I’ve always believed your life is changed by the books you read, experiences you create and the people you meet. Today, I still embrace reading at least one book per week sometimes more (sometimes less).

Here are the most important books that I’ve recommended, sent to my team, talked about or ones that had an impact on me this past year.

#1: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business by Ari Weinzwieg

My favorite book for 2010 is from the co-founder of a company that INC magazine described as “The coolest small business in America”.

I met Ari at the recent INC500 conference and his message really struck a chord. Perhaps you’ve heard of Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, MI or the Zingerman’s group of companies. They’ve built a totally unique business and service culture there that thousands of people have studied their companies. (It’s weird – as soon as I started studying Zingermans random people were sending us Zingermans delicious food. Odd but yummy coincidence for sure.)

Just one of the sections I’ve found incredibly compelling in the book is Ari’s concept of Visioning for the future. It’s been proven that when people use visioning instead of simply problem solving, energy levels increased, innovative ideas flowed and people were excited about eager about their future. What’s more, visioning also gets you clear on what you do NOT want to do in your business so that you can easily turn away, seemingly, golden opportunities that come your way. I’ve sent copies of this book to our team and now before we begin a major project or hire a key team member, we work on visions first. If you missed the interview I did with Ari on visioning you can check it out -
link: http://www.surefiremarketing.com/zingermans/

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Note: I’m planning on leading my Millionaire MasterMind group to a “field trip” at Zingermans for our first meeting in April 2011. If you’d like to be considered for the group – see details here.

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#2: Brains on Fire by Phillips, Cordell, Church & Jones

I’m not sure where I stumbled onto Brains on Fire blog – but I’m glad I found it. Brains on Fire has some really awesome stuff when it comes to creating movements for your customers, advocates and zealots. They’ve done a superb job of breaking down the 10 elements that go into the mix for creating movements and tight communities.

With traditional media having less impact it may be time for marketers to stop defaulting to the yo-yo of advertising campaigns and instead really look to “ignite” a word-of-mouth movement. Some of the advice here really hits home for the conversations that are taking place around your business or brand driven from the bottom-up.

The Brains on Fire crew hands you 10 rules for how they’ve engineered self-sustaining and extremely passionate (and successful) movements like the Fiskateers and Rage against the Haze for anti-smoking in South Carolina. Those are the two you hear the most about in the book and both are worthy of case studies by themselves. Fiskateers took a 360-year old company that makes scissors and helped double their profits by tapping into advocates in key markets. If you read this book with an open mind you might just see some significant changes to make in your marketing and business.

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#3: The Business of Happiness by Ted Leonsis

I read this book early in 2010 and really enjoyed it on a lot of levels. In fact, I got so much out of it – it went out to Maverick1000 members along with my exclusive interview with Ted.

In fact, Maverick 10000 member, Kim Pingleton, told me this book was one of the most impactful for her this year.

Many of us think if we can just be successful in business, we’ll be happy. But all too often we see this isn’t the case — AT ALL. There are plenty of miserable rich people — you probably even know some.

There’s another theory though — Being Happy Leads To More Success!

In case you aren’t familiar with Ted – he is an Internet industry pioneer who helped build AOL into a global phenomenon. He is a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold multiple successful businesses over three decades, culminating with the recent sale of Revolution Money to American Express for $300M+. Plus, he’s the owner of two successful sports franchises, including my favorite team, the Washington Capitals.

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Side note: Ted Leonsis will be one of the featured keynote speakers at Underground 7 on March 3-5, 2011. High caliber guests like this are just one reason the Underground is THE top learning and networking event for online marketers – and it’s SOLD-OUT each year.

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#4: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

Keeping on the same theme of combining happiness with business – my friend and former Underground® 4 & 5 keynoter, Tony Hsieh’s outstanding book on his story building Zappos and “delivering happiness”.  I’ve learned so much from Tony especially about how critical core values are for your company. Quite frankly, I sorta thought most of that stuff was bullshit or only for big companies to create meaningless ones like Enron’s use of “integrity” as a core value.

Tony is a firm believer that a happy culture creates profits and not the other way around. Pick this one – it’s a pretty fast but extremely engaging read.

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#5: Pow! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise by Andy Nulman

I think incorporating surprise into your business might just give you the most important (and totally overlooked) advantage for your business today.
It’s the ‘zag’ while others ‘zig’ that makes your product or service buzz-worthy, spreads positive worth-of-mouth and bonds customers like cement to you.

