which said something along these lines:

“Hello, We have received a spam complaint that originated from your account. Upon a further investigation it was determined that your account has been exploited. It appears that your account is running out-dated scripts or plugins which have been exploited. “

There was a lot more to the email so that I knew it wasn’t a phishing email. But you get its drift?

Basically I hadn’t upgraded the WordPress software running one of my site for quite a few months.

The result was that site was used by spammers to send junk to people. A follow-up email described the problem further:

“User sent approximately 25,919 messages to 25,916 unique recipients. “

All the email was sent in a very short space of time.

Obviously I upgraded the site as quickly as possible. And the hosting company was great and really followed up to make sure all was ok.

And yet if I’d read a book on WordPress security that’s just been released I’d have saved myself a lot of time.

Because this month publishing house Packt announced discounts and promotions to launch a new book; WordPress 3 Ultimate Security.  Packt are really keen on WordPress and do produce some useful books on its use, and abuse! Anyway, readers are being offered exclusive discounts, 20% and 30% off the cover price of all their WordPress print books and eBooks (for a limited period only.

And the reason why WordPress 3 Ultimate Security would have been mega useful?

As Packt says “WordPress 3 Ultimate Security shows you how to hack your site before someone else does. You’ll uncover its weaknesses before sealing them off, securing your content and your day-to-day local-to-remote editorial process. This is more than some "10 Tips …" guide. It’s ultimate protection – because that’s what you need.”

For more information on the WordPress discounts and promotions being offered by Packt throughout June, please visit: – http://www.packtpub.com/article/wordpress-month

By the way my site wasn’t really that far behind in WordPress releases, so be careful it doesn’t happen to you.

And finally if you want to be looked after like I was sign up with my lovely hosting company and you can get 25% off if you sign-up with this coupon: Dealjune2011

Usually people look to buy the latest business book that sounds interesting.

I’ve just emailed a client a list of books that any business would benefit from reading.

So with that in mind I’d like to share the list with you, and add just a couple more that I didn’t send. I didn’t send them all so as not to give him business book indigestion.

There’s no doubt that reading these books changes your perspective, even if you’ve been in business for decades.

Several people I know re-read Napoleon Hill’s classic many times.

There are several obvious people missing from this list. People like Jay Abraham, Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins.

Missing also are business biographies, where you can learn a lot and business “novels” like “Soul of A New Machine.”

Yet despite these omissions the listed books moved me to take notes, always a good sign. And I’ve implemented ideas from many of them to the betterment of myself and my clients.

This book is a must read for anyone who advertises right now, or wants to advertise, on or off the Internet.

In it Whitman shows exactly how to create websites, brochures ads, sales letters and more that actually have the best chance of selling.

The Life Force 8

The Lifeforce 8 looks to be an adaptation and extension of the famous Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. However, Drew Whitman explains how to use the lifeforce 8 to tap into “what makes humans tick.” Plug that into an ad and as he says people want to know more.

He also demonstrates the power of the lifeforce 8 by showing the increases in sales for books when their titles are changed to reflect one of the lifeforces.

The Nine Learned Human Wants

As Whitman notes people don’t just want the Lifeforce 8. So he shows 9 other needs researchers have identified. These are known as the Nine Learned Human Wants. These needs are strong but not as powerful as the Lifeforce 8.

The 17 Foundational  Principles of Consumer Psychology

Whitman lists each of the principles and explains how each one can be used in advertising. And not just how to use them but the research behind them and how they must be used to actually drive what you want to achieve.

Ad Agency Secrets

A great deal of research has been conducted into consumer psychology. And anyone with any sense needs to use the research. Often however, it’s ad agencies that know where to look, after all how many business people have the time to read beyond their own industry?

An example of the research is the use of typefaces, either in print or on the Internet. One author suggests that using the wrong type can “blow away three-quarters of our readers.”

In this as with much of the book Whitman pulls on research conducted decades ago. He also quotes research reported more recently so that he speaks authoritatively on the use of advertising on the Internet too.

For example do you know which font is best in printed work? Interestingly enough it’s not the font I use for printed documents. So I will be changing to the font that research demonstrates that content is better understood.

What about online fonts?

I’m glad you asked, yes Whitman has research for that too, plus the point size – his tip 12 point for normal readers and 14 if you’re targeting the more elderly.

Want to know the best way to set a photo in a printed advert, or what photo type is best? What about whether an advert size affects sales? How about ways to create “mental movies” to make your prospects pus the cash into your hand?

