Monthly Archives: September 2009

By: 16/9/2009Garin Kilpatrick (@Gar1n)

For this Post I have researched the Authors of all the books listed and I talk a little bit for each book about the Blogs these Authors might have, and why each book is worthwhile.  These books are the 9 best that I have hand picked from a list of over 100. Whenever I buy a book I like to know as much about the Author as possible so that I can decide if they are interesting enough for me to read an entire book they write.  Even if you are not going to buy a book you might still want to connect with these authors on Twitter via the links provided.  The last book on this list is Free and features a free audio book as well, so hopefully there is something for everyone.  Enjoy!

1. Trust Agents

By: Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan) and Julien (@Julien)
Published: August 24th, 2009
Website: TrustAgents.com
Thoughts: People seem quite positive about this book and today I saw seesmic founder @Loic holding up a copy on Facebook. This is the newest book on the list. Chris Brogan is a friendly guy and really seems to live up to his status as a trustworthy guy. I have not investigated the co-author much because he honestly did not seem very interesting. Hopefully he did not write the lions share of this book.

From the Inside Flap:

There’s no question that the Internet has changed the way we do business—especially when it comes to marketing.

Consumer environments are short on trust and populated by consumers who are cynical, savvy, and informed. Though it’s easier than ever to reach your customers, it’s less likely that they’ll listen. Today, the most valuable

online currency isn’t the dollar, but trust itself.

At the same time, social networks and personal connections have far more influence on consumers than your

marketing messages ever will—unless your business knows how to harness them. In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of these networks to build your brand’s influence, reputation, and profits.

2. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

By: Charlene Li (@charleneli), Josh Bernoff (@jbernoff)

Published: 21-4-2008

Website: Groundswell Blog

Recommended by: @ActiveIngreds

Thoughts: I read the Groundswell Blog and found it had some good information and stats.  The Blog was of the typical quality I have come to expect from forrester so I am going to assume that the book is of the same standards.

3. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

By: Seth Godin (Not on Twitter)

Published: 16-10-2008

Thoughts: Seth posts provocative thoughts daily on his personal Blog. I can attest that some of them are very worthwhile.  Seth is usually spot on with his ideas and he considers himself a Marketer’s Marketer.  Just keep in mind he wrote another book called All Marketers are Liars.  If you are not a fan of Marketers and Marketing this book is probably not for you.

5. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

By: Don Tapscott (@dtapscott), Anthony D. Williams (@adw_tweets)

Published: 12-12-2008

Thoughts: Anthony has only tweeted 67 times.  Not something I would expect of someone who is the author of a book on mass collaboration.  Twitter is not a wiki, but I do consider it one of the finest forms of mass communicative collaboration. Don gives me more hope for the duo.  He has almost 1,000 tweets and makes the claim in his bio that he is: striving to live a principled life of consequence.  Admirable.

6. The Twitter Book

By: Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly), Sarah Milstein (@SarahM)

Published: 11-5-2009

Thoughts: I would recommend any book that has Tim Oreilly as an author. Tim is a brilliant man with great tweets and a very successful publishing company Oreilly Media. According to Tim the Twitter Book is not a traditional book but more like a Powerpoint Presentation and features graphics and screenshots from twitter, examples of tweets, and how-to guides for twitter applications.

7. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

By: Darren Rowse (@ProBlogger)

Published: 5-5-2008

Blog: Problogger.net

Thoughts: Darren Rowse has certainly asserted himself as the ProBlogger and he knows his game well.  I have read several posts from Darren and two things I like about him are:

1. He is realistic.  Darren is down to earth, and does not promise millions, but does make a comfortable living from his Blogs.  I do believe that by following in his footsteps and working as hard as Darren will bring six figure success.  Several of Darren’s secrets are in the book, and others can be found on his blog, Problogger.

2. He is determined.  Through hard work and determination Darren has been able to build a strong twitter presence and one of the strongest blogs going, despite being from Australia.

8. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

By: Chris Anderson – @Chr1sa

Published: 1-1-2006

Chris Anderson is the Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine. His Blog is named The Long Tail and his book of the same name has been quite successful. The Long Tail talks about the niche markets that emerge out of a large and connected society.

Ten Points About The Long Tail are:

1. Make as much as possible available to as many people as possible.
2. Help them to locate what they need, quickly and easily.
3. Offer maximum inventory only online.
4. Customize supply chain in terms of niche markets
5. Maximize its efficiencies and economies (especially inventory control, order processing, and distribution,)
5. Be customer-driven in terms of “crowdsourcing”
6. Have strategy that separates content into its component parts (i.e. “microchunking”)
7. Have a pricing strategy that is “elastic” (i.e. based on the ROI of fulfillment per product per niche).
8. Have an open source business model for information sharing.
9. In markets where scarcity exists, “guesstimate” costs, margins, sales, profits, etc.
10.Where there is abundant competition, let those markets “sort it all out.”

Chris knows what he is talking about. That is why book #9 on this list is by him too.

9. Free: The Future of a Radical Price

By: Chris Anderson – @Chr1sa

Published: 2-7-2009

From Publishers Weekly:In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail). He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with initiatives like freemiums, an example of which is offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to the more serious users.

Note: If you click on the book “Free” it will take you to a free podcast of Chris Anderson talking about the book and the freemium model. I really enjoyed the podcast and I listened to the entire thing. I want to buy the book now but I have a hard time finding a way to justify paying for a book called Free. Chris says in the interview that he is intentionally distributing these ideas for free and here is an Audio Book for free from Audible.com.