I stumbled onto an outrageous book called “POW! Right Between the Eyes! Profiting from the Power of Surprise” written by Andy Nulman. As soon as I read it I knew we share some common “DNA” as I’ve been talking a lot about my concept called Astonishment Architecture™ lately.

Andy has been a ‘surprise marketer’ before the term even appeared. He’s the former (and now current again) CEO of the ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival in Montreal (the largest comedy event of its kind) and founder of mobile entertainment company, Airborne Media, which he sold for nearly $100M.

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#6: 59 Seconds: Think a Little Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman

Though not technically a business book, I really enjoyed 59 Seconds by Prof. Wiseman, because it takes scientific, peer reviewed researched on areas like happiness, creativity, goal setting, motivation, decision-making and more. It gives you proven research on what works and what doesn’t in these areas. The concept of the book is to take one of the main concepts – show the best peer reviewed research and then provide a 59 second action you can take.

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#7 Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter

This was a book recommendation from Maverick 1000 member, Kevin Wilke, while thee for our World Cup and Safari expedition in South Africa. I really, really liked this book. Previously I’ve grasped the importance of systems but never had the desire or motivation to get them implemented. This book has changed that for me.

I have a confession here – I hate systems but I realize how important they are. In fact, there’s an interesting section on systems in Ari’s book (#1) that talks about systems freeing you up to be more creative. I like that.

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#8: Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky

I like this book because it gives a framework around taking ideas and actually implementing them. As entrepreneurs, we often don’t lack for ideas but rather clear execution. This has a great left-brain/right-brain sort of process to it that works in the real-world.

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#9: Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon

Written by one of the most popular Harvard Business School professors, Different is exactly that. It’s a good take on how to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace by being different. Most businesses talk about being ‘different’ but so many fall into the trap becoming mediocre because they look at their competitors and try to copy some of their strengths. This only leads to being average across a bunch of different aspects instead of being unique in just 1 or 2 differentiable points.

This book is a fairly easy read and not a dull, boring college textbook.  And as one reviewer on Amazon said, just skip the Harvard MBA and get this book!

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#10: Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures by Dan Roam

Financial Times, Businessweek and Amazon named Dan’s “Back of the Napkin” book their ‘book of the year’ in 2008 and this the follow-up “How To” manual for solving problems and communicating with simple pictures. I admit it – I love doodling and I really get excited about these kind of hand drawings. In fact, I’ll make a prediction that the kind of powerful Powerpoint video sales letters you’ve seen a lot of in 2010 will be eclipsed by the effectiveness of these kind of drawings (even if you cannot draw).

What’s been inspiring you? Leave a comment and let me know which ones you’ve read or which ones I should have added to the list.

If you’re an entrepreneur ages 13-23 (or know one) this is a golden opportunity…

We’re in search of the next generation of young thought leaders and mavericks ready to make their own rules and build their online success story. 10 select individuals will get the ultimate young entrepreneurial experience at the upcoming Underground Online Seminar® 007.

Every year since 2003, the sold-out Underground Online Seminar® has provided high-level Internet marketing information from real-world, in-the-trenches presenters quietly making their fortunes online. It’s become the top networking and learning event for Internet marketers with presenting attendees such as Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Mike Faith, CEO of Headsets.com, Darren Rowse, ProBlogger.com, Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com, Gary Vaynerchuk, author of “Crush it” and Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org.

Winners will be chosen based on an application process and a panel of distinctive business judges for a VIP experience at the upcoming Underground event, March 3-5, 2011 in Washington, DC. If you’d like to apply (or know someone this is a fit for) please check out all the details here.

Quite frankly, one of my favorite things is getting back feedback and success stories from our previous Underground scholarship winners and see how they progress online. (And even if you don’t fit the 13-23 age group – I still love hearing so many of the success stories that come out of Underground.)

If you haven’t signed up yet – this is a good time to get in before the final early-bird discounts and bonuses expire.

I’d imagine you’ve heard of Tim Ferriss, right?

He’s the author of the #1 best-selling 4-Hour Work Week that really made a huge impression on so many people. Tim and I have known each other before the 4-hour success and the guy has always been fascinated with experiments and “life hacks”. (Oh, and random 80′s break dancing too – but that’s another story.)

