May 08 Personal Branding Winner of the Month – Morty Schiller

Congrats to wordsmith Morty Schiller for using online technology to enhance his personal brand and position himself in a way he can become more “findable!”

Morty is a professional writer. In fact, he writes junk mail. Lest you think that is bad, or he is evil, I point you to his Confessions of a Junk Mail Junkie article. This is a guy who understands his business, and the perception thereof, and is not afraid to address the perception.

Morty Schiller’s brand comes across as someone who is competent. And passionate about what he does. And credible. And if I had something that could benefit from a direct mail strategy, I would be compelled to talk with Morty.

Again, not that there aren’t other experts in the space… but Morty’s websites (the main site and his blog) help me (a) find him and (b) trust him. Here’s what I like:

The personality… and sense of humor. As you read through his stuff, he is simply a likeable guy… non-threatening, approachable, etc. This is not a cold, clinical sales pitch… you can actually feel like you know Morty.

The competency. Check out his blog posts… these are smart. They are on-brand… related to wordsmith stuff. For example, Don’t use these words and The death of words are two posts that let me feel his passion for his trade, and help me know that he deeply thinks and cares about current issues in his area. It makes me think subject matter expert, and/or though leader.

The simplicity. There isn’t noise here… no google ads, no widgets, etc. Well, a little noise on the right side of the blog, but really, it’s quite clean and not distracting.

Somehow, Morty puts his brand very assertively without being pushy… and that, he’s branding himself in a role that some might find unappealing! It’s very, very cool.

Of course, he’s doing a lot of other things right, too… you can see past winners and see a lot of consistency with each winner.

Morty Schiller, congratulations! You join a special group of professionals and have earned a coveted link from my monthly winner’s blogroll area (on the left), six months of premium JibberJobber (you can transfer/award this to someone else), and a cyber-high five! And, a new addition to the prize list is the two hour (!!) minute recording of Blog Marketing 201 – 501 (part of the CEO Training for Me, Inc. – listed at $49.95 (but much more valuable than that!).

Feel free to post the You Get It award on your site!

Here are the past winners:

• September 2006 – ClickDave – my review
• October 2006 – Kent Blumberg – my review
• November 2006 – Heather Henricks – my review
• December 2006 – Adelino de Almeida – my review
• January 2007 – Rob Humphrey – my review
• January 2007 – Ariel Meadow Stallings – my review
• February 2007 – Mike Schaffner – my review
• March 2007 – Susan Johnston – my review
• April 2007 – Thomas Clifford – my review
• May 2007 – Rob Frankel – my review
• June 2007 – Trent Hamm – my review
• July 2007 – Katie Konrath – my review
• August 2007 – Robb Hecht – my review
• September 2007 – OOPS! I took this month off and didn’t realize it! Lucky me
• October 2007 – Tanya Ferrill – my review
• November 2007 – Sean O’Donnovan – my review
• December 2007 – Andy Shaindlin – my review
• January 2008 – Kate Herrick – my review
• February 2008 – John Halamka – my review