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There has been a great deal of hype about Chris Anderson’s book, Free. I’ve been waiting for this book for months. Finally someone can make some sense out of what is happening in the music and publishing industries (and many other businesses as well) and to help me with some of my own decisions about the future for myself and my company. Anderson, the editor-in chief of Wired, made big waves with his previous book, The Long Tail. That book described how a company like Amazon makes it money. When we go digital there is one super advantage – we free up actually space. We can warehouse and distribute in a totally new way. Selling one book by an obscure author makes just as much money for Amazon as selling one book of a popular author. The Long Tail helped revolutionize our way of thinking about product development and distribution.

Now comes Free, an explaination of how things can be given away and still make money. The rock band gives away the music but makes it back, and more, through live performances and selling the T-shirts or exclusive editions of its music. Anderson explores the history of free and gives us lessons in economics on this issue. King Gillette discovered that giving away the razors made their customers dependent upon buying the blades. Free is hardly a new concept. Yet it has enormous implications.

My primary learning: Free can help you build reputation. As a generous person this approach appeals to me. I like to give away knowledge, ideas and suggestions. What is this blog more than my sharing what I read and know? I love it. But how do I earn a living off of it? Well, I can, as many others can, help build my reputation as a thoughtful, practical thinker and this increases my value in a market full of other consultants, writers and public speakers.

You can do this too. Give away the things that enchance your reputation, prove your expertise or give away a sample of what you do. And buy Free (!) if even just for the list of fifty business models build on the idea of Free. This is a book with many practical applications, but also a good share of history and economic theory. Intestesting and important – to say the least.

Hmmm… seem to be doing a lot of reading about marketing. I thing the art of positive influencing is interesting and, of course, I understand the rules are changing in this new type of economy and I need to prepare myself. Jay Abraham is a long time guru in this field, one of world’s best self-promotors, best paid consultants and more authoritative in his field. Jay could probably help anyone make money on anything from rocks to air to pink candy shoe laces. He’s just given the whole field of marketing a lot of thought and seems to find his flow in helping others make huge turnarounds. I wish I could afford his help! But at least there are his books to read.

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got is a tremendous inventory of good ideas for getting the most out of your products and ideas with every kind of twist you can conceive. Start by calculating the life time value of a client or customer. Maybe they make a $20 purchase today, but if you treat him or her well and they come back to you time and time again that first purchase could be worth hundreds or even thousands dollars of business. Test, test test – something I certainly don’t do, but how do you know which approach will work. Try out different headings for an ad, for example, and don’t forget to measure the results.

The Sticking Point Solution is Jay Abrahams latest collection of advice, very relevant for these uncertain times. Abraham knows his math and helps us to be better at analyzing what works and what to look out for. There are tons of good advice. A few examples:
”Don’t be afraid to say what your competition won’t. In any transaction, tell you client, ”Here’s what you’re not being told.” ”List you flaws.” ”Continually add to your brand equity by doing more, caring more, contributing more.” ”Form alliances and advisory boards. ”Use endorsements and testimonials properly and often.” ”Hire the best. Pay them richly. But pay them mostly on performace.” ”If you are invisible, you can’t become the go-to source. ”Learn to project the image of success – long before you’ve fully achieved it.”

These phrases and words of advice don’t seem especially unusual or new, but Abraham puts them in a perspective that makes his advice seem imperative. ”Just do it” may be easier said than done, but Abraham at least tells you what you need to do.

David Meerman Scott sells himself as an expert on the new rules of marketing and PR. Indeed one of his most popular books is called The New Rules of Marketing and PR. In World Wide Rave the author discusses how to make your website or your product the talk of the town… er, web. Who wouldn’t want to creative buzz and make your idea (or yourself) hot. Yes, maybe you will need some luck with your timing and fitting into current (or coming) trends, but like most things you also need to put in a lot of time and effort. I sure wouldn’t mind that buzz for my Prepare and Share programs, but, geez, there are zillions of people out there like me looking for that same sort of buzz. So what can I do differently was the question I asked myself as I decided to buy and read this book.

Well David Meerman Scott has lots of good advice. For example, get out of the office and meet customers. Oh, you’ve heard that before, but how many business people actually do it? Solve problems for your customers. What? You’ve heard that before too? I know at least I get more caught up in self-promotion and production of products I like instead of solving a problem my potential customer experiences. Monitor blogs, chat rooms, forums and social networking sites. Geez, I write and review books, who has time for all that? I should… if I am serious about affecting the people that visit these places.

In other words this book is not just a good summary and reminder of the hundreds and hundreds of things you can actually do to create interest for what you have to offer, it also gives you a really bad conscience for not doing them… sorry, gotta go now and create some rave. HELP – spread my blog around the net. Thanks.