Do You Read?

Seth Godin asked the question on his blog, do business books work? I know it is a little off topic for this blog but I think the subject about reading is the more important question that Seth got to in his post; that is the part that I want to talk about. I will also bring it back around in the end to some value for you as online marketers.

I will admit, I am an avid reader. I love getting new ideas about business subjects that I can apply to my work. I have also gotten lots of comments from co-workers who think I'm a little crazy over the number of books that I own and have actually read. Until I read Seth's post, I never figured out that most people are not that different from me, and if they are I doubt I want them on my team. It might not be business books, but I would expect anyone involved in a trade to read about the topic as Seth described. I work with a number of developers and I would be willing to bet the vast majority of them read trade journals or Web sites that share tips and tricks. If you aren't reading and learning how to improve, how good can you actually be at your job?

That is why I read, I have tons to learn and want to be ready with new ideas that help myself, my co-workers and my customers. You are reading this blog, which I truly appreciate, so you are one of the smart ones. What about your co-workers? If they aren't reading, ask them how they stay up on their job. Find out how they keep up on the latest with their job. Maybe they might have some secret that the rest of us have never figured out. I'm willing to bet more read than you think, so you should learn from your co-workers what they read. Your first action item by the end of the week is to find one new source to read for information related to your job from those you work with every day.

I believe we can all learn from each other as well, so your second action item is to add a comment to this post. It should include one source of information on the topic of online marketing and one source of information that you find very valuable, regardless of topic. By sharing we can all make each other better online marketers. See, I told you I'd get back to it.

Comments

[Kristin]

OK, you've made this difficult, Jeff.

I've found BtoBonline.com to be a great source of information. I check it every morning and always find something or value.

And, as an avid reader, I constantly check the list of the 100 most frequently banned books: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm