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| Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Port
Creator: Tim Sanders
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.51
You Save: $7.44 (44%)
New (30) Used (9) from $9.51
Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 2665
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470281901
Dewey Decimal Number: 380
EAN: 9780470281901
ASIN: 0470281901
Publication Date: May 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
Praise for Book Yourself Solid "Lead generation and conversion is the heart of any marketing enterprise, and Michael Port's ingenious and practical system is among the best I've seen. Read this book and transform your business!"
—Michael E. Gerber, founder and Chairman, E-Myth Worldwide, author of The E-Myth Revisited "Do your homework! This is not a conceptual, theoretical look at how to succeed as a service professional. Instead, it's just what you need if you're stuck and you'd rather invest in your future (by doing the right kind of work) than complain about it later."
—Seth Godin, author of All Marketers Are Liars and Permission Marketing "Going out on your own can be scary. But this book is a welcome antidote to that fear. It brims with savvy advice and nearly overflows with practical, hands-on exercises. Once you absorb the wisdom in these pages, you'll be ready, willing, and eager to fashion a more rewarding work life. Michael Port is the guy to call if you're tired of thinking small."
—Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation "If you're even slightly uncomfortable with the idea of networking, marketing, or selling, this is the book for you. Book Yourself Solid gives you everything you need to fill your business with ideal clients. Before you're even finished reading the book, you'll be inspired to take action!"
—Ivan R. Misner, PhD, founder and CEO, BNI, coauthor of Masters of Networking "Wow! I never expected this book to be so good. I love how it focuses on getting your ideal clients-and more than you can imagine possible. An excellent, inspiring, practical guide to outrageous success!"
—Joe Vitale, author of There's a Customer Born Every Minute
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| Customer Reviews: Read 109 more reviews...
 A book that's a solid beginning July 1, 2006
106 out of 134 found this review helpful
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.
 One idea is worth the cost of a year's income May 30, 2006
75 out of 78 found this review helpful
The idea Michael Port puts forth about integrity is eye opening. He teaches that, if you work for people whom you cannot serve with your full ability, you lack integrity. In other words, if you have clients who sap you of energy because they are not "your" kind of clients, you cannot do as good a job for them. This is enlightening - even if you don't fully agree with it, it makes you think about your clients and work in a different way.
Some of his ideas are available elsewhere, but I haven't seen a gathering of these ideas together into a system as well structured as this. I really believe this book is the best you can get if you're a service professional. I'm beginning to restructure some of my own marketing plans based on the lessons taught in the book.
As a final thought, the idea of attracting clients with a no-cost-of-entry offer that leads to a low-cost-of-entry offer that leads the client deeper into your solutions and offerings is worth the cost of the book times ten thousand. If you are a service professional selling your own services, you have to read this book this summer!
Tom Carpenter, Author: Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide and CWSP Certification Official Study Guide
 ... a disappointment May 5, 2006
32 out of 55 found this review helpful
Lots of sizzle but no steak. Lost in incomprehensible talk about "love" and lots of other new-agey nonsense, this book reads like a transcribed audio ramble. It takes conversational to its ridiculous extremes and tries to make pretty basic marketing tenets sound somehow revolutionary and fresh.
Useless exercises, laughable case studies and lots and lots of hype. I'd say it might impress you if you're a newbie, but I think even newbies are better served finding a good, solid book with real information. I say cut to the real deal and go straight to Free Agent Nation (which the author has obviously read) or some of the other fine books offered in this category. Skip this watered-down attempt at a how-to guide.
This Book is a Waste of Money and Time May 5, 2006
25 out of 41 found this review helpful
For such an over-hyped book I was expecting a lot, but this derivative, boring book of re-hashed and tired old ideas disappointed in a big way. The author is smug and often naive... he doesn't sound like he has nearly enough experience to be writing this book.
Thin on fresh ideas and heavy on sales pitch, you're better off saving your money and getting a strong, proven book on business building like Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith or Get Clients Now by C.J. Hayden.
The exercises are laughably simplistic and often gimmicky - you can't imagine anyone doing them in the real world. I don't care what you're being offered for free... if you're serious about building your business, get a book that has actual information in it.
Not all It's Cracked Up To Be November 6, 2006
24 out of 36 found this review helpful
Although this book makes some good points it really isn't for all service business. I own a salon and I did every single exercise. A Lot of the questions being asked are reworded over and over. Then you ask yourself, didn't I just answer that. I do have a target market and I do have educational events in my salon. I cannot afford to have a web site done and that is not my expertise to DYI. As for writing a book geared towards my clients, what would I write about that someone would pay for and give them real help? I already have relationships with all my clients and I more than keep in touch. There just didn't seem to be any real marketing advice for service businesses. It seamed to me that it was only trying to get people to buy his seminars. I am done with these types of books that promote their products. The only thing I do agree with is that you should never work with people you don't hit it off with just to make a buck. It will be worse than if you didn't have any clients. Other than that I think that "401 Ways to Promote and Market your Business" does a much better job and isn't asking you to buy more things to make him rich. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Micheal Port and his staff is banking on it.
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