Great Scientist

Many people assume that Darwin’s initial account of natural selection is so out of date that it is to be avoided in favour of more recent text books of evolutionary theory. While it is true that huge gains have been made in the one and a half centuries since the first publication of"The Origin", there is nothing in this work which is wrong. Darwin was too good a scientist and too cautious.

Some claim that Darwin admitted of the possibility of Lamarkian mechanisms. They have not read the original. Darwin knew nothing of the molecular basis of genetics, but knew that natural selection did not need a Lamarkian mechanism. He simply did not rule it out, although he found it improbable. Everything that is stated in this great classic is as true today as it was at the time of first publication.

It is also said that Charles Darwin was a lesser intellectual when compared to most other great names of science; that he was a plodder, a naturalist, a sort of gentleman stamp collector who pressed flowers into his books and barely a scientist in the contemporary sense. This is nonsense. Darwin was one of the giants of rigorous systematic thinking; the kind of rigorous thinking and critical attitude that asks the right questions and provides the capacity to answer them. Let me buttress this claim with one example.

At the end of chapter six Darwin noted that the theory of natural selection could not account for structures or behaviors found in one species that exist solely for the benefit of another unrelated species. In setting out the theoretical terms for the refutation of the theory in this way, he anticipated Karl Popper, that analytical non-nonsense philosopher of science, by more than a century.

I recommend you read this book with an attentive curious analytical mind. You will find yourself walking in the footsteps of an intellectual giant.

Handy guide to being first on Google search results list

The information in this very specific book can help you increase the effectiveness of your Web efforts and gain better visibility among the Web search results on Google and other search engines. David Viney shares his expertise in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in helpful detail. Have you wondered if you need professional input in this area? Read here to find out how expert guidance, copywriting, site design and Web master services can supplement your efforts, and boost your visibility and sales. Viney explains how to assess your current results. He tells you how to make sure your Web page appears among search results in productive positions, but he doesn't overpromise about what you can accomplish. Much of his information is quite detailed and technical, but relatively accessible and applicable. However, it is somewhat vulnerable to becoming outdated, in places, if Google alters its current parameters. getAbstract expects future editions to handle that little problem quite nicely.

Great thinking from the ad industry

This books is a great collection of many ideas, thoughts, ironies and creative thinking from the ad industry. Plus a few new thoughts. I've bought loads of these (and Purple Cow) and given them away to clients, desperate to get them to think a little more creatively. I use it with students as well. A must read (and the second book). Quick to read and easy, maybe that's why it's sold over 1/2 million. Paul was regarded as one of the great all time creatives within advertising but sadly he died recently - a great loss to the ad community.

Eye-opening

This is a very well thought through and researched piece of work. It is a must -read for any CEO who wants his company to operate in a space different from the beaten track.<br /><br />The book puts together a pack of simple yet powerful tools to conceptualize the new space, define it in detail, craft a profit strategy, and actualize its implementation. <br /><br />The examples used are penetratively insightful, and liberal in number for the point(s) to be driven home.<br /><br />Although primarily geared more for B2C businesses, the broad principles can be extrapolated for any type of business. <br /><br />I was pleasantly intrigued to find that on the back of this book someone has actually created a service offering and started a boutique consulting firm. That is very impressive indeed.<br /><br />

Here is a road map to navigate your way through"a market of multitudes"