Tim’s latest project, The 4-Hour Body, has been the result of an obsessive quest, spanning more than a decade, to hack the human body. It contains the collective wisdom of hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. From Olympic training centers and NASA scientists to black-market laboratories, from Silicon Valley to South Africa, Tim’s been fixated on one life-changing question:

“What are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?”

Imagine if it’s possible to —

• Reach your genetic potential in 6 months?
• Sleep 2 hours per day and perform better than on 8 hours?
• Lose more fat than a marathoner by bingeing? (Hello? The Holidays are a perfect chance to experiment with this.)
• Reverse “permanent” injuries and much more.

In fact, there are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects. This is one of the reasons Wired magazine has called Tim “The Superman of Silicon Valley” for his manipulation of the human body.

I got Tim on the line and grilled him about these optimal tweaks. Yes, this wasn’t the typical business-oriented teleseminar I normally put on but the topic was one that I believe can have a significant impact on your life (hence — your bottom line) that it’s too important not to make happen. (Though I did slip in a bunch of questions around personal productivity and even how to create a top blog that Tim answered.)

And in case you’re wondering if this is some thinly veiled ‘pitch’— sorry to disappoint. Of course, Tim mentioned his new book The 4-Hour Body that’s already a best-seller. (There is a special deal for a lost chapter for our readers – if you pick up 3 copies of the book and send the receipt to yanik@fourhourbody.com – they’ll get it off to you.)

To listen to the exclusive interview please click the links below

Yanik and Tim, Part 1

Yanik and Tim, Part 2

Yanik and Tim, Part 3

To download the whole audio file in a high quality mp3, please right click this link and choose “save as” to save this file to your computer. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

A few days ago at the very bottom of a somewhat long note about 3 ways to work together one-on-one with me in 2011, I mentioned I’m putting together a BETA program to co-create information products with a handful of people.

The response to that option has been quite lively!

In case you missed it – I wanted to highlight here on the blog before I send out details and open up the program this week.

Co-create your Information product with me

I think it’s probably safe to say that I’ve been involved in just about every aspect of info marketing. Everything from $17 ebooks to Audio, Video, Teleseminars, Home Study Courses, CDroms, Resell Rights, Licensing, Software, Live Events, Coaching programs, etc.

And with my some increased availability I’m looking for no more than 10 people (maybe less) to actually co-create, and possibly even co-author, information products with me depending on the subject matter.

Who could this be for?

• Subject matter experts, trainers, consultants or coaches.
• Authors looking to escape the “book store” trap.
• Information marketers or content publishers who want a breakthrough in the size, scope and impact of their business.
• Business owners who are achieving exceptional results in their industry, marketplace or business and would like to sell or license their methods, systems, techniques to others.
• Someone extremely serious (with the resources) to get their idea out there with my help.

I have to warn you – this will not be a cheap program but a lopsided amount of your investment will be via a profit-share side – so that I’m working with you to make it a winner.

I’ll be there guiding you through each major aspect from product creation, operations, launch and profit maximization. (Note: I will not be doing it all for you, but I will be there at your side for every critical aspect. Plus, there are built-in aspects of connections, relationships, introductions and the possibility of promotions direct from me to get you started with a bang!)

How to get details:

If you are interested in details – please send a blank email to:
workwithyanik@aweber.com and then confirm you want details.

I’ll be most likely releasing particulars this week and opening the door for applications.

A few weeks ago I attended the INC500/5000 conference and had the opportunity to connect with Ari Weinzweig. I had heard and read a bit about Zingerman’s approach to business and knew it was interesting and different…but didn’t realize how unusual it really was until I dug in.

I attended Ari’s breakout session, had a few conversations with Ari, I read his new book called “A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business” (highly recommended), started researching them, etc.

And the more I saw — the more I really loved how their built their business, the philosophy, the culture and more so I knew I had to get an interview with Ari. If you missed it – please check it out here and leave a comment.

Here are a few of the insights we covered:

• The exact 8-step recipe for writing a vision of greatness and getting clear on the future you want.
• How to get your entire team onboard with your vision and who should create the vision.
• The difference between a mission statement, a vision and a strategic plan (and why there is a HUGE difference)
• Who you should absolutely share your vision with as you’re developing it.
• Why “positive futuring” really does work. (Zingerman’s actually has each employee work on visioning regardless of their position in the company because it’s that important.)
• How often you should re-visit the vision.
• How to “reverse-engineer” your vision and create your ideal future.

Listen to the replay here. Don’t worry there’s nothing to buy though I absolutely, whole-heartily recommend Ari’s new book “A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business“. I think you’re crazy if you don’t add this to your library before after you hear this!

