books Archives • Matt Ryan

Any small business owner will tell you that to keep up with the industry you must constantly be reading and learning new things. Under this resource category I will tag books, training programs, YouTube videos, online tutorials that I find helpful. We will publish our own original content under our “Nuggets” tag.

Books and Training Programs

Platform. Get Noticed In A Noisy World– by Michael Hyatt, the intentional leader, offers a step-by-step guide to building your brand by getting noticed. A must for anyone with something to say online.

The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work– by Scott Berkun. A humorous look into the workings of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, and how a distributed workforce can be corralled into a industry leader.

WordPress To Go: How To Build A WordPress Website On Your Own Domain, From Scratch, Even If You Are A Complete Beginner– by Sarah McHarry. Why list this book? Well, because its just about the best book I’ve found for WordPress beginners. An excellent resource if you are just starting out with your first WordPress site and want to get your hands just a little dirty with the insides.

WordPress Tutorials by Lynda.com– Some of the finest WordPress training videos on the web.

YouTube Collections

WPBeginner – WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for WordPress beginners. Videos, online tutorials. A great resource.

Ronnie Bincer – The Hangout Helper

77WebStudio – 77webstudio is an online school that teaches web skills to help you thrive in today’s tech-centered world.

<em>Disclaimer: Some of the off-site links referenced on this site are what is referred to as an affiliate link. If you choose to purchase or use the product or service through that link, I will get a small referral fee from the service or product provider. The price of the resource is the same whether or not you use my affiliate link. </em>

“Add New Post” can be an intimidating prompt to see at the top of a blank editing panel in your blogging software. You can scour the web for helpful hints and tidbits on how to get past that invitation to build your platform. You can read books, listen to podcasts, talk, yes, actually verbally communicate with other human beings, to get insights and motivation.

Me, I decided my energies were best served with a book I recently came across: Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (affiliate link). Mind you, this wasn’t my first go-round on looking for inspiration. I did try all those other sources, and came across some wonderful nuggets. Btw, I’ll use that term, “nuggets”, a lot on this blog. It’s how I refer to things that I pick up when I’m in a learning environment, which can happen almost anywhere. But I digress. Michael’s book stuck with me, and I can’t even remember who to thank for bringing it to my attention. First I borrowed it from my local library, and then decided to purchase it so I could mark it up. Although written in 2012, eons ago by today’s social media standards, it did provide me with a relevant “step-by-step guide for anyone with something to say or sell” as advertised. You’ll see references to it throughout my site and you will notice me taking full advantage of Mr. Hyatt’s invitation to use his ideas.

I do have something to say, which I will do on these pages, and something to sell, which I will do on the other pages of the site. Here, I’ll offer my thoughts on WordPress, web site administration, the strength of procedural repetition, interesting things I come across – some scary and some funny (at least to me), small businesses and virtual workplaces. It seems like a big list, but I want to make sure I’m not misleading anyone by going off on an unexpected tangent. I’ll probably even throw in something coffee ‘n cap related at times, since those two topics are top of mind for me almost all the time (pun intended).

Come back and visit from time to time. I’m planning to post some tidbits here once a week. See if you can pick up some nuggets. Subscribe to this blog, or maybe even to our mailing list. Let me know what you think. After all, if I’m going to have a blog, it’s only as good as the folks who visit it, and read it, and share their thoughts on it.

And we’re off.

All the best to you,
Matt