A Perfect Exmaple Of Personal Branding
I don’t think people are realizing the power of personal branding. I think a lot of people still believe it does not work, or is not effective. Well, I have the perfect example of personal branding for these people.
That example is Jeremy Schoemaker. Hate him or love him the strength of his “Shoemoney” brand cannot be denied. He has become one of the most recognizable bloggers, not only by his logo but his face and name. He built this brand simply through blogging and using social media outlets. Something you can learn here on SmmGuru is that the information im giving you does work. Schoemaker has launched a number of services over the last year or two including AuctionAds (now ShoppingAds) and his ShoemoneyTools program. AuctionAds was bought by Media Whiz for an undisclosed price and ShoemoneyTools seems to be doing well also.
Why does this work… Because the Shoemoney brand has an audience. Jeremy is able to build massive amounts of press and traffic for whatever it is he’s promoting. Using the people he knows and his position in the blogging community, his blog has also been a go to place for launching related products and services. Once you have a name to brand, all you need to do is build your image online. If you can make your face as recognizable as a logo, chances are you will succeed.
And you should now understand that personal branding does work. Jeremy has mentioned that he makes over $300K a month on his blog and it’s all due to his brand name. Just like your favorite cereal, he has become a product of the internet with the ability to sell himself.
I blogged about this today. What is one word that comes to mind when you think of Shoemoney? ADSENSE! That picture keeps coming back again and again. The more times you see something, the more you remember it and associate it with the brand.
@Dan Schawbel: Shoemoney thinks Adsense is Welfare for Webmasters. Even today, as I write this post he is on a panel at the DMA speaking on Blog Monetization. He did a video interview a while back at BlogWorld with Stephan Spencer. In the video he mentioned about the panel that they were both going to be on at the DMA. He clearly stated that he totally is for monetizing outside of adsense. It was interesting that he mentioned the history of the check. The interesting part being that he got the check and realized how much money he was missing out on by monetizing with adsense, and that is when he discovered affiliate marketing and made even more then he did with adsense.
Shoemoney is not branding himself in association with adsense in that picture. Google has a trust, or atleast a big brand, among people. Shoemoney is leveraging that reputation of Google to promote himself in that picture. Its not about Adsense, its about Shoemoney brand recognition. Funny thing is, I never really realized it till I read your comment Dan, thanks for making me think.
I don’t associate him as being branded by his AdSense experience. I look at the check as more of a viral piece of content that helped him create the shoemoney brand.