I love questions…

I think questions dictate your answers and the more powerful questions you ask the better the answers are in life and business. One of the first questions I asked that had a dramatic impact on me was in 1999 before I started my online business.

Here’s what I asked:

“How can I create a fully automated web business, that makes me money while I sleep, and is an incredible value for people without being another ebook?”

It’s from that question, I sat-up bolt upright in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning with the idea for Instant Sales Letters. And then I did what most people probably wouldn’t: I hopped out of bed, registered the domain and got to work on it. By February 2000, with about $1,500 invested, I made my first $29.95 sale. It was one of the most amazing feelings in the world to take an idea and have it turn into cash. And the sales kept coming – about $1,800 the first month…then $3,400…then approx. $7,800.00 and roughly $9,400.00 the fourth month out of the gate. I was on track to hit six-figures with my very first site – and that’s when things really started exploding. Since then, it has my first million dollar product.

That’s why I love questions.

In Robert Kiyosaki’s best-selling, Rich Dad, Poor Dad series one of my favorite distinctions was revealing. Kiyosaki tells of his “Poor Dad” looking at a beautiful stretch of beach and saying, “I can never afford to live here.” And conversely his “Rich Dad” looking at the same stretch and saying, “How can I build something here?”

It’s the questions that open you up to all sorts of possibilities instead of simply saying “I can’t afford it” and closing down that conversation in your head. Our minds want to search for answers. In fact, I used a similar question when I wanted to fund my ticket for Virgin Galactic spaceflight. I asked “What kind of product or service can I create to pay for this?”

And that’s when the idea for one of my events came together that more than paid for my ticket from the event tickets and sales of the tapes afterwards.

I like writing down my question on the top of a piece of paper and then working on multiple answers. Most times the first answers you get will be pretty pedestrian and won’t have much creativity to them. Keep pushing yourself to come up with more distinctions and sometimes even wilder answers. Don’t censor yourself either – just write. Here’s an actual example of mine with the question – “How can I get my business ideas implemented quickly and easily without my direct, day-to-day involvement?”

Here are some of questions I frequently ask myself or clients:

Q: How can I create 10x – 100x in value for this product or service?

I love this question because one of my personal statements written in my planner is ‘I get rich by enriching others 10x – 100x what they pay me in return.’ I think the more value you can provide, the more rewards you’ll be provided. It’s simply a natural law and this is a great question to jumpstart the answers. You might be surprised at what you come up with too. This opens up the avenue of not only thinking about what you can add to a product or service yourself but if you think creatively about this question, you might consider other related products or services that would be provided as a bonus or you license, etc.

Q: How can I go the opposite direction of most of my competitors?

I’m a big fan of not following the pack. In fact, I think it’s a smart idea to create your own category of goods or services if possible. Taking a look at where most of your competitors are headed and then actively making a decision to do the opposite is enough, in many times, to set you apart and create a differentiation point in the marketplace.

Q: What’s the single, most powerful ultimate benefit my customers are looking for?

The answer to this question helps you frame your headline, your offer, your guarantee, etc. A whole lot comes out of this.

Q: Who else has more to gain than I do if this succeeds?

One of my favorite questions to ask when consulting with clients since it forces to think outside yourself. Many times there might be other companies or individuals who want you to succeed because it helps them succeed. You might be surprised at what those other individuals would provide to help you too. For example, from my father’s medical equipment business we were able to get co-op advertising money from manufacturers to sell their items but unless we asked we’d never know it was available.

Q: What businesses or services do my customers already use before they would come to me?

Another powerful question that starts you heading in the right direction for partners and possible affiliates. If you strategically step back and consider what a customer does before they come to you – you’ll find the perfect partners to promote your products or services. For instance, if was an email service provider like Aweber, you’d bet I’d be trying to talk to different domain companies because once someone registers a domain they might need our services.

My friend, Tony Hsieh, CEO of $1Billion eTailer, Zappos.com uses these questions in discussions:

• What stories do they (customers) tell their friends?
• How can culture create more stories and memories?
• What emotions do customers feel?
• What do customers actually experience?
• What do customers expect?

