find-your-artwork/

(Katie, Sharon, lurking Artists at large, et al ^^^^check this site out^^^^,  on the home page you can submit your art for review, i.e. publicity.)

http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2009/11/marketing-mondays-youve-been-asked-to.html

Contests:

http://artistsonline.biz/wordpress/?p=61

Art:

http://danidraws.com/2009/11/09/why-i-share/#more-2110 (blog)

http://www.dailypainters.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p4gq5 (So You Think You Can Make Art?)

Look at me….all fancy. Thanks to Sharon I have a logo! I’m very excited to share this with everyone. Sharon took my handwriting, made it legible and turned out a lovely image. And she did it all with a very quick turn around time.  As soon as I make a bit of money I am going to have her do my blog and twitter background!..So get your  original art work for the holidays now! LOL

By: Joel Comm

In the name of full disclosure I must say I knew virtually nothing about Twitter before I read this book. I knew that it was similar to the Facebook status and that everyone seemed to be on Twitter. I definitely did not see what the big deal was, and honestly, I still don’t. However, that is most likely my own inability to adapt to yet another social network.  I do think it’s cool that I can follow Barack Obama and that an amazing author can follow me (did I mention I geeked out over Alyson B. Stanfield following me on Twitter?! No? Well she is and I am geeking out.)

Now for the book review:

I did receive a few very good ideas from this book. I do feel that I know much more about the purpose of Twitter now, even if I am not amazed by it yet. According to Comm, and I am sure many other people, Twitter is one giant conversation. You can have a conversation with anyone and with millions of people. It’s 24 hours and the party never stops. Twitter is a way to market yourself and to communicate with businesses that are marketing to you. Most importantly Twitter is for experts. Lots of experts twittering about what they do. People asking experts questions and experts linking to things. If you have enough experts following you then you too can be an expert. Or at least play one on Twitter.

Comm told me how to tweet, when to tweet, and what kind of tweets I should be tweeting.  One of the most helpful topics in Twitter Power is the Twitter applications.  These applications help you use Twitter to it’s fullest potential as a marketing and communications tool.

This book will tell you whether or not it’s important to have a custom background (it is), how to find out who your biggest followers are, and how to find out if you are being talked about.

I like that this book has a 30 day plan, but I wish it was at the front of the book. I could have been implementing the plan while reading the rest of the book and I think that would have kept my interest up.  I say check that out first and get to work.

I skimmed at least one full chapter of the book because some of it wasn’t as useful to a one person business, but I was still able to glean a bit from those parts and apply it to my situation.

I found Twitter Power to be a bit dry and very repetitive. Even with all the technical speak, which probably isn’t as much as I thought, it was still a pretty fast read and like I said in the beginning I learned some good tips. Plus a little repetition never hurt anyone, I hear it takes a person hearing something three times before they know it. I’m pretty sure I will be referring back to this book and the notes I took in the future.

Comm donates 10 percent of his proceeds of the “book to WaterIsLive.com, a nonprofit organization working to provide clean drinking water to a portion of the one-half billlion of the world’s population who are deprived of our most basic need.” (Comm, dedication page)

I am still confused about Twitter and all that goes with it, but I think that will only subside with practice. I do recommend this book for anyone who is interested in using Twitter to get in touch with their clients and/or discuss their field of business with other people who are interested. Twitter is the networking tool and that is pretty exciting.

If you have read the book or read the book, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear some of the ideas that this book inspired.

Note: There will now be a link to the right for all the books on the book review list. (Just one of the many ideas I learned about from Twitter Power) If you are interested in the book and use the link on the left I earn 4%. I do not get paid to review the books. I solely review books that I read for my business. My reviews are exactly what I think of the book and what I would tell any one asking my personal opinion about said books. I am just trying to pass on any useful information and get a discussion going about that information.

Note II: Originally posted 9/29/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com

The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion By Alyson B. Stanfield

This book is amazing. It has so many tips and ideas that it was hard for me to read it for more than 15 minutes at a time. I kept getting excited and worked up about all the things I can do to get my work out to the public. I actually got the idea for my business card design from this book.

There are also plenty of resources and websites. Stanfield uses action steps to help bust through the excuses that a lot of people, not just artists, use to hold themselves back.

I started this book around April, but with all my traveling I really didn’t have the stamina to keep working myself up. I was not able to get in the studio to follow through with any of the ideas and it was frustrating. It took me about two weeks to finish it cover to cover, even though it is a really fast read.  Like I said about 15 minutes in I would start daydreaming and going off on tangents of all the things I could do.

I know I will be going back to this book over and over again. I will be re-reading these chapters countless times over the next few months let alone years.

When I owned a house that had rental property with it there was a book that we jokingly called our bible. It was what we used to make contracts and what we used to set up rules with the tenants. I’d Rather Be In The Studio is my artist bible.

*Edit: Yes, this is a short review, but there really isn’t much to say other than: Read it!
If you have read this book let me know what you think about it. I would love to hear any ideas that were inspired from this book. If you don’t think this book is as great as I make it out to be let me know what your favorite books on the subject are. I am always looking for more to read.

Note: Originally posted on 7/25/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com