| Here are 12 essential books and Web sites that will help you make an attractive and usable Web site, use email profitably, and generally work with and on the Internet. This list is just a starting place. The Internet itself is changing too fast for any print book to keep up with all the resources on or about it, and that's why the first listing is this book's companion Web site. BuildProfitsOnline.com This is where you can read and contribute corrections, additions, and updates to what you have just read in The Online Rules of Successful Companies. You'll see stories about people who are making money on the Internet and how they're doing it, along with other readers' comments about those stories. And if you have an online business success story of your own, this is the place to share it! Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity By Jakob Nielsen (New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 156205810X; First Edition, December 1999) Nielsen is the "king" of online usability. If you are a serious Web site builder, you must read this book. You may not want to follow all of Nielsen's advice, but you should know what he says before you start deviating from the rules he lays down for usable site design. Zeldman.com Follow the latest trends in Web design, brought to you by one of the world's most respected online graphics gurus. Use Jeffrey Zeldman's many free tutorials to learn everything from basic HTML to the latest in cascading style sheets, buy Zeldman's excellent book, Taking Your Talent to the Web, at www.zeldman.com/talent/, hang out with leading and aspiring Web designers at A List Apart. This is an amazing resource for Web designers and those who deal with them. HTML 4 for the World Wide Web By Elizabeth Castro (Peachpit Press; ISBN: 0201354934; Fourth Edition, October 20, 1999) Castro has been writing practical, well-illustrated HTML authoring manuals almost since the beginning of the World Wide Web. It's best to get the latest edition, although you can't go wrong starting with an older version, since the basics haven't changed all that much. Castro's books are found next to many designers' keyboards, used as references even by people who have years of experience writing HTML and other site-producing code, even though they are really aimed at beginners. Webmonkey.com Webmonkey is a constantly-updated, "check it regularly" Web design resource, with sections for beginners, builders and masters. It's been around for over five years, and over that time it has built up a huge library of code snippets, links, and tutorials that can help you do things like create cool forms and other Javascript and CGI goodies and get them right the first time even if you've never messed with Javascript before. Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Strategies for Reducing Cost and Improving Service By Martin Christopher (Prentice Hall PTR; ISBN 0273630490; Second Edition, 1998) This one is listed here specifically for ecommerce hopefuls who need help setting up everything that goes behind their Web sites, an area that many online businesses have forgotten can make or break them and that has broken more than one. Webpagesthatsuck.com This site has been around for a long, long time. You don't want it to link to yours. Vincent Flanders, who runs it, has made a career out of pointing to bad Web sites and showing people how not to make one. He's written two books (that you can buy through his site), he gives speeches, he does consulting. As long as people and businesses keep on making bad Web sites, Flanders will make a living. Sadly, it looks like he's going to have plenty of material to keep going for the rest of his life. Permission-Based E-Mail Marketing That Works! By Kim MacPherson (Dearborn Trade; ISBN: 0793142954; May 2001) Once you get beyond the exclamation point in the title and some of the "Isn't the Internet wonderful!" copy, what you have here is one of the few books ever written that tells you how to use email as a practical marketing and customer relations device, in great detail, including sample cost figures for various types of campaigns. (Note that this is not a spammer's manual. Spam is bad. We don't like spam around here.) Clickz.net It's a site for, by, and about online marketers, full of marketing tips and tricks for both large and small businesses, with an emphasis on rah-rah direct sales tactics. The Online Copywriter's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Write Online Copy That Sells By Robert W. Bly (McGraw Hill - NTC; ISBN: 0658021141; Second Edition, February 20, 2002) This is the best guide to writing online advertising copy out there right now. Bly was already justifiably famous for The Copywriter's Handbook, a classic in the "how to write powerful ad copy" field that came out in 1984, well before the Internet was a sales medium or even open to the public. Don't forget: You can make a lovely site with a great navigation scheme, but in the end it's your words that get them to buy the product. IAB.net The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) calls itself, "The first global not-for-profit association devoted exclusively to maximizing the use and effectiveness of advertising on the Internet," and that's exactly what it is. Keep an eye on this site for the latest trends in online advertising. It's also the place to find out about standard banner ad sizes and presentation methods. Whether you're on the buying or selling end of the online advertising business, IAB is an essential resource. Sitecritique.net Think of this site as peer review for your site, as well as a valuable look at what others are doing, categorized by type of business, and how they were rated by other Web site owners. If you are getting ready to make your first Web site (or to redesign one you already have) a look through Sitecritique.net can save you time and money. Free registration is required for some site features, and "professional" critiques are available for a small additional fee. Either way, using Sitecritique.net is lots cheaper than paying a marketing research company to run focus groups, and both the peer review feature and professional reviews here seem to be right on target. |
