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C’mon, admit it — you made a resolution this January 1st to start an online business, didn’t you?

You see, I am NUTS when it comes to small business books. I love to read anything about entrepreneurship I can get my hands on, and if something promises to be of at least some value, I’m heading to the checkout counter to buy it (I’ll take a picture of my entrepreneurship book collection as soon as I clean up around the room if anyone wants to see it).

But every time I head to the business section of my favorite bookstore (Chapters, here in Canada) most of the books I skim are either:

1.) About stuff I can easily get for free on the Internet,
2.) The same old rehashed information from other books, or
3.) Written for business executives working in corporations.

No, you don’t need to buy a book that shows you how to register your business. Neither do you need a book that teaches you the technical stuff about registering a domain name. Those are the easy, mindless things that you can spend 30 minutes learning about from Google.

So I cherry picked the best of the best in my collection of small business books to read for aspiring online entrepreneurs who want to try their shot at a one-man business to put a little extra money in their pockets this 2009. These are books that give you more than enough of the fundamentals that you need to learn, and should be more than enough to get you started.

11 books, 11 months left in 2009 (not counting January anymore because you have to give time for Amazon to ship these books, right?). Read the books here and learn about the intricacies of online entrepreneurship. Get inspired by the stories of others, and get to action and start your online business.

Note: I actually hesitated to put a few of these books up on the list because they were best-sellers, and there’s a huge chance that you’ve probably already read them if you read business books at all. However, I realize that plenty of my readers are people just planning or dreaming about starting an online business, and likely to be beginners in their own right.

February: “Getting Real” by 37Signals

Easily one of the better books to start off the year with. 37Signals is the genius company behind web applications such as Basecamp and Backpack. The “Getting Real” method revolves around the concept of less is more in business, and really inspires you to get something out there as soon as possible. Did you know you can read the book for free? Not a bad start to a top 12 list.

March: “Ready, Fire, Aim” by Michael Masterson

This is a book by the man behind Early To Rise, one of the newsletters published by the multi-million dollar publishing company Agora Inc. The beautiful thing about this book is that it is so much more than empty rhetoric but thin on actionable items — not this one. It’s full of useful tactics and strategies, and actually breaks down what it takes to create a multimillion dollar publishing business from scratch.

April: “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson

The long tail is such an important economic trend that this book is worth reading again. A takeaway from this book is that the best strategy to online business success isn’t to sell a lot of a few, but to sell a few of a lot. I’ve read this book twice now and I’m able to pick up nuggets everytime I’ve read it.

May: “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim

How would you like to start an online business in a market that seems too crowded, but still manage to blow your competitors out of the water by finding untapped market spaces? “Blue Ocean Strategy” is THE book for innovation and differentiation. Caveat: As amazing as this book is, sometimes it reads a little too scholarly. But don’t worry, you’ll be learning way too much to even think about falling asleep while reading it.

June: “AdWords For Dummies” by Howie Jacobson

I normally don’t buy print books with anything related to the Internet simply because the medium changes so much and so often that you never know when the book you bought was out of date. However, “AdWords For Dummies” is so excellently written and tops most of the pay-per-click courses you see online (which are usually full of hype and rehash) that I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. Get this and learn the ins and outs of advertising your website online.

July: “Get to the Top On Google” by David Viney

If I generally don’t buy books on pay-per-click advertising, then I’m more hesitant to getting print books on search engine optimization. This book tells you everything you need to know about how search engine optimization works and how you can get your website to rank highly in Google. It’s a great resource, and it reads very easily — a no-brainer if you absolutely MUST get a print book on SEO.

August: “Made To Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath

Think about the number of advertisements you’ve seen today — how many can you name off the top of your head? “Made To Stick” breaks down the SUCCES formula (no, that’s not a misspelling) on what makes people remember one idea, and forget everything else. This is useful not only for creating advertising, but also for analyzing your business ideas in the first place.

September: “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber

An entrepreneurship classic. This is one of the first entrepreneurship books I’ve ever read, and I’ve come back to it many times since then. Here you will differentiate between a business and a job, discover the importance of creating systems that you can scale, and learn the true meaning of “working on your business, not in it.”

October: “Adweek Copywriting Handbook” by Joseph Sugarman

One of the better guides on copywriting I’ve seen. Direct response advertising is an absolute MUST if you want to start an online business. Joe’s salesletter style is smooth, brilliant and engaging at the same time — making the book AND his ads really easy to read. I cannot say enough about the effectiveness of this book — it’s the perfect introduction on how to start creating your own copy.

November: “Influence” by Robert Cialdini

This book is a must read and will supplement the copywriting knowledge you have learned from Joe Sugarman. Persuasion is a science and has 6 ingredients: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. By using these six principles in your business, you will never have a difficult time getting sales for your products (note that “Influence” is one of the most recommended books for business professionals and entrepreneurs alike).

