Are you a micro-business or a marketer?
I’ve been crunching on the distinction between the two for some time, but with more intensity since I’ve gone into business for myself.
Because… I’m now both.
In the past I only did marketing for others (pr blogging and outreach + client work). Now I market for others AND I’m increasingly drawn to the writings of the self-made micro business people out there: Aaron Wall, Eli at BlueHatSEO, and Quadszilla of SEOBlackHat.
Why? Because I want to OWN business. There’s more money - and satisfaction - in making something work for yourself. Also I like the nimbleness and creativity that goes into engineering and building out money-making ventures from the ground up.
Obviously there’s marketing involved, and as a community marketer I focus on verticals where I can leverage my current skill base. And of course my budget is limited to my sweat - the hours I can devote to projects that don’t pay in the short term.
So my background is largely in making business models work for others - as an employee.
Obviously this model (if you’re an EMPLOYER) can be very profitable too, and having clients is not something I want to stop - the give and take of conversation and the back and forth of frustrations and breakthroughs are valuable to my continuing education. And their bottom lines.
More to the point of this post though is that there are also authors I read more for their “marketing-for-others” wisdom and insight.
SEOmoz falls into this category typically, as - often - does Lee Odden’s Online Marketing Blog.
I’m making this distinction because as I walked through Durham, NC this morning I wondered how many of our readers here are in building their own web businesses (affiliate or otherwise) and how many are marketing for others (with bigger budgets often, and more resources).
Further, I thought of this distinction as a way to organize some posts that I found to be very exciting when I read them this morning.
Micro-Business People:
Free Resellable Ebook Package
Marketers for Others
Is Corporate Blogging Worth the Effort?
Both:
Wasting Link Authority on Ineffective Internal Link Structure
Eric Meyer – A Candid Chat ‘bout CSS & Stuff
(via - http://www.joe-whyte.com)
I think these distinctions are important and often make decisions regarding who writes what, and where it gets published. I think it above all important to read deeply of both camps, as they are so wildly informative to each other.
Have a great weekend! (for the micro-business owners out there and motivated marketers for others’ business plans… I’ll be working right along with you 
Posted on February 2, 2007
