If you’ve been around the network marketing scene for a while, or even if your new to it, you’ve most likely come across several free e-books available for download; usually they require some sort of registration. These books are clear examples of viral marketing.

The New Rules of Viral Marketing is a new e-book from author David Meerman Scott. And it’s available for free download. It’s viral and it’s a new look at what it takes to be viral in the 21st century. Covering e-books to video, you’ll learn the strategies being used by companies like Universal Orlando Resort and IBM to create viral content that makes their brand visible.

I believe that there are lessons here that the network marketing industry should learn from and exploit. For example, most of the e-books floating around the various network marketing sites require a simple registration to download. We all know that this is an attempt to capture prospective leads; but is it counter productive? Are fewer people downloading your e-book because it requires an extra step? How much faster might your e-book spread if people could simply download it no questions asked? In a future blog post I think I might experiment with this by letting everyone download my copy of the 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing by Ann Sieg.

Download the New Rules of Viral Marketing and leave us a comment here regarding your thoughts on the subject. And watch for reviews of other free e-books from David Meerman Scott coming soon. Increase your marketing intelligence today!

You’ll see this line repeated throughout this book, and it’s know as the mantra of America’s number one sales authority, Jeffery Gitomer. Inside you’ll get the scoop on how to get people to sell themselves on your product.

This book isn’t just a lecture on how to sell people, it’s a call to action. The book is full of nuggets of information that you can immediately put into practice. You’ll want to keep this book with you at all times and constantly reference it. There was so much info in here that I’m still trying out little pieces, and I’m sure it will take me years to master all of it.

One of my favorite bites of wisdom was using your phone’s missed call message to catch someone’s attention. Make it so interesting or funny that people just have to call you to hear the message.

If your profession requires any level of selling this is a must have book for your pocket. That’s right, your pocket, not your book shelf. You’ll need it too much to just keep it on a shelf.

Unfortunately I was unable to find this book available in the BookWise bookstore, but you can get it directly from Jeffery Gitomer’s web site. I’m hoping this one will be available in my store soon, once BookWise puts the full 1.5 million items online.

To keep up with the constantly changing world of marketing you should always be reading new books and blogs, as well as listening to the best podcasts out there.

Reading new books is the easy part, especially if you’ve decided to join BookWise. The BookWise store has plenty of marketing/sales books available for purchase. And don’t forget about using your local library if your on a budget.

Blogs are another great source of freely available marketing advice. There are many out there, and some have some very experimental advice, while others stick to mainstream marketing. Personally I’m into blogs that integrate social networking and marketing advice for the new media age. Here are a few that I recommend you add to your reading list:

1. [chrisbrogan.com]
2. Conversation Agent
3. Self Made Chick
4. Seth Godin
5. Skelliewag.org
6. Social Media Marketing
7. The Jeff Pulver Blog
8. ThinkBlogger

There are also a few podcasts that focus on new media and marketing and you can download the MP3s for your portable media player of choice, or just listen to them online. I recommend listening to the following regularly as they are full of great advice about personal branding and how to use today’s new media tools to market yourself:

1. Managing the Gray
2. Marketing Over Coffee
3. Six Pixels of Separation
   

What I especially like about the resources I have listed here is that they have nothing to do with network marketing. Sometimes thinking outside of your business’ typical sphere of influence can give you ideas you never would have thought of. Don’t get yourself trapped into thinking you have to do everything the way your upline tells you to; you might miss a great tip if your only influenced by what everyone else is doing in network marketing.

If you have some great blogs or podcasts you’d like to share please leave a comment.

Ever had that feeling that you’re banging your head against a brick wall and going no where? How do you know when you’ve hit a dead end? Or will you break through to tremendous success if you just keep pushing through?

This is the subject matter of the Dip, by Seth Godin.

The idea of quiting scars many people who are comfortable with their current situation, despite the fact there may be no further progress on the path they chose. But knowing when to quit may be essential to your career, relationships, and life. And likewise, knowing when to persevere is just as vital.

This book will show you how to differentiate between the two. It’s a short, fast read. Another one of those books you could knock off in an afternoon. I found the advice very useful, and I was reading it right at a time when I was thinking of quiting my day job. As it turns out, I was just in a Dip and needed to keep going to get through it. New opportunities came to me after getting through the difficult parts of my job. Reading ‘the Dip’ gave me the perspective I needed to to see the path necessary for my career.

If you’d like to get this book type ‘The Dip’ into the search box on my Bookwise bookstore.

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This is a short little book that you can read in an afternoon. And it just might change your perspective on how to manage change. The story details the thinking patterns of 4 individuals, 2 mice and 2 little people, when someone moves the cheese inside their little maze. The behaviors of these 4 individuals displays the typical thinking patterns of people faced with a change in their life.

Lets face it, all of us are faced with change everyday, in everything from our home lives to our workplace to the global world. Change isn’t going away, its a part of life. The best thing we can do is figure out what to do and how to manage change. And if this short story doesn’t give you a new perspective on change, nothing will.

If you’d like to give this book a read type ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ into the search box on my Bookwise bookstore web site. I will promise you that you will not regret buying this book.