Seth Says: Start a Book Club

Seth Says: Start a Book Club
Seth Godin is one of the most popular bloggers on the planet.

Each day you get a slice of wisdom worth contemplating.

In his most recent post, “Is it too late to catch up?” he outlines a simple plan to get your organization up to speed in the digital media space.

The 10 part plan is Simple Seth at his genius best: No fluff. Succinct. Direct.

Step 4 is this:

Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It'll take you about a year to catch up.

That’s music to my ears! That’s exactly what Book Rapper provides!

Here’s our special offer to you…
The Book Rapper issues are all freely available on our website for you to:

• Download and read
• Email to as many people you like – everyone in your organization and beyond
• Add them as a resource to your newsletter email-outs – permission granted!
• Print and distribute to anyone you want – just mind the trees!
• Follow Seth’s suggestion: Run a book club based upon them – I prefer ‘In-house Innovation Program’. Discuss the issue for an hour, stepping through each page. Then discuss how to apply them to your situation for the next hour. That’s a neat 2-hour, monthly innovation program ready for you to facilitate. (We can facilitate these sessions for you too!)

The only thing we ask is you don’t edit or sell any of our issues.

And, feel free to share your results, feedback and suggestions so we can help you further.

We Blog - How will you manage your blog and your life?

Here's our seventh slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

This RAP looks at "Blog Life": How will you manage your blog and your life?

Here’s an octopus' dozen of clues to manage your blog and your life.

1. Full Time Blogging
   
2. Blog Home
   
3. Automate
   
4. How to Build a Blog Bank
   
5. Online Journalism
   
6. Team Sport
   
7. Read Blogs
   
8. Blog Partnerships
   

Have a click through, it'll only take 3 3/4 minutes and let us know what you think.

Book Rapper We Blog 7 Blog Life

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My Blogging Heroes

The “We Blog” Issue of Book Rapper was derived from Michael A Banks’ book Blogging Heroes.

In his book Banks interviewed 30 of the most influential bloggers on the web.
The Book Rapper version compiled these into a series of RAPs, many of which we’ve offered as slideshows and featured in this blog. See them all on our Slideshare site.

Plus we compared Movies and Blogs highlighting that both of these technologies derive from the acceleration of other media.

Today, I’m posting about three of my Blogging Heroes.

Smart simple Seth…
The famous Seth Godin writes one of the simplest, easy-to-read blogs I know. I model my writing on his: short, sharp, insightful. He’s also the master at turning his blog posts into books.

Read it to learn from one clued in dude!

Local Lad Darren Rowse…
In the big wide world web, I didn’t really expect to be following someone who lives in the same town…
Darren Rowse, aka Problogger, is also a Melbourne boy.
Too bad he barracks for the Blues!
He writes one of the best blogs on how to write a better blog. My post today is inspired by Darren’s program 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

Read it to better your blog.

And, my new favourite, courtesy of a Seth link… Chris Guillebeau.
Now, the interesting thing here is that Chris writes about his adventure to visit every country on the planet. Whilst, that’s not my trip, I love his blog model. Download and read his free manifesto, 279 Days. Then write your own. I’m building a new blog based upon Chris’ model that’ll be available soon.

Read it to be inspired by one man’s journey.

And now, it’s your turn, who are your Blogging Heroes?

We Blog - What are you going to blog about?

Here's our sixth slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

This RAP looks at "Blog About": What should you blog about?

The answer: Whatever.

There’s a global readership out there and a virtual market for every topic.

Just get started!

Here’s a dozen clues to narrow your focus and heighten your arousal, well, your readers’ arousal levels.

1. Help People
   
2. Rock Your Socks Off
   
3. The Long and the Short
   
4. Regular Features
   
5. Special Features
   
6. Media Swap
   
7. Problem Solving
8. Updates and Revisits
9. Interview Me
10. Scour the Web
11. The Weird and the Wacky
12. Trendspotting
    

Have a click through, it'll only take 4 minutes and let us know what you think.

Book Rapper We Blog 6 Blog About

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Apple iPhone Apps and the Future of Gaming

As we sing Happy One Billionth Download to the Apple iPhone Apps store, up pops a new spin on the future of gaming.

Rob Murray, head of Melbourne game developer Firemint has just hit the big time.

Their game ‘Flight Control’ has just become the top-ranked iPhone application in the world.

Flight control lets you play Air Traffic Controller. As the planes approach you direct their flight paths with your finger on the touch screen.

It’s so simple even Rob’s mother in law is hooked! Flight Control is one of the first Apple iPhone app games to use the touch screen as the key navigation device in a game. It prophets a new era in gaming...

In The Age article, Murray suggests, with these new controls, the future of gaming is mobile! He says,

“The fact that you can carry your iPhone or iPod Touch around with you and have good games digitally distributed that's the big bonus and we think mobile with digital distribution is the ultimate form of gaming.”

