Many of us have thought about writing a book. In fact there are websites and self-help books that try and help the aspirant writer to achieve their aims. But what about the publishing machine that gets your book into the local bookstore or supermarket? How does that work and why do they make the decisions that they do? Read the rest of this entry »
There are many who see the formation of a company as a life-dream. There are many who see it as the next step. Whichever view that you hold, there is always one worry when embarking on a new venture. How much is it going to cost?
In his book, “Freesourcing – how to start a business with no money“, Jonathan Yates attempts to prove that cost can be avoided when starting a business. His book how to provide your startup with all of the assets and resources that it will need at minimal or zero cost.
He admits that there will be times where costs will have to be spent – for instance in providing the official paperwork for company formation, but the basic premise holds, through ideas such as bartering for goods and services, as well as harnessing the power of word-of-mouth to get your company’s message across.
This is not that this book is averse to utilising current technologies to support your business. Applications such as Twitter and Audioboo help you get your website noticed in the journey to those sales which you need to survive.
“Freesourcing” is a little like sustainable living for the internet generation. Are there things in your house, or your friend’s houses that you can beg, borrow or steal to populate a small office. Are there things that you can do, that will elicit a payment in the form of a piece of equipment.
We are all being told that sustainability will become the essence of our lifestyles in the future. This could be the first salvo in an ethos that redirects our lives into a culture where we waste not what we want not, and this is to the author’s credit. There are so many opportunities to obtain help and equipment for free, that we’d be fools not to take advantage of it.
Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!
There are few big internet companies that truly have a global presence. Facebook and Google are two, and a third is Twitter. Launched in 2006 it has changed the immediacy of news and events all around the world. In five short years, messages and promotions of 140 characters or less have revolutionised how we all communicate and it has changed the world forever. For the uninitiated, Twitter can seem a little fast-flowing and daunting compared to the more sedentary Facebook. I use these terms loosely as in the world of the Web nothing is truly slow.
In Mark Shaw’s book “Twitter your Business”, he attempts to guide the reader into this stream of thought and provide a way for a business to tap and harness the power of Twittering.
A basic understanding of Twitter terminology is provided – do you know your @replies from your #hash tags, DMs or Retweet? There are basic descriptions of what these all mean, and this is the mark of the book that it provides the basics, but also advanced stuff like knowing what time in the day for your tweets to have maximum impact, and whether a dashboard program such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck might be a better solution than interacting directly with the http://www.twitter.com site.
With additional information that allow the user to understand how effective their business exposure on twitter is, this book is a good foundation in understanding the micro-messaging phenomena. Anyone who is starting out on Twitter and doesn’t purchase this ebook will be disadvantaged. They will be looking in many places for the same information that is provided here in one place. An excellent guide to twittering..
This book review was originally published on Family Friendly Working, a site packed with advice on flexible work for mums and dads.
Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!
Facebook is one of the world’s greatest companies. Along with Google and Apple they make up a triumvirate of modern technology companies that rely so much on customer interaction. The most amazing part of this is that Facebook hasn’t reached its first decade of existence. 500 million of us (probably more by now) have joined up, and we use it to communicate with long lost friends, family on the other side of the world or to grow fictitious crops in a virtual world.
With the evolution of Facebook from its Friendster and Thefacebook.com history, David Kirkpatrick has written a very important book. ‘The Facebook Effect’ catalogues and brings to life the genesis of possibly the most important social media company that the world has ever seen. The company access that he was provided with allowed him to write a book that is detailed enough to explain why the business is so successful, but also to write the whole story, warts and all.
Where thefacebook.com was originally set up to network college students at Harvard, Facebook has a whole world to conquer, and showing how Mark Zuckerberg and other have done this, leave you in no doubt that the first six years were merely the precursor to bigger and greater things.
This book provides an incredible insight into Facebook and its workings. It will be referred to over the years as it is updated, and will become the definitive history of Facebook. David Kirkpatrick has created a book that will stand the test of time.
This book review was also published on Information Unplugged- Sifting through the data of your life.
Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!
Is there a book that will answer all your questions about parenthood? There are millions of us up and down the country who are looking for one. If only we knew what to do in a given situation, then life would become so much easier. Apart from the fact that if we knew everything to know about raising children, there would be no fun left, and book would have to be bigger than the internet to discuss all possibilities.
‘Raising Children – The Primary Years’ is one of the latest books on the market designed to cater for a forgotten age range. The ages between 4 and 11 years old have been largely overlooked in the race to provide answers for the very young, and the teenagers in our society. This book takes the transition time between the two and gives it a good looking at.
The author, Liat Hughes Joshi, has recruited a pair of psychologists to talk to parents and to provide insight into this interesting age. It is notable that the book is peppered with comments and quotes from parents, to reinforce or illuminate the point that the writers are trying to make. This does not make for a fluid book to read, but it gives each section a little coating of reality that most parents can identify with.
With sections on Friends, School, Sleep, Growing up Fast and Money, there is a whole load of parenting advice provided between the covers. But I suspect that one section that will gain a lot of attention is how to strike a healthy balance between gadgetry and the internet, and making sure that your child grows up in a straightforward manner.
This is a book that we have been looking out for, and it does not disappoint. The ages between 4 and 11 are possibly the most important in a child’s life as they provide foundations of the rest of their lives that will be remembered forever. This book will be an invaluable guide for parents looking to find some answers in this interesting time.
This book review was originally published on Family Friendly Working, a site packed with advice on flexible work for mums and dads.
Have you enjoyed this review? If you have, click through and buy the book HERE!
Technologist, Novelist, Ideas, Engineering Product Designer, Future Business Mastermind, Philosopher, Web Junkie, Aeronaut, Blogger, Thinker, Geek and proud of it.
