With twenty books on the market, I have a lot of people who not only read what I write, but are enthused enough to sign up for my author newsletter. Smart idea: I often have freebies, giveaways, information on special discounts to events I’ll be attending, industry insider scoops and fun general chitchat. Even better, I only send out a newsletter sporadically, so it’s typically at least a month between issues. With a few pieces chopped out (see, you should subscribe!) here’s the latest issue to whet your appetite and give you an update on my latest ventures.

Hello everyone! I hope your summer is going well. For us, it’s day after day of heat here in Colorado, with late afternoon storm clouds that typically blow off without giving us a drop of rain.

Fortunately, my office has air conditioning, so I’ve been darn busy writing and working on various book projects. Allow me to give you an update, particularly since a book I’m quite excited about is coming out this very week!

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS WITH GOOGLE

Let’s start with The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google: it’s due out tomorrow, actually, from Penguin/Alpha and it’s a solid and invaluable business book for every online entrepreneur, whether you’re part of a larger company or just someone seeking to get higher search engine ranking and more visibility for your hobby site.

The foreword’s written by entrepreneurial expert Guy Kawasaki and I’ve already garnered testimonials for the book from folk like Tom Peters (who says “Dave’s book is a fabulously useful read on business blogging and Google”), Chris Pirillo (“You’d be a complete idiot if you ignore the advice found in this book”), SEO expert Brad Fallon (“Companies pay me thousands of dollars to teach them how to rank high on Google. And you’re giving it away. Please don’t release this book!”) and Microsofts’ Robert Scoble. (“this book will ensure that customers find you instead of your competition”).

Even better, I got a note from Penguin a few days ago: “I just thought you’d like to know that we’ve already had to reprint your book based on initial bookstore orders.” As my 5yo son would say, sweet!

So, yes, I have high hopes for this new title. What’s even better is that you can find out for yourself whether this book is all that it’s cracked up to be: I’m actively looking for reviewers, so if you are interested in a copy and can write up a review for a newsletter, magazine, user’s group publication, or even weblog, please contact me and let’s talk!

The Web site for the Google book is Growing Your Business with Google though it’s still a placeholder (that’ll change this week, it’s on my to-do list!)

LEARNING UNIX FOR MAC OS X TIGER

A month or two ago I published a new edition of my popular O’Reilly handbook Learning Unix for Mac OS X to coincide with the release of the new Tiger operating system, and it’s been doing very well too. Here’s a nice review from MacCompanion.

I’m still seeking more reviewers for this title – particularly from Unix and Linux folk just moving over to the Macintosh platform for the first time.

TEACH YOURSELF UNIX IN 24 HOURS, 4th EDITION

Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but amongst all this other work, I also managed an update to my popular Teach Yourself Unix book with Sams, and that should be out in the next 30 days or so. Lots of revisions and some entirely new chapters that help keep the book current with the state of the art in Unix / Linux and, yes, Mac OS X command line capabilities.

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SPEAKING GIGS

I really enjoy giving presentations at conferences and workshops, so it should be no surprise that I’m involved in a number of events in the next few weeks. Chief among them is my co-chairing the Blog Business Summit in San Francisco in two weeks. I’ll be offering a killer half-day “Blogging 101” workshop on the 17th that’ll be well-worth attending even if you’re just curious about what everyone’s talking about, but I’ll also be sharing the podium (read ‘debating’!) with various business blog experts as we help everyone figure out this important new communications technology and how to best leverage it for your business. http://www.blogbusinesssummit.com/ [held at the beautiful and historic Palace Hotel]

One of the most interesting organizations I know is the da Vinci Institute, a Colorado-based futurist think-tank led by Thomas Frey. I was recently honored to join their ranks as a Senior Fellow, and Thomas and I just announced that we’re co-hosting a Blogging Bootcamp in Denver on the 27th of August: if you can’t get to San Francisco, this’ll be a great alternative venue to learn all about blogging: http://www.davinciinstitute.com/

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I am always available to talk on a variety of business and technical topics at conferences and to users groups and other organizations. From keynotes to workshops, panels to hands-on working sessions, it’s all good. If you have a venue where I’d be a great match, email me and let’s work something out!

AND IN BLOGGING NEWS

Yeah, I know, blog, blog, blog. But ya know what? While blogging is a good avenue for me to disseminate information to the online community and a remarkably effective communications strategy, it’s also darn fun! And so I am pleased to note that all three of my main weblogs have been seeing significantly increased traffic and visibility. Not a week goes by now that I’m not cited or quoted in some reputable publication. Here’s where I’m spending my spare time:

  •   The Intuitive Life Business Blog
  •   Ask Dave Taylor Tech & Biz Q&A
  •   The Attachment Parenting Blog

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One funny note blogwise: Google “Sony PSP help”. Yes, Ask Dave Taylor is now getting a tremendous influx of Playstation Portable questions, to the point where I actually bought a PSP and am documenting how to work with them. It’s a pretty darn nifty gadget, great for the geek in your life, and with the recent addition of a Web browser (it already has built-in wifi capabilities and can play MP3s, show photo slide shows, and play DVD-quality movies) this is a device worth keeping an eye on.

ENOUGH!

That’s enough for now. Sheesh, I sure can type a lot, can’t I? Lots of exciting news to share, I guess, and I haven’t even talked about my kids in this issue, have I? 🙂

As always, thank you so much for being involved and if there’s anything I can do to make your day better, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly. And do remember that as a subscriber if you ever want to get a free copy of one of my books, all you need to do is find a print or online outlet for a review and we can work something out!

Best regards,

Dave Taylor
Boulder, Colorado