Yes, all of this comes out in Ca$hvertising.

Long Copy Vs Short Copy

And like a red rag to a bull Whitman grasps the horns of the eternal dilemma: short copy or long copy?

He shows that the right length of copy is the best length. And more often that not, it tends to be long copy. That is based on the hundreds of studies done to check and re-check. As he points out you may have written 8 pages worth of an ad but if someone is ready to buy after just reading the headline that’s great. Someone else may get half-way through and buy, another may get right to the end before they’re convinced.

In fact using long copy gives you the chance to speak to everyone, not just people who like short copy. And in case you thought that doesn’t apply to the Internet he explains that experiments have been conducted to show that long copy outperformed short copy on web sites too.

You Can Make Ads Sell Rather Than Suck

This book is like the Special Services arriving in the battle for better advertising for the beleaguered business owner. It’s going to help you win!

You owe it to yourself to grab it, devour it and really apply everything that Whitman lays out and put it into action in your business battle plan. So click below, get it from Amazon and then go and kick competitor butt!

When you read Twitter Power’s follow figures in screen shots used they look to be late 2008. By using them you can see how massively the followers have grown for the people Joel quotes.

However, I digress…

The book is subtitled “How To Dominate Your Market One Tweet At A Time.” It’s an ambitious plan, however I think that Joel has pulled it off.

Twitter Power Makes It Seem Easy

The book doesn’t rely on all the new tools that arrive, become fashionable then sink without trace. Instead in concentrates on the fundamental “how-tos” to successfully incorporate Twitter into your social media strategy and provides step by step instructions in its use, and notes how to avoid abuse.

It goes into the details you need to succeed in Twitter.for example Joel gives you ways of creating your own Twitter background – a key part of getting followed.

7 Killer Strategies For More Followers

Joel gives 7 ways of getting people to follow you. Although as Joel points out building a list of followers doesn’t happen overnight no matter what you do!

The easiest one to implement immediately is to add your Twitter name to your signature.

7 Tweet Types For Everyone To Use

Twitter Power breaks down the Tweets that Joel suggests you use into

1. Classic “this is what I’m doing” Tweets
2. Opinion Tweets
3. Mission Accomplished Tweets
4. Entertainment Tweets
5. Question Tweets
6. Picture Tweets
7. Tweet Sequences

Stuffed With Useful Powerful Content

The whole of Twitter Power is very useful for advanced Tweeters and new Tweeters alike. Joel shows how to use Twitter for customer support, to build your brand to find experts, how to track Tweets, using Twitter auto responders and much, much more that has the marketer in me salivating!

Crucially Joel also gives a highly experienced legal eagle a chapter to explain the niceties and dangers to be aware of when using Twitter. Look out for assumed contracts is all I’ll say on that subject!

In addition Joel has his business partner Ken Burge write a chapter on how you can extend Twitter to make it even more useful for your business and gives URLs to code you can use too.

One thing is very clear. That is that Twitter can help you get your message out in a way that doesn’t intrude in the same way that mass advertising does.

In conclusion if you’ve any thoughts of getting into Twitter for your business you must buy Twitter Power. In fact click here and get it now, remember whilst you’re thinking others are taking action!

And realistically how many entrepreneurs feel they have enough time to read any books anyway?

Luckily when I got Jonathan Yates’ “All-Time Essentials For Entrepreneurs” I quickly discovered that it was a very quick read (about 2 hours max) and that I could dip into it at any time I was at a loose end. And I was pleased I’d had the opportunity to grab it.

It’s easy to carry with you too as it’s half A5 size and simply fits straight into your jacket pocket.

So entrepreneurs get reading!

The Books Format

As Jonathan writes in his introduction this is an ideas book. It’s format is very straight forward and really lends itself to dipping into it for ideas. On the left hand page there’s a really relevant quote on the other side a suggestion, tip, advice or some encouragement.

Some of the quotes you’ll have heard before. However, seeing them again in the context of the suggestion is most helpful.

These 100 ideas are split into the following sections:

1. Start
2. Ideas
3. Motivation
4. Opportunity
5. Challenges
6. Money
7. Strategy
8. Marketing
9. Sales
10. Success

These are ideas and thoughts that you can use each week. And unlike some books like this because it’s so short it’s easy to keep at hand.

