(Naomi’s note: Hey. I’m on vacation. This shouldn’t affect your life in any way, other than you’ll probably get a faster turnaround on emails since Megan Elizabeth Morris will be dealing with the urgent ones. Also, I’ll post more often, since she’ll be publishing my posts and she doesn’t forget like I do. And we’re making a few announcements this week, and you’ll actually get them in a timely manner. So actually, your life will probably improve markedly.)

So two things dawned on me after my last post ran here on IttyBiz. One, I think Abe Vigoda is dead but am not sure, and that quandary unsettles me. But perhaps more importantly, I should probably make it clear at all times that what you’re seeing when I write here and what you’re seeing a lot of the time when I write elsewhere is a case study. A lot of the time I’m not saying, “this is how it’s done.” I’m saying, “this is what I did.” Then I say, “This movie should really star Abe Vigoda. What? He’s dead? SHIT!”

It just goes to show that there is more than one way to skin a cat, which is a really disgusting expression when you think about it.

So for instance: A few people have contacted me privately to ask about niche websites, probably because they feel like an attractive entry point for a lot of people. Niche websites feel like the Ronco Rotisserie of internet commerce, where you just set it and forget it, then wait for the FedEx guy to show up with your massive AdSense checks and untold volumes of Moroccan hash. But personally, I didn’t find them easy at all. In fact, I abandoned them after setting up seven or eight niche sites, and in the past seven months or so, all of them together have earned $94. (They’re still up; I just ignore them.) Because AdSense won’t pay you until you hit $100, I’d still be waiting for my first internet dollar if I had used only that route.

But does this mean niche sites don’t work? No… or at least, I’m not willing to say that. I’m just saying they didn’t work for me.

And in my last post, when I said I started giving stuff away to build relationships and only then began selling? Not the only way to do it. Just the way I did it. And when I wrote about how SEO kind of sucks, I was speaking from my own experience, wherein relationships and word of mouth drew far better traffic than I would expect from the engines… again, for my type of business.

So when you read what I write, remember that you’re reading a case study. But it’s a good one, if I may be totally immodest. This business is only six months old, and it has now totally replaced my old income. Which, by the way, had to support a family of four with a mortgage and some hideous real estate investments.

That means that if I went to an office every day, I’d be quitting my job now. Do I count as one of the IttyBiz 1000?

(Naomi’s vacation note # 1: Yes.)

So anyway, on to today’s lesson, or at least to today’s installment of “this is what I did.”

How I began exposing myself

I don’t think it will surprise anyone that just about any business is about numbers. If you run a corner store, you want it on a street with a lot of foot traffic because more people walking by means more who stop at your store. If you run niche sites, you want as many people coming to those sites as possible because that means more will click on your ads. No matter what you do, a primary goal is to have as many eyes on you as possible. Conversion to customers obviously matters, but more visitors means more people available for conversion.

Knowing this, my biggest goal (secondary only to building good services and products to sell) was to get as much exposure as possible.

Because I wasn’t relying on search engine traffic to my sites and was in fact quite busy dodging shiruken angrily thrown at me by SEO expert Michael Martine, I needed to find other ways to get in front of people.

So I looked around to see who I knew.

Let’s step back a second, because by the time I was doing this, I already knew Naomi. A few people have even suggested that the fact that I knew her was the reason I was able to grow so quickly. But think about that for a second: Naomi isn’t my aunt. She’s not my neighbor. The only reason I knew her was because I kind of (KIND of) knew Havi Brooks. And although I’ve never confirmed it, I suspect I only knew Havi (or that she only knew me) because in late 2008, Chuck Westbrook did a little blog experiment and I was part of that. And how did I know Chuck? I didn’t. He put out a call for entries in his experiment, and I entered. I introduced myself on Twitter. It was up to him to decide whether he liked what I did or not.

In other words: Yes, I knew Naomi. And yes, knowing her helped my business. But I only knew her because of a series of connections, and she only began working with me because she liked what I did and apparently felt that I could help her as much as she could help me. This wasn’t an existing friend granting me a favor. There had to be an exchange of mutual benefit, and a bit of balls on my part to make the initial contact and suggest this little public experiment you’ve been watching.

(Naomi’s vacation note # 2: SpeakEasy members, you know how I’m always telling you to make contact with strangers? And you know how you always delete the email and roll your eyes? People’s exhibit A, y’all.)

The cool thing about getting to know someone with an audience is that once you do, you have a stage upon which to perform for other people. Sometimes, the people you’re now exposed to are people who can expose you even further. A lot of people like that (Darren Rowse of Problogger, Brian Clark and Sonia Simone of Copyblogger) know Naomi and watch what she does. So once I was on a stage in front of these folks, I got to perform for them, too.

Or perhaps more accurately, I got to audition for them, and do that “balls” thing again to see if I couldn’t get onto their stages as well.

This analogy is pretty accurate, too. Nobody owed me anything, and I wasn’t digging for sympathy exposure: “Hey, as a favor, check out this halfhearted post by some guy you’ve never heard of.”

Nope. Each new contact was an audition.

Every time I stepped in front of a new group of people, I thought of it like trying out for a role or a coveted position. I wanted to please readers, and I wanted to impress the people who had platforms of their own. When Naomi introduced me to Darren Rowse of Problogger, I busted my ass to write posts that Darren would love and that would benefit his readers, like the one on how to build trust online. I polished the shit out of my first post for Copyblogger, and kept sending more and more as long as Brian, Sonia, and Jon kept saying they liked them.

Wanting to maintain the exposure I already had, I also asked Naomi if what I was writing still appealed to her and to you fine folks.

She said, “About half of them like you. About half of them hate you. Maybe try to be less promotional about your own stuff.”

So I got my head out of my ass and tried to promote less when I wrote here. Tried to inform more, to answer both the questions you were asking and the questions you were implying. Remember, no step of this is about favors. Nobody owed me a position writing for y’all.

And all the while, I kept reaching out and making new contacts.

Naomi introduced me to Clay Collins. Clay liked what I did (I performed well at my internet-wide audition), and that’s why I ended up working on Project Mojave.

Through Clay, I met Michael Martine of Remarkablogger and Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind…. and through Michael, I met one of my most interesting and most promising new clients.

And then I realized that that client dated my wife briefly in college, proving that this big world really is a tiny, tiny place.

Everyone knows people. Everyone can branch out, connect, audition, and grow their network. This is a small world. You never know who knows whom.

But before I tie this up, I want to say one thing very clearly: I am not talking about using people, kissing ass, or climbing some sort of fucking internet ladder.

Got it? I will find and kick the ass of anyone who uses and steps on people. I will find and kick the ass of anyone who thinks the process is meet, climb up, dispose, repeat. Same for anyone who feels that only people who are well-known are worth meeting. You never know which casual exchange with someone you’ve never heard of on Twitter might lead to some great thing down the road. You never know which casual exchange will impact and benefit someone else, in a pay-it-forward sort of way.

As you do this, always remember that YOU are a giver as well as a receiver. If YOU only want to exploit and receive, then YOU a user and YOU kind of suck.

And whatever you do, don’t complain that you don’t know anyone. Everyone knows people, especially in the internet age. Haven’t you heard of that whole six degrees of separation thing? You might know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows knows the president. And the president called Kanye West “a jackass.” Think about it.

(Naomi’s vacation note # 3: I recently discovered that I am only three degrees away from Kevin Bacon. Through someone I met on the internet. HA!)

Build your network. More eyes on you means more potential to succeed. Your goal is to get those eyes, and also to watch out for Abe Vigoda’s zombie.