I’ve compiled a free ebook on personal branding called Personal Branding for the Business Professional (pdf format). It runs just about 15 pages (including the cover) and contains everything from strategy advice to some considerations to over 100 tactics and ideas on what to do next.
Most of the ideas come from previous blog posts, but as there have been several new subscribers in the last several months, and because I believe that the information might spread further in an ebook format, I wanted to give it to you free, and without any sign up or anything.
Free eBook on Personal Branding
If you like what you read, please consider blogging a link back to
this post so that people know where to get the ebook. If you’d like to share copies with someone else, please point them to this post and not the file directly, so that I can update the post and the file without concern.
And if you’re happy with what you’re reading here, please consider subscribing for free. I’d love to know that you’re coming back for more.
Thanks!
Personal Branding for the Business Professional (pdf format).
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.


{ 91 trackbacks }
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this! It’s nice of you to provide it free. I can’t wait to read it.
Great.. Downloaded it and would read it and review it on my blog :)
Happy to have one more of your ebooks to spend my time reading something good.
I’ve been following your feed recently and I’m sure this ebook will be of good use to me!
Great article. I really like the categories you created for different approaches to social media. It’d a very innovative way of looking at it all.
Chris, I can think of no one else more qualified to publish this valuable resource. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Excellent! I’ve already skimmed through it and look forward to reading the full content and links you’ve included. Well done, Chris!
Enjoyed reading your ebook. If passion for your topic drives personal branding, you give us a great example with all that you do!
Nice Chris. My one critique is that the e-book is a bit lacking in the brand differentiation department. Most business professionals have a hard time distinguishing what’s really unique about their brand and what are simply industry (communication) commodities - and therein lies a huge problem to creating a brand. My blog already has a post with some of the info to walk entrepreneurs in particular through the steps but may blog more on the personal side of branding later. Thanks again : )
Excellent, thanks, Chris. Will share liberally, yes.
Thanks for sharing this great resource Chris. I could hear ‘you’ coming through in everything you wrote - which is another powerful aspect of personal branding. Will spread the word during the week
Joanna
Excellent ! thanks for the great tips !
Hi Chris,
Thanks a lot for this!
Looking forward to reading it!
Well done.
Josh
Excellent resource as ever, Chris - personal branding has the potential to cover such a lot of different areas and avenues, and there’s some great practical advice here. Thanks.
Thanks Chris for the e-book. I love looking forward to information and resources from your website.
Thatwomancdv
Muchos gracias senior.
Thank you Chris! Just what I needed - and I let all my friends know about this too.
Chris-
Page 5 of the ebook you list discus.com for comment threading. I believe you mean http://disqus.com/
-k
Chris,
Great ebook! Thanks for providing it.
I’d be interested in reading more about the Self Esteem book, and what it did for you. (If you decide you’re willing to go there in public, that is.)
You might think about adding one of the the Creative Commons copyright statements at the end, just to make it clear which rights you’re retaining, and which you’re giving away.
Thank you Chris. Tips from an expert well appreciated.
Anthony Russo
Conferencing Consultant
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
http://www.ganconference.com
http://blog.ganconference.com/
Phone: 312-432-5377
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
Oh - I was just writing about personal branding - weird. Thanks for this I look forward to having a read.
Hey Chris, nice paper. One thing you don’t mention, which changed the trajectory of my personal, professional and business brand in a HUGE way, was to publish my first book.
I had been blogging, commenting, etc. This hit a certain demographic, namely, those who get online, read blogs, read comments and follow links, etc.
But it wasn’t until I had my first book published that things changed significantly. Interview opportunities from much different periodicals came in. When I speak, I’m not introduced as “CEO of” first, I’m introduced as “author of…”
I submit that many professionals (probably most who read your blog) have enough expertise in their field that they can write a book. It doesn’t have to be a big college text book… but just becoming an author does wonders for your personal brand.
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
Author - I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???
Coauthor - I’m on Facebook — Now What???
Thanks Chris! I’ve printed it for some bedtime reading and will certainly blog about it. It’s on the minds of many, and a play book is nice.
