Life changing? Dramatic. I know. However, stick with me.

The start of the year is a great time to review and adjust your business budget. If your 2009 budget included ongoing expenses for software that allows you to invoice, accept payments and manage your expenses, you may be interested in considering the following web based application for 2010.

The website states that it’s the “fastest way to track time and send invoices.” Before signing up, I initially thought “Sure. That’s what they all claim.” After signing up for a free trial, I quickly began to believe the hype. The user interface is much more effective than the average desktop application with a third party web interface for invoicing. It is unbelievably simple. There are simple tabs for creating new clients, new projects, new invoices, and new estimates. The invoices look professional and include simple buttons that allow your client to quickly pay online. There’s automation included for payment reminders and alerts. It also allows you to create estimates and quotes and have the client review and accept them online. Also, the integration with third party and mobile applications seem to be endless. After using the tool for less than a week, I quickly realized how much time (and money) I’d saved compared to my previous invoicing and time tracking application. Freshbooks is certainly worth a review. Particularly if you are a service provider (www.freshbooks.com).

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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New Year. New Resolutions. New Book List. I read often for professional development, personal growth and entertainment purposes. At the start of each year I create a wish list of books that I plan to read during the year. Recently, due to ‘packed schedules’ and ‘tired eyes’ at the end of the day, I’ve developed a preference for audiobooks that I can listen to while traveling or exercising. However, some books are reference guides and are better digested in print.

This year I wanted to include some less known titles and titles that I may not have considered. Yesterday, I asked my Twitter friends the following question:

“What was the best book you read (heard) in 2009 (fiction or non-fiction)?”

Here are the recommendations received. I’ve provided links to the audiobook (if available) or print book. Thanks to all that have responded! I’ve added each of these titles to my wish list and you should consider them as well. Also, feel free to add your book recommendation(s) in the comments area!

2010 BOOK LIST

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• “Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet” by Jeffrey Stibel
• “Survival Is Not Enough: Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company” by Seth Godin
• “Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy” by Dev Patnaik
• “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion” by Gary Vaynerchuk * my recommendation *

MARKETING: THE SCIENCE (ART) OF

• “Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy” by Martin Lindstrom
• “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable” by Seth Godin

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

• “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely
• “Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance” by Joseph M. Marshall III * my recommendation *
• “Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else” by Geoff Colvin
• “It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff” by Peter Walsh * my recommendation *
• “Peaks and Valleys: Making Good and Bad Times Work for You – at Work and in Life” by Spencer Johnson * my recommendation *
• “Thrift and Generosity: The Joy of Giving” by John Templeton Jr.

CREATIVITY & IDEA DEVELOPMENT

• “Walking in This World: The Practical Art of Creativity” by Julia Cameron
• “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement” by Bill Duggan
• “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die” by Chip Heath, Dan Heath * my recommendation *

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

• “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves” by W. Arthur
• “Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves” By Adam Penenberg
• “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It” by Ken Auletta

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

“Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is Another Way for Africa” by Dambisa Moyo

WRITING

“How To Write Successful Fundraising Letters” by Mal Warwick

FICTION

• “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb
• “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz * my recommendation *
• “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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eBook

Offering an e-book can be a wonderful asset to your business website. An effectively produced and well-written e-book can provide the following benefits:

1. Increase credibility for you and your business
2. Help grow your “list” of potential customers
3. Provide another income stream for your business
4. Serve as a “bonus” for other products or services that you may be offering (i.e. “Bonus! With a one-year subscription, receive a free eBook on How to Make the Best Widget On Earth … In Less than 30 days”)
5. Provide instant gratification to your audience. People love instant gratification. In an age where information is readily available 24/7/365, having the ability to purchase and download an e-book is (generally) preferred over driving to the bookstore … or waiting for a shipment.
6. Provide a high return on investment. Relative to traditional publishing methods, e-books have very low production and distribution costs. If you plan to write your own e-book, multiply the amount of time spent on producing the book by your hourly rate to figure out the total costs of writing the book. If you’re hiring a “ghostwriter”, the writing costs will be evident and dependent on the resource or person used.
7. Allows for a shorter publishing cycle. It takes a lot longer to publish a book through traditional channels. Depending on the publisher, it can take well over a year to deliver an e-book to an actual bookstore; that’s assuming that your manuscript was accepted by a publishing house. However, an e-book can be created and distributed in a matter of weeks.

These are certainly very appealing benefits. However, before you immediately start writing your e-books, take some time to consider the following questions:

1. What are your primary reasons for writing this book (ex: to promote your business, to educate people on an important subject, to distribute a volume of training guides, to make money etc.) All reasons are valid, but it is important to identify YOUR reasons and prioritize them from most important to least important.
2. Who is your target audience? This will be important in determining the style of writing and presentation of the material. Your writing style and information presentation should appeal to your target audience, not to you.
3. What is your topic? Determining your topic is very important, especially if you want your e-book to have long term appeal. Develop a “short list” of potential topics, and then start researching how often those keywords are searched in major search engines. Use a tool such as Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) to determine how many people are searching on that specific topic. You’ll need to determine if the topic has a potential audience AND evaluate the competition for that audience.
4. What questions will be answered? Make a listing of the questions that your e-book will answer, and then try to break them down into sub-topics? This can aid you in developing a framework for writing the book and it may also help you determine if your topic is too broad or narrow in focus. Also consider the last time that you paid for an e-book? What motivated you to buy an e-book instead of searching further for a free resource? Did you read the entire book? Were your questions answered? To ensure that you have a topic that people are willing to pay to read more about, you have to consider these questions to determine the “value” of your book.
5. Are you a good writer or will you need to hire a professional writer?
6. Particularly if you don’t have a third-party publisher or editor, have you identified a small group of people to review and provide critical feedback on your book? Preferably, this is a small group that consists of trusted individuals that are knowledgeable or interested in the subject matter and are capable of giving direct and honest feedback. I personally would enlist individuals with the following characteristics: subject matter expert or industry member, someone interested in the topic, and someone with more superior grammatical and writing skills.
7. What is your budget (time and resources)? Time is money. How much resources (and time) are you willing to dedicate to produce this book? This will help you to determine a reasonable timeline and budget for this project. Whether you’re writing the book yourself or using a “ghostwriter”, develop a budget for:

• Writing the book
• Producing the e-book (i.e. creating the final format)
• Marketing and promoting the e-book.

This will give you a clear benchmark for evaluating the success of your e-book. It also provides an honest picture of the time & resources needed to produce a quality product.

e-Book Topic Research Resources:
Wordtracker – How often are keywords searched on major search engines
Amazon.com – Research current books available on your subject
Magazines.com – Research the topics discussed in industry-related magazines

Please feel free to post your comments regarding your e-book publishing plans or past experience producing an e-book.

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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