Phil Town
Client: Phil Town, New York Times bestselling author, RULE #1
Industry: publishing, finance, investing
Job: blog creation and design, content consulting, internet PR, community management, project management
A year in advance of the publication of his first book, Rule #1, Phil hired me to build, consult on and promote a blog about his investing method. The goal: to help him rank in search engines, and to pre-heat interest in his book among online audiences.
In response, I built, designed and SEO-optimized the Rule #1 Blog.
I coached Phil on writing topics, monitoring the blog’s comments to help him address issues his readers wanted to see on his site.
I also supervised the creation of free downloadable financial calculators, created a password-only Resources area to build his email newsletter list, and wrote and edited copy on informational supporting pages (About, FAQ).
On the public relations end, I identified key personal finance and investing bloggers with whom he should develop relationships, and helped him and his publicity team approach these bloggers, set up interviews, and procure book reviews.
The Rule #1 Blog was a success story, vaulting within six months to the #1 position on Google organic search for “Phil Town” and “Rule #1”. Phil’s user community grew almost as quickly, with 15,000 subscribers within the first six months. Today he has over 100,000 subscribers.
Disclaimer: I was involved with the development of Phil’s Typepad blog and the promotion of his first book, Rule #1, until he sold his media company in early 2010.
