Customer Reviews

101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site: Filled with Proven Internet Marketing Tips, Tools, Techniques, and Resources to Increase Your Web Site Traffic

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

When I first picked up 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site, I really didn't expect to find 101 different methods. After reading the book I am sure that 101 is a conservative number.

The author includes two chapters on search engine considerations, as well as chapter-length treatment of marketing in newsgroups, signature files, e-mail, discussion lists, newsletters, link trading, award recognitions, meta-indexes, online advertising, affiliate programs, cybermalls, encouraging repeat visits, press releases, e-zines, web rings, offline promotion, traffic analysis, webcasting, and launching a website. In addition, the book has five appendices, including a brief glossary and a sample implementation and maintenance schedule. The book is especially rich in providing URLs for hundreds of sites that provide additional information.

I was disappointed to find little or no treatment of two very important Web marketing strategies: search engine positioning through doorway pages and viral marketing.

Sweeney does a great job of exposing the reader to the wide variety of methods that can be used to promote a website, but for an in-depth treatment of any of these, the reader will need to consult more specialized books. 101 Ways to Promote Your Website provides an excellent introduction to Web marketing for small to medium-size businesses, and deserves the wide acceptance it has already found in the marketplace.

The book is better than a few other books I have bought. I have used most of the techniques listed in the book, and I know they work. However, I feel being cheated by the publisher because the book promises 101 ways, and I only found 56 ways. The subtitle is more accurate as it hints that the 101 ways include tips and resources. Also, I'm very disappointed by the companion Web site. All I found are links to other Web sites mentioned in the book!!! There's absolutely no value to this companion site. I would have given this book a higher score if it covers more of the promotion techniques in greater depth. Out of the 56 ways, only 1/3 are covered well, and they are already familiar to most people: seach engines, directories, newsgroups, mailing lists, banner ads, and cybermall. The book could have focused more on the less known techniques such as online seminars, interactive tours, chat rooms, free offers, sponsoring Net events, and techniques used by such popular sites as Amazon.com and CNet. Finally, like many of the Internet books I have bought, some of the information in the book is already out dated. For example, the domain name registration agency is no longer at www.internic.net. The author could have provided some advice on how to keep up with the changes on the Internet.

I purchased the first addition of 101 Ways and I was extremely pleased, and when I found out that the second addition was available I immediately ordered a copy. This book is jam packed with effective techniques that I used to help promote my organization's Web site.

Personally, I found the additions to this book to be a great asset. The additional chapters on Webcasting Technology, E-commerce, Web Traffic Analysis, and Affiliate Programs were in-depth - yet easy to understand. Unlike other Internet related books, this one doesn't confuse the reader with technical jargon. Instead it is written in plain English and is full of examples that helped me to understand the different online marketing techniques. Needless to say whenever I am doing any online marketing for my organization I have my copy of "101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site" on my desktop!

I'm very disappointed by the quality of this book. There're a lot of good topics but most of their contents are too general and lack of substance. Two other books: "Advertising on the Internet" and "Internet Marketing and Promotion" are much, much better. Also, the book needs to be updated to reflect the new trends on the Internet. A lot of things have happened since the book was written.

I bought and read six books on Internet commerce. I found that Poor Richard's Internet Marketing and Promotions is the most practical and useful. This 101 Ways book disappointed me for two reasons: a useless companion Web site and insufficient writeup of most topics. I suggest the author/publisher be more honest in their marketing approach. This is a book that doesn't walk its talk.

This book would be helpful to the online novice, but it will be an annoyance to anybody that has been on the Internet for more than 90 days. Many important subjects are slighted by a mere paragraph, including affiliate programs, while Web Rings and Awards sites are granted entire chapters. And one of the big selling points of this book is an online companion site, but their site is more of a liability than anything else with little sign of updates.

This would have been an awesome book if it was released in, say, 2002, which is obviously when the material was written. Exhibit A: there isn't one mention of blogs. Not one! (Do you think blogs may have something to do with website promotion?) Exhibit B: A lot of the links given in the book are long dead. For instance, the author suggests using Recommend-it.com, which went out of business years ago. Still, the book is a good summary of the various strategies available for promoting a website, but I took away one star for the out-of-date material and another on general principle: If you're going to recycle old text (obviously from previous books), at least make *some* effort to update it!

In my humble opinion, this book is strong in resource links and appears to cover a number of useful topics. But I feel that it is NOT written in sufficient depth. The weaknesses of this book include: (1) Many of the important topics are covered only in one or two paragraphs while less important topics, such as signature file, are given entire chapters, (2) Too many "definitions" of terms and not enough "how to", (3) Not up-to-date in Internet development, and (4) The 50+ pages of Appendix could have been left out because they are very basic information that can be obtained by doing a search in Yahoo!

I'm doubtful a book like this can do you any good. One only has to read "Business the Amazon.com Way" to realize that Amazon.com has many more successful ways of marketing and promotion itself. I think you would be more successful by reading everything about Amazon.com and try to model (without imitating) its business formula.

In looking for good literature about Internet Marketing, I ran across this title. I literally browsed through pages at a time, looking for useful information. It wasn't until I hit the chapters dealing with mailing lists, use of newsgroups and media to promote web sites that I found some useful information. The sections on keywords and search engine optimization were, to say the least, VERY superficial. There are better titles out there dealing with the topic.

I assume you're here, reading this review because you are looking for ways to promote your website, and the title of this book hit that mark for you.

Assuming this to be true, do yourself a favor. Go over to Amazon's listing for "How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote and Market Your Business or Website with Little or No Money" by Bruce C. Brown. It is a million times the book this one is, and the reviews that are already in place there will more than convince you.