What it’s about
Tim Kitchen actually started off wanting to be a rock star. When that dream didn’t quite happen, he became an online session drummer, recording drums for people over the internet. To get work, he had to market himself online and so inadvertently taught himself SEO, Adwords, and the basics of web design.
One day, he built a quick website and did some digital marketing to help his neighbour, an under-employed plasterer, get more work. It worked so well that his neighbor was able to buy a house and his wife quit her job. He realized that most people had no idea what SEO is all about and most of the books he researched focused on what NOT to do, but very little information about what you SHOULD do.
So, without any previous writing experience, Tim sat down and wrote a book called “How to Get to the Top of Google”. The original was very basic - he just opened MS Word and started typing and then published it straight to Amazon. “I designed the cover myself and it was horrible. The book was also full of spelling and grammar mistakes,” says Tim. “I was completely unqualified to write the book except I knew the subject backwards because I’d been doing it for people.”
Five years later, “How to Get to the Top of Google” is still in the best-seller ranks on Amazon, and it acts as a very healthy lead generation system for Tim’s agency, Exposure Ninja. “The book fuels the agency. It’s 100% the book,” says Tim. “We get more leads then we can handle from the book. Without my book, I’d be a guy alone in my bedroom with a laptop.” In this interview, Tim talks about how you too can write a book to grow your authority, your visibility, and generate sales for your company.
Takeaways
1. Stop waiting to be anointed as an expert
People fear their knowledge is too basic. They might think, “I’m not the best in the world. who am I to write a book?” But there will always be people who know less than you who are hungry for the knowledge you have to share. People in ‘authority’ grabbed that authority for themselves. Nobody will anoint you because they’re busy anointing themselves. “As long as you know more than your target audience, then great,” says Tim. “If you don’t but you can convince them you do, that’s still one step away from doing it.”
2. Forget trying to be perfect
Most people are scared of writing a book because they think they have be professional authors and have everything perfect. Tim’s bestselling book looked bad and was poorly written, and he fully admits it. When he first published, 10% of people said that the spelling was bad, the grammar was terrible, and pointed out that he clearly wasn’t an author. But 90% of the people said, ‘Wow! You clearly you know your stuff and it’s great you’re showing us what to do rather than just some author who’s been tasked with writing a book.’ As Tim says, “People just don’t care. As long as you can do something to help them, they don’t care if it’s not perfect.”
3. Your book is pointless unless it has a lead generation element
Tim strongly advises that you have a clear goal for your book, and that it contains a compelling lead generation element. It’s not the book sales that has any meaning for Tim, it’s the leads that the book generates for his agency. “The book is what’s enabled us to build a business,” says Tim.
4. Put your best stuff in your book
Include your best information in your book - don’t hold back - because people will then get results and they’ll write reviews about it, thus building your authority even more. The whole time they’re reading and getting results, they’ll associate their success with you. And even if they don’t have the budget to work with you today, once they do have a budget, they’ll come to you because they’ve linked the growth of their business to you.
Shownotes:
Check out Tim’s book for yourself: How to Get to the Top of Google
