The partners who do are the ones that “get it” and I would suggest that you connect with them to add real power to your own promotions.

1. Find a link to their blog or community site
2. Skim through and find what is interesting about them.
3. Read a post, and think how you could add to the discussion
4. Leave a thoughtful comment

This works. I’ve been connecting with more players in the past two weeks that I would have thought possible. Most read the comments you leave, and really appreciate knowing what readers think, and several new partnerships opportunities have opened up for new joint ventures, cross promotions, book deals and best seller campaigns.

Meeting Best Selling Author Seth Godin 

I’ve been following Seth Godin (author of Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, Purple Cow and many other great marketing books) for many years. I really like the concept of his Squidoo.com and suggtest that every author and entrepreneur have at least one lens (page) there

Squidoo added a new feature this week called MonkeyBrain. When I saw it, I immediatly clilcked to see what it was about.

I set up a lens in minutes, with my thoughts on the value of arguments and posted about it on my Best Seller Authors Blog. Within the first 48 hours, there were hundreds of viewers, several comments, including one from Seth himself. Then he notcied a typo on my blog post and left a acomment there… calling me a “monkey brain”

Since then, we’ve traded private emails. I have a new valuable connection and friend.

Total investment in time.. about 20 minutes.

Best of all, I have fun surfing the web, reading as much or more than I did before, while using the time to get multiple goals at the same time.. News, networking connections, relationships built and maintained and new sales to profitable clients that come looking for me.

When you read a post, profile (say on MySpace, Facebook, or LinkedIN) and see some that you know or what to know better, use this to make a brief connection.

Remember to think in terms of what is helpful to them and their projects, not a blatent promotion for yourself. The Law of Reciprocity will kick in and good will come

Read this post from my friend Azlan Hussain  for more perspective on these digital relationships