For those who don't know who Pat Flynn is, he is a blogger that teaches how to generate passive income with the internet. And he is considered to be on the "A-list" to most in his market.  But this article isn't about Pat Flynn directly but one of the various strategies that he has used to get "there".

I am calling this the Pat Flynn effect although it isn't Pat Flynn who invented it (he uses it).  Marketers and bloggers who use it typically get further ahead than those who don't. Ironically, most bloggers and marketers choose the other route.


There is a saying that goes something like this- The more people you affect, the more successful you will be.

Content Marketers take this to mean "the harder "I" work at reaching people, the more people "I" affect, and the more "I" (potentially) make."  As a result, they leverage their time, their money and their resources to try to reach as many people as they can to possibly affect by promoting their stuff across various traffic channels.

I call it self contained marketing.  And it is ridiculously expensive on the resources side.  Your ROI numbers drop because you are relying on your own (self) promotional abilities.  If you are unknown in your market, you face the double whammy of credibility to contend with.


The good news is that there is an easier way if you understand the concept of leveraging people and how to do it to get the greatest ROI....


Let me give you a few examples to illustrate how to leverage your work



The first example is one that I actually participated in.  A guy that I barely knew sent me an email asking me for my opinion on how the +1 button is going to affect search.  He told me he was building an article to highlight expert opinions. I agreed.  You can take a look at the result here.

http://www.ranashahbaz.com/12-seo-experts-shared-how-1-button-can-impact-on-the-google-search-results

Just to be clear, Rana (the author of the blog) is probably less known than me, gets less traffic to his website, and is certainly less popular than the many of the experts he polled.  In spite of this, at the time of this writing, 39 people have "liked"  the article and he received 133 reactions to an article that he didn't write. (somehow I got grouped in as a SEO expert with the likes of Aaron Wall...dunno how that happened).

Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how he was suddenly able to get "seen".  But think of it this way-  His work was to send out emails to people he deemed as an expert, and then populate an article with the opinions he received.  Then, (and here's the kicker), the experts promoted his article for him, which resulted in a ton of page views and citations.


Total work- 30 minutes (?) Here's what Rana got out of that-

• Contact from industry leaders (for future outreach)
• Content.
• Promotion from 10 industry leaders
• Promotion from those who follow the industry leaders.
• Links to his website from all of the above.
• More credibility for his website.

Now that is a powerful way to affect people, wouldn't you say? Imagine the hurdles that Rana would have had to go through had he not done this.


That's what the infomercial gurus would call more bang for your buck.

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Of course, what works online will work offline as well.  Not many people know this but one of my "mini-businesses" is I build websites for musicians and bands (I actually don't personally, but that is another story altogether).  My ad medium is a partnership I squired with Memphis Music Foundation who happen to refer all their musicians who want websites to me.  This, in and of itself, is great free advertising because MMF is a non profit who is also well regarded by the "industry".  But there more to this story.

The rub on this is that I have roughly 50 CD's of local (and regional) musicians with management companies and publicity agents who tour all over the country and sell CD's that happen to include me in their "Thank You" credits, in many cases with my URL address.  Totally unsolicited.


Now that is affection, right?

As a result, I get musician inquiries (as well as inquiries from booking agents and management companies...even the occasional bar) about building websites for their brand nearly every day. More business than most web design companies in my area and frankly more business than I can handle personally. You affect people, you prosper.  That is the point.



Back to Pat Flynn. Pat Flynn does it a little different.  He interviews up and coming bloggers for his podcasts.  Pat gets the material he needs without having to "create" from bloggers that want the exposure. People like to talk about themselves and their business.  He leverages that into content in which they promote for him.

More credibility for themselves.  More credibility and exposure for Pat.

1 podcast = new exposure to a new social cluster in his market that may otherwise not know who he is, backed by those he is interviewing.

It's a two way street here, sure.  But just imagine where Pat may be today had he not had others touch his business along the way.  Those monthly income reports that he writes would probably be dropping a zero or two at the end.

There's one more caveat to all this-  Pat increases his exposure by getting others to promote him one podcast at a time;  as the exposure increases, so does the opportunity to interview more influential figures in his market and just as importantly, the chance for those influential people to interview him.  **sha-bang**.

Now, I am not saying that Pat doesn't work.  But he works smart.  Most businesses rely on marketing to get the word out and rather than leveraging leaders in their market with things that they want, they instead think of leveraging their own limited time, money and resources to move ahead.

The other way can work (and does).  But after reading this, wouldn't you agree that that is the long road?

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Now I have barely touched the surface here with leveraging your promotions this way.  It would be real easy for those of you in "non-social" markets to say that this couldn't work.  I am telling you that it will and does.

eCommerce stores that are looking for "free" publicity could easily interview product designers and innovators in their market.  A simple 'tweek' like adding room for video, podcast, or even a blog to your store will give you a tool for publicity that you would otherwise not have.

Leverage people and suddenly, all that work you think is going to be tied into it, goes away.

Remember, these same people want the same recognition as you and would likely happily promote you to their friends and business clientele and possibly even link up to it.


Reciprocation is a powerful tool.

The kicker is you are addressing those already in your market and their audience which is also already in your market. Now, they may not be "targeted" as in the "buy now" persuasion but the people who you are interviewing, talking about, or mentioning are most likely to have websites that they manage and links to potentially give.

Think about that the next time you are holed up in your windowless office manually building links.

Besides, building a network of people you tightly associate yourself with in your market is way smarter than building a business that is largely self contained.

And don't think that just because you sell toilet rings, that somehow that would preclude you from getting your market to notice you.


One simple write-up sent to 20 different experts in your market.  I wouldn't expect all of them to respond but I can guarantee that you will get some.  And if you think a little further outside the box, I bet you could figure out other ways to get folks in your industry to touch your website other than the typical article by experts method.  I know I have a few.....

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