<br />In the October 2004 issue of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson published an article in which he shared these observations:"(1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realize; (2) it's now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market - seemed indisputable, especially backed up with heretofore unseen data." That is even truer today than it was three years ago. The era that Anderson characterizes as"a market of multitudes" continues to grow in terms of both its nature and extent. In this book, Anderson takes his reader on a guided tour of this market as he explains what the probable impact the new market will have and what will be required to prosper in it.<br /><br />According to Anderson, those who read the article saw the Long Tail everywhere, from politics to public relations, and from sheet music to college sports."What people intuitively grasped was that new efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing were changing the definition of what was commercially viable across the board. The best way to describe these forces is that they are turning unprofitable customers, products, and markets into profitable ones." Therefore, the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance:"what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone."<br /><br />If I understand Anderson's most important points (and I may not), they include these:<br /><br />1. Make as much as possible available to as many people as possible.<br />2. Help them to locate what they need, quickly and easily.<br />3. Offer maximum inventory only online.<br />4. Customize supply chain in terms of niche markets<br />5. Maximize its efficiencies and economies (especially inventory control, order processing, and distribution,)<br />5. Be customer-driven in terms of"crowdsourcing"<br />6. Have strategy that separates content into its component parts (i.e."microchunking")<br />7. Have a pricing strategy that is"elastic" (i.e. based on the ROI of fulfillment per product per niche).<br />8. Have an open source business model for information sharing.<br />9. In markets where scarcity exists,"guesstimate" costs, margins, sales, profits, etc.<br />10.Where there is abundant competition, let those markets"sort it all out."<br /><br />These and other points can guide and inform decision makers as they struggle to compete profitably during the era of"long-tailed distributions," when culture is unfiltered by economic scarcity and high technology is turning mass markets into millions of niches. Anderson provides invaluable advice with regard to how minimize the cost of reaching, penetrating, and then developing a multiple of niche markets. The paradigm has shifted from selling more in fewer markets to selling less in more markets but also, key point, selling as much as possible within as many segments as possible -- and prudent -- within those markets.<br /><br />Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out two books by Henry Chesbrough, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology and Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape. Also Geoffrey Moore's Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution, Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, Richard Ogle's Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas, Gary Hamel's The Future of Management, Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis' Judgment: How Winning Managers Make Smart Calls, Steven Feinberg's The Advantage-Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't, and Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change co-authored by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth.

Essential

Simply one of the best books on advertising ever written. If you're in business and plan to use advertising (whether you're going to design it yourself or pay someone else to do it), you need to read this book. It'll save you from making so many mistakes.

A Great Resource

This is a fantastic resource for anyone just starting to get to grips with e-pr. Full of ideas of how to make the best use of the internet to drive your public relations campaign.<br /><br />However, it is very Americanised and, unless it is updated yearly, it is unlikely to keep up with the fast pace of the net.<br />

Making websites work. E-Commerce book of the year 2005?

Why do website conversion rates remain at a gloomy 2-5 per cent?

"Call for Action" focuses on how we can improve the conversion rates. Not from a technical or academic or conceptual standpoint. Instead it takes a rare PRACTICAL and down-to-earth approach on how to improve conversion rates to improve sales and thus profits.

What is CONVERSION? Virtually all websites have a persuasive purpose; to get someone to subscribe, to register, to inquire or to buy something. And if all we get is 2-5 per cent conversion, we ought to review our website. Do we offer a product or service that could meet the needs of more than 2-5 per cent of the market? Can visitors find that, solution on the website? Do they understand our offer's value? Was it made at the right time? Are we sure they're coming back?

NAVIGATION is the biggest challenge websites face, the authors argue. The issues are: What to do with the traffic once it lands on the website? How to get visitors to take the first action and click deeper? And once there, how to induce visitors to click to the next step, and the next, and the next?

The fundamental idea is that a PERSUASIVE ARCHITECTURE links a visitor's buying experience to our company's sales process. It bridges the buy/sell process in a measurable way. If you can influence visitor behaviour and empathize with visitor motivations, you can influence results to provide a better experience and more frequent, effective conversions.

The book is filled with illustrative screen dumps of websites (before and after a change). This is a great benefit of such a how-to field book on e-commerce improvements. In my opinion, most e-commerce sites can recover the book's cost price in a few days just by following one or two of the practical suggestions in the many diverse case studies.

The primary focus of this book is e-Commerce. The key messages on conversion, however, are important to anyone running a large website.

This is a rare book. I've been involved in e-commerce since 1997 and read many interesting books on this topic. But I've never found such a practical approach to optimising e-commerce web sites as this one.

The brothers Eisenberg call themselves"wizards of web". I agree and hope my existing and future competitors don't read and act on this book. These secret formulas to improve online results are very effective, indeed.

