Top Business Books For 2008

Welcome back!

It’s that time of year when a lot of us are making lists.  Not just for Christmas, but also those end of year “best of” lists for 2008, lists of goals for 2009, and so on.  I love books, so I thought I would make up a list of some of the best-selling books of 2008.  I will be making a series out of this list theme, this week.  Today, these are according to Amazon’s current best-selling lists.

Entrepreneurship

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - a timeless classic, but I’m not sure I would call it a book on entrepreneurship.  Still, it made the top of this list.
2. Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street - Sounds interesting, but once again, I’m not sure what this has to do with entrepreneurship.
3. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - Written by Tim Ferriss.  Tim encourages you to take an alternate look at work and how you accomplish daily tasks.  Now called a life-hacker, Tim determines ways to accomplish many of life’s tasks in less time.  He even has a new show on the History Channel and I was fortunate enough to meet Tim at Blog World Expo.  He’s very interesting, dynamic, accomplished, and this book will have you re-thinking your work and personal life.

Internet Marketing

1. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott - Although the best-selling version of this book is the Kindle Edition, I have the paperback sitting around the house and really need to read it.  Several people I respect have read it and recommend it, including Jay Berkowitz, who interviewed David Meerman Scott on the 10 Golden Rules of Internet Marketing podcast, just a few episodes ago.
   

2. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse - In recent weeks, the ProBlogger blog has become a “must-read” for me.  I get a lot of great ideas (including this week’s series) and action items from Darren’s posts.  I have been wanting this book for a while, but just haven’t gotten off my butt and bought it.  Maybe I’ll get it for Christmas.  If not, I will be buying it after the holiday.

3. Web Analytics: An Hour A Day by Avinash Kaushik - Another book I’ve been meaning to buy, ever since I heard Jay Berkowitz interview Avinash on the 10 Golden Rules Podcast.  Additionally, Avinash was recently named one of the top 10 marketers of 2008 by Invesp Consulting.

Sales

1. The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Chet Holmes and Jay Conrad Levinson - I’ve seen this one on Amazon many times, but never really got me interested.  How about you?  Anyone read it?  Any feedback?  Jay Conrad Levinson also wrote one of the timeless marketing classics, Guerilla Marketing.
   

2. Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffrey Gitomer - I love Jeffrey Gitomer.  He’s one of my favorite business authors.  I mentioned him in a post a while back, too.  He’s a great author and his books are very easy to read, quick, and you come away with useful, actionable information.  I own four of his books and although this is not one of them, it is on my list.  I just felt his others were more important for me.
3. Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game by Kevin Hogan - I actually skipped the third best-selling book in Amazon’s Sales list, because it was clearly a health-related book, not sales.  Something just wasn’t right.  So, this one is technically number four, but it’s three on my list.  I’ve never heard of this one, until researching this post, but it sure sounds intriguing.

Thus concludes today’s list.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s list.

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