Branding David

Who is Chris Garrett?
Chris Garrett is a well known blogger and consultant that I respect. I have followed his career for some time now, and have always enjoyed his writing. One of the most interesting things about Chris was his passion for blogging, especially two years ago where you couldn’t visit a popular blogging information site without seeing a post or two from Chris.

Chris Garrett has co-authored what is quickly being considered the “de facto” book on blogging, entitled Problogger – Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.

He has also authored and co-authored a few other books over the course of his career related to blogging and programming.

Born in Canada, like myself, Chris now lives in the UK with his family. He has picked up the accent, but will always be Canadian.

Why am I a fan of his?
Chris has found a way to build a strong business online through branding himself, despite the numerous sites he has written on over his career. He has figured out a way to promote himself, and his services while maintaining integrity.

Chris is currently running an Authority Blogger forum and course, as well as working on Performancing branded projects for Splashpress Media.

He has dealt with many of the things I, as a personal brand, am dealing with now, and was able to succeed, despite the numerous things on his plate. Chris is an inspiration.

One of the things I am realizing in building and promoting this site is that most companies and a large section of the general public don’t understand branding well enough and even less so when it comes to building brands on the web.

They assume that if they just throw money at people that they will grow their brand or that buzz words will spellbind us all into buying their products, but if you are talking about branding a product, person, or company, what really works? What would be the online branding tip that you think everyone should know?

Leave a comment with your answer or write a post on your blog and let me know about it, and the best tip by November 1st will win a 6 Month Access Pass to Performancing Hive, a great private forum for web developers, designers, bloggers, internet marketers, and real experts in the field of online branding. This is a $60 value, but definitely worth more than that with the amazing people trading secrets, advice and tips on there.

While not a requirement of the contest, I would also love for everyone to sign up for my RSS feed and my newsletter. The newsletter will start early in the new year, and will include tips, thoughts and other advantages over top of what you will see here on the blog.

Recently, I was asked if I would be willing to donate a prize to Blogging Tips’ Forum competition, run by a good friend of mine, Kevin Muldoon. Of course, I said yes, and donated two hours of my time towards his contest.

Contest Details

There are two parts to the contest. One is points based and you’ll gain points by posting on the forum, referring other users, and other forum related actions. The person with the most points will earn themselves a quick $200.

The second part is based around a weekly challenge or question in the forum and each week a winner will be selected. The prizes range in value and run the gamut with e-books, WordPress premium themes, premium plugins, copies of the Problogger book, and of course two hours of my consulting time.

My Prize

The winner of the prize that I tossed into the pool will have access to my talents, services, and knowledge for two hours in any way they see fit. If they want to talk over the phone, instant messenger, Skype or have me go do some streaming video on Ustream, that is their choice, and I will be happy to accommodate.

I will be helping the winner with their blog, from suggesting helpful plugins, promotion techniques, content ideas, networking suggestions, and more. At the end of the two hours, I will have transferred over three years of knowledge into the winner as quickly and usefully as possible, and give them many actionable items that they can than use to build their blog bigger, stronger, and if they so choose, more profitable.

If you are looking for a chance to have me help you out for free, this contest will be the only time I give my services away for free in such a manner, so I suggest you join the Blogging Tips forum contest, and keep an eye out for the question relating to my prize.