Click Here to Order or Moneyball

Click Here to Order

Author: Joel Comm

While the general public is familiar with the larger Internet companies such as Yahoo!, Google, eBay and Amazon, very few are aware that small business is thriving online like never before, especially in the realm of information products. Click Here creates an entertaining and instructive narrative that provides an in-depth look at the unintentionally underground movement known as Infoproduct marketing, and the people who have profited and succeeded in the industry.

Table of Contents:

Dedication     vii
Foreword   Mark Joyner     ix
Preface: The Unintentional Underground     xiii
Working without a 'Net: When the Superhighway Was a Cowpath     1
Dreamers and Geeks     4
ARPAnet     7
Net Wars     8
From Net to Web     9
The Last Component     10
The Stage is Set     13
A Way With Words: The Write Stuff     17
Here Be Monsters     20
Brave New World     24
Trading Places     28
Classified Information     30
The Prospecters     33
On the Shoulders of Giants     36
Between the Lines: Commercial Zone     45
Do As I Say, Not As I Did     51
A Banner Year     54
The "baby announcement" of the World Wide Web     56
Gimme Fever     63
Business Class     65
Enclose {dollar} 1.25 plus 50[cent] for shipping and handling     70
The Unknown Copywriter     76
Do you copy?     80
Naming Names: Lists, Leads and the Curse of Spam     89
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!     98
Winging It     102
Big Brother Meets Madison Avenue     115
Share the Wealth: You Click My Site, I'll Click Yours     119
Traffic Jam     123
How Many Clicks from Here to Success?     128
All in the Family     132
Thank You, Mary Alice     134
AdWord-tising     139
AdSense and Sensibility     146
Stage Coach: "Showing Off," from Seminars to Workshops     151
First, Foremost and Famousest     159
When the Student is Ready...     165
Enter Your Code and Press # to Connect     170
Sittin' Pretty     178
Pioneer 2.0     186
Focus Group     191
Show & Tell     196
Rhyme & Reason: Focus Your Sites     207
Abracadabra: Making Millions Appear     212
Think Big     217
Renaissance Man     221
Nitches and Neeshes     227
The More Things Change...: Milestones and Roadsigns     241
Work at Home in Your Underwear     243
Change or Die     248
Beginnings, Middles, and Endings     260
Social Truth: Don't Take My Word for It     265
Crystal Ball      275
Directory of Internet Marketers     281
Index     287

Book review: Frommers Italy 2009 or Searching for Whitopia

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Author: Michael Lewis

The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought.In major league baseball the biggest wallet is supposed to win: rich teams spend four times as much on talent as poor teams. But over the past four years, the Oakland Athletics, a major league team with a minor league payroll, have had one of the best records. Last year their superstar, Jason Giambi, went to the superrich Yankees. It hasn't made any difference to Oakland: their fabulous season included an American League record for consecutive victories. Billy Beane, general manager of the Athletics, is putting into practice on the field revolutionary principles garnered from geek statisticians and college professors. Michael Lewis's brilliant, irreverent reporting takes us from the dugouts and locker rooms-where coaches and players struggle to unlearn most of what they know about pitching and hitting-to the boardrooms, where we meet owners who begin to look like fools at the poker table, spending enormous sums without a clue what they are doing. Combine money, science, entertainment, and egos, and you have a story that Michael Lewis is magnificently suited to tell. About the Author

Author of the bestsellers Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and Next, Michael Lewis is also a columnist for Bloomberg News. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Time

[An] ebullient, invigorating account of how an unconvential general manger named Billy Beane rebuilt the A's, a team with the second lowest payroll in baseball, into a team that won 103 games last year -- as many as the filthy-rich Yankees.

The New York Times

Whether Billy Beane is a prophet or a flash in the pan remains to be seen. In either case, by playing Boswell to Beane's Samuel Johnson, Lewis has given us one of the most enjoyable baseball books in years. — Lawrence S. Ritter

The New Yorker

The Oakland Athletics have reached the post-season playoffs three years in a row, even though they spend just one dollar for every three that the New York Yankees spend. Their secret, as Lewis's lively account demonstrates, is not on the field but in the front office, in the shape of the general manager, Billy Beane. Unable to afford the star hires of his big-spending rivals, Beane disdains the received wisdom about what makes a player valuable, and has a passion for neglected statistics that reveal how runs are really scored. Beane's ideas are beginning to attract disciples, most notably at the Boston Red Sox, who nearly lured him away from Oakland over the winter. At the last moment, Beane's loyalty got the better of him; besides, moving to a team with a much larger payroll would have diminished the challenge.