I asked my Twitter followers and via Facebook what their favorite business or life questions were, here are a few I got back:

“What do I love doing and who can I best serve?” – Kat Tepelyan

“What is the best use of my time right now?” – Rosalind Gardner

“What would have to be true to _______” i.e. “What would have to be true for me to sell my business for $50million?”   – Derek Naylor

“Am I happier today than I was yesterday?” – Capt Rob Lee

“What does my client have to already believe in order for him to eventually believe what I need him to believe?” – Nicholas Neilson

“If I only accomplished one thing today, what should it be?” – Danny Welsh

“Do I really want to be THIS guy?” (I use it to determine whether an idea is worth pursuing.) – Mahesh Grossman

“What does my client want (VS what I have to offer)?” – Rebecca Trelfa

Let’s keep the conversation rolling and leave a comment with your favorite business or life question.

For the last 2 years or so I’ve been collecting and working on something I call “Astonishment Architecture”. It’s the thinking behind creating exceptional customer experiences before, during & after each customer touchpoint. I believe it’s one of the few competitive advantages left for creating raving fans and spreading word-of-mouth instead of trying to compete in noisy, crowded marketplaces.

Watch the presentation below (that I’ve never shared with the general public before) and see what you think. Some of the slides need a little explanation but I think you’ll get the main points.

Possible Astonishment Architecture Workshop:

I was considering having a small, interactive workshop with “field trips” to a few businesses that practice this. The workshop probably wouldn’t be cheap since it would extremely intimate and we’d be brainstorming the creation of the Astonishment Architecture individually for your own business. Drop me a comment below and let me know what you think and if there’s enough interest I’ll put it together.

Last March, at my Underground Online Seminar 6, I met Nick Tart. He had just published a book of interviews with 25 of the world’s top young entrepreneurs: ‘50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Vol. 1) – What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents‘.

The awesome thing is that five of the 25 young entrepreneurs spotlighted in this book are former Undergound Online Seminar scholarship winners. It also features Michael Dunlop and a UG6 speaker Andrew Fashion. I got to sit down with Nick and his partner in writing and business, Nick Scheidies, for a quick interview.

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Yanik: How did you come up with this idea?

Nick T: I saw all of these kids doing mind-blowing things with entrepreneurship and really taking it to the next level with their fresh perspectives. I wanted to get inside their heads, find out what makes them tick, and uncover the secrets to their success. If there had already been a book out there like that, then I would’ve just bought it. There wasn’t, so we wrote it ourselves.

Yanik: Is there any common element in most successful young entrepreneurs you’ve interviewed?

Nick T: Perseverance. Sabirul Islam was rejected by 40 publishers before he decided to self-publish ‘The World at Your Feet‘ (he promptly sold 42,000 copies in nine months). Just imagine that: being told, “This can’t be successful,” 40 TIMES and never losing heart. That’s the type of tenacity you need to succeed. It WILL pay off.

Nick S: Absolutely. But I think it’s a lot easier to take those punches when you love the fight. Every kid we talked to had an unwavering passion for their project. There’s no way it’s a coincidence: it’s a lot easier to put in the hard work when it hardly feels like work.

Yanik: Do you think entrepreneurs are “born” or “learned”?

Nick T: We wouldn’t have started this project if we didn’t believe that it would help transform the lives of people around the world, “learn”-ing them to be better entrepreneurs. But one of the most striking commonalities shared by our interviewees is their instinctive drive to start early, selling things like pokemon cards before they had even heard the word ’entrepreneurship’. To me, that hints at something of an entrepreneurial DNA.

Nick S: A year ago, I couldn’t have cared less about entrepreneurship. I didn’t think that I had an entrepreneurial bone in my body. But when I started listening to these kids tell their stories, my ears perked right up. I’ve still got a long way to go, but I truly believe that the entrepreneurial spirit can be awakened in anyone. We’re counting on it.

Yanik: What was most surprising from your interviews with these success young entrepreneurs?

Nick T: I expected to learn a lot from the interviewees, but I didn’t expect them to turn my entrepreneurial world completely on its head. That impact is probably my biggest surprise. I’ve never had a more clear vision of what it takes to excel in entrepreneurship — not just in theory, but in nitty-gritty reality.

Nick S: It’s surprising to me that these kids aren’t getting more attention. Adam Horwitz had a million-dollar product launch last week, breaking all sorts of ClickBank records. He’s 18. The fact that he sat down with us for an hour — along with Catherine Cook (myYearbook.com), Michael Dunlop (incomediary.com), etc. — is pretty amazing.

Yanik: What have you learned about internet marketing through this process?

