I'm heading to Barnes and Noble in 30 minutes. Which IM book should I buy?

[Paula Steen]

Someone just gave me a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

I'm getting ready to head over there now.

Anyone have a recommended book for me to find?

[FriendlyRob]

The only one that I'm aware of is Multiple Streams of Internet Income by some dude named Robert Allen. If you find any of value, please let us know.

[Paula Steen]

Sure thing... I'll post here when I get back if I find something good.

[AmyBrown]

My recommendation is: CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone by Drew Eric Whitman

[Chris Pambos]

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

[lonestar164]

Anything by Seth Godin.

[ItsDubC]

A few that I've found extremely eye-opening have been:

The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
Moonlighting on the Internet by Yanik Silver
The Official Get Rich Quick Guide to Information Marketing on the Internet by Robert Skrob & Bob Regnerus

[Paula Steen]

I'm back from Barnes and Noble!

This time I bought several books for my son... and this one for me:

Web Marketing for Small Businesses
7 Steps to Explosive business growth

It's a practical, how-to book which focuses on the power of Web 2.0 marketing.

Thanks for all of the advice! I will bookmark this thread for suggestions the next time I buy a book there or online.

[winebuddy]

what? all of those suggestions and you bought some web 2.0 book? Please let us know if it is any good!

[CurtisN]

I haven't read everything by Seth Godin, but I will. The only one of his that I've read is "The Dip", which is one of my fave books ever.

I'm working through Cialdini's "Influence" right now...not an IM book, but it is catered to marketers. This book is crazy...you should buy it

Curtis

[Colin Theriot]

Originally Posted by CurtisN

I haven't read everything by Seth Godin, but I will. The only one of his that I've read is "The Dip", which is one of my fave books ever.

I'm working through Cialdini's "Influence" right now...not an IM book, but it is catered to marketers. This book is crazy...you should buy it

Curtis

Seth Godin's stuff is good. I have the audio book for "All Marketers Are Liars" and I really take it to heart.

Re: Cialdini's "Influence" - that's an amazing book. Fundamental. Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" is good in the same way.

Here's more from my long list of "books that aren't actually about marketing will teach you more about marketing than any book that's supposed to be about markeing":

"The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch

"How to talk with practically anybody about practically anything" by Barbara Walters

"Frogs Into Princes", and "The Structure of Magic (1 & 2)" by John Grinder and Richard Bandler

"Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life" by Gail Sheehy

"The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading" by Ian Rowlands

"The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (Fiction)

"The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis (Fiction)

"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn (Fiction)

"Forbidden Keys of Persuasion" by Blair Warren

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn

"Slaughterhouse Five" and pretty much anything else by Kurt Vonnegut (Fiction)

"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams (Fiction)

All of those books are ones that I've re-visited time and time again as I learn more and more about tricking people into doing whatever I want while they're thinking it's all their own idea.

All have contributed, but some in less obvious ways than others. Topics include Physics, Epistemology, Psychology, Magic, Mumbo Jumbo, Magick, Holism, Buddhism, Evolutionary Biology, etc, etc. I marked the Fiction ones as such, in case that makes a difference for anyone, but I actually find I sometimes learn more from fiction than from books that are supposed to teach.

(BTW, Storytelling works in marketing not because people like stories, but because stories are the best stealth-teaching mechanism ever devised, literally teaching prospects to want your stuff.)

If anyone wants to discuss any of those books with me like a book club or something, please get in touch! Like I said, I re-read them all often, and love to discuss the contents with other people that have gotten as much from them as I have.

[Zanti]

Great list Colin,

Loved Ishmael, also the "Story of B" I think can fit in this too.

Z

[Steve Peters Benn]

If you have $25 - then I would go for something by Dan Kennedy. Having said that - try not to get stuck in research mode - if you are looking for one book to open your eyes and get you started you might end up being disapointed...

[seasoned]

Originally Posted by chukwuma

Please tell us about the book.

Well, Amazon seems to rate it like 4.3 stars, but here is the bulk of a "4 star" review.

This book was a little better than OK, but I can't say that I particularly liked it. I'd love to rate it a 3.5 star, but I have to give it either a 4 or a 3. Well, I'll throw it a bone - voila! It gets a 4. The book has five sections and 19 chapters as follows:

I. What's new online? (1&2)
II. A new mindset (3-6)
III. Developing your 7-step action plan (7-15)
IV. Completed plan and beyond (16-19)
V. Appendix (A&B)

1. What's important to today's Web marketer?
2. Changing roles
3. Creativity and innovation
4. Think like a direct response copywriter
5. You're a publisher now!
6. Your new social media Web site
7. The 7-step action plan
8. Step 1: Niche
9. Step 2: Brand
10. Step 3: Story
11. Step 4: Search
12. Step 5: Content
13. Step 6: Tactics - Social Media
14. Step 6: Tactics - Tried and true
15. Step 7: Results
16. Putting it all together
17. Let the message work for you
18. Collaboration with colleagues and customers
19. Tracking your success
A. Bibliography
B. Worksheets

I loved Chapter 5 on being an infopreneur. But I would have liked more coverage on emailing, ebooks, webinars, and teleseminars.

The author has her own online marketing and design company called "Digital Media Works, Inc" which you can easily find by doing a Google search for that name. I was about as impressed with her company Web site as I was impressed with her book. Clearly this book is a marketing piece for her company.

It surprised me that a book on Internet Marketing only devoted one chapter (Chapter 6) to the ins and outs of designing a Web site. And it surprised me that a book on Internet Marketing that included a bibliography did not include more books (and current ones at that) on Internet Marketing. Chapter 14 covers email sigs, article marketing, online press releases, and ezines.

Frankly, the chapters(just the wording indicated here) seem wanting.

Steve

[TelegramSam]

There is a great book called:

"How to get rich by sitting in Barnes & Noble whilst sipping coffee and eating chocolate muffins" by Ivana B Wich

Anyway, that's what I tell myself everytime I go :-)

Sam