One of the quotes I loved was from WS Gilbert (the other half of my favourite light opera creators Gilbert & Sullivan). He said,

“Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.”

Although this book is aimed squarely at entrepreneurs it’s a good read for anyone who has an interest in business.  People like sales staff, company directors or consultants of all breeds.

For a start he believes that one of his key skills is the ability to delegate. And to grow a business that’s the key point most entrepreneurs need to understand and do! Certainly from my own project management experience delegating can sometimes be worrying but usually people come through. If things go wrong when you delegate you need to learn from it and asses how you would ensure that problem didn’t crop up again.

Bannatyne’s book is a brisk take on what you need to start, run, grow and ultimately sell your business.

The First Step For A New Business

The first step is the idea, the second to check whether you’re cut-out for business with an interesting test that he provides in the book. Just so you know 4 of my key strengths according to the test are ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘D’, ‘F.’ So when you read the book you can compare your results to someone else! And why not comment about them too?

The book contains interesting little case studies of other successful business people and asks key questions such as “what’s the best advice you’ve ever had” and “what do you wish you’d known from the start?”

Will It Wake You Up?

It’s unlikely that Bannatyne’s book wakes you with a start as something amazing hits you. That said it is a mine of useful and pragmatic business advice that new business owners would benefit from dipping into from time to time.

It is an interesting read and it certainly helps you understand Duncan Bannatyne the businessman, and if you want to go on Dragon’s Den a very helpful primer.

Networking Guardian Angel, Will Kintish has distilled his years of networking wisdom into a “One Minute Manager” style book which demonstrates how to network.

The book uses Brian, a stumbling, fumbling nervous networker and shows how he progresses with coaching from the author, Will Kintish.

The book begins with Brian receiving an invitation to a networking event. He’s just about to ditch it, when the disembodied voice of Networking Guardian Angel Will Kintish says simply, “Hi Brian. Please stop before you throw that invitation in the bin.”

Eventually Brian agrees to go the meeting. Will explains the importance of preparation and planning beforehand and gives a 20 point list to Brian to help him prepare. It includes vital items, like “remember your business cards”, “check the dress code” and possibly the most important, plan a short response to the inevitable question, “what do you do?”

Will notes the answer to what do you do is not your role, it’s how you help your customers.

Later Brian is supported, knees quaking, in the networking event or, as Will calls them, “business-related event.” He cheerfully reminds his quaking charge that 99% of people feel worried by business events.

Will gives Brian a list of the major fears and concerns raised by people who network.

When they arrive they discover the room’s full and Will says if Brian arrived earlier rather than seeing 100 people he would see 5. Which has to make anyone less anxious!

Will describes the 6 types of networking groupings, how they stand and whether they’re approachable.

Brian receives a step by step explanation on approaching the singleton, a way to remember their name and helpfully is told “what to talk about.”

Later Brian reports back that they had a good conversation but neither knew how to end it without upsetting the other. This comes from the fear of rejection. Will explains rejection is one major reason people hate networking. Fortunately Will provides several strategies for moving on without causing offence.

One networking nightmare is when someone is rude to you even though you’ve done nothing wrong. Again, Will to the rescue with strategies for Brian to deal with it.

He also provides ways of working within groups and helps show how to play host in the group so that people aren’t uncomfortable, and don’t feel left out.

Will explains how to ask pertinent and open questions when Brian speaks to people.

He also talks about the importance of building relationships and looking for the AHA moment where Brian may discover where he can help the person he’s talking to.

As our relationship with Brian grows Will introduces the networking criminal, explaining that Brian is one if he doesn’t follow-up as he promised. Will also provides a number of scripts for Brian to use as a base to talk to people afterwards.

If you go networking and haven’t attended one of Will’s courses this book will immediately improve your networking skills.

Selling For Dummies is 374 pages of closely packed information, excluding the index and contents. The book has a wide range of people as an audience. The information inside is equally useful if you’re a sales veteran, newcomer or somewhere in between.

This book needs to be read over several sittings. So don’t reach for it as you go out on your first sales call, unless you want to take the single page cheat sheet with you. The cheat sheet gives you words to avoid and their replacements and a method of getting referrals that anyone can use.

Obvious words to avoid include cost (replace with investment), contract or even the “Buy” or “Sell” words themselves.

The book is written in typical “ Dummies” style. There are plenty of headings, stories and icons highlighting experts’ tips or warnings. And with an excellent contents and index it’s easy to find a specific aspect of selling you need to brush up on.