Nick T: Every internet entrepreneur should have a blog. But before you ever launch, make sure that you’ve got something to give away for free — like an eCourse, a report, or a pre-recorded webinar. Once that’s in place, you can begin leveraging it to collect the information of the people who are interested in your message. Build that community, provide them with truly valuable content, and you can’t go wrong. Eventually, they’ll want to give you some of their money.

Take Joe Penna, YouTube’s Mystery Guitar Man, for example. He makes 2-minute videos twice a week, for free. Through his videos he’s built a community of over a million subscribers who will buy just about anything he sells.

Yanik: What advice would you give to someone who wants to live the internet lifestyle?

Nick T: Go out and learn from the people who are already doing it. There’s no better resource. The more you learn now, the fewer mistakes you have to make down the road. Of course, at some point, you’ve got to stop learning and start forging your own path.

Nick S: If you want it, then go get it. You can come up with a 100 reasons why you’re not living the life that you want, but nothing and nobody has greater control over your ultimate reality than you. Recognize that and you can’t be stopped. Every one of the 25 kids we interviewed were once in your shoes, struggling to break through, and they simply bent the universe to their will. You can do the same: stop making excuses and start making it happen.

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Nick T. and Nick S. have also made a few videos with some entrepreneurial quotes from the guys in their book like the one below:

And this book isn’t just for young entrepreneurs – Barry Dunlop, a Maverick Global Intrepid Member, had this comment: “Nick and Nick – just wanted to say this is one of the best Young Entrepreneurs videos I have ever seen on YouTube. Very inspirational – even for an old entrepreneur like me. Well done guys.”

As you may know, part of my life’s mission is to inspire one million young entrepreneurs by 2020 and this book is going in the right direction. Nick and Nick are giving away a free interview from the book at YoungEntrepreneurs.50interviews.com.

A few weeks ago we held our 2nd annual Maverick Business Insider Summer Extravaganza event for Maverick Global Intrepid members and Maverick Business Insider newsletter subscribers. This 1-day event covered the maverick philosophy of make more, have more fun and give more. (If you weren’t there – you missed out!!)

(I’ll be posting some of the highlights and fun pics including a chicken suit skydiving experience)

Now one of the all-new presentations I delivered at our 1-day event covered 6 profitable online trends to pay attention to right now. And this is part of what we talked about for the first trend…

Plugging into the Facebook Network:

This is one trend that cannot be ignored, the Facebook juggernaut is growing bigger and bigger. That’s not really a surprise, but what is trend-worthy is integrated with the wave & using it for your own benefit. One of the easiest things you should consider integrating is the Facebook “Like” button.

In just a few months of being released it’s already spread to hundreds of thousands of sites. And why not? It’s cool and helps you get tap into social traction. If you haven’t seen it yet here’s an example from the Levi’s site:

So if you’re shopping (or anywhere) you can just hit “like” and if you’re logged into Facebook that action will get logged to your wall so your friends can get alerted (creating awareness and traffic). I was playing around with this before my presentation and my Facebook friends saw that I liked toddler’s jeans. Hmmm

Another variation of the like button is to show your friends faces who like the page. This has been tested to have people hit the LIKE button 4x as much as just the thumbs up icon. I also really like the way when posting a message the Facebook setting is automatically pre-checked to post to their wall. So now if I leave a comment on a blog it will show up on my wall and once again alerting my network and creating a viral effect.

We’ve been testing the ‘like’ button with comments on one of our upcoming Maverick Business Adventures Covert Ops bootcamp and it’s already got at least 1 new qualified attendee we wouldn’t have seen without this (Almost $10k – so not bad for adding a bit of code).

And then at the bottom of the page we let people post comments via their Facebook profile. It’s interesting to see the conversation there:

Exponential Social Proof

You can add even more heat to fire when you when you allow your customers to share with their network the action they just took. Here’s what I saw from one of my friends on Facebook after he bought an item from Groupon. (Notice how it created a small conversation and interaction about their brand.)

One person really blowing this up in a big way is my buddy, Mike Filsaime. He’s got a launch for his new AffiliateDotCom program with Chris Farrell and it’s just amazing how they’ve incorporated the Facebook multiplying effect.

Throughout the launch they’ve had their videos available for comments by people through their Facebook account. (We already covered why this smart since it creates the conversation and virally propels it.)

