Geek Book Reviews

I'm launching a new blog today called Christian Common Cents. As part of the launch I am giving away 3 copies of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Check out the giveaway here and sign up for a chance to win.

Customers Now is a book about content based advertising. Content based advertising is quite a bit different than search based advertising, and most people don't take that into account. Many write it off because they are getting the results that they'd like, but they aren't doing it right. There is a big difference between search and content, yet people use the same ads for both campaigns. There are several key points to Customers Now, but I think that this is the biggest, "Remember that content-based advertising is creating demand and finding customers." Search advertising is based on getting people who already know they want what you are selling. Content advertising letting people know you exist, and showing them that you have something they want or need.

Content advertising is about finding NEW customers. Television advertising works because people see things over and over. It gets embedded in your mind. They say you have to see something 7 times to really be reached. That is what content advertising is. It is getting seen by your future customers.

I won't give away the specific details, but David goes in depth on the differences between search ads and content ads as well as step by step instructions on how to create a good content campaign. He points out what is a good ad, and what is a bad one. He also describes how to find the specific keywords and websites to target. He really opened my eyes as to the possibilities of content advertising. Up until this point I had mostly written it off. I find out now it is because I was doing it all wrong. If you are looking to get into content advertising or if you had previously written it off like me, I'd suggest checking out Customers Now.

If you want the dead tree version you can get Customers Now from Amazon. If you're ok with the pdf ebook version you can get it free here. For more information check out his squidoo page.

How Successful People Think by John Maxwell is a nice quick read. It is only 124 pages so it can be all be taken in pretty easily. The book is made up of eleven chapters that focus on the keys to effective thinking. They are:

Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking

Engage In Focused Thinking

Harness Creative Thinking

Employ Realistic Thinking

Utilize Strategic Thinking

Explore Possibility Thinking

Learn From Reflective Thinking

Question Popular Thinking

Benefit From Shared Thinking

Practice Unselfish Thinking

Rely On Bottom-Line Thinking I won't go in depth on all of these topics but I want to talk about a few things he says in the book. He starts off the introduction with this:

Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss. Good thinkers solve problems, they never lack ideas that can build an organization, and they always have hope for a better future.

This is very similar to the ideas I talked about in my review of Linchpin by Seth Godin. People have to start thinking outside of the box if they want to be successful. Just fitting in will not work in our current society. How Successful People Think teaches people how to think differently and think the way successful people do.

One of my favorite chapters was the Benefit of Shared Thinking. It is cliche, but two heads are better than one. You may be good at a lot of things, but you don't know everything and there is always someone you can learn from. I would recommend spending as much time as possible talking to people who are more successful than you are. That is something I learned from Dave Ramsey. He said when he was trying to learn how to be successful with money he took as many millionaires out to lunch as he could. Now that he's a millionaire, he said he has started taking billionaires out to lunch. If you want to run your own business, go to lunch with every CEO who is willing and learn all that you can.

If you want to become a better thinker I recommend you check out the rest of How Successful People Think on Amazon. It has a lot of easily actionable ways of becoming a better thinker.