"Personally I think it's going to cut the knees off lounge room entertainment in time just the same as the Walkman did for music in the lounge room... eventually games on mobiles, if the user interface is sorted, then there's no reason they shouldn't grow to become the dominant entertainment form."

So if music has left the lounge room, games have too, then what’s next?

Live sporting events are already on your phone.

Books have become audio or YouTubio.

We’ve already got newspaper websites.

Soon we won’t need a lounge room at all. Everything will be portable and mobile.

I’m still waiting for my Dick Tracy watch though!

How to Get Traffic to your Blog

Here's our fourth slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

This RAP looks at "Blog Traffic". With so many blogs out there, who's going to read yours? And, how are they going to find you? We look at four traffic strategies for your Blog:

1. Producing Great Content
   
2. Getting Links
   
3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
   
4. Online Participation
   

Have a click through, it only take 4 minutes, and let us know what you think of the new format.

Book Rapper We Blog 4 Blog Traffic

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We Blog 3: How to Make Money From Your Blog

Here's our fourth slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

So how do you make money from your blog?
Well, no one says you have to... but if you do here's four strategies to consider:

1. Blog-a-job
2. Advertise
3. Promote
4. Direct sales

Book Rapper We Blog 3 Blog Money

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We Blog - RAP2 - The Blog Medium - Getting Great Results for Your Blog

Here's our third slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

This RAP looks at "The Blog Medium". The better we understand the Blog Medium, the better the more successful your blog will be. We look at six qualities of the Blog Medium:

1. Niche
2. Global
3. Timely
4. Free
5. Informal
6. Multi-media
   

Have a click through, it only take 4 1/2 minutes, and let us know what you think of the new format.

We Blog 2 The Blog Medium

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We Blog - RAP1 - Why Blog? Why create your own Media Channel?

Here's our second slideshow RAP of We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

This RAP looks at "Why Blog?" Three main reasons for blogging:

1. Self Expression
2. Create Your Own Media Channel
3. Connect to our Species
   

Have a click through, it only take 4 minutes, and let us know what you think of the new format.

We Blog RAP1 Blog Why?

View more presentations from Geoff Mcdonald. (tags: weblog blogging)

We Blog - How to Create Your Own Media Channel

Too many words, too little time to read them all.

Sound familiar?

This blog has been guilty of a word-avalanche and it's time to explore alternate fields.

Here's our first foray into alternate media, a slideshow... An introduction to We Blog: How to Create Your Own Media Channel.
It's derived from Michael A Bank's Blogging Heroes.

Have a click through and let us know what you think of the new format.

Here goes...

Book Rapper We Blog

View more presentations from Geoff Mcdonald. (tags: rap resources)

Well... what did you think? Feel free to comment, or add it to your blog.

Book Rapper Hot Books Hot Trends 2008

Make Money From Niches
Derived from Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail
The Hot Idea: Digitalization has lowered the profit barrier meaning we no longer need to rely on creating big selling blockbuster products. Instead, small profitable niches become a safe and reliable way to riches.
Author’s blog: http://www.thelongtail.com/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/1_The_Long_Tail.html


How to Think Right
Derived from: Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind
The Hot Idea: The reliance on left-brain, logical, rational thinking is no longer enough to be successful in the Conceptual Age. Instead, we also need to be able to use our right-brain, emotional, empathetic, synthesizing brain.
Author’s website: http://www.danpink.com/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/2_Whole_New_Mind.html


Marketing Now-How
Derived from Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae
The Hot Idea: The new digital and online marketing tools will not be effective if applied to traditional advertising lead, command and control business structures. It’s time to reinvent to take advantage of them.
Author’s website: http://sethgodin.com/sg/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/3_Meatball_Sundae.html


The Four Hour JOLT!
Derived from: Timothy Ferris’s The Four Hour Work Week
The Hot Idea: Our live-to-work culture is obsolete. The Industrial Revolution’s 40 hour a week Deferred Lifestyle has reached retirement age. For the first time in 200 years you can re-frame your work ethic into a personal DIY ethic.
Book website: http://fourhourworkweek.com/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/4_The_Four_Hour_Week.html


Leaderful
Derived from: Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom’s The Spider and Starfish
The Hot Idea: The pendulum is swinging from centralized command and control organizations to decentralized ones. This elevates the importance of personal leadership and creates the demand for the ‘leaderful’ organization.
Book Website: http://www.starfishandspider.com/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/5_Leaderful.html


The Bees Wees
Derived from: Barry Libert and Jon Spector, We Are Smarter Than Me
The Hot Idea: Collaborative communities are the near future now. The power of crowds to innovate, provide customer service, make sales, provide finance and manage projects turns traditional organizations inside out.
Project website: http://www.wearesmarter.org/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/6_We_Are_Smarter_Than_Me.html


The Sticking Point
Derived from: Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick – Why some ideas survive and others die
The Key Idea: What’s your big idea? The typical expert spends longer coming up with their big idea than massaging it so it sticks in the minds of its intended audience. This book shows you how to package up your ideas so they’ll land and stick.
Book Website: http://www.madetostick.com/
Book Rapper: http://www.bookrapper.com/8_The_Sticking_Point.html

The Great Web 2.0 Distinction

Web 2.0 is big. I don’t need to tell you that.