Publishers Weekly

Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team. Given the heavily publicized salaries of players for teams like the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees, baseball insiders and fans assume that the biggest talents deserve and get the biggest salaries. However, argues Lewis, little-known numbers and statistics matter more. Lewis discusses Bill James and his annual stats newsletter, Baseball Abstract, along with other mathematical analysis of the game. Surprisingly, though, most managers have not paid attention to this research, except for Billy Beane, general manager of the A's and a former player; according to Lewis, "[B]y the beginning of the 2002 season, the Oakland A's, by winning so much with so little, had become something of an embarrassment to Bud Selig and, by extension, Major League Baseball." The team's success is actually a shrewd combination of luck, careful player choices and Beane's first-rate negotiating skills. Beane knows which players are likely to be traded by other teams, and he manages to involve himself even when the trade is unconnected to the A's. " `Trawling' is what he called this activity," writes Lewis. "His constant chatter was a way of keeping tabs on the body of information critical to his trading success." Lewis chronicles Beane's life, focusing on his uncanny ability to find and sign the right players. His descriptive writing allows Beane and the others in the lively cast of baseball characters to come alive. (June) Forecast: Lewis's reputation, along with extensive national promotion, first serial in the New York Times Magazine and a 13-city tour should help the book hit bestseller lists throughout the baseball season. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Steve Forbes - Forbes Magazine

One of the best baseball--and management--books out. It chronicles and examines the extraordinary success of the Oakland Athletics' general manager, Billy Beane, who is a colorful mix of genius, discipline and emotion. If you ever come across anyone connected with professional baseball and want to witness an interesting sight, just mention Beane and this book--there will be gurgling, sputtering, angry mutterings. (13 Oct 2003)

Library Journal

How the Oakland Athletics stay on top in baseball without a lot of dough: Norton's biggest book this season. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A solid piece of iconoclasm: the intriguing tale of Major League baseball's oddfellows—the low-budget but winning Oakland Athletics. Here's the gist, that baseball, from field strategy to player selection, is "better conducted by scientific investigation—hypotheses tested by analysis of historical baseball data—than be reference to the collective wisdom of old baseball men." Not some dry, numbing manipulation of figures, but an inventive examination of statistics, numbers that reveal what the eye refuses to see, thanks to ingrained prejudices. As in most of Lewis's work (The New New Thing, 1999, etc.), a keen intellect is at work, a spry writing style, a facility to communicate the meaning of numbers, an infectious excitement, and a healthy disdain for the aura and power of big bucks. Such is the situation here: The Oakland A's have a budget that would hardly cover the Yankee's chewing tobacco. Their General Manager, Billy Beane, and his band of Harvard-educated assistants, are the heirs of Bill James (of whom there is an excellent portrait here). They creatively use stats to discover unsung talent—gems not so much in the rough as invisible to the overburden of received wisdom—a guy who will get on base despite being shaped like a pear or control the strike zone even if his fastball can't get out of third gear, measuring the measurables to garner fine talent at basement prices. At least for a few seasons, until the talent's worth is common knowledge and off they go to clubs who can pay them millions. And the A's win, and win and win, not yet to a Series victory, but edging closer. The story clicks along with steady momentum, and possesses excellent revelatorypowers. There's a method to the madness of the Beane staff, and Lewis incisively explains its inspired, heretical common sense. Has Lewis spilled Beane's beans? Maybe so, but considering the mulish dispositions of baseball's scouts and front offices, they'll miss the boat again. First serial to the New York Times Magazine; author tour

The Art of Strategy or The Book of Five Rings

The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life

Author: Avinash K Dixit

The authors who brought you the bestseller in game theory, Thinking Strategically, now provide the long-awaited sequel.

Game theory means rigorous strategic thinking. It's the art of anticipating your opponent's next moves, knowing full well that your rival is trying to do the same thing to you. Though parts of game theory involve simple common sense, much is counterintuitive, and it can only be mastered by developing a new way of seeing the world. Using a diverse array of rich case studies—from pop culture, TV, movies, sports, politics, and history—the authors show how nearly every business and personal interaction has a game-theory component to it. Are the winners of reality-TV contests instinctive game theorists? Do big-time investors see things that most people miss? What do great poker players know that you don't? Mastering game theory will make you more successful in business and life, and this lively book is the key to that mastery.

Table of Contents:

Introduction How Should People Behave in Society?

Part I

1 Ten Tales of Strategy 3

2 Games Solvable by Backward Reasoning 32

3 Prisoners' Dilemmas and How to Resolve Them 64

4 A Beautiful Equilibrium 102

Epilogue to Part I 137

Part II

5 Choice and Chance 141

6 Strategic Moves 173

7 Making Strategies Credible 201

Epilogue to Part II: A Nobel History 229

Part III

8 Interpreting and Manipulating Information 235

9 Cooperation and Coordination 270

10 Auctions, Bidding, and Contests 301

11 Bargaining 335

12 Voting 359

13 Incentives 386

14 Case Studies 409

Further Reading 443

Workouts 447

Notes 457

Index 473

Look this: Bipolar Disorder or Stem Cell Divide

The Book of Five Rings

Author: Miyamoto Musashi

Setting down his thoughts on swordplay, on winning, and on spirituality, legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi intended this modest work as a guide for his immediate disciples and future generations of samurai. He had little idea he was penning a masterpiece that would be eagerly devoured by people in all walks of life centuries after his death.

