Permission Marketing: A Test of Internet Marketing

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 1 person | Log in to rate

Ranked #17,402 in Business, #233,556 overall

Does Permission Marketing Work?

I'm putting Seth Godin to the test. Does "permission marketing" and "the purple cow" work?

I am an MD with fifteen years experience delivering babies and I published a book on pregnancy in April 2008. The book is called: DIY Baby! Your Essential Pregnancy Handbook.

A Cross Between, What To Expect... and Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, DIY Baby is a double insider's view of pregnancy, that of an obstetrician and mother of two.. So with millions of pregnant women delivering every year in this country, why has a lucid, concise, entertaining book about pregnancy, with excellent reviews not sold, say, at least 10,000 copies since release in May 2008??? (feel free to chime in with your answers to this question).

Selling Books via Permission Marketing? 

Can a new author sell books using Seth's novel business concept?

Do "permission marketing" and "the purple cow" work? Follow my experience here on Squidoo, on Twitter, and/or on my blog, healthewoman.org and find out!.

The official start date of the project is January 16, 2009. Place your bets! What are the odds DIY Baby will sell 1000 copies in 6 months? in 1 month? in 1 week? What are the odds it will rank higher than 2,000,000 on Amazon or (gasp!) hit the NYT Bestseller list??

Can an articulate but unknown (outside her community) ob-gyn "succeed" in her endeavor using Seth Godin's concepts of permission marketing and the "purple cow"???

Tell me what you think--yes or no and feel free to offer your advice...

180 Days to Permission Marketing 

Can these concepts be used by a virtual "start-up" small business to grow?

Do the concepts of "permission marketing" and "the purple cow" (Seth Godin's babies--no pun intended) work??

Weigh in with your opinion, your cheers, or your jeers. Follow me here or on Twitter or on my web log, healthewoman.org.

If I fail, does it mean "permission marketing" is only the concept of a business man who's already made it? Or did I go about it wrong? If I succeed what does it mean? Can the small business person, the un-initiated, the decidedly non-corporate, outside-the-box thinker be an example of "the new economy"?

Or will big corporations (like AIG who can fail and qualify for government bailouts) supercede talent and initiative of the individual by sheer size and numbers?

My Blog 

Healthewoman.org

ABOUT http://healthewoman.org

We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge. --Rutherford D. Rogers commenting on the Internet

Imagine entering your health-related question into the "search" field and actually finding useful answers.

What if there was a friendly person at the other end of your search--not just any person, but a physician with nearly two decades' experience in women's health willing to share her knowledge and experience with you for FREE.

There's more--What if you not only had access to this physician's knowledge and experience, but also to the collective experiences and wisdom gained from women just like you who had asked the same questions, traveled the same road, and lived through situations just like yours?

Integrating Clinical and Narrative Medicine

You may not realize the degree to which you incorporate your family's, friends', and personal stories into your medical decision making. Their experiences may have as much to do with your health care choices as the medical facts pertaining to your situation.

You may turn to your health care provider for medical information but then you often "verify" or "reality test" the information by asking for other's experiences with various medical treatments. For example, you may turn to friends and family to get the "inside scoop" on questions such as:

Should you have a hysterectomy?
What works for PMS? How do you handle perimenopause?
What is the best way to support your adolescent daughter or son through her or his hormonal changes?
How do you deal with leaking urine?
Where did your sex drive go?
And many other questions.

Narrative Medicine: The Other Half of the Big Picture

Welcome to the concept of Narrative Medicine-the stories that parallel the medical facts. HealthEWoman is my effort to gather in one web site the collective wisdom in our stories, fuse it with established and cutting-edge medical knowledge, to help us all make better, more informed health-care decisions.

Much of the content presented on the Internet has commercial interests at play%u2026 information presented as "proven fact" may actually be misleading in order to sell nutritional supplements, "medical" devices and treatments. So how do you obtain balanced, accurate, information with the added benefit of access to other people's stories to help make your health care decisions?

How Does This Work?
I write brief, factual articles on a comprehensive array of medical topics. I invite and encourage you to respond with your stories. Tell us what was your experience with hysterectomy? Or why did you choose not to have a hysterectomy and go other routes to deal with the issue prompting you to consider hysterectomy? What was your experience with labor--what made up the high and low points? Have you experienced PMS, peri-menopause or other hormone changes that affected your life in unexpected ways? How did you manage these? Or did you just "ride them out", hoping they would pass as soon as possible.

You can post your story in the Comments relating to a particular topic. Then you can subscribe to comments via email or RSS feed to follow others' stories and see how the discussion evolves.

With HealthEWoman I hope to make experiences accessible with the context of accurate medical knowledge so women can use that collective wisdom in their health care choices.

Find Your Topic

First, find your topic by entering your question into the search field. If you can't find your topic using this method, scroll through the categories and browse the posts.

If you still can't find the answer to your question, start a new topic! Email me with your question/experience to shelleybinkley@gmail.com. I will respond with a brief article that incorporates and answers your questions. Then the discussion ball gets rolling as people weigh in with their experiences on your topic.

Share Your Story
Write as much or as little as you want about your experience with your topic. In doing so you will process your own experience as well as give other women valuable access to information they may not have otherwise have. Your confidentiality is protected as your email and other information will not be distributed to anyone.

Sample topics:
"Should I have a hysterectomy?"
"Home Birth, Patient Choice Cesarean Sections-Crazy ideas? Maybe...maybe not"
"PMS-facts and fiction-how diet and lifestyle really do play a role" "Chronic Pelvic Pain-What are my options?"
"How do I optimize my sexual function?"
"Perimenopause-What is it? What do I do about it (if anythingWhy I Blog: Transparency and Access

My purpose as a physician is to:

Give you up-to the minute knowledge of the health care options available to you
Be your sounding board to discuss these options and together arrive at good medical decisions for you.