Personal Branding is by far my favourite topic within social media marketing. Thanks for publishing this Chris. I will continue to recommend you as an elite resource to all my workshop participants and clients. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing the knowledge! A very important topic these days.
With all of the info that is becoming available on personal branding, this is a great treat. Thanks for making it free!
Thank you so much for your generosity…gave you a quick shout-out on my blog and linked back to your site. Wanted to make sure all my readers were able to find you and benefit from your insights.
Read your ebook - I blog about business branding and promote promo products to help with business branding, so it was really interesting to read about personal branding. You have a lot of great tips that I feel I can learn from.
Downloaded it and skimmed through it this morning. Will finish reading it this evening. Looks really good…Thanks for sharing!!
Chris,
I enjoy your news letter, but I do think that one thing I’d like to see on the news letter is a guest writer (picked by you or the community that reads your blog).
I think that this would be useful, because it would add a new voice to a great content distro system. Also, it would expose me (the reader) to other great voices that I may not have heard yet.
Example: have Julien Smith write about some thing like “How To: Stat productive when you work on the web”
… That’s my thoughts.
Take care
-N
-N
This is a great book, I have read it and highly recommend it.
Thanks Chris,
JR
Downloaded the book over the weekend and just know finished reading. A hearty “thank you” for sharing your expertise and knowledge on the subject. I, among many, are experimenting and getting our toes wet, and your e-book has helped clarify many aspects.
Hi Chris:
A client just asked me to review a social media resource for her. I’m quite the newbie, so I told her it wasn’t my field and your sentence structure is a lot easier to parse. And now I’ve told her about yr eBook.
I found it funny that your branding book was not explicitly branded, incidentally. No Brogan’s Guide to Branding. Ironic, no?
hi Chris,
I’ve had posted on my blog about your post. And i’ve received a lot of visits on the topic..
sorry about my english
So they’re reading your blog in …is it France? Cool!
Hi Chris, this is an excellent resource for us educating about Web 2.0 and online branding. Thanks. When I get to the office tmrw I’ll send it to the printer. :)
Liked it very much, Chris. Hope we can do some business in the future. Norway calling u know. All the best, Odd
I appreciate well written resources that stay on point. Often free resources stray into topic other than the title suggests. Thank you for a nice resource.
Very good read. Thanks for sharing it in the eBook format - makes it easy to get in one place.
I’m new to this so my personal struggle is definitely in the area of ‘what’ the personal brand is all about. How to know what my brand should be/do/say? Resources like these help me keep thinking and remind me of things that I let slip from the front of my mind.
—
http://twitter.com/franswaa
Hi Chris,
@CSSseed clued me in about the new e-book. I just wanted to say thanks, it’s exactly what I need right now. I’ve just skimmed it but I love that you put in a section about self-esteem. Awesome.
Chris, Really great stuff–a keeper!
Gonna get the book you mentioned……wonder if it is available on Kindle?
http://www.HitsThatClick.com
Here’s a PDF in trade! http://brepettis.com/MK-1.pdf
Ok, Chris you convinced me: I am now a suscriber!! I found your e-book very useful… I’ll be coming back for more
It is amazing what you can find on Twitter at midnight. I was miserable because my two year old has her days and nights mixed up but I am a true believer in “everything happens for a reason”. I guess the reason here was for me to get connected with you and find the free ebook.
The content is superb. It has given me a tremendous amount of information based on some simple concepts of creating your best reflection!
I will definitely blog on this with links back and reread it after a few hours shut eye!
Excellent job…you clearly personify that ‘the means to achieving your own success is through helping other achieve theirs!’
Tina
http://twitter.com/bestreflections
http://twitter.com/newoldmom
Thanks for your generosity, I will read it soon.
regards, Ashley
Thanks for the great read. You’ve help thousands of us with this free tool!
