The start of the new year inevitably brings reflections on the previous one. While I don’t believe in living in the past, we certainly need to learn from it. As part of the process of making this web site better, it pays to take a look at what you read the most in the past year. Here’s the list of the top ten stories of 2011:
Dave Ramsey signing a book at the EntreLeadership 1-Day Seminar in Dallas, TX March 11, 2010
EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
Far and above all others, the most-viewed story of 2011 was posted in March 2010 and was also the most-viewed story in 2010. It’s a review of Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership 1-Day seminar which I attended in March of 2010. There is a lot of great business wisdom in this class, which has been distilled into the book EntreLeadership published last year (Amazon Affiliate link).
What’s Up With Webresource.axd Errors
This article is also from 2010, though from later in the year. If you run a Microsoft IIS web server with sites done in ASP.NET you may have seen these errors crop up in your logs. Here’s the reason why they come up.
Communication is Key – The Funnel Effect
This post is from 2009 and was written with the aim of helping Marketers and IT folks communicate better. It’s an idea which I’ve expressed many times, including in my two PubCon presentations from last year. It’s a good idea and may help you with your communication issues.
Book Review: “Unmarketing” by Scott Stratten
Number four on our list is a review of the book Unmarketing by Scott Stratten (Amazon Affiliate link). If you’re involved in online marketing of any type and haven’t read this one, then get it today.
Book Review: “Good To Great” by Jim Collins
Another great book on business is Good To Great by Jim Collins (Amazon Affiliate link). In this very interesting work, Jim Collins and his research team attempt to show why good companies become great companies. Hindsight being 20/20, you can also see how some great companies disappeared when they stopped doing the things which made them great.
Keeping Up With The Joneses?
In this piece, I shared some ideas and thoughts which came to me after watching the movie “The Joneses.” It’s a very though-provoking movie which marketers might find particularly interesting.
Photo courtesy of Jim Kukral, used with permission
Book Review: “Attention!” by Jim F. Kukral
Number seven on our list is a review of the book Attention! by Jim F. Kukral (Amazon Affiliate link). I found quite a few interesting lessons in this book. The story about how Jim got his first job is particularly apt to the title. If you’re looking for inspiration about different ways to get people’s attention in our very distracted world, you should check out this one.
A Miracle Leader
This was one of my favorite posts to write from 2011. In this article, I describe how Coach Herb Brooks took a seemingly disparate and diverse group of young people and turned them into a team which went on to win the Hockey Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Games. It’s a study in great leadership.
PubCon Vegas 2011 Day 1 – In-House Team Building and Training
Next on the list is a summary of the PubCon session I spoke in along with Peter Leshaw, Tony Adams, Josh Gampel and Dave Roth.
Cross Posting A Socmed No-No?
Last on our list is an article inspired by a Twitter conversation between me, Tim Walker and Julie Hunt about automatic cross-posting between different social media sites. I’m against it in most cases. Read the article to learn why.
Finally – Thank you for stopping by and reading The Crossing. I very much appreciate the time each of you spend with me here. My hope is that I add value to your reading time.
What say you? Was there a particular post you liked from 2011? Was your favorite not in the top ten? Please feel free to share in the comments.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I like the idea here of summing up last years best posts. And I absolutely believe that marking where we have been helps us make headway toward where we want to go.
So of your list of books covered here, which one would you recommend to pest control to read first?
Thanks for stopping by, Thomas. Of the books listed in this post, I’d go with this order: “Good To Great,” “Attention,” “EntreLeadership,” “Unmarketing.” I have no specific reason for that order, it’s just what “feels right” for you as an experienced marketer in the pest control business.
Thanks. I have yet to read any of those, so I will add them to my list. I like Dave Ramsey, so I have been tempted to pick that one up. My current business book is “Think and Grow Rich”. It’s taken me a few years to come around to actually reading this one. I had a few people turn me off to some of the concepts they pulled from it, but then few others told me that I should read it. So far, it’s been a good book.
Thanks again for the recommendation.
I haven’t checked that out out – I will put it on my list.
It is interesting to me that book reviews are very well received here on The Crossing. I haven’t quite figured out if it’s because people really like them or if it’s because those authors in particular promoted the reviews as a way of promoting sales of their books. I’m going to dig into that a little more in the near future.
Haha.. oops I realized that I used two different emails. Probably a browser thing… I try to keep my browser identities separated.