Books We Recommend

One of the biggest problems with having a personal library of paper books on how to write code for websites is that every few years they become obsolete. Accordingly, we no longer recommend paper books for learning how to code. For that, pick one of the many online services that will teach you how to build websites or do web programming, for free! Just Google it and you'll see how much stuff is available to learn online.

When a question of how to code something comes up, we're now only using online resources instead of physical books. Specifically, we use W3 Schools, which has sections on HTML5, CSS3, PHP and JavaScript that are extremely helpful, are kept up to date, and provide accurate, definitive, and complete answers about how to use them.

For more in-depth help on coding PHP, we recommend PHP.net.

Click this link to learn about the Bootstrap Platform, which has great explanations of the bits and pieces of Bootstrap; it is also where one downloads the various pieces of it. Also note, one can always ask Google for the answer to a coding question, usually Google does a yoeman's job of answering such questions quite helpfully.

To sort out how to make tricky code work, there's always Stack Overflow to answer your questions.

Two resources for buying used books and saving money, both of which we use regularly: Powells City of Books in Portland, Oregon. For hard-to-find books, try www.Alibris.com

Disclaimer: If you buy books through our links to Amazon we'll make a small commission on your purchase. Note that we don't recommend books unless they've actually helped us.

Ogilvy on Advertising

By David Ogilvy - $12.95

One cannot hope to learn all there is to know about advertising from a single book. But this book will go a long way toward teaching you the basics of advertisments that work and teach you what doesn't work to sell products in an advertisement. Because commercial websites are, or should be, advertisements for the products or services you sell, this book is a must-read.

Trust me on this. Just buy it and read it. Find out why you will never, ever put red text on a black background on a web page again.

Highly recommended for anyone doing website design or marketing or online advertising. To order, click on the picture of the book.

Confessions of an Advertising Man

By David Ogilvy - $16.99 (paperback)

This book is out of print. Do not despair, though, you can — no, you SHOULD — get a copy of this book and read it. You can usually find it used at Amazon (click the picture of the book) or at www.powells.com, the huge Powells bookstore in Portland, Oregon — they may be the largest used book dealers in the world.

I bought a used copy of this book for $12.00 from them, in excellent condition, and I've read it three or four times and learn something new every time.

The End of Marketing As We Know It

By Sergio Zyman ($7.49 in paperback from Amazon)

Sergio Zyman was the guy who thought up "New Coke" in 1985; which is widely regarded as the greatest marketing blunder of all time. Or one of the most brilliant marketing moves ever made (according to the results!) depending on how you look at it. While dishing out delectable bits of gossip (you'll find out why Madison Avenue ad agencies called him "The Aya-cola") he manages to build a solid case for something I've been preaching for 40 years: Marketing is not some arcane art performed in a vacuum—marketing has to produce a measurable product or it's useless, wasteful, and should be stopped. By "measurable product" Zyman is talking about SALES. Finally, someone is speaking sense from within the loony bin that was marketing in the 20th Century.

Zyman: "Marketing is a strategic activity and discipline focused on the endgame of getting more consumers to buy your product more often so that your company makes more money."

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

By Al Ries & Jack Trout. ($21.11 in paperback from Amazon)

This book makes you re-think and question everything you thought you knew about marketing. It usually sells for around $20.00 at Amazon The 22 "unchangeable" laws of marketing deal with what people think about products or services or companies - if you need to know that sort of stuff, then this book is for you. Read it, even if you have to check it out of the library. Fasten your seat belts for a first class "head trip"!

The Elements of Style

By William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White - $9.49 (paperback)

What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? It was written in 1935 and it is still in print, which has to tell you something. It has a small but useful set of rules about how to write. How useful? Extremely.

If you want to write well, use the guidelines in this book. It is a very easy read, not your normal English book or book on style. There's nothing else like it. The rules are clear and definite and you should follow them. You will write better just from having read it. I always try to follow these simple rules for writing English... even if I don't always succeed.

How to Sell, Clear and Simple

only $29.95

This book, How to Sell, Clear and Simple really lives up to its name. Anyone ought to be able to read and apply the material from this book by master salesman Harry Frisch to sell more products or services, faster, smoother and with fewer headaches and heartaches. You can forget what you've learned elsewhere about sales (you probably suspect most of it was false or unnecessary anyway!) this book teaches you what you need to know to sell with a clear conscience and stay on top of the sales game with good communication. This has become my all-time favorite book on sales, better even than Big League Sales Closing Techniques by Les Dane, which I also recommend, and on which I drilled daily for years when I was in sales "back in the day". This book is a terrific value at $29.95.

