The Missing Manual series, from O'Reilly, are beautifully written manuals with a casual, user-friendly tone for popular consumer software and hardware products. "Creating Web Sites" provides a basic, but practical, overview of the elements and terminology of a modern web site.
Creating Web Sites - The Missing Manual
by Matthew MacDonald
from Pogue Press™ O'REILLY®
Reviewed by Suzanne Engels, WebArtNTech
Our experience designing websites for small business clients is true to the old adage "An educated consumer is the best consumer". I've taught seminars on the basics of business websites to hundreds of small business owners. The most successful sites (and businesses!) know the basics on how a website function as part of one's marketing and sales strategy.
These same business owners maintain professional websites with us below standard industry costs. And they do not do it all themselves! They strategically choose (with our expert assistance and advice) website elements and Internet marketing expenditures with an eye on the payback ratio - in business terms - Return On Investment (ROI).
They learn to ask :
Can I afford it?
Do I have time to learn, setup and maintain the technology over time?
Can I afford to pay someone to setup and maintain the technology over time?
What results do I expect?
How will this investment benefit my business?
- Initial Cost + Effort
- PLUS Ongoing Cost + Effort
- AND Expected Results
- equals
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
We encourage our clients ( and prospective clients and anyone else who asks! ) to learn the basics of their website in order that they can make the best decisions for their business, their objectives and stay within their budget. Attending our seminars is one alternative. Another is to read this book.
How to use this book? Use it to LEARN what will COSTin MONEY, TIME and EFFORT. Our recommended reading outline for small business owners (October 2005, First Edition) -
Preparing for the Web : Chapter 1 tells you why doing business on the Web is NOT all about technology.
Images (photos, graphics, logo) : First 10 pages of Chapter 7, Adding Graphics, is an excellent introduction to understand how images work on the Web.
Web Host/Domains : The list of domain and hosting companies are not necessarily recommended by us, however the basic introduction and definitions of hosting, domains, FTP and other terminology are quite useful. We recommend at least browsing this chapter.
Attracting Visitors : Chapter 11, Skip the first few pages and start reading at the "Adding Meta Tags" (p. 295) and read through the end of the chapter (15 pages) to understand how your investment in meta tags, search engines, directories and visitor statistics will benefit your business on the Web.
BUY THIS BOOK. Read it. Build a website that meets your marketing needs, your business goals, your budget. Build Your Business on the Web.