Thank you very much, Chris. Just downloaded it and look forward to reading it. This comes at a very good time. Best,
VQM
Hey Chris,
I was thrilled to get your email about your e-book on branding. I am looking forward to the read and will pass your site onto others who I know would love to connect with you.
ps. I am also the ecodiva on twitter and I get your twitter comments as well. Great to connect.
I just downloaded the book and read the first few pages and I’m hooked. Thanks Chris for the FREE book. I’m sharing the link with all of my friends.
Hi Chris,
Just a quick thank you for sharing the wonderful ebook. It’s filled with valuable information that will not only help me as a blogger, but as a business person as well.
Kudos to you for doing such a great job on it.
Thanks for the free eBook! My favorite line is Adam Broitman’s about Google being a “reputation management system.” So true, so true.
Cheers!
Chris you hit it out of the park again. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Chris,
I’ve been spending the day developing my personal brand by following the steps in your e-book. However, under the
Passports section you say to get a discus.com account — that leads to a page of junk ads. Did you mean disqus.com? I’m thinking that is the one you meant. Thanks!
Hi Chris,
I just read your book and really liked it. It’s absolutely helpful for any Web 2.0 person. It’s a big advantage that it’s written in bullet points instead of a long text - love it.
I have one proposal. You talked about all the passports one should sign up for and then connect each with feed and widgets. It would be helpful if there was some kind of map, to see how each app is connected through which service with another one. may be you could get a friend blog something about that or write a how-to about that.
robert
Chris,
You’ve embedded so many message around sharing lately that I’m going to do something I normally don’t (I really don’t), which is to leave a link to a post on my site.
Inspired by your eBook, alongside much personal reflection and investigation on the topic of personal branding, I just posted a fairly lengthy primer on the topic.
If anyone’s interested it’s at http://www.davecrainonline.com/a-personal-branding-primer.html
Whereas Chris you are very focused on personal branding for visionaries and creative types, I’ve added in personal branding for people more business-focused, whose value and brand is perhaps more tied to “results” than “ideas”.
Anyway, everyone is welcome and I look forward to your comments. I’m planning on turning this initial post into a small series with some upcoming posts on steps to create your brand and how to implement it.
So forgive the shameless plug, but hey, you asked for it.
;-)
This is amazing. I’ve downloaded it instantly. It is going to be a great resource. Thx for making it free n surprised no op-in required.
Appreciate all the time you’ve taken to compile the report.
Not what I expected, but does cover some of the community factors.
Maybe its because I have my beginnings on ebay that I tend to think so much different than the average internet marketer.
My approach would be a great deal different to this topic. I have myself, along with seen others build a following online.. I have now coached hundreds on how to make money online and have hundreds of subscribers who pay me monthly..
I would say the best place to start if you are trying to market your services is ebay and then branch out to the items mentioned in this ebook. Ebay takes the cake, although they are asses when it comes to fees.. I used to pay them $4000 a month before I quit using them..
I would say first you have to have a service you are choosing to market, branch it out into various versions and target as many niches as you can.. Then, reverse engineer your competitors who sell similar services (who actually make good sales) and then implement them into your ad copy.. Start selling it on ebay first.. Once your sales are flowing good there, take the ad to your own website.. Seeing it is selling well on ebay, all you are missing on your website is traffic.. That is where some of what was mentioned in this ebook would come into play..
Also, you have craigslist and adwords.. Craigslist you can get a little traction.. Ebay will give you the most.. Adwords can give you a lot, IF you can figure it out.. I say this, as I find it one of the most complex of all the tools I use to actually make work..
If interested in learning how I do it step by step, you can get coaching from me here: http://www.saledaddy.com .
Sincerely
Tony
Chris,
I truly appreciate this. I have been wanting to set up my own persona brand / web presence for some time. I have had the domain for over a year, but never did anything with it. Hopefully your eBook will be the motivation I need to get my act together and put myself out there!
Thank you again.
Great ebook, thanks alot it was a pleasure to read it.
Good Luck.
I appreciate this ebook, thank you for sharing
Really like your blog, and thank you for this ebook.
Have you considered submitting it to http://www.changethis.com
It would fit nicely and likely open your work to a different audience.