Are College Textbooks Any Good? Anybody Know These Guys?

good bro..keep it up.

do good ideas . i love the warrior forum.

Probably should have started a separate thread, but at the end of your post, about feeling like you are wasting your time...this is probably as good a place as any.

Colleges SELL themselves by telling folks that a High School diploma is worth about 36k a year, whereas a degree is about 60k, almost double. There is some dubious and even voo-doo economics in those numbers.

But at least they give a relative value to your time...but the four years and expenses and the head start in the work force by HS grads, does not get factored in. Of course, any professional careers need college, so I'll keep this to MARKETING.

Sure, a Harvard MBA or Wharton MBA is treasured, but that may be as much for CONNECTION as it is for content. They offer more WHO to know, not more what you need to know.

Colleges do try to QUANTIFY their value, and in those business/marketing schools, certainly a more traditional Wall St. Or Big Biz Mainstreet will get the dollars from it...

But Entrepreneurship is the level playing field.

And no lack of examples of non college, or drop outs going on to do huge business.

We can search for the value of a Harvard Degree vs one from Tiny University...but how do we QUANTIFY the guru?

If you have never heard of it, then I might be the only talking about it.

What is the value of a Dan Kennedy education over a Jay Abraham one? Or how much have you made in dollars actually using anything you've learned from Gary Halbert.

Weasel amounts like a boat load of cash, or a shit-ton of money, or oodles and all that is very Cialdini like, commitment and consistency.

I've actually spent time trying to figure out which TECHINQUES and methods, and from where they came in hard earned dollars.

There is philosophical value from Marketers: find a starving crowd and sell food.

And actual dollars, a downtown hot dog stand will produce a 37k a year net profit, working 5 days a week times X number of weeks...franchises are good at showing what the potential value is.

So, a question for the forum.

Which guru, or mentor, marketer or teacher have you made the most from actually APPLYING the education you rec'd?

I'll put my list together and post it later, if anyone is interested. Or do you believe it is impossible to QUANTIFY the value of the education received from the trenches of real life?

GordonJ

I want to clarify what I said.

College courses are highly valuable for most subjects. Want to learn about any math subject? Want to be a doctor, lawyer, or CPA? Even how to write? Sure.

But there are just a few subjects that are not taught in any college course, because nobody that writes the texts or teaches will have any experience....selling is the most obvious, I think, with marketing a close second.

Institutional advertising could be taught, and I have read several textbooks on the subject. But direct marketing? Where you are trying to sell something in print? No.

If you go on E-Bay, you can find the Dan Kennedy copywriting course on DVD cheap,.

Any of the classics from John Caples, John Carlton, Bob Bly, Joe Sugarman.....will get you into the psychology of selling in print.

For $100 on E-Bay, you could have an extensive library of books on copywriting that will give you what you want.

The good news is that copywriting can largely be learned from books, and selling cannot.

My opinion is, for sure, college textbooks are a scam. Doesn't mean they don't offer some value, but the outrageous prices, like what you paid...is or should be a crime. Consider it to be part of the debt you'll be stuck with for the years to come.

So...and this is, to my knowledge, one of the few college text books written by an actual marketer, and a successful one at that is...
.
7 STEPS TO FREEDOM ll by Benjamin D. Suarez. It is actually a text book used in classes at The University of Akron, which has one of the better business/marketing departments in the country. It is because two local businessmen, Ben being one of them, contributed a ton of money to the school to establish a special marketing dept.

You can pick up a used copy of this text book for about 5 to 10 bux.

It isn't theory, all tested and proven, with billions of dollars of sales behind it.

It might be a good supplement for your introductory course. If you have the chance to take some basic law (business) courses, especially contracts, try to get that on your schedule too.

My bias is always INTENT. What do you want out of your college education? Why? You will find good reasons on both sides, get your degree, or drop out and do your thing. No one can tell which is better for you, but you get a lot of anecdotal advice.

One thing I found useful, was the classroom itself, which for me was a human laboratory of studying human behavior, and I learned more from my classmates than I did from all the books and professors combined. It is a great place to watch what people DO, not what they say.

And one other thing about 7 STEPS, it is every bit as big and boring as any textbook you have, but it, at least, comes from the mouth of experience.

GordonJ

P.S. One other text book from a real marketer is, Bob Stone...Successful Direct Marketing Methods (3rd edition)

True. The degree, and it's usefulness in finding a job, is often the biggest goal.

That kinda stinks, in my opinion. I think that mindset has a real affect on your motivation and desire to learn (that was the main reason I quit college for like a year).

But... no sense in me continuing to complain now. Just gotta make sure I get the college stuff done AND get a good marketing education outside of school. Gotta be possible to balance those two things.

interesting, I'll keep that in mind.

Do you have any recommended sources for learning about branding?

Brand advertising tends to make us comfortable with the brand name, and to make it familiar when we go shopping. Very useful for many kinds of companies, and even individuals.

Direct advertising/marketing is to make the immediate sale.

National car ads are brand advertising, the local car dealer ads are direct. They work together.

I have a friend in the life insurance business. He bought ads on several local billboards.

He did this for years. I once asked him about the results he got. He said he never got a sale from the ads directly, but it made it much easier to make appointments in the area, because people remembered his photo and that he sold life insurance. It built comfort and trust.


But...he still had to make the calls.