Book review of lifestyle planning book
Book reviews

If Seventy is the New Fifty, When do I get to Retire? – Book Review

Book by Dennis Hall. Reviewed by Jennifer Lancaster. Let’s get this straight. For one thing I am not even close to 70… but that’s good because this book enables me to think ahead — not with dread but with some great ideas for changes. I call this is a retirement or semi-retirement lifestyle planning book. In the early chapters of this book it talks about making the most of your time, as we may well lived quite a while longer than we once expected and during those years, we’re likely to be both bored and near-broke. Meanwhile, the federal government likes to push up the receiving age of the aged pension. For many, it’s about having all this time and needing more income flow. I mean we all hear the phrase “follow your passion”, but not many authors seem to take…
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Audience of One Book Review
Book reviews

An Audience of One – Book Review

I’ve long been fascinated by the subject of 1:1 marketing – often talked about in Marketing Magazine in the 1990s. One-to-one marketing is the concept of remembering your audience is just one person, and so companies personalise advertising and marketing to the individual. In the 2021 book An Audience of One, recognised marketing experts Jamie Turner and Chuck Moxley reveal the secrets to implementing a strategy that allows a company to use important data to market to them. Naturally, this also means respecting consumers’ privacy concerns. “In its simplest form, 1:1 marketing means engaging with prospects and customers using a one-to-one, personalised approach based on who they are, how they think, what they purchase, what their interests are, where they go, and how they prefer to be communicated with.” – Jamie Turner and Chuck Moxley Its structure is detailed explanations, real-life…
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Smart Marketing for Indie Authors Review
Book Marketing, Book reviews

Smart Marketing for Indie Authors: My Review

Mike Kowis is mostly like us: an Indie Author who put heart, soul and $5,000 into his first book, one of a few. That number was just the marketing part, by the way. The reason I liked ‘Smart Marketing for Indie Authors‘ is because he goes through each marketing tactic with pros and cons, a rating from his experience, insider tips and supreme attention to detail. His honesty level is admirable in the chapter “What not to do”, all of which are going to save you time and cash, as it is throughout the book. “No amount of marketing will help if your book is filled with grammar and spelling errors… or your cover is unprofessional”.– Mike Kowis Book Marketing Tactics Cherry-Picked Book Marketing Tactics by Mike Some of the main areas I liked are covered below, but there are…
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Fail Fantastically book
Book reviews

Review: ‘How to Fail Fantastically’

It’s not often that I chuckle aloud to myself while reading. But Ken Williams’ book on failing made me do it. It’s small in size but not in value, and has black & white cartoons and quotes that gelled nicely with the content. In Ken’s book, everything is opposite. Failure is good; success, well, you can surmise. Sometimes I think even he gets confused about how to say it. But by the grace of his awesomely silly humour, he pulls it off. It’s the perfect antidote to those simpering, ingenuous self-help guides. Like Rachel Hollis’s ‘Girl, Stop Apologising’. Meh. My favourite section was the Mini Guide on ‘How to Get Your Book Rejected‘ — right up my street. And the cartoon for “the anatomy of a slush pile” sent me right off — I just loved it. I received a…
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Amplify book review
Book reviews

Amplify Book Review

Amplify is a book where you start reading and nodding along and soon find yourself down a rabbit hole. But a good one. You’ll be podcast listening — and perhaps hosting one — in no time. Having become intrigued, I listened to Bond Appetit and the interview with Dent’s Glen Carlson on finding your internal values. I later downloaded the worksheets. All good stuff to get you thinking. Ronsley Vaz is Australia’s largest proponent of podcasting and he has certainly done it the right way. His written voice is still oozing amazement at this runaway success and the gift of conversation. We might learn from Ronsley’s early mistakes in podcasting, but can we all follow in these giant footsteps and bring in 5 million listeners in 2/3 of the globe? Although not too sure, I started to warm to the fact…
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freelancers what to charge

What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants – Book Review

by Laurie Lewis Outskirts Press, 2011, 2nd edition. In What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers & Consultants, there is ample advice which will stop your flight into lassez-faire freelancing (or consulting) in its tracks.  By the end of chapter 1, you’ll already be challenging your assumptions about pricing on a simple client brief. I find the way Laurie uses an actual example of the advice in practice 10 times better than a simple model or explanation. Sometimes it’s hers, and sometimes it’s another consultant’s unfortunate experience. It’s really hard to obey the first rule of pricing and that is why this information is so valuable to me. So many clients just want to know the end price up-front based on some sketchy details about a project, but if you stick your neck out and price right away, you know…
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