Book Reviews
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO
by Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie
Search engine optimization is not only the job of a marketing staff. It must be
considered from a web site's inception and throughout its lifetime by the web
site developer. Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP provides PHP
developers with the information they need to create and maintain a search engine
friendly web site, and avoid common pitfalls that confuse search engine spiders.
It discusses in depth how to to facilitate site spidering, and discusses the
various technologies and services that can be leveraged for site promotion.
Topics discussed include basic SEO concepts; search engine friendly URLs;
content relocation; duplicate content; on-page optimization; web syndication and
social bookmarking; and even some discussion of black hat SEO.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have written a unique, research driven work of art. Naked Conversations contains excerpts of hundreds of interviews about both best practices and mistakes of corporate blogs. It is a refined read that comes from multiple and diverse perspectives and tells amazing stories of both success and failure.
Highlighted are five success tips about blogging: talk — don’t sell, post often and be interesting, write on issues you know and care about, blogging saves money but costs time, and you get smarter by listening to what people tell you. All of these are interrelated. Blogs are also democratizing the media, driving increased corporate transparency and are rapidly rendering traditional corporate PR practices obsolete.
What about this book is important to your business? If you aren’t listening to your customers via blogging you are likely losing out on an opportunity to build brand loyalty, improve your product or service or worse, being ignored. And if your business doesn’t take advantage of blogging, the odds are ever increasing that someone else will.
The book’s best tip is “read a bunch of blogs before you start.” I couldn’t agree more. You learn about naming your blog and finding your voice, keeping it simple and showing your passion and authority for a topic. Blogs are easy to find by searching key words on blog search engines like Technorati, Sphere or IceRocket. If I had read this book before I launched my blog, it would be better in a number of subtle but important ways.
The main theme of this book is trust in the blogosphere. I emailed Shel Israel, who is still learning and innovating like all of us, and he says the word trust is mentioned in the book over 70 times — a little more than once every three pages. I commented that the foundation of the Internet is trust. The world craves and wants trust in all of it’s transactions. He responded, “I think you are right in that what’s going on is all about trust/not trust. I just didn’t realize that point when we were writing the book.”
David Dalka: David’s blog and contact information is located at daviddalka.com/createvalue.
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Authors Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell describe the viral marketing phenomenon — a contagious concept that has caught the attention of the Internet industry since its inception during the mid-1990s. They show how this word-of-mouth consciousness-raising approach is set free by those who are most likely to catch it and wait as users become “infected,” passing it on to others. This paperback contains original analogies and a tribute to Richard Dawkins — the evolutionary theorist who created the viral marketing idea. Dawkins believes the message “replicates itself like a growing, living organism that passes from one person to another.” There is also a creatively written foreword that takes readers to a business school reunion where former classmates trade fibs and boast about themselves. This alone reveals the strength of the decades-long buzz-based marketing concept.
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The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin
via Amazon: Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better-and look cooler-than $20 no-names . . . and believing it makes it true.
Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.
This is a book about doing what consumers demand-painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe. Every organization-from nonprofits to car companies, from political campaigns to wineglass blowers-must understand that the rules have changed (again). In an economy where the richest have an infinite number of choices (and no time to make them), every organization is a marketer and all marketing is about telling stories.
Marketers succeed when they tell us a story that fits our worldview, a story that we intuitively embrace and then share with our friends. Think of the Dyson vacuum cleaner or the iPod.
But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud. Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse the tools of their trade and make the world worse. That's a lesson learned the hard way by telemarketers and Marlboro.
This is a powerful book for anyone who wants to create things people truly want as opposed to commodities that people merely need.
