This week I visited the offices of McGraw-Hill Professional in Manhattan.

It was my first time meeting Gaya (right) and Julia (left) from the MHP marketing and PR team. (Although after a rigorous blog tour and lots of other promotional activity, I felt like I’d known them forever.)

When I first walked into the lobby and saw all the books proudly displayed, my first thought was how great it was to be in such good company. My second thought was, “Hey, where the hell is MY book?!?”

As it turns out, Gaya told me, my book has been a hot commodity so the fact that it wasn’t in the lobby meant it had been swiped by an employee or guest. That was a good sign, I was reassured.

Gaya, Julia, and I chatted for over an hour about our marketing and PR efforts to date and what else we could do to keep the momentum going. Here were some of the ideas we hatched:

• Send out emails to targeted companies offering a 1 hour customized on-site presentation with an order of 50+ books
• Webinars on topics like digital marketing trends and translating SEO skills to the broader marketing mix
• Buy a book, send in the receipt at SASE and get a custom signed sticker to place on it
• Team up with other authors on a holiday package book bundle

So far, I’ve been very impressed by the creativity and dedication of the MHP team. What do you think of the promotion we’ve done for the book? What else would you do if you were in our shoes? Help me demonstrate the lesson of chapter 2 and tap the wisdom of the crowds here!

Starting this week, I’ll be sharing a “Googley Tip of the Week” via EOtv (that’s the video network of Entrepreneur’s Organization.) This week’s tip is from Chapter 3: Keep it Simple, Stupid. The gang at EOtv did a bang up job with the graphics here. Tune in for each of the next 3 weeks for more of the goog, er… good stuff!

Taking a page from Chapter 19 and making my company (and personal brand) a great story, I did a little Lebron James spoof to generate interest in my “decision” to put Connectual on hold and join the “all-star team” at Kenshoo as CMO.

I started by declaring my free agency last week and followed up with a video announcement riffing on the interview Lebron did with Jim Gray on ESPN.

More scoop on my move to Kenshoo can be found in the official press release or coverage by MediaPost, DM News, and Internet Retailer. (UPDATE 9/24: I just posted more detailed rationale for why I joined Kenshoo on the Connectual blog.)

I’ve also updated the author page with my new bio and acknowledgements with full disclosure.

As part of my contract with McGraw-Hill, I was given 15 author’s copies of the book a week before it hit stores.

As you can imagine, I was very excited when they arrived — not because I wanted to read it (believe me, 5 times is enough even if none were the final final version). Rather, I was excited to share my masterpiece with my closest friends, family, and colleagues.

Of course, the problem is I have more than 15 close friends, family, and colleagues. So, how did I choose? Well, I’d like to say there was some science to it but I really just went with whoever was in front of my face.

My wife, Lisa (for whom the book is dedicated, along with my daughter, Eliara) got the first copy. (And, truth is, she would’ve gotten the first copy even if she wasn’t home when they arrived.)

Next on my list was my mom and dad who came over the next day. (Don’t worry, Mom and Dad Neiman… you’re on the short list as soon as I get another batch!)

Then I gave signed copies to each of my 3 office mates.

Next up were Rishad Tobaccowala and Brian Morrissey, who were both kind enough to endorse the book.

Then I took care of Matt Spiegel and Dave Gould — 2 of my close pals and business mentors. (Lance, sorry bud, not being in Chicago short-changed you here. Hang tight ’til I get my hands on more! Ditto Kappy! And Iceman. As for my man, Tony, although I can’t play the non-local card, Arlington Heights is practically another state! C$ and Benny, no excuse fellas.)

I signed one  ”Dear Connectual office visitor” and left it on the coffee table.

I kept one copy for myself and have it proudly displayed on my desk.

I sent one to someone I have a lot of respect for but will have to remain unnamed for now as I’m currently talking with him about a business venture and not ready to announce anything.

I gave one to Joe Kutchera who stopped by my office today and has been a big supporter to date. (By the way, Joe’s book, Latino Link, comes out next month.)

I’ve got one signed and ready to give my buddy Vlad Radutny from Studio IDE (excellent architectural and design resource if you need one) this Saturday at his birthday dinner. (He texted me to say all he wanted me to bring was a signed copy. Seriously? No Vodka?!?)

And the final copy is going out to Janel Laravie of Chacka Marketing. I’ve known Janel quite a while and she was one of the many industry luminaries (each of whom will be receiving a signed copy, mind you, as soon as I get my next batch) kind enough to share their wisdom in the form of interviews while I was working on my manuscript.

Even though Janel had a signed copy coming her way anyway, as it turned out, she was the winner of my first random drawing for a free signed copy as part of the commitment I made to my @GoogleyLessons Twitter followers. For every 100 followers I get, I’ll be picking one at random from the entire list to receive a signed copy. So, if you haven’t already, start following. The sooner you follow, the more potential drawings you’ll be included in!

Besides deciding who the author’s copies should go to, the hardest part has been figuring out what to write in the inscriptions. And here I thought writing the book was hard. Sheesh!

Thankfully, Janel made it easy for me, specifying that she wanted hers sealed with a kiss. Note: both Janel and I are happily married (to other people) so there’s nothing to read into this. Just having a laugh.

