Many of the prices we pay seem to make little sense. We shell out $2.29 for a coffee at Starbucks when a nearly identical brew can be had at the corner deli for less than a dollar. We may be less willing to give blood for $25 than to donate it for free. Americans hire cheap illegal immigrants to fix the roof or mow the lawn, and vote for politicians who promise to spend billions to keep them out of the country. And citizens of the industrialized West pay hundreds of dollars a year in taxes or cash for someone to cart away trash that would be a valuable commodity in poorer parts of the world. The Price of Everything starts with a simple premise: there is a price behind each choice that we make, whether we're deciding to have a baby, drive a car, or buy a book. We often fail to appreciate just how critical prices are as a motivating force shaping our lives. But their power becomes clear when distorted prices steer our decisions the wrong way. Eduardo Porter uncovers the true story behind the prices we pay and reveals what those prices are actually telling us. He takes us on a global economic adventure, from comparing the relative price of a vote in corrupt São Tomé and in the ostensibly uncorrupt United States, to assessing the cost of happiness in Bhutan, to deducing the dollar value we assign to human life. His unique approach helps explain: * Why polygamous societies actually place a higher value on women than monogamous ones. * Why someone may find more value in a $14 million license plate than the standard issue, $95 one. * Why some government agencies believe one year of life for a senior citizen is four times more valuable than that of a younger person. Porter weaves together the constant-and often unconscious-cost and value assessments we all make every day. While exploring the fascinating story behind the price of everything from marriage and death to mattresses and horsemeat, Porter draws unexpected connections that bridge a wide range of disciplines and cultures. The result is a cogent and insightful narrative about how the world really works.Watch a Video

    Thomas Kemeny made a career at some of the best ad agencies in America. In this book he shows how he got in, how he's stayed in, and how you can do it too. He breaks apart how to write fun, smart, and effective copy-everything from headlines to scripts to experiential activations-giving readers a lesson on a language we all thought we already knew.This book is not a retrospective from some ad legend. It's a book that should be instantly useful for people starting out. A guide for the first few years at a place you'd actually want to work.Traditionally, advertising books have been written by people with established careers, big offices and letters like VP in their titles. They have stories from the old days when people could start in the mailroom. They are talented. That's been done. Who wants another book filled with seasoned wisdom? This is a book written by somebody still getting his bearings. Someone who has made an extraordinary number of errors in a still short career. Someone who has managed to hang onto his job despite these shortcomings.

    With all the emphasis on the rich and famous in America, we would think we know everything about them. In reality, very few of us truly understand those who make up the very wealthiest Americans--those with liquid assets of $5 million or more. What is this new class of people and how did they get that way?In The New Elite, the authors reveal what motivates our country's most powerful and influential class, what they want, where they shop, and how they really spend their money. With candor and unique insight, they reveal that the people who drive our economy are not Ivy league-educated, luxury-seeking socialites. While they include luminaries like Bill Gates, David Geffen, Ralph Lauren, and Donald Trump, they also include the small business owner next door. Based on unprecedented research with hundreds of interviews with members of this unique group, The New Elite uncovers the five classes of America's newly wealthy--including those who struggle with its implications, those who refuse to let it change them, and those who give it away, and how each of them is changing our culture and economy. This is an entertaining and enlightening look at America's ruling class, the profound ways they have redefined what it means to be rich, and how we court them.

    But no book until this one has managed to penetrate its wall of silence or go beyond the usual polemics to analyze its actual effects on its customers, workers, and suppliers. Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data (e.g., Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, and in 2004 its growth alone was bigger than the total revenue of 469 of the Fortune 500), The Wal-Mart Effect is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping our lives.

    This book is written in a simple manner for readers to understand the various terminologies and working process of the financial markets. If you are looking to understand and enter the stock markets but don't know from where to start, then this book is for you. The basic concepts are same for Indian and overseas markets so it will help you understanding both. It will help you as a reference guide for investing in stock markets. Specifically it will help you in:- 1. Know basic terms and conditions of the stock market. 2. Know products and services associated with the stock market. 3. Know how to kick start in stock markets. 4. know Do's and Don'ts in Stock Markets. 5. Selecting a broker. 6. How to make your first trade. 7. Additional mental mastering technique that will help you to achieve more on markets as well in life. 8. Insight of a trader/investor who has more than 10+ years of experience in stock markets. 9. Illustrated examples for more clarity on topics.

    As of January 14, 2016, this is an unverified document. NOTE: this document has been reformatted for the Kindle. It can be searched, bookmarked, annotated, etc. It is not a dump of the PDF.

      Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck.  Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.    There are many others like Chris – those who’ve found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful.  Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do.  You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you're sure it's successful.   In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies.  In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.   Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment.  It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such -- and what other people will pay for.  You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees.  All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.   Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick.  Among Chris’s key principles: if you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish – sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins.   In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold.  Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives.  And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs.  This remarkable book will start you on your way.

    People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He's studied why New York Times articles make the paper's own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you've wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread - for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you're a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.

