What’s that crazy Amazon thing on the right side of your blog?

why, it’s my Amazon Affiliates widget!

Introduction

There are two companies online that I like a lot (love?) and will always patronize (as long as they stick to their formula); Amazon.com and Newegg.com. Put simply, the prices are great, I’ve never had an issue, what I order shows up fast, and, when I need it, the customer service is great (Newegg’s service is off-the-charts great). As such, I also give them respect on here and by word-of-mouth.

Someone clued me into the whole Amazon Affiliates program where you advertise books you like from Amazon on your site. Since I wanted SOME kind of monetization and I like to show my support for things I really like, it seemed like the perfect combination. I think, however, it requires a bit of explanation so you don’t think that those are just random books. I actually picked them out and read them myself and now I think you should do the same.

I’m a newbie so what’s in it for me?

So, let’s say you’re a bit web savvy and let’s say you’ve got a lot to say so let’s say you start yourself a little blog. You start off slowly, write a few posts, get some momentum and now you want to see what you can do about raking in the dough.You get to researching blog advertisements and, BAM, too much information.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the Amazon widget, to be honest. Pick books that match your content, pick books you support and why wouldn’t people click on the links? I think it’s honest, it’s up-front, you can support something you agree with, and their widgets look great.

I’ll report back when I’ve retired off of the revenue and tell you how to do the same.

So what’s so great about those books?

In the spirit of being honest, I thought I might put a little review on here of each to prove that I ACTUALLY own these books and ACTUALLY read them (well, you don’t so much read a CSS guide or an Illustrator book.. I did read the XHTML one though). Here’s why I like them (I’m posting these on Amazon as well)…

The Elements of Style (Illustrated) by Strunk, White, and Kalman

I wish I could remember who originally recommended the original Strunk & White Elements of Style to me. If I could remember, I would find them and hug them unabashedly.

If you’re writing ANYTHING and care AT ALL about how it turns out then do yourself a favor and pick this one up. The organization is very strange (there isn’t any to speak of) and the writing style is very direct. The result is a no-nonsense book that teaches you to cut the crap out of your writing.

There are many, many valuable lessons contained in Strunk’s short and useful guide but the best ones, for me, are the ones regarding comma usage and his favorite command, “Omit needless words.” During everything I’ve ever written since reading this book I’ve heard a disembodied voice telling me to remove words. I’ve noticed while editing other people’s work that the piece can be improved dramatically by deleting all the words that say nothing.

It’s a quick read but a necessary one for anyone doing any kind of writing.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

As with “Elements…,” I’m not sure how I heard about this book. It was one of those odd series of events that ends with something in your mailbox. I read a few quick things about it online and suddenly decided that I must read the book. I’m glad I did because this was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a long time.

Anne has a casual but polished writing style that you can’t help but to get lost in. She writes like a close friend speaks to you, eschewing ego and pretentiousness to deliver her simple, personal message. It started out a  bit slow but the stories she told were very entertaining. By the time I reached the middle of the book, I was totally hooked and found the last half hilarious and very informative.

This book is, in the end, a guide on how to be a writer, not a guide on how to write. What I mean by that is you won’t really develop your style or improve your sentence structure by reading this book. What you will do, however, is come to terms with a lot of the obstacles facing writers at every stage of their careers. Her humor and her honesty makes you feel really good about contributing, failing, hating yourself, and moving on.

Though I would definitely recommend this book to anyone writing their own book, I would recommend it even more to anyone living in this world and doing the best that they can. She talks a lot about failing and self-hatred and giving up and charging through. I found myself particularly centered after reading about her embarrassing reactions and consequent success over jealousy and writer’s block. I learned more about my life and myself than I did about writing. I don’t necessarily consider myself a writer but I explore my creativity in different ways and this book really speaks to all of them.

Pick this book up, read it, and feel better about just being yourself.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Finally, a book with a history I can share.

This book was given to me by my dad, the king of business books and the fastest, most prolific reader I know. This guy blows through almost 1,000 pages a month on top of all the magazines, newspapers, and online sources he devours. Though our reading tastes aren’t completely aligned, when he recommends a book, I typically read it (or at least add it to The List in earnest).

