No matter how much you talk about coaching, it will remain intangible to a client until he actually experiences its results. Therefore, to capture career coaching clients, make it easy for them to hire you by bundling your services and products into packages, and sell as distinct programs.

When people have a choice they are more likely to buy-in to the career coaching process and take ownership of their actions.

To boost your ezine (or newsletter) subscription rate, offer a "reward" for a contact’s information such as a career-related article, report, simple job assessment - or what else?

As a career coach, the media needs you. You are an expert in several areas: job search, interviewing, work place trends, career change, salary negotiation, and so much more. Reporters need your expertise for their articles. How can you help them find you? The first place a reporter looks for a quotable source is on the Internet. How easy can you be found there?

When the phone rings, treat a reporter’s request with a sense of urgency - she is probably on deadline and needs to act fast. Most will let you have at least a few minutes to gather your thoughts before calling them back. If you respond to a reporter’s email, keep your comments in short bullet point statements - these will end up as quotes in the article.

Some basic tips for working with the meida:

1. Remember that nothing you say is "off the record," even if you ask for and are granted that privilege.
2. Don’t offer comments on topics outside your knowledge realm. Just say you don’t know.
3. Send the reporter a "thank you" after the interview - this gives them your correct contact information, as well as something tangible for them to remember you by for the next time they need help.
4. Ask for a copy of the article when it is published, or at least an email with the online link to it.

Make friends with the media and you’ll create some of your most important marketing relationships that will keep working for you many times over.

I saw the new movie, "Hollywoodland," over the weekend - the story about the actor, George Reeves, who played Superman on television during the 1950s. Something struck me while sitting in the theater: it may be possible to "over-brand" your product. In Reeves’ case, the public never saw him as the person, George Reeves, but really as Superman - as if Superman were a real person.

So what, you ask, isn’t that the point to good branding? To create serendipity between you and your product? You’re probably right, though how does branding this perfectly cripple your chances to branch out into new areas?

In Reeves’ case, he was so well-branded in his character, that the audience laughed at him playing a dramatic character in the movie, "From Here to Eternity," when it premiered. This public reaction caused the movie producer to re-cast the character in the final movie version before releasing it to the theaters. Reeves was never able to break out of his Superman character to try other roles.

How much is too much branding? Can you foresee a time when your career coaching business is branded beyond your control? What’s the solution?

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about coaches having to find their niche before their business can hope to succeed. This is a huge barrier for a lot of coaches - it can cause them to freeze like a deer in headlights. Panic button - how can I start my business if I’m not clear on my niche?

Sound familiar?

Well, a noted marketing expert, Robert Middleton, has just posted on his blog that not knowing your niche shouldn’t stop the independent business owner from marketing - just start anyway! You’ll figure it all out as you go along - the important thing is to just start!

To a certain extent, I agree. As career coaches, at least we already have a strong focus guiding us in expressing our expertise. Perhaps just writing a few general career-related articles and posting them in some general article directories, will at least start to get your name out there. Give it try!

However, to be outrageously - or even moderately - successful, you will eventually have to find that career coaching niche.

When you need an article idea and your mind goes blank, ask your readers! Once you have a database that’s growing, conduct an email survey on a particular career coaching topic. A free tool to use for this project is Survey Monkey.

Another easy-to-use survey tool geared for coaches is Assessment Generator. You may use it to not only create surveys, but also develop your own assessments for your career coaching clients. Check it out!

Boost your website’s local visibility by using your city name + career coach in one page title and description. See http://www.abilitiesenhanced.com/press.html. Now go to Google and type in: Kansas City career coach. Where does this page rank?

Just discovered a new place where you should list your career coaching website: CHIMBY, a career advice search engine. This search engine has a high Google page rank.

CHIMBY informed me today that my blog, Career Chaos, was named "one of the best career sites on the web."

Check it out!

Need an article fast - something new? Take a look at your past presentations. Did you a find a topic that will work? Great! Just rewrite the presentation into an article format. And while you’re at it, how can you convert this presentation into a teleclass that you can deliver to your target market?

As a solo-preneur, it’s important to make the best use of your time by reworking your material whenever possible into the format you need now.

Whenever I coach career coaches on starting their own businesses, I hear them lament, "This marketing thing is too overwhelming! How can I ever get good at all the stuff I have to do?"

Yes, there’s a lot to do, but getting it all organized is the key to success. Take note - every marketing activity can be categorized under one of the following tags: Presentation, Publication, Networking, or Web Presence. Think about it. If you can come up with something you can’t categorize accordingly, let me know.

Now, look at the marketing activities you like to do and those you don’t. On a large piece of paper, make four columns. Head each column with one of the four marketing tags. List your "likes" under their appropriate headings.

This is a start to organizing your marketing plan! Your biggest challenge at this point should be finding something to list under each heading as all four categories are necessary for a well-balanced, strategic plan.