Janel’s other request was to take pics of the signing and sealing in action. And these were just too good not to share…

Yes.

I’d imagine writing a book is much like completing that other item on my bucket list — running a marathon. It’s an incredibly exhausting process but exhilarating at the same time and crossing the finish line not only feels great, it makes you want to do it again… someday.

I will write another book. Someday.

I have what I think is a very strong concept. It will definitely be more of a “consumer-friendly” book rather than a business book so I can relate my ideas to a broader audience (ie, I want to write something that my mom would actually want to read.)

My next book will also be Google related. After all, it’s what I know best. I’ll save the details for a later time though as I want to flesh them out further and make sure no-one steals my ideas before I’m far enough down the line that I can’t be beaten to market.

Note: this post is part of a series. For more, see the full list of FAQs.

I shot a quick screencast today to show how McGraw-Hill and I have applied the “hub-and-spoke” model discussed in Chapter 5: Be Where Your Audience Is to our book marketing and PR activities. Essentially, GoogleyLessons.com acts as the hub (and main sales tool) while each social media outlet provides opportunity to engage readers in their environment and (hopefully) “ladder” them up from passive to active supporters.

I have yet to come across any books that outline general marketing lessons learned from Google so I believe my book stands alone for this niche topic.

However, there are a number of books that successfully cover Google, marketing, and related themes. Below is the response I included in my book proposal when McGraw-Hill asked me for the following:

List 3-4 competing books (preferably books which have been bestsellers or have been highly visible/influential in your content area) and positively distinguish your book. How is your book outstanding and unique, from both an editorial and a marketing perspective? If there are no direct competitors, cite the books that come closest.

1. What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

This book spells out new rules for operating in a Google world. My book will focus solely on marketing lessons rather than general business insights. And my book will be less about Google and more about companies that are applying lessons learned from Google. Also, by interspersing tweets and encouraging ongoing dialogue via Twitter, my book will be less static, more dynamic, and appeal to people that don’t have the attention span to read long-form text.

2. The Search by John Battelle

This book is about the history of Google and importance of search. My book is less about search and more about principles of search that can be applied to all marketing tactics. But I will draw from what John did most successfully which was intertwine interviews with top Google brass and other industry pundits to weave the story together and make it more compelling.

3. Small is the New Big by Seth Godin

While this book is not about Google or search, it is about marketing. And it’s written in a style I’ll emulate in terms of quick, punchy copy and thought-provoking, often contrarian, sound-bytes. Further, the “Small is the New Big” point-of-view speaks to the changing paradigm in marketing that I’ll be highlighting in my book. The main difference is that I’ll demonstrate the new world order by focusing specifically on lessons learned from Google referencing the occasional tweet as opposed to Seth’s lessons culled from a wide (dare I say, wandering) swath of insights and experiences hashed out in blog posts.

Note: I realize what I wrote is a bit brash but please keep in mind that I wrote this to sell McGraw-Hill on making me an offer. I can only hope that my readers will consider my book to be in the same ballpark as those written by Jarvis, Battelle, and Godin.

‘Nother Note: this post is part of a series. For more, see the full list of FAQs.

Got my authors copies last night! The rest are en route to booksellers as we speak. Looks like Amazon will be delivering between 8/26 and 8/30. Get ready to get Googley!

As with FAQ #1, I’ll just copy and paste from the proposal I sent to McGraw-Hill as they were keen to know the answer before green-lighting the project…

Anyone with a stake in marketing, from small business owners to CEO’s of Fortune 500 corporations, will want to buy this book. That said, the sweet spot will be marketing professionals responsible for advertising, PR, promotions, product development, etc. These folks are either “client-side” working at in-house marketing departments or “agency-side” at marketing communications firms. A subset of this group that will be particularly interested in buying this book is search engine marketing professionals looking to apply their skills to the broader marketing mix.

Note: this post is part of a series. For more, see the full list of FAQs.

It wasn’t too hard coming up with the topic. As discussed in FAQ #3, it just sort of came to me.

And it wasn’t too hard getting my thoughts on paper. When I sat down to write, the copy flowed pretty freely.

Far and away, the hardest part about writing this book was doing the research and coordinating interviews with key industry professionals.

I knew that no-one would want to read 300+ pages of what Aaron Goldman thinks about Google and marketing. Rather, to make this book truly compelling, I’d need to offer up a comprehensive point-of-view shared by the most thoughtful and influential folks in the marketing world.

As you can image, the most thoughtful and influential folks in the marketing world are also the busiest folks in just about all the world. Trying to coordinate interviews around their schedules proved to be a most tedious and arduous task.

In some cases, I wasn’t able to get the information I needed until weeks or months after I had written the chapter into which the material would be inserted. This made things difficult for me. I’m definitely a linear writer. I do best when I start at the beginning and proceed to the end.

Having to juggle an un-chronological (and sometimes illogical) research process definitely threw me for a loop. Ultimately, though, I was able to nail down a good 75%+ of the peoples whose input I sought and the manuscript came out all the better for having done it.

Note: this post is part of a series. For more, see the full list of FAQs.