You can see the videos here

Side note: I totally recommend you check them out on 3 different “tracks”. 1) For how they’ve created them – you can see how much proof they’ve put into their videos. 2) For the Facebook viral elements I mentioned and 3) For the content. (The material is really killer especially video #2 and #3. I think you’ll have to opt-in to get in there but do it – well worth it.)

What I really loved that Mike and Chris has done is adding in the social proof of comments from buyers on the final sales video. I guarantee this helped convert some skeptical or ‘on-the-fence’ prospects. When I wrote this post they had over 1,500 people who “liked” their product after buying and have 5 pages of comments from new buyers. That is really, really powerful! You can only post on this particular wall if you’ve purchased. It has a big call-out that says “Look Who Just Joined Only Customers Can Post on this Wall” (WOW!)

This is a powerful concept you should consider applying to your own business. Here’s the link for Facebook developer tools if you want to add this to your site.

And if you want to see some of the other cool things Mike & Chris have been doing with Facebook – watch those videos. I was blown away with the concept with a simple “sidedoor” to finding the right audience for your product or service. Now if you want to get involved in their program, I think it’s closing down tonight at midnight.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing with this idea or anything cool in Facebook – leave a comment.

As Shakespeare said, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Bzzzzzz! Wrong!

I think one of the most overlooked aspects in your marketing is naming a product or service. There’s a lot to be said of coming up with the right name that helps propel your business forward instead of slogging along. And when I talk about new names here, keep in mind this applies to domain names and titles equally.

I mean, think about it: in Hollywood, actors have known this since the start. Do you know who Marion Morrisson was? Nope? That’s John Wayne’s real name. He adopted a stage name because Marion doesn’t exactly conjure up a tough guy image. Or Norma Jeane Baker changing her name to the more glamorous Marilyn Monroe.

Here are a few more examples…

Ever heard of a Patagonian Tooth Fish? Sounds delicious, right? Not quite – but when they went with “Chilean Sea Bass” sales soared. Or how about the “Chinese Gooseberry” – wouldn’t you like to have that for a snack? No? Oh, ok then maybe “Kiwi Fruit” is a better name.

Names are quite powerful. Here’s a historical example to prove my point. Originally, the U.S. was protected by its “Department of War”; later they changed to a more peaceful sounding “Department of Defense”. One name brings up the notion that the U.S. is constantly waging war on other countries and (without turning this into a political discussion) renaming it around ‘Defense’ is significantly more palatable – even if the function is the same.

Yes, there is a lot in a name, and I’ll share with you what I consider before I give a name to a new product, service or business. In a haphazard way I’ve known how powerful names can be, starting when I was 16 years old and working with my Father selling medical equipment. We created a private label X-ray film to be sold to our customers and my Dad tasked me with naming it. I came up with “Ultimate X-ray Film” and it turned into a major best-seller.

Now, I got to thinking of names the other day because Missy asked me to help her friend come up with a name for her new speaker management company. She was going to go with her last name i.e. “Sxxlor Management”. Yuck! Boring!

I started thinking about the ultimate benefit a speaker would want. To me, it would be something about moving up to a higher level of fees or being completely booked. So I came up with “Booked Solid Speaker Services”. I thought that was way better and included a serious benefit. I guess not. She went with her generic last name for the company name. In my opinion – big mistake! There’s no differentiation and no benefit.

Since I started really as a copywriter I know that words are incredibly important. Each one has a distinct difference. And if you get the name right you get “branding” as a by-product of powerful direct response advertising for your product or service.

Okay, so let me give you some of my ideas around naming, boiled down to 8 things to consider:

1)      Alliteration – A name needs to sound good being said aloud. A lot of times I like alliteration, like “Maverick Mastermind” with the 2 M’s. A part of this is you need to say your product name aloud and make sure it can’t be screwed up on the radio or in conversation.  Like does “Computers For You” have a number “4” or just a letter “U” in it? I see this mistake a lot for domain names (btw – all this advice holds true for domains.)

2)      Benefit-oriented – Many times I like to use a name that has meaning to it. If you heard it you’d know right away what it is. For my first ‘real’ book, “Moonlighting on the Internet”, there’s an instant benefit with the term “Moonlighting” – it brings to mind a spare time venture and was perfect for my book which is all about 5 ways to make a couple hundred dollars extra online.

3)      Beware of the Web 2.0 syndrome – For some reason after companies like Flickr or Delicio.us got big everybody wanted to create some sort of mildly dyslexic spelling for their company name that seemed cool. (I still don’t know if you spell Flickr with an ‘er’ or not. And I definitely have no idea how to spell delicio.us without looking it up.)

