Question: What do you get when you combine pure, unadulterated in-your-face honesty (warts and all) with some of the smartest marketing prowess in cyberspace?

Answer: If you said an irreverent chick who swears like a sailor and really knows her #@!%, you’d be close.

Answer: If you said a woman who’d be your best mate in a bar room brawl and who only cares about one thing…getting results for clients and customers, you’d be getting warmer.

Answer: And if you said the mediocrity-abhorring Naomi, the Mistress of IttyBiz.com…DING-DING-DING….you’d be today’s Grand Prize winner! (Please direct your attention to the curtain where Carol Merrill is standing…and if you get that, God help you…you’re as old as I am.)

The IttyBiz Blog Religion

Let’s skip the crap I usually write about this far in the post and get right to the point.

You see? You can’t read IttyBiz without one thing rubbing off on you….honesty. 

And it’s one of the reasons I love Naomi and her approach to business; she calls ‘em like she sees ‘em.  No, I’m not going to start letting the expletives fly, but I will say this…

Read IttyBiz for two weeks. If you’re not impressed with the approach and momentum you feel, you’re either on drugs or your heart really isn’t into making a living from your blog.

IttyBiz is a great example of how the architecture of a blog-religion supports the growth of the business. And with that, let’s get into how IttyBiz qualifies as a full-blown blog-religion by evaluating the presence of Naomi’s Holy Trinity….and, no…. that’s not a dirty inference. 

Blog-Religion Markers for IttyBiz.com

Authority of Leadership: The first metric of any blog-religion is the quality of its leadership. Like Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net (see our review here) and Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com (and again, here), Naomi leads her faithful following not with bold and brazen marketing hype but with straightforward personality.

In order for any blog-religion to succeed, there must be a charismatic leader at the helm.  On IttyBiz we’ve got that in spades.

There’s no doubt who’s in charge; though it seems IttyBiz is a three-way partnership with Naomi, husband Jamie and ‘Not-So-Silent-Partner’ Jack ever nearby, it’s Naomi’s voice that’s woven throughout the blog.

I’ve been following Naomi’s journey on IttyBiz for a while. I’ve participated in minor ways: leaving blog comments (Yay, they’re back), purchasing a $19 audio call and of course, reading the RSS updates.  I’ve have been impressed with how she preaches what she practices. Yeah, I know that sounds bass-ackwards but it’s what I’ve witnessed following IttyBiz.

How refreshing is that!

IttyBiz’s Holy Trilogy: As most BAR readers are aware, we stand on the soapbox and loudly proclaim…

“…you don’t have to have a gazillion readers and a stadium full of ads to make a profit blogging.  Nope, not even close.”

What you do need to have is a balanced approach to your blogging business. The Holy Trinity brings exactly this to your blog-religion.  Let’s look at how IttyBiz ranks in this regard.

• Consulting: The dreaded time-for-money swap that should be the most infrequent activity for a blog-religion is represented at IttyBiz by Naomi’s quasi-offer for consulting – albeit with a three-month waiting list and a hefty price tag at $500/hour. (An astute marketing strategy in itself.)
• Training/Education: IttyBiz recently teamed up with Havi over at TheFluentSelf.com and hosted a call-in for those interested in still running a profitable business in the mist of a recession.  The content was solid, the format casual – the value very high.   There’s also a couple of additional areas where IttyBiz ‘gets it’ about the education thingy. 
  • Marketing 101 – a training course about..um…marketing.
  • Online Business School – It’s a hybrid on the BAR Holy Trinity barometer as it combines training with a leveraged product.
• Leverage: Here’s where IttyBiz gets it royally.  There’s a nice sales funnel in play here: $39 gets you Naomi’s book, SEO School.  $97 will score her eBook, How To Launch the **** Out of Your eBook. And for those with more ambition and discretionary cash, $397 will gain you access to Online Business School.

You’ll recall that BAR refers to these price point differences as conversions; in the case study above SEO School is a first level conversion, How To Launch…is a second level conversion while Online Business School is a higher level conversion. You buy the first, then the second, then the third…yada, yada.

Other Blog Religion Markers

Community: IttyBiz has built a loyal community over the few years since its inception. But there hasn’t been a gathering place, a ‘church,’ or in today’s lingo, a forum, where IttyBizzers can hang out, ask questions and encourage one another.  I think it’s an untapped resource that Naomi may have overlooked.  IttyBiz isn’t planning a forum but there is a private blog planned where members of The IttyBiz SpeakEasy can congregate and interact.

Holy Book: Naomi describes SEO School as the IttyBiz classic. If this means that it forms the basis of what IttyBiz stands for; if it means that it’s the foundation upon which IttyBiz rests its considerable weight, then it just might qualify as the Holy Book for the IttyBiz blog-religion.

What’s Missing?

Niche Specific Terminology: Admittedly, it’s difficult but not impossible to reinvent marketing terminology.  I mean, how ways can you say ‘Target Audience’ or ‘Unique Selling Proposition?’ Still, a religion specific lexicon would be cool and the presence of one would further underscore the uniqueness of IttyBiz.

I guess we could say that Naomi’s colorful use of language could qualify IttyBiz in this category. I’ve not run across too many sites where the language -even the expletives- are used in a way that lends a consistent level of humor and illustration while minimizing the vulgar.

What I’d Like to See

Under the beating a dead horse category….if I had my druthers, I’d love to see a forum linked to the membership option. It provides a better sense of community than blog comments can.

Having had the experience of running two forums, I know the unique experience a forum provides community members. In my opinion it’s a better value for users and retains followers more effectively in the long run than a blog commentary can.

Yes, it’s a helluva (first lexicon entry?) lot of work to keep lots of people engaged in the forum, but when you’ve got great content and personality backing you up, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

More audio. Naomi’s got a slant on business (and life) that’s uncommon in the business world. It’s simultaneously refreshing and shocking.

I’d  love to have Naomi all to myself….er…..in my iPod. I think other IttyBizzers would too.

Given that the best learning environment isn’t sitting in front of your laptop, but combining audio with physical action, I can see a whole range of possibilities here. Listening to Naomi while walking on the beach, listening to Naomi while washing the dishes, listening to Naomi while….well…there are limits.

Summary

IttyBiz is rapidly becoming a giant in the world of blog-religions. It’s garnering attention for some of the bigger players in the blogosphere and with good reason.  But something tells me that IttyBiz is quite content to stay IttyBitty and make a not-so-IttyBitty living in the process.

As I said above, IttyBiz is a solid value no matter how you decide to get involved.  It’s a rare gem in the quarry of hype that pervades the blogosphere. If you’re not a subscriber, take my advice and subscribe today. You won’t regret it.