Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future
by Dorie Clark
This book is about making a career change. It starts with understanding your transferable skills, identifying how you are different as a competitive advantage, then establishing a narrative to make sense of your transition.
Continue reading “Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future”
Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
“Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.”
“Traction is a sign that something is working. If you charge for your product, it means customers are buying. If your product is free, it’s a growing user base.” Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares draw from their own startup experience as well as interviews with some 40 other founders and marketing experts. The book starts with five foundation chapters followed by chapters explaining each of the 19 traction channels.
PayPay founder Peter Thiel says, “It is very likely that one channel is optimal. Most businesses actually get zero distribution channels to work. Poor distribution—not product—is the number one cause of failure.”
Continue reading “Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers”
The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Fourth Edition
by David Meerman Scott
David Meerman Scott is an experienced marketing executive who says that interruption-based marketing techniques are ineffective. “I’ve done it the old way. It doesn’t work anymore.” Under the new rules, marketers publish their own content and speak directly with buyers.
“The Internet has made public relations public again… Your newsroom is for your buyers, not just the media… By building a media room that targets buyers, you will not only enhance those pages as a powerful marketing tool but also make a better media site for journalists.”
Continue reading “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”
Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read
by Scott McNulty
This is a good book about setting up a blog using WordPress, but the title is misleading. It is not a book about content. It’s a guide to setting up, customizing, and maintaining the WordPress platform for blogging.
There are two main options for blogging with WordPress. You can set up a free blog hosted on wordpress.com. This is easier, but the functionality is limited. Or you can download free software from wordpress.org and install it on your own web server. The book concentrates on the latter approach.
Continue reading “Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read”
The Key Point 