If you're looking for a conceptual e-commerce theory, please look somewhere else. This is about the nuts and bolts about making money with an e-commerce web site. If you don't have or don`t plan to have such a website; forget about this book. Then it's a waste of time.

I also recommend Jakob Nielsen's books on web usability and Steve Krug's easy-to-read"Don't make me think".

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

Great book, at least for complete beginners

I'm probably moving toward the"selling" sector and I found my first book (this) great, even if I've read only the first three chapters by now. These are full of really interesting things, easy to read and to remember, too.

The best guide to actionable insights from data

Web Analytics is a must read because it learns you how to view analytics the right way.<br /><br />One of the hardest part when first diving into analytics is figuring out how to focus on the right data - the data that tells you what is happening with your site.<br /><br />One of the first questions Avinash gets you to focus on is:"What's the purpose of your web site?" Your analytics strategy should be very much aligned with the answer to this question.<br /><br />With this attitude towards the data, we can"infer the intent" of the user - ultimately, inferring is the best you can do with this type of data. Inferences are important, as they will inform strategy. If the strategy is then met with improved performance of the site, your confidence in the data and its interpretation grows. If not, you should re-analyze and re-strategize. Early in the book, Avinash identifies this as your top priority in analytics. In fact, he says,"Is it a bit extreme to dump clickstream in favor of measuring outcomes first? Yes. Necessary? You bet."<br /><br />The challenge is that the quality of the information available from your traditional web analytics tools is too poor for you to analyze outcome. In order to make sense of the data, we need broader research and analysis, so that we can find relationships between the different types of data, and infer meaning from them.<br /><br />To achieve this, Avinash enriches the data with Focus group analysis, continuous surveys, multivariate testing, etc.<br /><br />Avinash also integrates competitive intelligence in his interpretation of the data. Services such as comScore and Hitwise can provide direct information about what your customers are doing.<br /><br />It is a great book that teaches you all this from the ground up, and goes into amazing detail. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Great resource for freelance photographers

I am always on the lookout for new ideas for my Photography business and this book hits the spot.The major benefit of this book is that there are is a huge amount of listed markets into which you can offer your pictures.I feel that the major benefit offered to newbies (and some more experienced photographers)is that the book contains some excellent advice on HOW to approach these markets........all in all a very worthwhile purchase which should prove to be a major resource for both budding and more experienced freelancers

A handy pocketbook, nothing earth shattering

I bought this after reading Schiffman's 'Cold Calling Techniques (that really work)', which I can highly recommend.

I wasn't expecting much from '25 Sales Habits...' and it met my expectations. A good collection of tips that reinforced what I already knew. Buy it as a quick read (it's a small book of just over 100 pages) or a nice introduction to key ideas for a new salesperson.

For 'habits' that can really have a profound impact on your sales when practised consistently: it has to be Og Mandino's 'The Greatest Salesman in the World'.

Easy to read, good design

This is a good edition of the classic of Mr. Ogilvy. I like it, easy to read and easy and good design.<br />What this book means for all advertisers just advertisers know.<br />Good to carry everywhere.

Worth Reading

Very few books I've read are so direct and simple. The author gives away his secrets in this book, he says that he is not scared to do so because - as with many things - very few people are actually dedicated and disciplined enough to follow through (I'm paraphrasing).<br /><br />It gives you the principles and methods in a 1 hour read, whether you get ideas and the quality of your ideas all depend on you.<br /><br />Great, great, great book.<br />

informative, practical and exceptionally funny

I have read lots of how to and wanna be books in all sorts of fields from creative writing to calligraphy etc etc etc. Not only was this book full of useful information (written in English, short sentances, small(ish) words and therefore understandable) it has got to be the funniest non-fiction book I have read. It also has lots of excellent information about the writing business, I already have the necessary 'bum' so maybe I am some of the way there!<br /><br />I only wish all of the tedious text books I have read over the years could have been half as entertaining as this one. It goes to prove that in order to inform you do not have to be stuffy and condescending. What's more - it also flows brilliantly considering you are probably supposed to dip in and out of it - not read it straight through.<br /><br />I you are not interested in becoming a writer but are interested in how people become writers - or, you have friends/relatives who are interested in writing, particularly those who thinks they can run off a best seller while the Sunday roast is a roasting - buy them this book.<br /><br />It's excellent and although I have not read any of her book previously - I have to try one now.

