Customer Reviews

Million Dollar Website: Simple Steps to Help You Compete with the Big Boys - Even on a Small BusinessBudget

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have developed several hundred websites over the last decade, optimized them for Google, and have literally made millions for my clients. I can personally attest for what makes a million-dollar website, so I bought this book from Amazon to see how it measured up.

[9/16/10 Update: All of the 5-Star reviewers have not reviewed a single book on Amazon besides this one. Just saying]

This book is a nice starting point for newbies, but doesn't deserve the name it was given. While Lori Culwell certainly has a great grasp of website functionality, the lack of suggestions on search engine optimization alone will prevent your website from generating serious revenue.

What's useful about this book is that Culwell uses an actual client's website as an example of how a site can be redesigned using the techniques she suggests. The book offers good ideas on how to select your site's target keywords, encouraging people to subscribe to a newsletter, and how to make the site more interactive for customers. Her strongest area shows in Chapter 8, in which she gives good advice on how to organize your site's content.

Where the book falls short starts at Chapter 4, in which she suggests that you pick your five favorite sites, and use their features as models for your own. This strategy makes little sense, as your five favorite sites may not be structured perfectly nor optimized well for Google.

Speaking of Google, search engines love content. Which makes it confusing that she asks you to limit the amount of text on the homepage. If you at least format your homepage so that it's easy to scan, you'll rank better on Google with more content, and won't scare off visitors. Culwell offers a chapter on writing content, but with no suggestions on even the most common sales copy writing formats such as AIDA.

The book's biggest drawback is that it's incredibly weak when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Contrary to her suggestion, you don't have to actually submit your site to search engines for it to be indexed. While Culwell mentions use of anchor text (although not with that term), she doesn't realize nor mention how effective it is for offsite optimization. Ironically, the nursing site that she worked on isn't properly optimized for Google. Her own marketing website is also not optimized correctly, and has a few issues that can actually get her penalized by search engines.

The author knows content architecture well, but beyond that, her knowledge of search engine marketing is extremely limited. While she's familiar with writing content in general, there's zero emphasis in this book on writing sales-driven copy. If you're totally new to websites, this would make a decent primer. But if you actually want a million-dollar website like the title suggests, you won't get one following only the suggestions found in this book.

I bought this book thinking it would be a summary of the usual fluff for getting your web site noticed. I was pleasantly surprised to find it went well beyond this and offered detailed procedures and best practices for getting my site noticed. Following Ms. Culwell's advice, my site went from nowhere -- to page one on Google in just three weeks. This isn't possible without dedicating some time to the processes she describes, but I found her book deconstructs what needs to be done in the right order and explains it in easy to understand steps. Having followed her advice, I'm able to apply the same SEO that the larger outfits do but only with a fraction of the cost.

Now that I own my own copy, I'm comfortable ordering several more as stocking stuffers. It's really difficult to overstate how important it is to start off on the right foot -- from defining your audience, researching your keywords, installing the right tools to gauge success, and creating killer content. Page by page, this book is worth it's weight in gold leaf. Of the many books encountered on this subject, this one has to be my bible for SEO.

Written in a very conversational manner, Lori Culwell takes the "geekspeak" out of how to improve your website. She deftly translates all of those techie terms into real English - so that anyone can understand them. Besides that, the author has packed the book full of practical, easy things you can do today to turn yours into a Million Dollar Website.

I was expecting specifics, steps and insights regarding building a biz website. There was too much random talk and the book did not read well for me.

I just finished reading this book last night and I was very pleased once I had put it down.

I have been in the web development industry for many years and have brought up the information in this book many times with clients when helping them plan or redo their website. What I really like about Million Dollar Website is that Lori has put all of the important things to consider for a website in a very readable and well thought out package. Even though the book is a couple years old, the advice and information still ring true.

If you are a business owner or someone in charge of the company website then this book will be a great resource for you.

I read this book to brush up on my experience.

While I didn't learn anything revolutionary and new, I like how much information is packed in a simple, conversational style that really pulls together all the core elements of creating an excellent foundation for a strong website that delivers on aesthetics and content.

I know another reviewer was not happy with the SEO information given, my personal belief is that Culwell provided enough information to help basic and intermediate SEO learners grasp the ropes and begin. If you're looking for a really good SEO primer, I recommend [...] --- they have a free ebook on SEO that is 99 pages of pure excellence.

Overall, I would definitely consider reading this again and adding it to my collection.

This book does a great job of giving you an overview of things to keep in mind when you're creating (or re-creating) your website. I liked that the author went into many different disciplines of web stuff, including how to organize your website, keeping the overall goal and the user in mind, and designing for the target audience. I felt like I had a better understanding of what websites were actually for after I read this book, as opposed to it being too slick and filled with empty marketing. I am working on my new site now, step by step!

I really enjoyed this book. I expected a lot of the usual stuff but Lori really comes through with a lot of practical, common sense advice to help the little guy (or girl) work on their website to make it more competitive. She really gets down to basics and provides tons of great information about fine tuning your website, improving your keywords, how to obtain and use analytics, and many other topics.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has or is thinking about starting a website.

Have been checking out books to help with my website development for about a year. This book is one of only three that I found to have enough useful information in it to actually buy the book. [...]

This is a good book to start with before creating any new website. It is all about getting your head in the game prior to forking out money in developing a website. It starts with the very first thing: The Big Picture: What do you want to accomplish? and ends with the tools and marketing. There are no specifics about how to do this or that on the micro scale because this author has it right. The macro first. Ask yourself and your people the right questions, develop a real plan, and then execute it well. If only 25% of the businesses and individuals would follow Lori Culwell's advice the marketplace would be so much tougher. Fortunately, moste people don't and are left behind.