December: Anything and everything by Seth Godin (All Throughout The Year)

You can’t spell Godin without the letters G, O and D. Honestly, I could have an entire blog post about Seth and that would nowhere be enough. Possibly the most influencial marketing non-guru ever — and you gotta love how he actually puts what he talks about into practice. The essentials? “Purple Cow”, “Meatball Sundae”, and “All Marketers Are Liars”.

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How’d you like the list above? Let me know in the comments below!

PS. I’m thinking about doing a similar list for business blogs… If that’s something you want to see, let me know.

It’s no secret that the economy is in trouble.

We all know that the recent economic turmoil that has left millions around the world unemployed or underemployed. In fact, many people I know has actually given up looking for employment because there’s simply nothing out there to make it worth their while.

There is NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that more and more people are looking to the internet as a source of additional income. Maybe you’re looking to find something to supplement your income, maybe you’re trying to find a way to earn some cash while you’re transitioning between jobs, whatever.

I’m Risking Alienating Some Of My Readers, But…

With that said, Startup Launchr is switching its gears a little bit.

You see, when I started the blog, I wanted to cover everything one would possibly want to know about an online business.

But after some reflection over the holidays, I realized that this would be far too daunting of a task for a one-man show. I would be disobeying my own rule of tackling a niche and covering it well if I continued along the path that I was going.

Besides, even if I do have experience with many forms of online businesses, my knowledge is far from being extensive enough to do you justice.

So from this point forward, Startup Launchr will focus solely on starting an online business that’s designed to monetize information.

I figured that because my expertise in online businesses revolve around making money online from information, I have decided that I will no longer cover topics such as selling physical products, selling freelance services or running websites that connect two types of audiences together (such as eBay, job boards, etc.).

Selling Information Online Is The Best Way To Make Money On The Internet

Yes, I honestly believe that if done right, selling information online is one of the best and easiest ways to make money on the Internet.

Now, when I say “information” I’m NOT talking about the same thing you’ll read about in stupid get-rich-quick schemes you’ll find polluting the internet. It isn’t about selling a guide on how to make money by selling a guide on how to make money.

When I say information, I’m talking about knowledge-based products that do one of the following things:

• solve a problem for people

• educate people

• entertain people

Selling information involves more than just writing ebooks (even though ebooks are the most common form of information products). You could also sell audios, videos, printed guides, DVDs, CDs, password protected blogs, software, etc.

The best part of it is that EVERYBODY IS AN EXPERT ON SOMETHING! Together, we will explore

If you really put your imagination to work, the possibilities are virtually UNLIMITED!

What You Can Expect From Startup Launchr

From this point forward, expect posts on topics such as:

• Starting an online business that you will enjoy and have fun running

• Finding profitable markets to start a mini-business in

• Types of information mini-businesses you can start online

• Advertising your online business through pay-per-click (my expertise!)

• Outsourcing techniques to get you the best bang for your buck

• Search engine optimization strategies that get your website ranked in Google

• Techniques on how to monetizing your blog

• Selling other people’s products, ie. affiliate marketing

• Marketing mindsets that get you inside the brains of your customers and give them what they want

• Copywriting and the art of gentle persuasion to get people to buy your product

• And much more!

With the current economic conditions, it’s only appropriate that the new focus of Startup Launchr is to help you start a mini-business that puts an extra $100, $500 or even $2000 in your pockets every month.

No, I can’t promise that I can help you build a business online that will make you filthy stinkin’ rich — Startup Launchr has never been about that. But hey, that extra $500 a month of passive income goes a long way into your mortgage or car payments.

What I Need From Startup Launchr Subscribers — Yes, That’s YOU!

There’s about 80 of you now who decided to click on the Subscribe button over to the right side, and there’s one thing that I need from you right now. That is to answer this one question truthfully:

“What is your biggest problem or question about starting an online business?”

I need you to supply me with ammunition on what to write about. I have a few ideas already, but of course, if I could get direct input from you that would be even better.

So hit up the comments section below and let me know your burning question!

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I’m excited about this new direction that I’m going to be taking this blog in 2009. I hope you are too! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Although a little late, I would like to greet Startup Launchr readers a very happy new year!

May this one be even better than 2008 was. Now that the holiday hangovers are kicking in, I hope everyone is making good use of their time to stay on point with their goals and aspirations.

I realize I haven’t updated the blog in months… My fault! I’ve been busy working on several ventures and had to slide this one on the backburner for a little bit. Needless to say, I’m back with a new focus and a new direction for Startup Launchr this 2009 to make this year a GREAT one for all of us entrepreneurs and aspiring ones.

You’ll hear more from me within the next couple of days. But for now, let’s rejoice! Hoorah.