Monthly Book Review — June 2020
Summary of the books I read this month.
Introduction
This month I read a couple of books about online businesses, one about email marketing, a book about grit, and a Stephen King novel.
40 Rules for Internet Business Success by Matthew Paulson
Are you thinking about starting an online business? Opportunities abound, but the majority of online companies fail, mostly because of unprepared business owners who don’t understand what it takes to run a business.
The book 40 Rules is a helpful scaffolding of information for starting an online business. The book does not flesh out all the details, but it covers many of the areas that you might come across when starting an online business.
Some of the rules included in the book are:
- Know Your Why
- Excuses are the Fuel of Failure
- Head in One Direction at a Time
- Prepare for Failure; Plan for Success
- Have a Business Model, Not a Business Plan
- Let Your Customers Develop Your Product
- Make Your Launch a Can’t-Miss Event
- Busyness is Not Productivity
- Fail, Quit, Regroup
- Go Where the People Are
- Always Be Testing
- You Are Never Finished
If you are looking to start an online business, this can be an excellent book to ensure you have all your bases covered.
Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew Paulson
This book is an excellent primer on email marketing. If you are new to email marketing, the book will cover most of the questions you’ll have about where to start, tools to use, how to write appropriate copy, and much more.
The author has extensive personal experience with email marketing, which makes this book’s content more authoritative than other books on the topic. In addition to the actionable content, there are also five case studies in the book. The book has nine chapters:
- Selecting an Email Service Provider
- Building Your Marketing List Through Your Website
- 14 Ways to Build Your Mailing List Independently of your Website
- Mailing Your List: How, What, and When to Send to Your Audience
- Writing Email that Inspires Users to Take Action
- Monetization: Six Ways to Make Money with Your Mailing List
- Email Deliverability and List Maintenance
- Legal Aspects of Email Marketing
- Outbound Email Marketing
One area that was missing was GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Although this is an EU law, it can have implications for businesses around the world. In light of recent changes in legitimate marketing practices, I was surprised that there was no mention of GDPR within the book.
As someone who does not currently have an email list, but has been thinking about starting one, I found this book extremely helpful and will be using this as a reference as I begin to create an email marketing strategy.
The Institute by Stephen King
It’s been a long time since I read a Stephen King novel. He used to be one of my favorite authors. I love how he writes; his books always make me want to keep reading, but a while ago, when I tried to read some of his books, I was put off by the considerable amount of swearing, I just didn’t think it was necessary. Thankfully, The Institute does not have too much colorful language in it, and it was not extremely gory.
I enjoyed the book and liked that King has several plot lines going at one time. The multifaceted story kept things exciting and kept me wondering what would happen in each of the different scenarios.
While some of the events seem a bit far-fetched, they were still somewhat realistic, which kept my attention.
There were some political references, which I could have done without, but overall I enjoyed reading The Institute.
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Have you ever wondered if you are a gritty person? Do you reflect on your achievements and wonder if you could do more? Have you ever thought about talent versus experience, and which one will get you further ahead in life?
If you have had any of these questions in your mind, Grit may help you to answer them. The book has three parts:
- What Grit is and Why it Matters
- Growing Grit from the Inside Out
- Growing Grit from the Outside In
The author talks about the fact that there is more to achieving goals than pure talent. She explains how experience, practice, and other things that anyone can do help lead to achievement. She also provides results of research comparing those who had raw talent in a certain and those that didn’t. In many cases, those who didn’t have natural ability performed better than those that did. The effort put into a task is a general indicator of achievement, not necessarily talent.
This book allows you to access where you are on the Grit Scale, but it also gives hope to those of us who don’t feel that we have talents in the areas we want to pursue. It also includes information on parenting and leadership that may be imperative to raising kids and leading a very productive team of people.
The author also talks a bit about goal setting. The suggestion by Duckworth is to have one high-level goal that you work towards and relates to “your why” or why you do the things you’re doing. All underlying goals should support that one highest-level goal. When you define your highest-level goals when you ask yourself why this is your goal, if you answer “Just because,” then this is your why.
There was a lot to learn in this book. Here are some phrases I highlighted in the text:
- “…what we eventually accomplish may depend more on our passion and perseverance than on our innate talent.”
- “Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort.”
- “Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them.”
So, if you’d like to find out more about grit, whether you have it already or
how to create it, if you don’t, this book should help you do just that.
7 Steps to Creating, Promoting & Profiting from Online Courses by David Siteman Garland
If you want a quick run-down on the steps to follow to create an online course, you’ll find what you need in this book. If, however, you are looking for in-depth information about course creation, this book is not for you.
This book was very concise and to the point. There are helpful takeaways in the book, and you will have a seven-step process to follow when you’re done reading it. The author does an excellent job of getting the facts out and leaving out the fluff.
The author also uses the opportunity to promote his products and services. Becoming aware of these products and services may be helpful to you, but it can also be somewhat annoying, especially since they occur right in the middle of the book.
This book is a quick read that may give you the outline you need to make the most of creating an online course, but if you need more content about the topic, you may want to look somewhere else.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed my book reviews for June. Stay tuned to find out what I read in July!
