Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive


Noah J. Goldstein - 2008
    But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.Cowritten by the world's most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader. Why did a sign pointing out the problem of vandalism in the Petrified Forest National Park actually increase the theft of pieces of petrified wood? Why did sales of jam multiply tenfold when consumers were offered many fewer flavors? Why did people prefer a Mercedes immediately after giving reasons why they prefer a BMW? What simple message on cards left in hotel rooms greatly increased the number of people who behaved in environmentally friendly ways?Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little-known but proven wisdom.Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, or sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.

The Secret of Selling Anything


Harry Browne - 2012
    You're probably tired of being told "you can do it if you just believe you can."You're probably tired of reading about tricks that made a particular sale ~ tricks that may have been appropriate to a particular situation, but not yours ~ and even if they were appropriate, how would you have thought of them at the right time?If you've read books on selling before or listened to "sales experts," you're probably tired of being pumped with hot air ~ told how you must "come alive," be full of enthusiasm, dominate the world around ~ all the things that don't happen to be a part of your basic nature.Well, this book isn't anything like that. In fact, this book was written to refute many cliches of selling that have been accepted without question for years.This book will prove to you, I hope, that the stereotyped image of the "born salesman" is a mistake. You don't have to remake your personality and become super-enthusiastic, super-aggressive, domineering. Not only are those traits not necessary, they are actually a hindrance to making sales.And you won't have to develop that uncanny ability to come up with the right answer at the right time ~ that super-human knack of having the brilliant flash of insight that is so prevalent in books on selling. Sure, given several days to think about it, the writer of a sales book can always come up with a solution to a sales problem. But how does that help you when confronted face-to-face with a question that must be answered now? This book will show you that you don't need such skills.This book can truly revolutionize your selling career ~ but only because it will show you that you no longer need to waste your time developing skills that are of no value to a salesman. For example, here are some of the points that will be made in the course of this book:-- Contrary to the accepted mythology, enthusiasm is not a virtue; it destroys more sales than it creates.-- "Positive thinking" is an unrealistic fallacy. The salesman who thinks negatively has a far greater chance for success than the so-called "positive thinker."-- Sales success does not come from convincing people to buy things they don't want.-- The salesman who always has an answer for every objection is also probably plugging along with a very low income.-- Extroverts don't make the best salesmen; they are invariably outsold by introverts.-- To be a good salesman, you don't have to be a "smooth talker".-- Another all-time sales fallacy is the statement "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". When the going gets tough, I usually take a vacation.-- The desire to be able to motivate others is unrealistic and foolish. A really-great salesman will never try to motivate anyone.Perhaps all of this sounds so far removed from what you've heard about selling through the years that you wonder how it could possibly be true. I intend to demonstrate the validity of these statements in two ways.First, my own experience verifies their worth. Almost invariably, in any selling experience where I've found myself, I have outsold everyone else around me ~ usually while working far fewer hours.In addition, I've seen these principles work for a few others, too ~ a very few, for they are unknown to most people.But there is nothing mysterious about them ~ and that brings us to second way in which I will demonstrate their validity. I will prove them to you. We will deal with life logically and carefully in this book. Everything will be proven in terms of the real world as it is ~ in ways we can both understand.

Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts


Ryan Holiday - 2017
    In Hollywood, a movie is given a single weekend to succeed before being written off. In Silicon Valley, a startup is a failure if it doesn't go viral or rake in venture capital from the start. In publishing, a book that took years to write is given less than three months to sink or swim. These brutally shortsighted attitudes have choked the world with instructions for engineering a flash-in-the-pan and littered the media landscape with fads and flops. Meanwhile, the greats, the stalwarts, the household names, are those who focus on a singularly different, possibly heretical, idea: that their work can and should last. For instance, Zildjian has been one of the premier makers of cymbals since its founding in 1623--and shows no signs of quitting. Iron Maiden has filled stadiums for forty years, moving some 85 million albums without the help of radio or television. Robert Greene's first book, The 48 Laws of Power, didn't hit the bestseller lists until over a decade after it was first released, and since then has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. These works Ryan Holiday calls Perennial Sellers. They exist in every creative industry--timeless, dependable resources and unsung moneymakers, paying like blue chip annuities. Like gold or land, they increase in value over time, outlasting and outreaching any competition. And they're not flukes or lucky breaks--they were built to last from the outset. Holiday shows readers how to make and market their own classic work. Featuring interviews with some of the world's greatest creatives, and grounded in a deep study of the classics in every genre, this exciting new book empowers readers with a foundational set of innovative principles. Whether you have a book or a business, a song or the next great screenplay, this book reveals the recipe for perennial success.

