Self Help Industry Research You Gotta Know About
Thanks to Krishna who tipped me off about putting this at my blog. You can read her sage suggestions here on how to use this research to market your self growth business!
If you are involved in the area of self improvement and self growth you will be interested in the following market research.
Dave Ricklan, Founder of Self Growth.com, sent out a survey last week to all of us who author the articles found at that site.
Here are the results of the survey in rank order, then I’m gonna rant on ‘em at the end. 
Question1 - Who are the most important leaders in the Self Improvement Industry?
The answers were:
Anthony Robbins
Deepak Chopra
Wayne Dyer
Oprah
Jack Canfield
Question 2 - What websites are the most effective for generating traffic to your website?
The answers were:
Google.com
Yahoo.com
SelfGrowth.com
MSN.com and MSN Search
EzineArticles.com
Question 3 - Where do you get the most up to date information on the Self Improvement Industry?
The answers were:
SelfGrowth.com
Google and Google Alerts
Amazon.com
Master Mind Groups
Hay House and Hay House Radio
A really simple set of questions, but very telling! For me as an NLP practitioner, I was suprised to find Tony Robbins listed first in important leaders - he’s always the one people run down! (even some NLP’ers) I can think of many that are omitted here too, such as Louise Hay, whose Hay House Radio did place in info generators, Cheryl Richardson, and others.
Another thing I can see as a glaring omission is the various special interest groups, professional associations and conferences that we all have or do belong to and attend. I’ve found in the several professional associations I’ve belonged to, a great dearth of information about the most up to date happenings. The associations seem really behind the curve and very slow to creak out of the stone age as far as cutting edge information gathering which is a shame, because providing cutting edge information should be the primary task of such groups.
Ever notice how you get much more information on what’s going on out of chatting around the watercooler than at company meetings? Maybe there’s something to be said for the more informal ways of gathering information. I can think of several I rely on daily: del.icio.us, digg, stumbleupon, reddit, Technorati and so on. If you want to know what’s hot, follow chat in the blogosphere about it.
Were your preferences not served in this survey??? If you’d like to "Place An Unofficial Vote" for your faves and turn people on to YOUR teachers, information sources and cool Self-Improvement websites, post a comment, below!
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July 17th, 2007 15:15
wealth of great information…..i am just new at this and your information was/is priceless….thank you and blessings to you -darlene siddons-
August 7th, 2007 11:50
Gratified to have found this site. I wonder if anyone can tell where I can find the best Industry and market data for the self-help industry? Growth trends. Books, Audio sold in $’s over the last five - ten years.
Thank you so much.
Debi
November 1st, 2007 00:12
Hi Debi, To answer your above question, you should find everything you’re after here: http://www.mkt-data-ent.com/ And here’s an earlier ’sample’ report from ‘97 thru 2000: http://www.mkt-data-ent.com/sisample.htm Hayley
Thanks Hayley, looks like a good resource. People should note however that many of these reports, such as the "Stress Management Products and Services report" are relatively old - this one weighs in at over a decade, being minted in 1996 - but still is relatively pricey at over $700. Don’t bite - a report this old is virtually worthless in today’s economy. The "Market for Self Improvement Products" is newer being written in 2006, but quite pricey at over $2000. I don’t know this company, but want to offer this: always do the research on whatever market research company you’re dealing with to make sure they are reputable. Some will only be reselling - at higher prices - reports you can get less expensively elsewhere. Caveat lector….Maryam