There's no question: if you sell for a living or if some aspect of your job involves contacting people and getting them to do things, buy this book today and learn to master the process that leads to closing more sales, building more future business, and satisfying customers beyond their expectations. Based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Note: Get the 2nd Edition, which was updated and expanded from the original—the first edition sold out quickly!

The Small Business Success Manual

By Stan Dubin -
$28.95!
or you can download the ebook for $9.95

Subjects covered:

• Hiring, training and keeping good personnel
• Getting organized
• Marketing and increasing sales
• Getting New Clients
• Financial stability
• Greater staff cooperation and performance
• Increased income and profits
• Reduced stress in the workplace
• More freedom for YOU!

(Based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard - so you know it works!)

Harmony or Upset in the Workplace—
Your Choice
The Power of Agreement

A Workbook by Klaus Hilgers and Jere Matlock - $25.95

Klaus Hilgers was an international renowned seminarist and public speaker until his passing in 2008. Klaus and Jere Matlock wrote this book based on a very successful seminar series that Klaus delivered in many locations around the world. The book contains information and drills that will help achieve and maintain harmony in the workplace.

If any of these chapter headings are of interest to you in managing your business on a day-to-day basis, then you should buy and use this book.

• What is Group Insanity?
• The Power of Agreement
• Harmony
• Managing Agreements
• Implied Agreements
• Handling Implied Agreements
• Explicit Agreements
• Policy
• Getting People to Make Agreements
• Asking
• The Responses
• Tracking Agreements
• High Performance Management
• Technology of Agreements
• Agreements at Work
• Customer Satisfaction
• Handling Complaints Creatively
• Purpose of the Organization
• Sales
• Staff Meetings
• How to Implement a New Idea

Click here to see a chapter from the book The Power of Agreements.

When the Thrill is Gone

By Stan Dubin. ($13.38 in paperback from Amazon)

This is a book about restoring the thrill to a relationship with true solutions to marital problems. It covers basic principles that you have probably never heard before. You are free to try them and see if they work for you. Subjects covered:

• The real reason relationships fail
• The Third Party
• How to handle the upsets after a fight
• Communications
• Communications - two best friends
• Putting order into your relationship
• Freeing your self from the past
• Choosing our people
• The Emotional Tone Scale
• The chart of human evaluation
• Knowledge, Responsibility and Control
• Increasing your ability to confront
• Help with the kids
• What is greatness

Lord, Please Make Me a Famous Poet
Or at Least Less Fat

By Dean Blehert. (From $4.75 in paperback from Amazon)

Dean Blehert is unquestionably America's premiere satiric poet. In this book he skewers every sacred cow from American and English poetry, hilariously and with formidable wit and panache. If you were ever forced to read Longfellow or Poe and pretend to admire them to get a good grade, you'll howl at his rendition of "Song of Hiawatha" and "The Raven." This book could well be the text book for a college course in English Lit, but academic America is unlikely to pick it up because... well, he flays them, too, exposing the rotten core beneath the lifeless exterior of the literature of academia.

As Dean says, his poetry won't save you, but it may locate you until a rescue party can be sent out.

Here's a sample where Dean tries to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for fame and glory.

It's Not What I Thought

By Jere Matlock. ($12.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling) from Words in a Row. More than 100 poems, 93 pages.

A collection of poetry from the 70's to present time, mostly about love and family. Understandable poems that make a good gift for someone you love, someone who has had trouble in love (who hasn't?!) or someone who just likes poetry.

From the preface: "It occurred to me at an early age that it is not enough to mirror reality in descriptions of it, or to set down impressions of the way people behave, or the look of a thing—even if it has never been said before. That kind of pointless commentatorism can go on endlessly. In my view, poetry ought to pull the attention out -- make someone more alive for having shared it with the poet. It should show, wherever possible, how we are at cause and leave one reminded, in some way, that we can be at cause over this world we're in, even in matters of love. We have enough messages already concerning the beautiful sadness of things, and we do not need more poets selling us on hopelessness, apathy, futility and the like. I've made an effort not to do that; whether that effort was successful I leave to you."

Click here to see some sample poems from the book.