Read more reviews about "All Marketers Are Liars" at Amazon!
by Doug Kayevia Amazon: Arms IT professionals with a complete blueprint for developing successful Web hosting strategies. Written by a consultant who helped develop the Web hosting strategies at many of today's top e-commerce vendors, this book fills in IT professionals on the full range of services available. The book provides decision-makers with criteria checklists and other useful tools they need for determining what they need, why they need it, how to find it, and how to evaluate and manage it. Doug Kaye provides a clear, complete roadmap for building an effective Web hosting strategy, and offers practical advice and answers to critical questions. The book covers important topics, including the real cost of bandwidth, domain name services, shared versus dedicated servers, backup and recovery, service-level agreements, security, negotiating with and managing vendors, and hardware maintenance and support. Companion Web site includes links to Web hosting directories, tools for evaluating hosting services, and online articles and white papers.
Strategies for Web Hosting and Managed Services
A Marketer's Guide to Objective Driven Success from Search Enginesvia Amazon: Search Marketing Strategies focuses on how to make the most from the search engine industry. Concentrating on the strategic element rather than the procedural approach, the author demonstrates how to adapt the tactical techniques, such as paid search, site side optimization and analytics packages, into search strategies in order to achieve marketing or corporate objectives such as branding, sales and customer acquisition.
- Focuses on search marketing strategy rather than search optimization
- Acts as a toolkit for adapting tactical techniques into search strategies
- Written for marketers, therefore the consideration of the topic of search is wholly relevant for the marketing function
Read more Reviews about "Search Marketing Strategies" at Amazon!
by Julius WiedmannThe world’s coolest online shopping sites. In this latest addition to the Web
Design series, we explore the very best of electronic commerce website design.
Now that people are using online shops to buy everything from computers to
groceries to clothing, e-commerce has become a major player in the sales
market—to such a degree that recent research has estimated that about 10% of US
"brick and mortar" sales are even influenced by online shops. From small
retailers to online superstores, this guide brings you the most cutting edge
e-commerce sites on the web today.
by Chetan Damani, Ravi Damani, Neil Sait
"Any successful business needs to
market its products and services to grow online..."
With annual ecommerce growth at double digits and new global emerging markets,
ecommerce expansion has become a focus for many businesses. As companies have
grown they have discovered through an approach of trial and error what works for
them and what fails. We understand that there is no one size-fits-all strategy
but rather a structured approach. We have taken our 8 years experience working
with some of the largest multi-national ecommerce businesses to some of the
smallest operations, from global brands to husband and wife stores our
cumulative knowledge has identified seven complimentary habits that have
produced the greatest growth and profitability increases for these organizations.
We believe that focusing on these 7 complimentary habits will not only help
organizations improve revenue and profitability but will increase market share
and enable these companies to leverage their success in the face of adverse
competition. We have found that there is no single technology, strategy or
marketing plan that differentiates the successful from the not so successful,
rather a set of habits that compliment each other. The seven habits are: Conduct
ROI Marketing, Measure analyze and optimize, Value the customer relationship, Go
beyond the brand, Effectively convert site visitors to customers, Help customers
help themselves, Invest in technology.
Learn more about "7 Habits of Successful Ecommerce Companies" at Amazon
The ease of development and simplicity of PHP, combined with a large
community and expansive repository of open source PHP libraries, make it a
favorite of web designers and developers worldwide.
PHP in a Nutshell is a complete reference to the core of the language as well as
the most popular PHP extensions. This book doesn't try to compete with or
replace the widely available online documentation. Instead, it is designed to
provide depth and breadth that can't be found elsewhere. PHP in a Nutshell
provides the maximum information density on PHP, without all the fluff and
extras that get in the way. The topic grouping, tips, and examples in this book
complement the online guide and make this an essential reference for every PHP
programmer. This book focuses on the functions commonly used by a majority of
developers, so you can look up the information you need quickly.
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This book focuses on the functions commonly used by a majority
of developers, so you can look up the information you need quickly.
Topics include: Object-oriented PHP, Networking, String
manipulation, Working with files, Database interaction, XML,
Multimedia creation, Mathematics
Whether you're just getting started or have years of experience in
PHP development, PHP in a Nutshell is a valuable addition to your
desk library.
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Learn more about "PHP In A Nutshell" at Amazon!
