I met Michael Port live at a conference and have heard him on several teleseminars. I've seen him on Sex and the City (he got to give a somewhat brotherly kiss to Sarah Jessica Parker after they lounge around the cushions of Bed Bath and Beyond.
Therefore I read BYS knowing that Michael Port is good-looking, charismatic and smart, with a warm, well-trained voice. He could read the phone book and sound convincing. And he's a brilliant marketer. Who wouldn't kill for package names like Book Yourself Solid and Think Big Revolution.
So readers approaching Book Yourself Solid may well be wondering, "Will hanging out with the Beautiful People make me beautiful too? If we take Michael's courses and buy his books, will we also become charismatic and wildly successful?"
Maybe.
BYS works best as an overview: what's involved if you're thinking of starting a client-driven website-based business. For a true newbie, or even someone in the started-but-struggling phase, BYS will give glimpses of what might be, not a stand-alone how-to.
I recommend starting Book Yourself Solid (BYS) on page 31. Chapters 3 and 4 are the best in the book and I would recommend the book to my own clients just to get those chapters.
Chapter 2, Branding, takes readers through a set of self-awareness exercises that (while a bit touchy-feeling) can help newbies differentiate themselves from the pack. Chapter 4, how to talk about what you do, showcases Port's strongest point: relate your business to the client's needs not your own processes.
Skip the pages of testimonials, which don't seem to come from people who actually used the BYS program as clients. I believe pages like these actually detract from a book's credibility (although the decision to include them may be the publisher's, not the author's).
Chapter 1, Red Velvet Rope Policy (now there's a brilliant phrase), will be helpful for those who have already started growing their businesses. Newbies take awhile to learn how to differentiate the duds.
Chapter 2, Finding a Target Market, offers good advice, but I would have liked to see stronger warnings against targeting a market that might have a need but not a willingess to buy. In my experience, choosing the wrong market is the number one mistake most newbies make.
For most of the rest of the book, Port presents a selection of mostly excellent tips and ideas. Apparently he (or his editor) had trouble choosing what to include and what to omit, so reading through the chapters can feel like seeing the world through a telescope that quickly becomes a microscope, and vice versa. For example, on the one hand, we're given great detail about the level of handshake to offer at networking events; on the other, we get a general list of networking groups with no how-tos for choosing among them. We're given detailed advice on choosing an article topic but a short paragraph on submitting queries to magazines -- a topic that has filled many books.
"Choosing a web designer" gets a short paragraph and a reference to the listing on the BYS resource site. I would recommend starting a website project with a copywriter (sure - I'm biased!)and making sure the design doesn't overwhelm the copy.
The BYS section on ezines includes a number of useful micro-tips, but I'm surprised Port didn't refer readers to Alexandria Brown, the Ezine Queen, the way he refers bloggers to Andy Wibbels. Some exercises seem a little forced: "What format would you use for your ezine."
And likeability -- a topic on which Port should be the quintessential expert -- actually gets only one example: a contrast between an outgoing on-time person and a careless person who arrives late. An author who ends teleclasses with, "I love all of you, and not in a weird way, I promise" can do better than that.
Finally, I would like to discover more about Michael Port himself. When a book's cover art is the author's full-length photo, readers expect biography. We do learn his father is a psychiatrist, he started working as an actor and he quickly became a business person with a Midas touch. But where did he go to college? What made him consider acting? And what obstacles did he encounter along the way?
Bottom Line: Most likely anyone who's selling a service through the Internet will find something of value here. It's more of a Michael Port sampler than a how-to book, a potluck buffet rather than a sit-down dinner. Delicious surprises, but you have to put them together on your own. A few items that should be served only to small dinner parties and yes, just a few that should have remained in the kitchen.
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