    B2B marketers are undervalued and under appreciated in many companies. Social media and online marketing provide the right mix of rich data and reduction in marketing expenses to help transform a marketer into a superstar. The B2B Social Media Book provides B2B marketers with actionable advice on leveraging blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more, combined with key strategic imperatives that serve as the backbone of effective B2B social media strategies.This book serves as the definitive reference for B2B marketers looking to master social media and take their career to the next level.Describes a methodology for generating leads using social media Details how to create content offers that increase conversion rates and drive leads from social media Offers practical advice for incorporating mobile strategies into the marketing mix Provides a step-by-step process for measuring the return on investment of B2B social media strategies The B2B Social Media Book will help readers establish a strong social media marketing strategy to generate more leads, become a marketing superstar in the eye of company leaders, and most importantly, contribute to business growth.

    I do that by getting more of your members to the Retention Point faster. You know those members who love you, buy everything you offer and tell all their friends about you? Those members have made it to the Retention Point. And, when you do what I show you how to do in the book, you’ll get MORE of your members to the Retention Point so you can keep them longer and your recurring revenue will grow. Membership is a great business model in concept. You get a customer and each time your customer renews you get recurring revenue. But, even though I’d become a membership marketing expert I soon discovered it doesn’t matter how many new members you get if your members quit as fast as new members join. I just got off the phone with a prospective client for the first time. His team is generating more than 10,000 new members a month. That’s awesome, a great effort and commendable result that’s getting his company featured in many subscription industry profiles. What isn’t getting featured is this same company is losing 9500 members each month. This means they spend 95% of all of their marketing efforts replacing members that quit. Twenty-seven days of each month are spent replacing canceled members. Their marketing department has thirty days of monthly expenses but delivers only three days of growth. If you know of anyone that’s in this position, or if you are in this position, I’m revealing more than 25 years of membership growth experience in this new book called Retention Point, The Single Biggest Secret to Membership and Subscription Growth for Associations, SAAS, Publishers, Digital Access, Subscription Boxes and all Membership and Subscription-Based Businesses. When you get your hands on this book you'll discover: • The five fallacies of membership retention that most subscription businesses implement that actually INCREASE member churn rates. • Five case studies of subscription business turnarounds (or successful launches) including a publisher, a subscription box, SAAS, an association and a charity/nonprofit. • The 10 Retention Point Accelerators that transform your new members from Quitters into Lifers. • How to achieve 90% to 98% annual renewal percentages, even if you believe this is completely impossible for your business. • The single biggest misunderstanding subscription companies believe that kills membership growth. Plus a whole lot more, when you get Retention Point.

    It is more than a book about brands, and contains many sound lessons for strategy and the role of leaders.­­Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business SchoolPractical, psychologically astute, and clearly written, this book has much to offer business folk of all stripes.­­Publishers Weekly

    Students uncover how real-world managers design, implement, and use planning and control systems to implement business strategies. The 12th edition builds on the strengths of prior editions by offering a rich diversity of cases balanced with current content and research.

    Gamification is revolutionizing the web and mobile apps.Innovative startups like Foursquare and Swoopo, growth companies like Gilt and Groupon and established brands like United Airlines and Nike all agree: the most powerful way to create and engage a vibrant community is with game mechanics. By leveraging points, levels, badges, challenges, rewards and leaderboards - these innovators are dramatically lowering their customer acquisition costs, increasing engagement and building sustainable, viral communities.Game-Based Marketing unlocks the design secrets of mega-successful games like Zynga's Farmville, World of Warcraft, Bejeweled and Project Runway to give you the power to create winning game-like experiences on your site/apps. Avoid obvious pitfalls and learn from the masters with key insights, such as:Why good leaderboards shouldn't feature the Top 10 players. Most games are played as an excuse to socialize, not to achieve. Status is worth 10x more than cash to most consumers. Badges are not enough: but they are important. You don't need to offer real-world prizing to run a blockbuster sweepstakes. And learn even more:How to architect a point system that works Designing the funware loop: the basics of points, badges, levels, leaderboards and challenges Maximizing the value and impact of badges Future-proofing your design Challenging users without distraction Based on the groundbreaking work of game expert and successful entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann, Game-Based Marketing brings together the game mechanics expertise of a decade's worth of research. Driven equally by big companies, startups, 40-year-old men and tween girls, the world is becoming increasingly more fun.Are you ready to play?

    CEOs should heed this transformation and learn from Weber's insights how to navigate this new landscape to fully maximize their business opportunities." -Mark Fuller, Chairman, Monitor Group "Consumers are using technology to grab power from companies, the media, and the government. Marketing to the Social Web succinctly outlines how institutions can survive and win in this chaotic new world, and lays out the revised rules of engagement-ignore them at your peril." -George F. Colony, CEO, Forrester Research, Inc. "Larry has brought pragmatic and useful recommendations to help brand builders manage the complexity of social interaction in a digital age. I was pleased to read a book that actually suggests how to do something with social networks, instead of just ponder them." -David Kenny, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Digitas Inc. "Where's the allure of social 2.0? Brands can talk . . . customers talk louder! Digital influence has arrived." -Jeff Taylor, CEO, Eons and Founder of Monster.com "Larry Weber provides a simple and effective roadmap of the new customer information highway. Marketing to the Social Web is a valuable tool that will give everyone the confidence and know-how to compete in this fast-growing marketplace of ideas." -Steve Harris, Vice President, Global Communications, General Motors Corporation "As all lines and boundaries are washed away by the Web, Weber describes how to become part of the sea versus the sand." -Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman, One Laptop per Child

    It demands that you stop waiting for a road map and start drawing one instead. You know how to do this, you’ve done it before, but along the way, someone talked you out of it.We need your insight and your dreams and your contributions. Hurry.