Untitled


Blaine Hogan - 2011
    The blank page.It has so much power.Some days it's terrifying, sometimes thrilling, but mostly it's just plain old scary.It is the reason many people never finish that novel, or complete that project, or follow through with that one thing they used to dream about.Sadly, it is the reason many people never even begin.Blaine Hogan's manifesto, UNTITLED: Thoughts on the Creative Process is here to change all that.As an artist who has designed t-shirts, made light fixtures, created performance art in alleyways, performed on big and small stages all across the country, acted on network television, and is now a creative director at one of the largest churches in North America, Blaine walks you through the creative process of attacking the blank page, executing vision, finding the importance of contemplation, fighting the battle with resistance, and learning from your failures.Blank pages be gone!Read UNTITLED and get ready to fill those suckers with good and meaningful work.

Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type


Ina Saltz - 2009
    This comprehensive guide is intended to advance the progress of designers seeking to deepen their typographic expertise. Typography Essentials is a practical, hands-on resource to distill, organize, and compartmentalize—but not to oversimplify—the many complex issues surrounding the effective use of typography. It is for designers of every medium in which type plays a major role, and is organized and designed to make the process enjoyable and entertaining, as well as instructional.This book is divided into four easy-to-use sections: The Letter, The Word, The Paragraph, and The Page. Each of the 100 principles has an explanation and examples representing the principle in action.

The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday


Rob Walker - 2019
    Our lives are in constant tether to phones, to email, and to social media. In this age of distraction, the ability to experience and be present is often lost: to think and to see and to listen.Enter Rob Walker's The Art of Noticing--an inspiring volume that will help you see the world anew. Through a series of simple and playful exercises--131 of them--Walker maps ways for you to become a clearer thinker, a better listener, a more creative workplace colleague, and finally, to rediscover what really matters to you.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century


Steven Pinker - 2014
    Rethinking the usage guide for the twenty-first century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose. In this short, cheerful, and eminently practical book, Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse engineer the good prose of others. He replaces dogma about usage with reason and evidence, allowing writers and editors to apply the guidelines judiciously, rather than robotically, being mindful of what they are designed to accomplish. Filled with examples of great and gruesome prose, Pinker shows us how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right.

The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, with Exercises and Answer Keys


Amy Einsohn - 2000
    Addressed to copyeditors in book publishing and corporate communications, this thoughtful handbook explains what copyeditors do, what they look for when they edit a manuscript, and how they develop the editorial judgment needed to make sound decisions.This revised edition reflects the most recent editions of The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).

The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas in 60 Minutes and Creating Content That Hooks and Sells


Meera Kothand - 2017
    Get Your Content to Work Harder For You. Does any of this sound like you? 1. You NEVER know what to write On most days you struggle to come up with blog post ideas and haven’t planned in advance what your content is going to be about. You're always looking to fill a publishing queue.   2. You chase after content trends You go after what you think will make your post go viral or get more shares. There isn’t necessarily a thread in any of your content pieces. 3. Your content doesn’t have a strong link to the products or services you offer You’re not sure how to create content to promote your products or services. If you’re nodding yes to any of the above, The 1- Hour Content Plan will help you generate COUNTLESS ideas. To be exact, a full year’s worth of traffic building and sales boosting content ideas in 60 minutes or less.  Here’s what’s packed in this how-to guide:  Three core ways to INSTANTLY generate content ideas with ease. Ditch the content overwhelm and never ever struggle with what to write again.  5 types of content that will inch your subscriber towards becoming a buyer and sell your products and services with ease. (And why you need ALL five!)  The fastest way to determine your BRAND VOICE so that you create content that fits you like a glove. No “whishy-washy” ideas. No guessing.  8 MUST-NOT neglect elements that either make or break your blog posts and how to optimize each of them.  The trap that bloggers and solopreneurs fall into with producing content and how ways to HOOK more eyeballs on your content.  Imagine for a minute how your blog and business would change if you NEVER run out of blog post ideas…You know exactly what to create, when and what results it’ll drive.Your offers (paid and free) become SEDUCTIVE magnets of YES! that readers cannot resist. Every single piece of content has a purpose in growing your blog and business, sells your products and services for you and builds your online presence… That’s the power of a content strategy and the promise behind the ‘One Hour Content Plan.’ Intrigued yet? Then scroll to the top and click or tap "Buy Now". Get your content to work harder for you with the One Hour Content Plan!

The Elements of Typographic Style


Robert Bringhurst - 1992
    Combining practical, theoretical, and historical, this book is a must for graphic artists, editors, or anyone working with the printed page using digital or traditional methods.Having established itself as a standard in its field The Elements of Typographic Style is house manual at most American university presses, a standard university text, and a reference work in studios of designers around the world. It has been translated into italian and greek, and dutch.

