I've just had an epiphany...

...OK, not the biblical kind.  It was a sudden realisation that for years I have been battling unsuccessfully with Internet Marketing due to a lack of Base Understanding of what it is all about.  Now I haven't suddenly had revealed to me the entire picture but what I did do was read again Ronpass's Page http://wizzley.com/branding-you-branding-me-branding-wizzley/ about Branding Yourself.  

No-one had explained it to me before and even though I read Ron's page a while ago it didn't make sense.  I plead guilty to being thick perhaps but also, as some fragment of knowledge that I needed to understand it was missing, it flew straight over me head.  

In the last couple of days since my last book was finished I must have picked up that fragment and VOILA!  the page made sense.  So much so that I am filled with enthusaiasm once again. Gosh I am even re-designing my embryonic web site as a result.  

Have a look at it your self.  It is well worth it and I thank you ronpass.  

http://wizzley.com/branding-you-branding-me-branding-wizzley/

Thanks for reminding me about this page again.   I remember reading it before too, and trying out the Google "wonder wheel" that Ron mentioned (but apparently it no longer exists), and realizing that although I have 2 - 3 major niches of great interest to me, I'm also "across the board" in terms of other areas where I've been trying out ideas.  I haven't decided yet if that's a good idea for me or not. 

I have a good sense of how I'm "branded" by my yoga students in my day-to-day teaching, but I have less of a clear idea how readers brand me.    Especially when I start griping online....(in comments -- not necessarily here).

The issue with branding isn't about how you're perceived, but about how you want to be perceived and stressing that when presenting yourself. I have several niches I promote online and make money in, but there are only two I'm branding myself for: spirituality and online marketing. 

This stuff is tough: it's as tough as touching up your resume: doesn't require a mention of everything you did in your life, merely (without lying) showing yourself off in your best light and stressing those parts of yourself you want your readers to know about. 

@kajohu Since your best lenses / hubs and wizzles are - as far as  I can tell -about yoga, I'd make that a major part of your online brand. Make sure to interlink your yoga lenses with your hubs and wizzles and your own website, asuming you have one.

Saying that to my own cost because we are in similar niches and even have pages on the exact same topics. As long as you Do NOT do the online branding / interlinking very well, I get the traffic. But since you know more about yoga than I do, in a real world sense you deserve the traffic more. 

Good points, Katinka.   I'm interlinking my lenses and wizzles to each other, and to a yoga blog but kind of haphazardly.   It's interesting that part of me wants to keep a low profile in the real world, in regards to my writing, especially about yoga, and even more especially about my yoga sales pages, partly because I worry about my mentors' reaction to the quality and content of my writing.     I won't get too far that way, so I need an attitude adjustment there