Marketing myself

Recently I read the online book The Bootstrappers Bible (pdf). It's a short (100 pages) readable guide to bootstrapping a small business. One thing it highlighted to me is how absolutely essential it is for me to keep marketing myself, and to do that first, before doing anything else. It doesn't take a genius to work out that marketing is important, but for me it's always come second place behind improving my technical knowledge and ability. I used to take the cautious approach of learning absolutely everything I could about a language / technology / product before starting any paid work using it. I now believe that this is far far to cautious. My own experience, if I listen to it, tells me that I learn more and faster working on a challenging project for a client than I ever do from studying alone without a clear goal. Also, until I've actually talked to a client I don't know if what I'm learning / writing is what they want. I'm not saying that I should give up studying alone, or take on projects I know nothing at all about, just that if I let the breaks off a little it will get a bit scarier, but I'll have more success.

So, fired up with the motivation to get serious about marketing I've done a little research. I've looked at marieting books before, and they were terribly dry and difficult to apply. This time I've found a couple that I think I can get on with. I've ordered Permission Marketing and the followup Unleashing the Ideavirus. They should arrive tomorrow. Both deal with the idea of marketing through word of mouth. The New York Times has a related story The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders. I'm attracted to this idea of marketing as a conversation, rather than an interruption. It fits rather well with the ideas in the Cluetrain Manifesto which states that the spread of the internet is transforming the marketplace and the workplace from a top down command and control heirarchy into a network of peers.