A few days ago, Google rolled out a new product it calls Knol. Simply put, a knol is a unit of knowledge. What makes Knol such a good tool is the ability for anyone to collaborate on a body of knowledge with other experts in that area. If you are the publisher of a knol then you can control the content while still allowing others to contribute. That makes it a very powerful medium.

If you are not the publisher of the knol you can still contribute. Every member of the Knol community that contributes to a knol, whether it be their own or someone else’s, is marketing their business. Since you have to have a profile with Google Knol, and your profile allows you to link to your website, then you are able to contribute to useful knols in your niche and market your business at the same time.

You have to be careful, though, not to create a knol for the express purpose of marketing your business. I don’t expect that those will do very well. I do expect that knols that focus on providing valuable information first will be good marketing vehicles for others. I’d encourage you to seek out this opportunity to share your knowledge and to build a community around like-minded collaborators. Do it now and you’re in on the ground floor.

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