Not only can you use Google Book Search to search millions of archived books and newspapers, but you can now use it to search magazines.

Covering all kinds of magazines – New York Magazine, Jet, Ebony, Vegetarian Times, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science to name a handful – Google has digitized millions of pages of archived magazines.

Source: Erick Schonfeld, “Google Adds Print Magazines To Book Search,” December 9, 2008

Tech blog ReadWriteWeb recently asked 20 ‘top-tier’ tech bloggers and social media consultants how much they were paid. Half responded (on the basis ReadWriteWeb would maintain their anonymity) and what they said is interesting… very interesting…

Now, keep in mind we’re talking about career bloggers here - employees and freelancers who blog for a living - NOT blog owners/founders who ‘get paid’ by how much advertising they can sell, or by information product or affiliate marketing sales.

As far as freelancers go, most get paid on a ‘per post’ basis. Rates vary from $10 per post for very short posts to $25 per post for most posts. Most bloggers are paid $25 per post, although one respondent gets $80 per post and another is paid $200 per item of long-form writing.

ReadWriteWeb says that top bloggers write an average of 3 blog posts in 4 hours, sometimes more. That translates into $75 per half-day, or a little less than $20 per hour, and about $3,000 to $3,500 per month. That adds up to about $40,000 per year full-time.

Employee bloggers seem to fare a bit better, with ReadWriteWeb’s respondents reporting annual salaries ranging from $45,000 to $55,000 (plus benefits), to $70,000 to $90,000 (plus benefits) including bonuses.

These bloggers put in 50 to 60 hour work weeks, often longer, which equates to around $20 to $35 dollars per hour. Some employee bloggers may also get equity in the companies they work for, which ultimately means greater compensation, should such companies ever get bought out.

Apparently, there are a handful of full-time bloggers making six figures, but ’social media consulting’ - which ReadWriteWeb defines to include everything from search engine optimization (SEO) consulting to advising companies on how to set up blogs, use Twitter and implement RSS – seems to be where the highest incomes are.

Social media consultants make at least $150 per hour, with most making $300 per hour, and others commanding monthly rates of $2k to $4k per engagement, which probably amounts to 20 to 40 hours per month.

Not too shabby. Still, I stand by my advice: don’t give up being an entrepreneur!

Source: Marshall Kirkpatrick, “How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!”, ReadWriteWeb, October 9, 2008

I firmly believe that one of the best ways to learn is from other people’s mistakes… oh yeah, their successes too! That’s why I’m a big fan of ongoing education - continuing to actively seek knowledge, tools and skills you can use to enhance your business and life.

Part of that is finding one or more “gurus” (as in “teachers”) to learn from. But when it comes to gurus, it’s important to be selective. Why? Because, in my experience:

1. Only a few “gurus” are legitimate teachers with something of real value to offer. There are many self-proclaimed gurus who having nothing particularly original, innovative or powerful to add. Put it this way - if you went to the business section of your local bookstore and burned all but a handful of books, neither the world nor you would be worse off. Most of these authors regurgitate stuff that that only a few “thought leaders” - people like Jim Collins, Tom Peters, Steven Covey and Michael Gerber - have already covered. And don’t get me started on the Internet marketing “gurus” - in this niche the number of copy-cat, bandwagon jumpers is even more staggering.
2. When you do manage to find a handful of gurus worth listening to, you may find that while they share some viewpoints, they differ on certain details. If these particular details matter to you, it’s time to focus only on those gurus who you can relate to, and, for the most part, ignore the rest. Or ignore them as far as their differing views are concerned. Otherwise, if you’re continuing to listen to conflicting views, you’ll struggle to find the best path for you. Even worse you may end up doing nothing.
3. There’s only so much time in the day - and life in general - to put what one guru advises into practice, let alone what a few suggest. They all have their systems and exercises for you to do. Pick one or two and follow what they say. And then apply what you’ve learned by getting back to work!

Personally, I recommend being open-minded, whilst also retaining a healthy level of skepticism, when it comes to anyone or who proclaims to have the answers about what it takes to succeed in business or otherwise. Let them prove you right or wrong, as the case may be.

As a recovering perfectionist, let me wholeheartedly stress that, in many cases, you’re better off getting started with a given marketing initiative… rather than  waiting for all the research to be done, all the analysis to be complete, and everyone to be consulted.

While I also believe that some research, analysis and consultation is often necessary – you know, better to “look before you leap” to cite another cliché – once the evidence is overwhelming, it’s crucial to get underway for a number of reasons.

Possibly the most important reason for starting as soon as possible is to quickly get REAL answers about whether or not your marketing initiative will work.

No research study - and no-one’s expert opinion - beats actual market results. Assuming you have the ability to measure the results of your initiative (which is mandatory) you will soon see what is working and what isn’t, and what needs to be dumped, changed or further tested.

Which means delaying an initiative in order to gather more opinions about what will and won’t work is typically a colossal waste of time and resources. By all means begin your initiative based on some reasonable assumptions. For example, it’s reasonable to expect that an offer based on what’s popular according to search engine keyword analysis will be effective. But don’t delay it in order to conduct focus groups on whether or not your offer is likely to appeal to prospects. The opinions of a handful of focus groups (of six or so people each) are no match for the actual conversion data you’ll get from testing the offer in the marketplace.

Another reason why speed beats perfection is that it usually ensures that you actually do implement! So many worthwhile projects – including entire businesses – fail to get off the ground because they become mired in analysis paralysis… an endless loop of “stake holder” consultation… or the need for everything to be  exactly right. After a certain point, the longer the delay, the more others - and even you - will likely question the whole idea, and the greater the chance that it will be canned.

Thirdly, when you tend to introduce new initiatives only after a long, protracted process, you effectively perpetuate the idea that things must take a long time and a lot of effort before they can be implemented. Further, the pain associated with introducing a new initiative is likely to deter you from implementing further new initiatives. Not good when your business future likely relies on product and marketing innovation.

Meanwhile, long delays cause you to miss out on the power of momentum. Getting things going and seeing results quickly – good or bad – is empowering. It sends a message – both to yourself and others - that you CAN implement quickly… which, in turn, makes it easier to implement other things quickly.