4)      Beware Initials – Yes, some of the biggest companies like AT&T or IBM have gotten away with initials but I wouldn’t hold my breath thinking that’ll work for you too. And why would you – it’s so damn boring. And along the same lines, don’t use a generic name that doesn’t mean Jack. Hmm…was I supposed to call “Capital Paper Solutions” or was it “Senate Paper”?

5)      Use Specifics – I like using numbers, days, etc. My buddy Tim Ferriss’ book has made quite a splash with the title “4 Hour Work Week”. It’s a pretty specific and compelling name. Other works that have sold well just from their ‘specific’ titles include “8-Minute Abs” and “5 Hour Energy”. Personally, one of my best selling eBooks has the title of “33 Days to Online Profits” – once again playing up the specifics here.

6)      Who is the marketplace? The kind of name will help you define who is attracted to your product or service. You might remember years back when ‘Boston Chicken’ changed to ‘Boston Market’. I thought that was a bad idea because it was more generic – apparently others thought so too and it began losing sales. They changed the name back but the damage was done already. Personally, I think more people should embrace tight markets with their name and not try to be everything to everybody.

7)      Is it Trademarkeable? This is an important consideration depending on how big you want to build your brand – but it’s always worth checking USPTO.gov or a new site called Trademarkia.com.

8)      Bonus: Can your name help create unique language? This is a bit more advanced and much of this will come organically if your customers have a high affinity – but it’s something to consider. Look at TED, the conference for Tech, Education and Design. Now attendees call themselves ‘TEDsters’ and have been developing rituals and languaging around the event. (Read “Primal Branding” for more on this notion.) With Maverick Business Adventures® members use the term ‘Maverick Moments’ to talk about a funny incident or story that went on during a trip.

Let me share with you a few of the names I’ve created and give you the thinking behind them.

• Instant Sales Letters: Uses the benefit-driven name with the prefix ‘Instant’ added to the generic item I was selling. This was my very fist $1M+ product and I think the name had a lot to do with it.

As a side note: I’m a big believer in using prefixes or suffixes to help you get the domain you really want. (i.e. Instant, Ultimate, Magic, Formula, System, etc. Names like Autoresponder Magic or UltimateDiscountDomains.com)

• Underground Online Seminar – The term “Underground” immediately brings to mind something secretive so it was a perfect name for our seminar series around real-world people teaching about how they make millions online. (Note: The very best discounts and bonuses expire January 20^th so you don’t want to wait until the last minute to attend. www.UndergroundOnlineSeminar.com)

• Internet Lifestyle – I’ve liked the word “lifestyle” ever since I saw it featured in “Words That Work” by Frank Luntz. People can relate to a lifestyle because it’s different for everybody, and the ‘Internet Lifestyle’ embodies a lot of what I do.

• Maverick Business Adventures® – this was a name I’d worked on for a long time. Originally the name was going to be a “Millionaire Business Adventures” – I definitely didn’t think it had the same ring to it so I kept brainstorming. I liked the ‘MBA’ initials as a play on a real MBA – and that’s when the word ‘Maverick’ stuck.

I don’t think I’ve ever shown this before, but here’s the logo for Millionaire Business Adventures. We were going to have different adventure activities on cuff links but alas I scrubbed it.

Hopefully, you’ll agree ‘Maverick Business Adventures’ was the better choice. The word ‘Millionaire’ comes loaded with some interesting connotations around who millionaires are. I think it’s a good word for something that helps people achieve millionaire status – we own “Maverick Millionaires” and there’s been an ongoing program called “Maui Millionaires” that has done really well. Though for targeting a group of millionaires – I’m not so sure even though ‘Millionaire Matchmaker’ seems to defy this.

The ultimate test of your name is your marketplace and you can always test different names using Google Ad Words. That’s what Tim Ferriss did for ‘4 Hour Work Week’ before releasing it. And I did the same for “Moonlighting on the Internet” vs. “Moonlighting Online” as the publisher wanted to call it for brevity.

Here’s an interesting case study – http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/domain-product-name-testing.html

One product name (StockScreener 5.0) performed 17% better than the next best name. They tested 22 different names and the worst performed at 300% worse – just by changing the name. Hmm…maybe you should you shouldn’t choose a domain name, product name or service without running some Google Ad Word tests?

What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know…