3 Real Books That Can Help You Conquer The World With Your Online Business

Okay, so I’ll admit straight up that “conquering the World” is a bit of a dramatic title, and you probably won’t achieve that through reading or applying the material in the following books, but these books will give you the ability to conquer YOUR World.

Let me explain…

If you are sick of living to work, and seeing all your hard work line the pockets of your boss or the owner of your company, and if you are sick of living your life on some one else’s terms then its about time you setup your own business. With your own business you can make more money for the same amount of work, you can empower yourself, live life on your terms, and not have to dance to some one else’s tune. Despite recent developments in the Internet marketing industry, setting up your own online business is still one of the greatest business opportunities out there for aspiring entrepreneurs, and the barriers to entry are still low enough to welcome all those with two brain cells to rub together!

These 3 books that I am about to share with you and review (in my opinion) contain ALL you need to start, grow and profit from your own online business. I see a lot of people promoting “get rich quick” ebooks, and I see a lot of people “pimping out” the latest “make money online” ecourse, and those courses are great and serve a purpose, but they often miss the basics, and leave a lot to be desired.

Some of those get-rich-quick eproducts you are probably used to are almost entirely based on gimmicks or techniques that used to work. Not everyone needs that when setting up an online business. Everyone who wants to run their own work-at-home/internet business does need to understand some business basics and needs to understand how online tools and tricks can help that business. It’s a balance, and these books provide you with the balance you need!

Now before I go any further, I want to let you know a couple of things:

1. I have bought and read all of these books. In fact, I have bought, read and re-read at least 2 of these books.

2. I truly believe these books answer nearly 95% of all questions you might have about starting your own online business. The rest you can discover through trial and error/networking on internet marketing forums etc.

3. I have linked to these books in this post using affiliate links. If you click my link and decide to purchase these books via my link, I will receive a tiny commission and it won’t cost you a penny more. These commissions will be used to pay for the hosting of this humble blog, and it’s associated running costs (email newsletter etc).

4. Although I will receive an affiliate commission if you decide to purchase through my link, I wrote this post because I genuinely feel these books can help a lot of struggling Internet marketers out there. They have helped me, and I hope that they help many others who are in the same position as I was a short time ago.

With that out of the way….

Here are the Books:

1. Tim Ferris – 4 Hour Work Week

2. Drew Eric Whitman – Cashvertising

3. Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – Rework

6 Reasons These Books are Great For Internet Marketers:

1. They are REAL books, which means you can read them anywhere, and not just on a computer screen. I don’t know about you, but this makes it a lot easier for me to read and absorb the content!

2. They cover everything from basic stuff like; “what niche should I go into?” and they cover more advanced stuff about how to use outsourcing effectively, and how to “grow and develop” your business/company. These 3 books totally cover the life-cycle of an Internet marketer.

3. No annoying up-sells. Everything you need to know is in these books. There are no hidden up-sells etc. You buy the book, you read it, you use it and you profit from it. Perfect.

4. Buying these 3 books is far cheaper than buying 3 ecourses. If you bought all 3 books from amazon, you’d spend around $37. If you bought 3 ecourses or “guru products” at $47 a pop then that would cost: $141. Thats a difference of $104. Seriously, why spend over $100, when you could spend $37 for a lot more information?

5. These books can help all kinds of online businesses and entrepreneurs. Does’t matter whether you are into building your own social applications, networks, ecommerce stores or even if you are an affiliate marketer, these books can help and change your business today.

6. It’s all killer and no filler! A lot of the advice is timeless. There is very little fluff, and the tips, tricks and advice in these books are timeless and backed up by real research and practical experience.

Individual Books Reviews

Lets take a quick look at each book individually, and take a look at how each one can you help you start, grow and succeed in your own online business.

Tim Ferriss – 4 Hour Work Week

Cost: $12

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Complete beginners and intermediates. Whilst some advanced Internet marketers and entrepreneurs would probably benefit from reading it, I think beginners and intermediates will get the MOST benefit from this book.

Some of the Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- How to pick a niche

- How to come up with a business

- How to test a business idea on a tight budget

- How to grow your online business and generate a life-changing amount of income

- How Tim went from $40k per year working 80 hours a week, to $40k per month and 4 hours per week

- How to eliminate 50% of your workload in 48 hours.

- How to remove yourself from business and outsource your life, allowing you to do whatever you want and enjoy your money.

- And much, much more…

Personal Thoughts:

I love this book and Tim’s writing style. The tips and strategies he shares are priceless, and when times are tough, and I need reminding why I am trying to grow my own business, I always pick up this book for a “pick-me-up”. Its a classic and must-have book for all internet and affiliate marketer’s libraries!

Drew Eric Whitman – Cashvertising

Cost: $11

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Everyone. I truly believe every single business person should buy this book to improve their marketing and selling. This is an especially good book for affiliate marketers and information product merchants.

Some Of The Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- Ninja copywriting techniques that will help you sell anything to anyone

- How to create powerful ads that literally suck visitors to your website/offer

- 100 secrets of the biggest and most successful ad-agencies in the World

- How to make people really believe what you say, and how to build trust and rappourt with your audience so you can sell more stuff.

- “Sneaky” ways to persuade people to respond

- Effective tricks for writing “magnetic” headlines.

- What you should ALWAYS do, and NEVER do in your ads

- How to get inside the minds of your prospects and find out what really drives them and what they really want

Personal Thoughts:

This book is all about selling, copywriting and advertising. It is full of insights and secrets from some of the best ad-agencies in the World, and gives hundreds of real-world examples on how to effectively promote your business. This is a thoroughly researched book, backed up by 23 years advertising experience. The hot-lists at the back allow you to quickly reference important techniques to use when setting up your marketing campaigns. Every affiliate, information product merchant should have this within arm’s reach of their work-desk!

Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – Rework

Cost: $14

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Advanced Internet marketers and beginners who enjoy some “heavier” reading. Its all about how the “regular” way isn’t always the “right” way. Its a different outlook on business, and it shuns the traditional teachings of business school and goes in a slightly different direction. This book is certainly not for everyone, but this different take on business will be helpful for many online entrepreneurs.

Some Of The Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- Why meetings are toxic

- Why you should fire workaholics

- Why planning to flip your site is a plan to flop

- How to prevent “bloat” in your business and why bigger is not always better and how less is often more

- How to recognise that enthusiasm is not the same as priority

- And many, many more simple rules for success

Personal Thoughts:

This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a relatively quick read, with a lot of interesting concepts that could help prevent you making some classic mistakes often made by more traditional businesses. It is an easy-to-read book written by the people behind 37 signals. It’s about taking a minimalist approach to your business and eliminating, clutter, crap and waste. I highly recommend it, and suggest you apply the rules that you feel are most useful, relevant and helpful to you and your business.

Conclusion

These are 3 books I have bought, read and enjoyed in 2009 and 2010. These are not the only 3, but they are the 3 most relevant/powerful books I have come across for experienced and beginner Internet marketers. I genuinely believe these books have helped me transform my outlook on life and business for the better and I hope they do for some one else out there too.

I’d highly recommend reading the 4 Hour Work Week first, and then read Rework. Then, once you start creating your business/campaign/project I’d recommend referencing specific/relevant parts of the 4 Hour Work Week to keep you on track. After that, I’d use Cashvertising to help you develop and turbo-charge your sales message, marketing and advertising.

I hope my review here has been helpful, and if you have any questions, comments or reviews of your own about these books, or any other books you have found useful, then please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!