This is the kind of book I don’t read. Though I find the advertising industry slightly interesting, I mostly hate it and wish it would go away (despite having a hand in it). This book, however, really cuts through the crap and explains positioning and branding in a way I’ve never heard before. In terms of marketing and branding, I pretty much live by the concepts in this book. Oh, and it’s about 30 years old. That’s how good this book is.

The  book shows you what successful companies have done to become that way and what other successful companies have done to screw it all up. With tons of examples and a very straight-forward writing style, this book will explain why certain products win and why others fail.

I read this book quickly and moved onto others by the same authors. They really know their stuff.

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

This is the best book I’ve ever read and likely will ever read. Period.

I have suffered off and on from depression throughout my life and this book, the first and only book I’ve ever read on the subject, did so much for my understanding about the condition. I’ve really never read a book that explained what I think and feel better than this.

First off, Andrew Solomon is an excellent writer. He gets a bit verbose at times but I found each sentence, regardless of it’s complexity, an adventure in and of itself. He paints such an incredible picture of the feelings and thoughts that accompany depression. Like anyone able to describe depression, Andrew has been through it and reading what he’s suffered from made me realize how lucky I have been with my own depression. Andrew has seen hell, been through hell, and came out enlightened.

Strangely, I always find this book difficult to describe adequately. His words were just so well chosen and the research so personal and interesting, I feel like it’s a book that needs to be experienced to be understood fully.

If you suffer from depression, clinical or occasional or undiagnosed or anything, I completely recommend reading this book from cover to cover. If you know someone who suffers from this condition and are struggling to understand what they’re going through, this book will go a long way towards helping you see what they see. I’ve really never had a book that explained something as well as this.

The Non-Designers Design & Type Books by Robin Williams

I wanted to write a quick blurb about this little book that has gone a long way towards teaching me proper design.

I’ve been dabbling seriously in graphic design for about a year now and find it one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It’s very subjective, hard to describe, very time consuming, very sensitive, and totally maddening. When it works, it really works but when it doesn’t work, it shows you the highest level of frustration possible.

Robin explains all the basics very well which puts you in a position to begin to experiment. If you just stick yourself in front of Photoshop and try to bang out a business card or a menu or a technical document (which you really wouldn’t do in Photoshop), it’s probably not going to work out well unless you’ve had some experience. If, however, you read this little guide and try it, you’re going to have a few more ideas and at least understand the contrainst you’re working with in terms of color, alignment, etc.

This book is great for people without any experience in design who want to improve the way their documents, webpages, application screens, and printed material looks. You’re not going to win any contests with this knowledge (and neither are her examples) but what you produce will immediately look better. The writing style is a bit goofy but I use what I learned every day in everything I produce from graffiti to webpages to technical documents to resumes.

CSS: The Definitive Guide by Eric Meyer

A solid plot, well-formed characters, and an intriguing writing style make this… wait, what?

This is a boring, very useful book. I’ve read a lot about CSS on the web and nothing came close to the  explanation in this book. Instead of saying things like “we won’t bother you with the complex way this is calculated,” Meyer bothers you with the complexity. Each property I read made me really understand how it works and how it should be used.

I’ve been reading this bad-boy from cover to cover and I think I’m doing myself a bit of a disservice. I think I’m going to skip to the positioning section (everyone could use a better understanding of this mysterious and magical world), read that, maybe read a few other things I’m interested in mastering and then leave it as a reference. It makes a lot more sense to read the properties you don’t understand than trying to get through it all.

Learn (x)HTML and CSS online, then buy this book is you’re serious about getting into web page design.

Visual Quickstart Guide to HTML, XHTML, & CSS by Elizabeth Castro

I think I bought this book a bit late in my web design learning process but I still find a lot of use out of it. I use it as my general reference book and I’m constantly in the appendix and the chapter about forms.

Though I would recommend this book to people because I found it useful, I think there might be better books on the subject. I say this because it does not go into the level of detail you really need to master HTML. It does a great job explaining what it does but there are quite a few things left out or breezed over to keep the book and appropriate size. Also, combining HTML and CSS in the same book is probably a bad idea. The CSS book I reviewed above is bigger than this book and, ostensibly, covers 1/3 of the material.

If you want to learn enough about HTML to get by creating simple web pages or fixing your own, this is a great book for you. If, however, you want to really understand HTML and get into web development, I would suggest finding a book with a bit more content (probably something from O’Reilly [publishers of the CSS book above]).