Many people ask me, “What is your favorite book on sales?” I’m glad to provide them with simple answer without any hesitation.

“The greatest salesman in the world” by Og Mandino.

Basically Og Mandino’s book changed my life forever.

I accidentally discovered this book in summer of 1997 at local Barnes and Noble. I was waiting for my friend and just browsing through the bookstore. I was passing through the religion section and noticed a small book. I asked myself, “What’s salesman got to to with religion?” I had to check it out, half curiosity and half nothing better to do.

Whoever first said “You can’t judge a book by its cover” sorry, I was completely sold just by its cover. On the cover that said “You can change your life with the priceless wisdom of ten ancient scrolls handed down for thousands of years.” I was so determined to find out what these scrolls are about and was not disappointed. My blood was boiling and my brain was on firecracker.

Don’t let the title fool you. Actually this books is not about sales itself and you’re not going to find any cold calling script.

This book is all about you, your life, self-promotion, motivation, and controlling your destiny in very simple way, maybe too simple if I knew. It’s very unusual book that will wake you up to be a entirely different person. Literally, you have to wake up with it, have lunch with it and sleep on it. You will know what I mean, if you ever purchase this book.

This book is dirt cheap, even you pay the full price of $7.99 You can buy used book from Amazon.com for whopping $0.70 !!! Well, I just told you my little secret, you can change your life for just $0.70

Free Real Estate Magazine

LORE magazine (Lives of Real Estate) is the people magazine for residential real estate associates, brokers and settlement service companies. LORE magazine is a national real estate magazine that covers the lives of real estate people.

Instead of focusing on how much money they make, or how many transaction sides they complete, LORE provides in depth stories about REALTORS®, brokers and settlement service managers, including what they are passionate about, where they like to travel, what they do in their personal time, the challenges they have overcome, and much more. Steve Murray of REAL Trends is the editor and Anne Murray-Randolph is the publisher of this magazine that features interesting stories about real estate associates, stories about residential real estate brokerage leaders, and stories about senior management in settlement service companies.

LORE magazine is a free subscription magazine. No gimmicks, no strings attached and not trial issues. It’s Real Deal. Simply click here, enter your information, and you will start receiving magazine free with the next issue. Visit LORE Magazine.

Google Hacks:

Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World’s Information by Rael Dornfest.

Everyone loves Google. Well, except Bill Gates and other Microsoft employees. With Google basically you can do almost everything without any other software. Google provides useful things for our internet life for free~!!!

Behind Google’s simple home page, few people realize that Google also gives you hundreds of cool ways to organize and manipulate Google’s information. All you need is where to look and with basic knowledge of programming, you can mine a ton of industrial strength information within Google’s reach.

There are 100 hacks in this book. I’d like to mention few hacks that I loved.

• Hack 28. Compare Google’s Results with Other Search Engines
• Hack 38. Map Google News
• Hack 39. Track Your Favorite Sites
• Hack 46. Program Blogger with PHP
• Hack 66. Build Your Own Google Map
• Hack 67. Add a Google Map to Your Web Site
• Hack 76. Use Gmail as a Hard Drive
• Hack 85. Get the Most Out of AdWords

This book will show you step by step how to take advantage of Google’s massive information library. If you love to search and navigate through internet through Google portal, this book is for you. If you have a website and want to integrate with lots of Google stuff, this books is definitely for you. If you want to learn the wonders of the Google Search Application Programming Interface (API), this is must have for you. Excellent book.

Your First Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional
by Dirk Zeller

This was the one of the first book that I’ve read while getting my RE License. It’s probably the best book for the new agents to read. More appropriate title should be “Your 1st Month in Real Estate.”

First of all, this book gave me lots of good information on how to select a right company. It’s extremely important that you select your first Real Estate Company carefully. It’ll affect your whole career. I’ve made a right choice and this book will help you, too.

Second, it gave me great confidence that I can survive and make a living selling Real Estate. There is no second place prize as a Real Estate Agent. You make money for only the final results. Your second best offer is no good my friend.

Third, there is one full chapter about how to make a smooth transition not only your career but financially. Now, you’re no longer getting paychecks from anyone. You’re an independent contractor, commission based, self-employed and in one-man-show business. For me, it was very difficult to make adjustments right away. There are many tips on how to get over the frustrating situations.

Downside of this book is that it was first published in 2001 and some of chapter are outdated. If you’re looking for some Hi-Tech marketing tips, this book is not for you. Author’s focus is on Residential Real Estate. Must read for new agent.

WordPress 2 - Visual Quick Start Guide by Maria Langer & Miraz Jordan

This is extremely useful book. I used Blogger platform before and I was new to WordPress. I wanted to develop this site using WorldPress 2.2. I didn’t want to go through the WordPress website docs to get all my questions answered. I also wanted to host WordPress on my server. This book will show you step by step how to set up WordPress and keep going.

All the instructions and examples are very easy to follow and plenty of screenshots are available. There are many useful tips on almost every page. Author made excellent arrangement of chapters so that you’re not overwhelmed by all the new information and terms. Author also displays short-keys that applies in both Windows & Mac OS whenever applicable.

Highly Recommended WordPress 2 Reference Book~!!!