Empower you with the confidence that comes from information and collective experience
My ultimate goal is to do the greatest good for the most women world-wide. Whether you're a client of mine, or someone living on the other side of the globe seeking information about your health, I want to help you.

...and...

What better way to be available to you as your physician than with a blog? In reviewing the articles on this site you gain a view inside my head. Articles posted here are based on verified science coupled with my years of experiential knowledge. Not only do you have free access to reliable information, you can decide in the privacy of your own home if my practice philosophy and personality are a good match for you.

Mission Statement
Knowledge + Experience = Power.

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. --Albert Einstein.

My passion is to present you with knowledge and experience.

To help you make more informed health care decisions by integrating information and women's stories of what worked or didn't work for them.

Background
Since 1995 I have offered obstetric and gynecologic services to the women and families of the Roaring Fork Valley. In 2005 I embarked on a solo-physician practice and founded Alpine Women's Care to offer my clients a comprehensive health care experience for all their concerns. I've delivered over two thousand babies and been the first gynecologist in my area to bring progressive technology to the the area, such as 3D ultrasound and in-office surgeries for heavy bleeding and permanent birth control

Loading Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Related business books worth reading 

Reviewed by Danelle Drake for Reader Views (11/08)

I sure wish that I had the opportunity to read "DIY Baby!" twenty years ago. During my pregnancies I tried to read everything I possibly could to better prepare myself for the new experience my body was going through. What I needed to know on the big day was so much more than I actually knew. I was overwhelmed during the delivery of my first daughter and experienced many, many years of my own "growing pains" as she became her own little person. The birth experience has changed so much and became such a personal choice; people should really consider all the options available.

Beginning with "Chapter 1: The Case of the Missing Period" the reader is given a step-by-step walk through the journey of pregnancy. Your frame of mind is so important during pregnancy, your body is changing, things are stressful and you will need to prepare yourself mentally for the experience. Moving from "Hormones and Optimism," "Viability" and "Nesting," right up to "It's Time! Labor and Delivery Me," each chapter is filled with so much of the things you really, really need to know when you are having a baby. Many pictures, charts, and diagrams help to explain the process of birth in such a way that you really understand what the text is saying.

Shelley S. Binkley is so in-tune with today's birthing environments and atmosphere.

"Life is ruled by passion, needs, and sometimes wisdom. The choice we make in bringing a child into the universe impacts everyone, most of all, the child who we are creating."
Shelly S. Binkley, MD

I would recommend the potential expectant parents (the dad needs to know this information also) read "DIY Baby! Do It Yourself Baby!: Your Essential Pregnancy Handbook" from cover to cover before they become pregnant. After that, keep it with you every step of the way through the Post-partum period.

Latest news about this 

healthewoman is my professional blog and the site for my personal musings on the practice of medicine. You can follow me on my blog or on twitter (healthewoman)

post your observations, reviews, cheers and jeers, bring it on!
rahsheen: rt @healthewoman twitter is to facebook as espresso is ...
rt @healthewoman twitter is to facebook as espresso is to decaf.
Invasion by Mexico: Where's My Vote???
As the American health care system teeters on the brink of socialized medicine I pose this question: American women: Where is your ob? One of the populations most impacted by ?health care reform? is American women. ...
The Bermuda Triangle of the American Health Care System: EMTALA ...
EMTALA: A Stool With No Legs is Just a Disk EMTALA stands for Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. The principle behind EMTALA, enacted in 1986, is noble: to guarantee emergency medical treatment to everyone, regardless of ...
Exciting News for Endometriosis: Aromatase Inhibitors and Ablation
Home · Categories · How To Use This Site · Credentials and Contact · Medical Practice · Books · Subscribe · HealthEWoman ~ Heal The Woman. Facts Plus Stories Equals Knowledge. Exciting News for Endometriosis: Aromatase Inhibitors and ...

DIY Baby Wins Mom's Choice Award! 

Silver in "Pregnancy and Childbirth"

DIY Baby won a Silver Mom's Choice Award for "Pregnancy and Childbirth". The book also received a "Readers' Choice" Award.

Have given away 2 more copies.

Today's Amazon sales rank: 1,000,000

Day 11 Update 

Free Book underperforms in Clicks

I'm comparing two AdWord campaigns. So far the "Free Book" via email has had 50,000 impressions and only 30 clicks. The "Double Insider's View" campaign for the same item has had over 3 million impressions and several hundred clicks.

Perhaps in giving it away for free people don't think it's worth their time?

10,000 copies by June 1, 2009? 

Does Seth's Godin permission marketing work to sell books?

I think I've maybe sold 100 copies of DIY Baby via Amazon, possibly including 10 copies my mother bought to give to her friends. So I'll set an "easy" goal of selling 10,000 copies by June 1, 2009 starting today, Jan 16, 2009.

Tools to implement:
1. Answer 1-3 questions daily on cafemom.com
2. Offer to email copies of the book to respondents
3. Include link to by the book in the email.
4. Repeat steps 1-3. Let's get started!

Today's Amazon sales rank: 744,343. Only @ 740,000 to go!

How long do you think it will take me to sell 10,000 copies and/or break the Amazon sales rank of 5000 using this method?

Gave Away 3 Books 

Since Saturday Jan 17 (day 2 of 180 days) I have given away 3 copies of DIY Baby as text files. My Amazon rank went from the mid-700,000's to the mid 800,000's.

Hmmm...not a stellar beginning.

Well, it's only been 3 days.

New Guestbook 

submit

Reader Feedback 

submit

by drshelley

Certification

Certified, American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Fellow, American College of Obstetrician~Gynecologists
Member, Colorado Medical... (more)

Explore related pages

Create a Lens!