The first part of the book sets you up for who is in sales, how selling should be like one of the hobbies you enjoy and the 7 steps to selling.

Part two covers preparation, understanding your product and using technology to your advantage.

The third part goes into the nuts and bolts of selling, including finding your buyers, the “easy” way to get appointments, how to properly present yourself and your product, handle objections and ask for referrals. This is probably the part that most people will concentrate on.

The book does consist of 3 other parts that contain equally important pointers for time management, motivation and goal setting and highlights selling mistakes. In particular the time management section is useful to any business owner, or sales person as a quick reminder and warning of time wasters that meeting people can sometimes generate.

I liked chapter 23, titled “Top Ten Tips For Sales Success.” While none of the tips might seem earth shattering it’s surprising how many sales people ignore them when they’re in the throes of selling.

Another very useful resource is the chapter 24 containing sales-related web sites addresses and giving short summaries of them.

This book covers more than what many people expect is required for a sales person. For example it talks about embracing the right attitude and goes into the psychology you need to understand too.

As everyone “knows” and has been proven by research from Stanford University, super star sales people are born not made. They have a certain psychological make up that means everything in this book is second nature. However, for the rest of us (estimated by Stanford as 96% of the sales people population) we can all benefit from continuous sales training.

Famed sales guru Tom Hopkins wrote the book and the UK-oriented content was added by top sales guy Ben Kench (pictured left, at his Business Booster seminar).

So, although reading the book can sometimes feel overwhelming I recommend it because it delivers lessons we can all apply to get more sales and more profitable sales.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Many who think seriously about business and influence know about, or have read, “Influence, Science and Practise” by Professor Robert Cialdini. In it Cialdini explains the principles of social proof, liking authority and scarcity with real world examples that you can apply in business.

In the same way Influencer (Amazon (UK) Amazon USA) explains how you have the power to influence change in all areas of your life. The authors take you on an influencers journey around the world. They show practical examples of how people who understand the way change really works, get massive results where previously there had only been failure.

The authors describe some of the most successful change programmes running in the world. And they give you the fundamentals to allow you to approach change in the same manner.

The first programme the authors take you to is a business conglomerate that is also a residential therapy practise, run by Dr. Mimi Silbert. Silbert says all her employees are “thieves, prostitutes, robbers and murderers” and many have been homeless, are on drugs and have had 4 or more felony convictions.” And yet this set of businesses, with no therapists, has fundamentally changed the lives of 14,000 employees. Of those who join the business 90% never re-offend and many go on to earn degrees and to get professional jobs.

A TV producer in Mexico City, Miguel Sabido, used his highly popular TV soap opera to change people and got over 250,000 adults out into the streets to try and improve their literacy, a problem that had never been resolved before.

What about the most amazing change that has affected several countries in Africa?

The authors describe how Dr. Donald Hopkins changed the behaviours of African villagers to eradicate the most appalling parasite (the 3 foot long Guinea Worm) from their villages within a year. The parasite had resisted many other programmes over decades.

Other equally fascinating programmes include:

• Making Factory Six Sigma teams work, most failed previously
• The African entrepreneur bank, using “microcredit”
• Stopping Aids spreading in Thailand
• Reducing small crimes in South Carolina
• Ethiopian bride abduction
• Improving teachers ability to help children learn
• Hewlett Packard’s messy desk approach

Rather than just describe the results of all the programmes the authors explain step by step the principles for each of:

• Creating the right motivation
• Harnessing peer pressure
• Designing awards and demanding accountability
• Surpassing your limits
• Finding strength in numbers, with help from others
• Changing the environment

For anyone who wants to improve their business, their life the message comes down to identifying what you want to change, establishing the behaviours that get you there, practise those behaviours until perfect, use coaching to help you and make sure you reward success and take responsibility.

I recommend “Influencer: The Power To Change Anything” heartily if you want change in any area of your life(Amazon (UK) Amazon USA) .

Failing that there are other exciting gifts you can get.

For those business people who like to learn from others mistakes or successes the best gifts are knowledge oriented.

Maybe you could combine a stay at Sandy Lane with an advanced course in marketing strategy presented by yours truly?!

Moving on…

There are some very interesting books around at the moment. You can check out my business powerpack book review page which gives you access to reviews of books I think are worth buying.

I’ve also tagged on two further books which I’m hoping to get for Christmas.

The books on the book review page include:

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