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Poor Richard's Web Site: A Book Review | |
By: Hilary Lane
May 1998
Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense
Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site
by Peter Kent
ISBN 0-9661032-8-9
Top Floor Publishing
Web sites. Everyone seems to have 'em except you, but your business needs to be competitive. You don't have a big budget. Where do you start?
Wading through the thousands of books about designing successful Web pages can be confusing, especially translating the hype and technical jargon. You need practical advice, not a primer on programming language or software packages that cost a bundle.
Lakewood-based Peter Kent, the Geek News columnist for The Boulder County Business Report,wrote and published Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site to explain all the necessary steps to set up that Web site inexpensively, in an entertaining, user-friendly, low-tech manner. HTML books often show how to create a Web page, but this one explains how to build an entire site and offers strategies to promote it successfully.
This book is based on Kent's own experience: "I wrote Poor Richard's Web Site not because I'm the world expert on Web sites, but because I'm the world expert on Web site mistakes ... I've made them all at some point."
The book is divided into four sections: preparation, creation, promotion and the appendices, which offer checklists for choosing a Web host and promoting your site.
Before you even begin the process, Kent suggests you research the market. He provides enough information to determine whether you even need a Web site in the first place. He contends that some businesses do not lend themselves to Web promotion.
In one of the most useful segments of the book, Kent gives us a multitude of details and descriptions of the 42 services you need even before you begin the Web design process. For instance, how do you get a Web hosting service and how much do they cost? What is a virtual and non-virtual Web space and do you need one? What Web design packages are out there?
His approach alleviates the aggravation and frustration many feel when they have gathered much-needed information through various resources instead of in one convenient place. He even covers topics you don't even know to ask about and defines elusive geek terminology.
Another plus is that Kent uses actual Netscape browser screen shots to explain what you should be seeing and doing throughout your Web design process -- both good and bad. The screen shots also illustrate exactly what you receive from InterNic when you register your site, how you define passwords when you modify your domain, and other necessary data. However, he could have used more screen illustrations to explain design elements, such as the different types of frames or Java scripts and how they're used.
Now that you have your site up, how do you bring people to it?
Registering with search engines isn't enough. Almost the best part of the book is Kent's strategic advice and tips for promoting your site. He knows his stuff -- he has written and promoted 34 books successfully. He summarizes and presents examples of what works and what turns people off, how to announce the site in newsgroups properly, how to advertise. Even trickier is how to send electronic press releases to the media so they'll write about your business.
The book ends on tracking site use -- how do you know who's visiting your pages? With Web sites, you can figure out not only how many people are coming to it, but also see where they're coming from and what they do when they get there. Access logs are important, Kent writes, so you can correlate visits with your promotional and advertising efforts. You use the correlation to figure out how well you are turning visitors into customers.
Recommendation: If you're thinking of setting up a Web site, buy the book. Chock full of useful information, it'll be the best return on investment in Web building you'll ever get.
© 1998 Hilary Lane, all rights reserved.
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