Along with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Five Rings has long been regarded as an invaluable treatise on the strategy of winning. Musashi's timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant was addressed to the readers of earlier times on the battlefield, and now serves the modern reader in the battle of life.

In this new rendering by the translator of Hagakure and The Unfettered Mind, William Scott Wilson adheres rigorously to the seventeenth-century Japanese text and clarifies points of ambiguity in earlier translations. In addition, he offers an extensive introduction and a translation of Musashi's rarely published The Way of Walking Alone. This gift-book edition also features original art by Musashi himself as well as new calligraphy by Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura.


About the Author

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) was a renowned swordsman and painter. A masterless samurai, he developed the two-sword style of fighting and emerged victorious in more than 60 sword fights in his travels throughout Japan. The author of The Book of Five Rings, he is also the subject of the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa.

William Scott Wilson, the translator, was born in 1944 in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Florida. He received B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and an M.A. in Japanese literary studies from the University of Washington. His long-selling translations of Hagakure, The Unfettered Mind, The Roots of Wisdom:
Saikontan, and Taiko have become standards. Hagakure was featured prominently in the film Ghost Dog.

Time

On Wall Street, when Musashi talks, people listen.

Library Journal

Written by legendary Japanese swordsman Musashi, this 17th-century exposition of sword-fighting strategy and Zen philosophy has been embraced by many contemporary readers, especially business school students, as a manual on how to succeed in life. There are many English translations, but every one, including this one, suffers from inadequate cultural, literary, and philosophical commentary. Musashi's work should be studied, not simply read, and Cleary's translation lacks commentary; it also makes the prose seems flat and the philosophy simplistic. Yet what makes this new translation worthwhile is the second text, buried deep in the back like an appendix: Yagyu Munenori's The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War . This text, also an exposition on sword fighting and Zen philosophy, is difficult to find in an English translation, and its availability is welcome. Recommended for academic libraries generally.-- Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu

BookList

Here are two Japanese martial arts classics from the seventeenth century, of more than ordinary interest because of their distinguished translation and because of their identification with Zen. Musashi says things like "It is crucial to think of everything as an opportunity to kill," and there's no question his primer on training the would-be warrior's mind and body is, in that respect, as effective as ever. What might interest readers not inclined to bloodlust is Musashi's pared-down philosophy, as exemplified in his nine rules for learning any art. These include "Think of what is right and true," "Understand the harm and benefit in everything," "Become aware of what is not obvious," and the delightful "Do not do anything useless." Following Musashi's last meditation, "The Scroll of Emptiness" (about how, when one masters an art, one separates from it into a state of perfect, contented clarity), is Yagyu's short essay on the art of war. Yagyu, apparently quite a bloody warrior in his youth, in late life worked hard to link martial arts concepts to Zen, and his short essay has a distilled, aphoristic quality. Both writers are marvels of clarity and, oddly, peacefulness.

The World Is Curved or Outrage

The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy

Author: David M Smick

David Smick keeps a low profile, but experts consider him one of the most insightful financial market strategists in the world. For more than two decades, he has conferred with central bankers and advised top Wall Street executives and investors.
The World Is Curved picks up where Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat left off, taking listeners on an insider's tour through the private offices of central bankers, finance ministers, even prime ministers. Smick reveals how today's risky environment came to be—and why the mortgage mess is a symptom of potentially far more devastating trouble. He wrestles with the two questions on everyone's mind: How bad could things really get in today's volatile economy? And what can we do about it?

The World Is Curved is the rare work that speaks simultaneously to the Wall Street, Washington, and London elite, yet its apt storytelling shows Main Street readers how to survive in these turbulent times.

"The World Is Curved is...essential...for those who wish to understand the workings, politics, and distresses of the global financial system...insightful and entertaining..." — Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; author of The Age of Turbulence

"David Smick's probing insights in The World Is Curved stem from an extraordinary vantage point few observers can match."—George Soros, Soros Fund Management

Publishers Weekly

Confronting the ever-increasing challenges of globalism and the economic problems plaguing the U.S. from a downward spiraling value of the dollar to the subprime mortgage crisis, Smick argues again and again that the solution to the problem is deregulation and encouraging entrepreneurship. While he examines the U.S. in relation to other emerging and potentially powerful markets (China and India, in particular), Smick argues weakly against Thomas Friedman's more utopian or opportunistic points of view. Jim Bond delivers the book in an accessible and gentle tone. Smick's prose can be a bit inundating, but Bond balances speed with emphasis to keep listeners' attention. A Portfolio hardcover (reviewed online). (Sept.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Library Journal

