Recommend Any Good Internet Marketing Books?
On a recent Thirty Day Challenge TV show, this question was asked: “Can you recommend any good Internet Marketing books to read before the Thirty Day Challenge?”
The answer, which might have been surprising for some viewers, was “no!”
The main reason for this is that in the world of the Internet things change very quickly and by the time any book can be written and published through a traditional [read: long] process, the information is usually out of date. Even self-publishing can take far too long for the latest Internet Marketing tips and tricks. There are some Internet Marketers who have published traditional books (Joel Comm, Rosalind Gardner, Perry Marshall) and, while the books do offer good general marketing advice alongside their techniques (whether Adsense, Adwords etc.), they’re designed to establish the marketer as an expert in their field and act as another avenue for attracting prospects (IMHO).
The books that were recommended are not Internet related – they are simply good marketing, psychology and writing books:
Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath
A Whole New Mind – Daniel H Pink
Something that struck me, that wasn’t mentioned, was that even online material – ebooks, training courses etc. - were not recommended and I think there are 2 good reasons for that.
1. People who want to learn about Internet Marketing believe it is something different from real-world business. They think there is some special “voodoo” involved and as soon as they learn this they will be successful online. The truth is that Internet Marketing is simply marketing but on the Internet (who would have guessed?). Good marketing skills are as relevant online as they are offline, and the same rules of building a profitable business apply. Yes, there are some tools and techniques you need to learn in order to work online but strong marketing foundations will serve you better than anything else.
2. What you do learn about Internet Marketing can be subjective. The Thirty Day Challenge will teach a particular approach to researching and creating an online business. The method they teach will be grounded in good research and tried-and-tested techniques, but it will be specific to Ed Dale and Dan Raine (and their team). Other marketers will teach in a different way and possibly completely different techniques. Is one right and the other wrong? NO. It’s simply that there are many training approaches, methods, techniques, tips and tricks and each marketer is going to be slightly different. There is no point starting to learn from one marketer for 10 days and then switching to the Thirty Day Challenge – you could end up with conflicting ideas and a lot of confusion. Personally, I believe what works best is to learn everything you can of one approach and put it into practice. If it works for you then you can seek out the teaching that will improve you business further (for example, you may want to learn more about Adwords or SEO techniques or blogging). If it doesn’t work for you, you try to discover where things went wrong and change them or you move on (but only once you are certain you have followed the process through to the letter).
Some other books that I would recommend or that Ed and Dan have mentioned are:
Influence: Science and Practice – Robert B Cialdini
Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive – Robert B Cialdini
The Back of the Napkin – Dan Roam
The Art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin
And finally, and probably more important than most of the books mentioned, is The Gary Halbert Letter which is the ultimate (free) online resource for learning copywriting.
Wow! With less than 7 days to go, that’s a lot of reading. You might want to save some of them for after August and get plenty of sleep and family time before the challenge instead.
Jul 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Basic premise: we’re all quite irrational not rational. But we’re irrational in quite predictable ways.
Fascinating stuff.
A favorite quote: we tend to focus on comparing things that are easily comparable and avoid things that cannot be compared easily.
Jul 28th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Blair Warren’s One Sentence Persuasion Course
http://blairwarren.com/osp.pdf
The One Sentence Persuasion Course: 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding is by far the most popular thing I’ve ever written. Thousands of copies have been downloaded and spread across the Internet. I’ve had people tell me this short report opened their eyes to an entirely new way of looking at persuasion and influence.
Nov 14th, 2008 at 5:14 am
In my opnion, online marketing and real world marketing is basically the same in the sense that both require the fundamentals of advertising and marketing per se. The only difference, which makes online marketing advantageous is the accessibility and conveninece granted by the nature of online marketing through which is an inherent trait in all internet based businesses. The measure for success still relies on the marketing methods that are being applied.
Nov 18th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
eBooks allow the convenience of having to browse through specific topics with ease and comfort.