Information is Beautiful


David McCandless - 2001
    We need a brand new way to take it all in. 'Information is Beautiful' transforms the ideas surrounding and swamping us into graphs and maps that anyone can follow at a single glance.

Write to the Point How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page


Sam Leith - 2017
    The first sentence of a job application letter can consign it to the bin. A speech intended to rouse can put a room to sleep. A mistimed tweet can cost you your job. And a letter to a beloved may aim to convey feelings of tenderness but end up making the recipient laugh rather than melt.In this complete guide to persuasive writing, Sam Leith shows how to express yourself fully across any medium, and how to maximise your chances of getting your way in every situation. From work reports to Valentine cards, and from emails of condolence to tweets of complaint, Leith lays bare the secrets to successful communication, eloquence and off- and online etiquette. How do you write a job application, a thank-you card, or an email to your bank manager, to your children's headteacher, to your clients or your boss? How do you prepare a speech to win the argument, get the vote of confidence, or embarrass the bridegroom? Getting these things right - or wrong - can be life-changing.Succinct treatments of the most general principles of style and composition, as well as examinations of specific modes of address (What is a subtweet? How do I write a moving elegy?) are accompanied by concrete and well-illustrated dos and don'ts and examples of wins and fails. Astute, sprightly and illuminating, Write to the Point will give you the skills and confidence you need to get your message across on every occasion.

Launch: An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams


Jeff Walker - 2014
    Whether you've already got a business or you're itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction.Think about it: what if you could launch like Apple or the big Hollywood studios? What if your prospects eagerly counted down the days until they could buy your product? What if you could create such powerful positioning in your market that you all but eliminated your competition? And you could do all that no matter how humble your business or budget?Since 1996 Jeff Walker has been creating hugely successful online launches. After bootstrapping his first Internet business from his basement, he quickly developed an underground process for launching new products and businesses with unprecedented success.But the success-train was just getting started; once he started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking. Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that sold tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars in sales with their launches.Launch is the treasure map into that world; an almost secret world of digital entrepreneurs who create cash-on-demand paydays with their product launches and business launches.Whether you have an existing business, or you have a service-based business and want to develop your own products so you can leverage your time and your impact, or you're still in the planning phase, this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success.Now the question is this : are you going to start slow, and fade away from there? Or are you ready for a launch that will change the future of your business and your life?

May I Have Your Attention, Please? Your Guide to Business Writing That Charms, Captivates and Converts


Mish Slade - 2016
    It's near impossible for customers to cut through the "innovative solutions" and "passion for customer service," and find out who can actually give them what they need.For the business owner who's willing to do something different, though, it represents a major - and inexpensive - competitive advantage.May I Have Your Attention, Please? lays out 12 simple principles that allow business owners - even those with no writing experience - to attract and enchant their dream customers. With clear and concise explanations of what works and why, and examples of the best and worst text out there, you'll have all the tools you need to turn readers into buyers into raving fans. Give your writing skills an instant upgradeIn this short book, you'll learn: Simple techniques to turn your dull-as-dishwater business marketing into "can't resist" copy - even if you don't think of yourself as a "good writer." How to make price irrelevant and be the only choice for your ideal customer - by changing nothing except your copywriting. The business writing "rules" you should revel in breaking. Why copying your competitors is a dangerous waste of time... and what to do instead (without spending hours searching for ideas). The easily avoidable mistakes that are turning your customers off - even if they don't know it. A simple framework to help you blast through writer's block and know exactly what to say in any piece of writing. How to "read your customers' minds," and get them looking for reasons to buy from you. Who is this book for? Business owners looking to breathe more life into their website, content marketing or sales materials. Employees who want to gain a new skill and have more impact in their work. Anyone who has something great to offer - but is struggling to get the message across.

How to


Michael Bierut - 2015
    Featuring more than thirty-five of his projects, it reveals his philosophy of graphic design—how to use it to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world. Specially chosen to illustrate the breadth and reach of graphic design today, each entry demonstrates Bierut’s eclectic approach. In his entertaining voice, the artist walks us through each from start to finish, mixing historic images, preliminary drawings (including full-size reproductions of the notebooks he has maintained for more than thirty-five years), working models and rejected alternatives, as well as the finished work. Throughout, he provides insights into the creative process, his working life, his relationship with clients, and the struggles that any design professional faces in bringing innovative ideas to the world.Offering insight and inspiration for artists, designers, students, and anyone interested in how words, images, and ideas can be put together, How to provides insight to the design process of one of this century’s most renowned creative minds.