The 2007-08 subprime financial crisis is the jumping-off point for Smick's (Johnson Smick International) examination of current threats to global prosperity. He explains that although the subprime losses are small in the context of world financial markets, a lack of transparency has diminished investor confidence, dried up financial liquidity, and threatened the very foundations of our world financial system. He says that the growth of global financial markets has made it more difficult for central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve to intercede effectively in times of crisis. Smick compares the subprime crisis to past events like the UK's forced devaluation of the pound in 1992 and Japan's economic stagnation in the 1990s. He warns of pending dangers like an overheating of the Chinese development juggernaut and the present calls for protectionism by U.S. politicians. He favors a global financial system built on transparency and trust. Smick's role for some 30 years as an economic adviser to central bankers and legislators of all stripes gives him a solid perspective on the global financial system. This summing-up of the subprime debacle and other global financial threats, aimed at general readers, is first rate; highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.-Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Kirkus Reviews

It's a fraught time, writes hedge-fund guru Smick in this timely book. If the "Chinese juggernaut" doesn't sink us, then class warfare and our spendthrift ways will. Borrowing his title, obviously, from Thomas Friedman's optimistic The World Is Flat (2005), Smick dourly notes that in finance, the horizon is near while the dangers lurk out of sight-"nothing happens in a straight line. Instead, there is a continual series of unforeseen discontinuities-twists and turns of uncertainty that often require millions of market participants to stand conventional wisdom on its head." Seeing over the horizon is the job of sound analysts and good political leaders, who seem to be in short supply. Weathering the fiscal storms is ever harder for numerous reasons, one of them the declining vigor of central banks, another, in the United States, an accumulation of personal debt that threatens to put the economy into a Japan-like state of decades-long stagnation. Globalism, some would object, is a vehicle for weakening national economies, but Smick counters that "liberated global financial markets and free trade" are largely responsible for the creation of vast wealth in the last quarter-century (during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 800 to more than 12,000) and should not be unduly regulated, since economies seem to be slipping beyond the control of national governments. Instability will thus be the norm in the future, especially inasmuch as private concerns dwarf whole economies: The exposure of the Swiss bank UBS to the subprime mortgage meltdown was four times as large as the entire Swiss economy, Smick observes. Couple profligate habits with an ever-growing Chinese economybeholden to no one, and suddenly the future looks like a roller-coaster ride for even the most aggressive investor. A supremely useful book for portfolio planning, though not the thing to give someone who's inclined to worry about the state of the world. Agent: Fredrica Friedman/Fredrica S. Friedman and Company

What People Are Saying

Bill Bradley
"The World Is Curved makes transparent all the challenges facing today's new global economy. Read along while Smick exposes the hidden global economic dangers and what steps must be taken to correct an imperfect system."--(Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator)

Alan Greenspan
"The World Is Curved is an essential read for those who wish to understand the workings, politics and distresses of the global financial system. David Smick has done an outstanding job in drawing on his interactions with many of the key players in international finance, to produce an insightful and entertaining book."

George P. Shultz
"The World Is Curved affords an engrossing look at the edifice upon which global finance has been built. It's a vision we ignore at our peril; for instance, we know from experience the dangers of protectionism. This is a vital primer about the zone where finance and statesmanship intersect."--(George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State)

Barton M. Biggs
"Smick is a world-class thinker. Any serious investor must read what he has to say."--(Barton M. Biggs, Traxis Partners and author of Hedgehogging)

Lawrence Eagleburger
"The World Is Curved is a brilliant, if disturbing, exposé of today's global financial minefields, and an equally compelling description of possible remedies. The next president would do well to read The World Is Curved before taking office next year."--(Lawrence Eagleburger, former U.S. Secretary of State)

Lawrence H. Summers
"David Smick understands, as few do, that international finance depends on politics and passions as much as on policies. Agree or disagree, his sense of where we have been and where we are going deserves close attention. He writes in a way that makes giving close attention a pleasure."--(Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury)

Table of Contents:

1 The End of the World 9

2 A Dangerous Ocean of Money 36

3 Entrepreneurs in a World of Private Equity and Hedge Fund Troublemakers 68

4 Tony Soprano Rides the Chinese Dragon 93

5 Japanese Housewives Take the Commanding Heights 132

6 Nothing Stays the Same: The 1992 Sterling Crisis 159

7 The Incredible Shrinking Central Banks 188

8 Class Warfare and the Politics of Globalization 214

9 Surviving and Prospering in This Age of Volatility 242

Acknowledgments 277

A Word on Sources 281

Bibliography 285

Index 289

Look this: Dining at the Linemans Shack or Opportunities in Culinary Careers

Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . And What to Do About It

Author: Dick Morris

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