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows businesses to target their audiences precisely through keywords people type into a search engine which means businesses only pay when people click on a link in their ad. Growing advertising revenue from PPC (which is now the largest segment of the online advertising market - with a 30 percent annual growth rate) is behind the recent success of Google. This book, which is scheduled for release on December 26th, 2005 demystifies the sometimes confusing world of PPC and shows businesses how to maximize returns on PPC advertising. Topics covered include selecting among PPC providers (Google, Yahoo!, and MSN as well as lesser-known names such as Miva, 7Search, Enhance, and Kanoodle), choosing the right keywords, writing effective ads, calculating return on investment, using PPC click tracing and conversion tracking tools, watching for click fraud, and harnessing advanced PPC techniques.
Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing For Dummies
Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers' Minds
| Effective branding depends on the ability to leave a
lasting (and positive) impression in the mind of the target
audience. Brain Tattoos offers a practical approach -- no
complicated theories, marketing jargon, or unnecessary babble --
that lets any business take its brand to the next level. Packed with
tools that help readers identify their brand's purpose, personality,
promise, and point of difference, Brain Tattoos will help
readers:* Develop the courage to break the mold and become truly
distinct* Discover ways to enlist customers and others as "brand
ambassadors" |
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* Grasp their brand's essence* Master brand
building on any scale in any industry* Learn how to identify and use the most
effective methods of brand communication* Learn how to leverage limited
resources creatively. Filled with creative ways to maximize market impact, Brain Tattoos is a true "how-to" book written
with in-the-trenches business and marketing people in mind.
Brain Tattoos: Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers' Minds
Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy
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| Advertising and promotion professionals have long known that, while bells and whistles may grab a customer's attention, words make the sale. Yet, nearly a decade into the Web revolution, E-commerce professionals are just now waking up to the fact that the usual high-tech, graphics-heavy approach to site design is bad for business. Net Words explores the reasons why and makes a strong case for a revolutionary new approach to copywriting tailored to the unique demands of a powerful new medium. With the help of dozens of examples of successful and unsuccessful on-line writing, author Nick Usborne shows readers how to harness the power of the written word for the Web. Readers learn how to imbue a business with a distinctive on-line "voice" and use it to forge lasting bonds with customers, increase market share, and close sales. |
Net Words: Creating
High-Impact Online Copy
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| Search Engine Advertising by Catherine Seda
You don't have to have the biggest name
or the most dazzling graphics to lure customers to your Web site. These
days, all you really need is prominent search-engine placement. This
book shows you how to get it! With searching one of the most popular
Internet activities, a top spot on a major search engine virtually
ensures a high volume of visitors--though converting them to buyers is
another story. In these pages, top Internet marketer and strategist
Catherine Seda tackles both parts of that equation. First, she outlines
the strategy involved in buying the specific keyword positions that
will lead users directly to the page you want. Then, she describes how
you can turn poor-performing ad copy into targeted sales-getters, and
how you can evaluate and correct low visitor-to-buyer conversions. |
Search Engine Advertising
by Catherine Seda |
Beginning marketers will find the info they need to implement a Web
strategy quickly, while advanced marketers will find all kinds of tips
for analyzing and improving current results.
| While there is a plethora of books available that provide tips on Web design, most authors leave a significant gap between the theory and practice--a gap that is left up to the reader to fill. Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed boldly steps into that gap with specific observations and suggestions backed with solid quantitative analysis. This book focuses only on home page design as the most important point of presence for any Web site. This definitive work is coauthored by Jakob Nielsen--the accepted industry expert in Web usability--and Marie Tahir, an expert in user profiling. Their collaboration has produced a guide of such rare practical benefit that Web designers will likely wear out their first copy scouring the pages to savor every last morsel of wisdom. |
Homepage Usability:
50 Websites Deconstructed
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Topics covered: Design guidelines, convention usage, screen real estate, navigation, content presentation, search facilities, links, graphics and animation, advertising, news, customization, and customer feedback.