Meet the need and you make the sale

"Meet the need and you make the sale" Is a line taken from the book, and that is what the book does.<br /><br />If you want to update your copywriting skills, it has chapters to allow you to do that. With chapters such as 'Why your sales copy should be like a bowl of Rice Krispies'.<br /><br />Also if you want to update your writing skills it has information on punctuation, tone of voice, etc. I particularly liked the chapter called 'Stuff you learned at school you can forget'.<br /><br />This book is the only one on this subject that I have read from cover to cover. <br /><br />I can recommend the book. The writing style makes it easy to read, it contains the information you need to do what the book title says.<br />

Entertaining as well as Informative

Who would have thought it was possible to make a book on Adwords as entertaining as this? Not only does this provide a How-To guide on setting up Google Adwords, it has some very sensible advice on more general marketing aspects. A really useful read for anyone who is getting involved with internet marketing and Adwords in particular, especially for the first time. Howie Jacobson's tone is encouraging throughout - you know he's used the techniques he's talking about and they worked for him. Best of all, he doesn't take himself too seriously. <br /><br />There are links to other sources of useful information and tools included, which helps to make sure you'll have the most up-to-date information to hand.<br />The edition I bought even came with a voucher for Google Adwords although you have to set up a new account to use it.

Fantastic, insightful and easy read

Absolutely brilliant book. It put into words concepts that I knew were true in my head but I couldn't quite express them. I love it for two reasons: 1) It will hopefully help me build rational arguments to convince senior management in work that"New Marketing" is the way we need to go, and 2) It's given me a brilliant framework, some real world case studies, and solid advice that I'm going to apply to my own personal projects and enterprises to help them excel!<br /><br />The book discusses, describes and gives advice on the practices that"New Marketing" companies (Netflix, Amazon, Google etc) have used to become the successes they are today, and how the lessons learned and philosophies that are driving this era of new marketing can be applied to and used by more 'traditional' organisation.<br /><br />The one downfall I could point out is that Mr. Godin encourages us to make something remarkable, so that users/customers/readers will spread the word. This book is so remarkable that I almost don't want to recommend it to others, as I want to keep the advantage of having this knowledge to myself! :)

Absolutely Fabulous !!

This book was a dream to read, the author placed all concepts into case studies and didn't try to blind the reader with science. It reiterates the whole concept of the retail environment, the customer. It high-lighted the importance of happy, motivated and involved staff. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has ever worked in a shop and actually cares about what they do. Great, also, for anyone in the process of writing a business plan for a shop, it will definitely help to keep you focused on the target!!

A step-by-step strategy without the nonesense

Initially I was searching for a book about how to develop a simple website for my partner's decorating business. Having never done this before, I was attracted to 'Internet Riches: The Simple Money-making Secrets of Online Millionaires' because the synopsis made it sound so easy to do, though I admit I was expecting a book with lots of hot air and of little practical use.<br /><br />I was very pleasantly surprised when I read the book. In fact,I was so excited that I started a book of ideas (recommended by the author, Scott Fox) immediately and have ended up with such a raft of ideas for ME to make money that I don't have the time to develop a website for my partner's business (sorry Mick!).<br /><br />Don't let the American examples in the book put you off - the internet is the same both sides of the pond and UK versions of everything referred to in the book are readily available with a bit of Googling. Anyway, the simple step-by-step guidance would probably apply to any country.<br /><br />Mr Fox has a unique way of connecting with his readers, as though they know him personally, creating trust and inspiration. His book is straightforward and full of information that even a British grandmother can follow, without all the padding that often fills self-help books. Every time I turn a page I find many ideas on how best to create my perfect e-business.<br /><br />In all, if you want to be an Internet Entrepreneur - buy this book. If you are only remotely interested in setting up a website - still buy this book. You might find that it takes you somewhere you weren't expecting it to!<br /><br />