There’s been a LOT of buzz lately over Itty Biz’s latest product, Online Business School.
If you don’t know Naomi Dunford, she runs Itty Biz, which offers consulting to small and home business owners. It’s through the Itty Biz blog that I started gaining more knowledge as to how to run my own web design business full time - especially in terms of marketing and self-promotion.
My Own Personal Experience With Itty Biz
It wasn’t long before I hired Naomi myself - you can read more on my Taking the Freelance Plunge post, as well as on this home business success story over on Itty Biz.
Long story short, I knew that I wanted to leave my day job to run my own business full time. I had the talent as a web designer, but not necessarily the sales or marketing skills to make it a viable option.
I knew I needed some expert advice, so I hired Itty Biz back in January. We had an amazing consultation that set so many things in motion! I can’t even begin to express how motivational my consultations with Naomi were!
She offered me amazing advice and support, and I credit her with being a big part of the reason I was able to take the “plunge” a full 6 months earlier than planned. Of course determination and talent played the largest role, but Naomi’s helpful advice helped steer me in the right direction.
Michael Martine of Remarkablogger just published a new eBook today…
Beginner’s Mind
Michael Martine is a Blog Consultant, and has a great deal of experience teaching computer, blogging and other technical skills to beginners. He utilizes his teaching abilities in this book, where he explains in plain English all of the information necessary to starting a business web site.
I’m very excited to announce that Naomi and Jamie of Itty Biz have just released their very first eBook:
Note: There’s a discount code at the bottom of the post…
I was lucky enough to know about this eBook well in advance of it’s launch day (today) so I already purchased my copy last week! I can’t wait to start reading it and implementing some if not ALL of the tactics to my web site and blog.
I’ve hired Naomi twice already, with another consultation setup for tomorrow afternoon, so I have no doubt whatever expertise she’s able to share through an eBook will be invaluable to say the least.
Here are some of the things you’ll learn in SEO School:
This is direct from the Itty Biz web site below - I figured it would be best to tell you exactly what’s included rather than try to paraphrase. Naomi is, after all, a marketing expert!
- How to figure out what you want to rank in Google for (it’s not what you think)
- How to maximize the number of people searching for your keywords while minimizing your competition
- When you want to optimize, and when you don’t
- Where to find free tools — what you should pay for and what you shouldn’t
- What to do about the Google sandbox
- How to get creative with your SEO — it’s not just stuffing a bunch of keywords in and crossing your fingers
- How to tell whether your niche is profitable — will you ever be able to rank for what you want?
- Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO — it’s not just for Westerns anymore
- How to capitalize on long tail search terms — the ones that the big guys aren’t even trying for
- Competition reconnaissance — how to know what you’re up against (Hint: ninjas are involved.)
In addition to the background stuff, you’ll come away with concrete, actionable ideas for what you can do to improve your Google ranking TODAY:
- 8 critical optimization tricks you can start using on your own site right now. Even if you don’t know anything about SEO. Even if you don’t know anything about websites.
- 6 ways to maximize the power of your inbound links, the thing Google looks at first
There are also two special sections at the end:
- For Bloggers Only: The 3 reasons you NEED a blog, even if you can’t write - 7 blog-specific ways to improve your SEO
- The Future of Google: What to know and do now so you don’t have to redo this stuff again every six months for the rest of your life.
Special Offer - $9 OFF until July 1st
For a limited time - until July 1st, 2008 - you can get $9 off the eBook with Discount Code: MovingDay
You can’t go wrong with that, now, can you? Be sure to get your copy of SEO School: How to Become an SEO Ninja today!
I just came across a new Ebook from one of my favorite blogs! Freelance Switch is an amazing blog for Freelancers. I’d just about have to say that it actually is my favorite blog.
They’ve recently published a 212 page Ebook titled How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer. (Currently available as an Ebook… due out in Paperback in January 2008!)
I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy yet - this book is extremely high on my wish list, though… if I get a little extra Christmas money, I very well plan on spending some of it right here. 
So anyway, I can’t give my own review, but from what I’ve heard from other people who have read this book, it is a great resource. It apparently covers information that is not included on the blog. Goodness knows I’ve received invaluable advice from the Freelance Switch blog, so I can only imagine how much more helpful this book will be.
Topics include…
- Getting Your First Jobs
- Scoping & Timeframes
- Pricing Yourself
- Doing the Job
- Clients
- Getting Paid
- Marketing Yourself
- Building a Business
This sounds like a truly great read. A perfect last minute Christmas gift for any Freelancers out there.
