Book Review Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

Last Update: August 05, 2012
Just finished reading Crush It, why now is the time to cash in on your passion by Gary Vaynerchuk the winelibrary.tv guy.

If you have a passion or hobby and lets face it everyone has then this book is for you. In it he explains how he built his fathers wine business on the internet when he discovered the tools to do it including wordpress, facebook and twitter.

Gays medium of choice is video where he has a daily wine tasting clip. He has built his brand up and as he says crushed it for six years now. He also does seminars all around teaching people to create their own brand and sell it.

He shows the use of social mediums to create traffic and use that traffic to monetize sales. He is very focused and shows that to succeed you need to read everything in your niche become a guru and respect each and every person you come across. The thing is if you are already passionate about it the work it doesn't become a chore it becomes your hobby and you don't mind doing extra hours to accomplish things.

I know the guys here suggest starting a niche on something your knowledgeable about so this fits the groove properly. If you know about it you can write easily and be able to answer questions and queries without sweating about it.

I think what Gary is trying to suggest is rather than creating loads of niches and spreading yourself thinly around them its better to focus on one main niche and put your heart and soul into it. If your content is pure, correct and not full of bs you will gather a following of loyal readers who will spread the word and the money will start to roll in. He does say very clearly that Rome wasn't built in a day and it takes time so if you think this is another get rich quick theme then you are mistaken it will take a lot of work and you may not see any results for 6 months.

I have to say I enjoyed the book, it is only 142 pages long so you can get through it in a day or so but you may want to go over it again and take notes as there are many tips and ideas. As I am currently working on a niche around my hobby this book came at the correct time for me so I can start putting it into practice. Here's hoping six months from now I will have a dribble of revenue that I can work from.

I have to say I did see a few reviews of this book in the negative side where I feel the person was already on the IM progression ladder saying that it had too much fluff and no application. However all the tools are in WA anyway so I would recommend this as a good motivational aid for someone starting out.

You can get this on Amazon for about $5 I wouldn't spend any more, if you are starting out every penny counts, right.

Leave any comments or questions below and I'll try and get back to you asap. Good Luck!
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bigstevec Premium
another testament to the fact that IM is a business not a GRQ scheme
tommo1968 Premium
Sure is Steve you have to work at it. The thing about the book is you don't mind working at it when your enjoying it. Pick a hobby you like and go with it. It just flows out of you.
Shawn Martin Premium
I will give it a look. Sounds like a good read, thanks!
tommo1968 Premium
There are some great tips. Alas like anything in IM you will have to work at it but I know you have that in bucket loads Shawn.
kyle Premium Plus
I have read a few mixed reviews on Gary's latest book. He does have good ideas and one thing that he always emphasizes within any of his writing or speaking events is 'customer relationships'. If you can relate and get your customers to like you, regardless of the industry, you can and will experience success. :)

Like you said, it is better to be the 100 meter gold medalist in sprinting than it is to try to win the online decathalon. People tend to spread themselves far too thin which only leads to mediocrity.

Good review!
tommo1968 Premium
Yea Kyle I hear stories in here of guys setting up hundreds of sites that bring in a dribble each, I'm here for the long haul. I my dabble from time to time to see if new techniques work etc but that would be training and research otherwise I'm going to create a brand.
kyle Premium Plus
Why create 100 lame sites when you could create ONE unbelievable site? That is the approach I have always taken with everything I do. Don't create things with the idea of selling your idea at some point (selling your site), create it for the customer and you will be naturally creating something of value.
veronica.l Premium
Sounds like a good read, thanks for sharing!
tommo1968 Premium
Your welcome, just trying to give something back as I have received so much from this community.
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