"Release Your Inner Entrepreneur" (RYIE) should be required reading for anyone beginning to consider starting a business. If you are already further along than that, you probably need it even more.

Those are pretty bold statements.

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For more information on RYIE, and why it should be on your reading list, following is an interview I did with Jay Beavy of the Second Fortune blog on Internet marketing (IM):

Why don't I hear the "e" word that much in the Internet marketing world?

More to the point, you may be wondering what an "ivory tower" concept like entrepreneurship has to do with Internet marketing (IM). The answer is ... EVERYTHING! We think RYIE's subtitle says it all:

Because you don't want to just build a list...
You want to build a BUSINESS.

Did you consider doing the book with an IM "biggie?"

The "gurus" that I contacted about joint venturing on this book had various comments, but several indicated to me a feeling that the rank-and-file IMers are not quite up to talking about so complex a topic as business-building. Other comments were that the topic is too abstract, that you mostly want to hear about blogging, pinging, clicking, and autoresponding,.

Now, I don't minimize the importance of these topics, but I feel you will be far more effective if these go from center-stage to merely techniques that help us toward our goal of business and financial success.

Rather than these rather mechanical skills, I decided that what the text needed was a coaching perspective, and teamed up with Ben Botes of my1stbusiness.com.

Bear in mind that 98.5% of IMers never make money at it. But they are the source of the fortunes that the other 1.5% make. This failure rate is not based on any scientific evidence, but seems to have become the consensus of industry observers. So, unless you are already TOO successful at making money online, read our book, because we are going to develop some perspectives that will help you to, as they say, "reach the next level."

How will reading the book improve our chances of success?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines an entrepreneur as "a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for business ventures." If you are not satisfied with the performance of your business to-date, take a minute to assess how you are doing at organizing, operating, and assuming risk.

RYIE leads you through assessing the approach to the marketplace that works best for you, while addressing the "real" opportunities out there. It then helps you to make realistic estimates of the time and resources required to be successful. You then draw up a broad and flexible plan that will lead to a successful implementation.

Most readers go into this process while trying to dodge the "hard stuff," like self-assessment, forecasting, and business planning. But you avoid them at your own peril.

How would you assess the "state-of-the-art" in Internet marketing?

I think that in some ways we are entering a more constructive period in IM. Search engines are leading us full-circle, back to where sites are recognized for quality of content. We are leaving a period of intense reliance on the ability of SEOs (search engine optimizers) to "game" our site to prominence. 

The process has gotten a bit more rational recently but new skills are being required all the time. Can you build a Google site map? Do you "get" RSS?

Off-page factors are in ascendancy. Link popularity is important, because  it is presumed that quality content drives links. This presumption may be a bit shaky, but we sooo... want to believe it.

Sure, there are games still being played. The level of fear that many IM practitioners feel about writing an article is second only to the fear of having to present it in public. So we have software available for compiling our blogs automatically from RSS feeds. And the search engines are getting smart enough to tell authored text from that which is merely "scraped."

"Fire sales" and giveaways are putting volumes of poorly written and outdated material in the hands of thousands of IMers bent on cashing in on resell rights, and distributing parts of them as original articles. And article directories are increasingly using human editors to qualify contributed material.

So, how does your book address these issues?

Our book, "RYIE," does not address these issues directly, but places its focus on how to organize and operate a business that is based on a sound business model, and guided by a well-researched and crafted business plan. The resulting business, because it is so thoughtfully put together, is opportunistic and "agile."

How is your eBook better than all the other business startup advice books out there?

RYIE is a refined and updated version of very successful teaching materials that I have developed and improved over 15 years. It is easy to follow, deeply illustrated, and coordinated with a running case study of a business that I ran for over 20 years. 

While RYIE is designed to be applicable to any type of business, it is written from the perspective of an Internet entrepreneur. The material is further tailored to the Internet marketer by its companion website, ryie.com.

How do I buy RYIE?

I feared you would never ask. Just press the button >>>

Tell us a little about the contents.

There are seven chapters averaging just over 30 pages each. It is easy to read, with plenty of opportunities to apply what you have learned to your current venture or ideas.

The first chapter helps you to examine your motivation and commitment relative to owning and running a startup business. It was written by Ben Botes, a widely renowned business coach.

The next two chapters build the foundation for what follows. Chapter 2 covers concepts and issues relating to entrepreneurship. In the third chapter we build some skills that are critical to successful entrepreneurs.

These skills include how to generate business ideas and do market research, and how to evaluate these ideas to find out which are genuine opportunities. We also talk about writing an effective marketing plan, and begin to assess the financial potential of the selected opportunity.

The next two chapters focus on implementation, including the pros and cons of the different ways that we can take our product to the market. At this point we lead you through preparing a business plan, your blueprint to success and the standard way to introduce yourself to the venture community.

The last two chapters prepare you for some of the many challenges you will face at startup and beyond, including an extended discussion of family business.

And what about the obligatory free bonuses?

I am new to this Internet marketing stuff, so let me know if these helped you to decide for or against buying the book, or if they did not move you either way. Get ready now, because I am putting on my best radio announcer voice:

These are from a collection of eBooks that I have received over the last few months. I started at the top of the list in alphabetic order, and selected the first eleven of those that are approved for free distribution.

Why eleven? No particular reason. Oh, let's say ten books and a newsletter sounded about right. Could you just as easily have gotten these on your own? Probably, and there may be later editions available for some of them. Be careful, some of these are no more than thinly-disguised ads for their author.

Of course I am trying to be facetious. This is the part of the traditional sales letter where the author breathlessly announces the $5,437 worth of free bonuses if you buy today. You may have noticed that you can take our bonuses now, because we want the purchase process to be as simple as ClickBank can make it.

Why have I taken the bonuses so lightly? Because we have priced RYIE so aggressively that you are getting great value for your money. In any case, I don't think I have ever gotten a free bonus that I thought was worth the hype. What has been your experience?

Look these over. Take your choice.

That's all we have time for today. Thanks for joining us, John.

It was my pleasure... (Applause, fade to black.)