I built the initial foundation for my Ruby/Rails consulting career on the back of my eBook. That opened up the opportunity to work some awesome people (directl

I built the initial foundation for my Ruby/Rails consulting career on the back of my eBook. That opened up the opportunity to work some awesome people (directly, as in "I read your book, work with us") and to write a book for a "real" publisher. Of course these opportunities opened up more work and conference speaking opportunities. And again this past year with the Rails 3 Upgrade Handbook. I was invited to speak at like 5 conferences based off my work on that along with some other opportunities. So yes, getting information out there in a cohesive way that people are interested in is a great way to open up opportunities for yourself, whether it's a blog, book, documentation project, etc.