I often find myself talking about it to people who simply don’t get it. They think Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube are a waste of time. Perhaps they’re right or perhaps they’ve been left behind…

I’m currently reading Sarah Lacy’s book on Web 2.0. She’s been reporting on startups and venture capital in Silicon Valley, the heart of all things internet, for almost a decade.

She writes Valley Girl, a biweekly column for BusinessWeek and co-hosts Tech Ticker on Yahoo!

If you get the US version of her book it’s called: Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0. Penguin publishes this one (May 2008). What a crap title! (View it on Amazon)

If you get the UK version, which is the one I’m reading, it’s called: The Stories of Facebook, YouTube and MySpace; The People, the hype and the deals behind the giants of Web 2.0. Published by Crimson Publishing (November 2008).

The book is an engaging inside story of how some of the giants of Web 2.0 came to be. It’s got some useful distinctions in it and the best one I’ve ever heard to put Web 2.0 into context.

On page 145, Lacy is talking about Sean Parker. He was pivotal in a number of key internet plays, including Napster with Shawn Fanning and Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg.

He gets the web. He gets it at a gut, visceral, intuitive level. He also gets it way before most.

This distinction is attributed to him and it puts Web 2.0 into a context where you can hear the potential opportunities. Here goes…

Web 1.0 was about the digitization of media. Think Napster. You take your content and you make it available in new ways digitally via the net. Why buy a CD when you can get it for nothing online? The recording companies and the movie companies didn’t get it, Napster did.

The holy grail of Web 1.0 was the portal. You built a big website that had news, weather, sport, stockmarket prices etc. It was a one-stop shop and the direct translation of a newspaper. It was the geek’s newspaper because the web really hadn’t invaded everyone’s lives just yet.

Web 2.0 is about the digitization of identity. Sounds impressive huh? But what does it mean?

Basically, it’s the translation of you as an individual online. You get to tell the world who you are online through your name, contact details, photos, likes and dislikes, music, video and anything else you want to link to.

Your blog is one such outlet of your identity. I get to be me and I get to say what I want to whoever wants to listen. No wonder 75 million blogs have been created in less than 10 years!

Now take this one step further. I have my identity online and my friends have theirs online as well, so do a couple of million other people so… let’s hang out.

Facebook is the poster child of hanging out online. Those who get it, live it. They wake up in the morning and log straight on. They find out what their friends are doing right now, they organize their next social event or share their photos from their last one. No spam, minimal advertising and no big media or other company telling them what to do – only your boss at work standing over you!

And the best part… this is public domain. You don’t have to be a geek to join in because the interface is adult-proof. Even better you can socialize without getting out of your pyjamas. The ultimate global village - Long live Marshall McLuhan!

That’s the great Web 2.0 distinction. Do you get it now?

Book Rapper Blog Restart

Hi folks,
I'm back again. I've been a bit quiet on the blog front. Time to correct that.

What to expect... a few more posts about books and ideas and trends including:

RAPPED : Previously, I was thinking that I'd concentrate on the Book Rapper issues only - updates, follow-ups and downgrades as new info comes to light. I've got some of these planned!

unRAPPED : It's time to extend this to other books I'm reading. I read about 40 books a year and only about 10 make it as Book Rapper issues. Most of these are valuable resources too. So I thought it was time to discuss the other 30 books that are unRAPPED.

2-RAP : Thirdly, I'll give you a look into the books that I want to read and possibly RAP. They might be the ones I've bought and haven't got to yet, or the upcoming releases that I haven't even got yet.

Join me on this journey up the long and winding road and let's see what we find together along the way...

Meatball Sundae

What business are you in? Marketing delivers the answer to that and marketing just changed!
Old Marketing was about selling beige products to beige people by interupting them with advertising.
New Marketing requires a product worth talking about and tools to attract interested people to your offer.
Seth Godin points to something big! Every single business model is under question. New organisations designed to take advantage of the new rules will
overtake those trying to add them to their existing operations (adding sweet toppings to your meatballs). If that sounds like your business, look out!
In our RAP, we've rearranged Seth's 14 marketing trends into the Book Rapper Marketing Map to make it easier for you to thrive in the digital marketing era.