he resisted. But he believed in me, and as soon as he relented I was off to the races.
Winelibrary.com launched in June 1997 (the store itself wouldn’t take on the name Wine Library until 1999). The store brought in about 2 or 3 million per year in 1994. I came onboard full-time after graduating in 1998 and grew the business from about 4 million to 10 million in a year with 0 percent of that in online sales. By 2001, we were doing about 20 million. Not bad. Not bad at all. Life was good and business was booming. Most guys my age would have thought they had it made.
Then, on my thirtieth birthday, November 14, 2005, I was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike on my way to work thinking about my day, and I realized that as perfect as life seemed, I wasn’t entirely happy. I knew deep in my soul that there was no way I was ever going to buy the Jets if I stayed on the retail path. It was time to go big.
We had a computer department at Wine Library by now, and I had seen Erik Kastner and John Kassimatis spending their lunch breaks spitting food all over themselves from laughing at these things called video blogs (the two big ones at the time were Rocketboom and the show with zefrank). I had been trying to figure out how to leverage this new medium to show people that there was more to drink out there than Yellowtail. I’d also noticed that sites like MySpace and Flickr and YouTube were becoming popular, sites that had nothing to do with commerce and everything to do with being social and sharing stories and meeting people, and that was something I was good at. It was there, on the New Jersey Turnpike, that I had my aha moment. I wasn’t going to use video blogs to sell wine; I was going to use video blogs to build a whole new world for wine, and for myself. I waited to get the store through the holiday season, and then launched Wine Library TV in February 2006, three months later.
three
build your personal brand
Y ou’ve just read a piece of my story that most people don’t know, and it’s probably the most important part. I’ll say it again: Wine Library TV was never about selling wine on the Internet. It was always about building brand equity.
----
S ome people might point out that if I weren’t interested in selling wine, I wouldn’t include links to buy it on the Wine Library TV site. Believe me, I’d make more money doing an affiliate program with Wine.com than I do with my links to Winelibrary.com. But I’m a businessman—if someone wants to buy wine from me, be my guest. However, so that no one can accuse “The Thunder Show” (my nickname for Wine Library TV) of being an extended sales pitch, I make sure that Wine Library only carries fifteen or fewer cases of whatever I talk about. If I give something a good review and it sells out,everyone has to go elsewhere to get it. If the goal of Wine Library TV were to sell wine, I’d make sure to have enough product on hand to serve my customers. Wine Library, our store, doesn’t reap commercial benefits from Wine Library TV because of an uptick in sales due to my blog; it reaps brand equity benefits because people come to the store to see what it’s about and where I work. Sometimes they just come to thank me for the content on my blog, which I really, really appreciate.
----
Developing your personal brand is key to monetizing your passion online. Whether you’re delivering your content by video, podcast, or blog, it’s the authentic you, the one thing that is guaranteed to differentiate you from everybody else, including those who share your niche or business model. The thing that most people don’t realize is that in today’s world your business and your personal brand need to be one and the same, whether you’re selling organic fish food or financial advice or just your opinion.
Monetizing a personal brand is not a new concept. A lot of the most successful entertainment figures in the world are personal brand geniuses, like Oprah, Howard Stern,
Winelibrary.com launched in June 1997 (the store itself wouldn’t take on the name Wine Library until 1999). The store brought in about 2 or 3 million per year in 1994. I came onboard full-time after graduating in 1998 and grew the business from about 4 million to 10 million in a year with 0 percent of that in online sales. By 2001, we were doing about 20 million. Not bad. Not bad at all. Life was good and business was booming. Most guys my age would have thought they had it made.
Then, on my thirtieth birthday, November 14, 2005, I was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike on my way to work thinking about my day, and I realized that as perfect as life seemed, I wasn’t entirely happy. I knew deep in my soul that there was no way I was ever going to buy the Jets if I stayed on the retail path. It was time to go big.
We had a computer department at Wine Library by now, and I had seen Erik Kastner and John Kassimatis spending their lunch breaks spitting food all over themselves from laughing at these things called video blogs (the two big ones at the time were Rocketboom and the show with zefrank). I had been trying to figure out how to leverage this new medium to show people that there was more to drink out there than Yellowtail. I’d also noticed that sites like MySpace and Flickr and YouTube were becoming popular, sites that had nothing to do with commerce and everything to do with being social and sharing stories and meeting people, and that was something I was good at. It was there, on the New Jersey Turnpike, that I had my aha moment. I wasn’t going to use video blogs to sell wine; I was going to use video blogs to build a whole new world for wine, and for myself. I waited to get the store through the holiday season, and then launched Wine Library TV in February 2006, three months later.
three
build your personal brand
Y ou’ve just read a piece of my story that most people don’t know, and it’s probably the most important part. I’ll say it again: Wine Library TV was never about selling wine on the Internet. It was always about building brand equity.
----
S ome people might point out that if I weren’t interested in selling wine, I wouldn’t include links to buy it on the Wine Library TV site. Believe me, I’d make more money doing an affiliate program with Wine.com than I do with my links to Winelibrary.com. But I’m a businessman—if someone wants to buy wine from me, be my guest. However, so that no one can accuse “The Thunder Show” (my nickname for Wine Library TV) of being an extended sales pitch, I make sure that Wine Library only carries fifteen or fewer cases of whatever I talk about. If I give something a good review and it sells out,everyone has to go elsewhere to get it. If the goal of Wine Library TV were to sell wine, I’d make sure to have enough product on hand to serve my customers. Wine Library, our store, doesn’t reap commercial benefits from Wine Library TV because of an uptick in sales due to my blog; it reaps brand equity benefits because people come to the store to see what it’s about and where I work. Sometimes they just come to thank me for the content on my blog, which I really, really appreciate.
----
Developing your personal brand is key to monetizing your passion online. Whether you’re delivering your content by video, podcast, or blog, it’s the authentic you, the one thing that is guaranteed to differentiate you from everybody else, including those who share your niche or business model. The thing that most people don’t realize is that in today’s world your business and your personal brand need to be one and the same, whether you’re selling organic fish food or financial advice or just your opinion.
Monetizing a personal brand is not a new concept. A lot of the most successful entertainment figures in the world are personal brand geniuses, like Oprah, Howard Stern,
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