The Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits [Hardcover]

Robin Miller (Author)

Book Description

Series: Financial Times (Prentice Hall) | Publication Date: October 8, 2002

There's now enough history to identify specific rules for systematically building the profitability of virtually any business online. In this book, Robin Miller systematically introduces these rules, and shows exactly how you can use them to maximum advantage, whatever you market -- products, services, information, or advertising. Miller is exceptionally well-placed to write this book: he is editor-in-chief of OSDN, the parent organization of hugely popular sites like Slashdot and Freshmeat...businesses that have been profitable virtually from day one. Drawing on his own experience and the hard lessons learned by thousands of companies, he has delivered a hard-nosed, practical, streetwise guide to reducing your costs and increasing your revenues until you're making a healthy and sustainable profit. Miller identifies disastrous mistakes and shows how to avoid them; presents tactics for accomplishing more with less; shows how to anticipate trends and technologies without wasting scarce time and money; and demonstrates how you can use the Internet to support all your business activities, both online and off. This book is not about technology or "e-commerce": it is about success.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In this book, Robin "Roblimo" Miller introduces specific rules for systematically building the profitability of virtually any business online, and shows how to use these rules to maximum advantage, whatever you sell-products, services, information, or advertising.

Miller is exceptionally well placed to write this book: He is Editor-in-Chief of OSDN (Open Source Development Network), the parent organization of hugely popular sites like Slashdot and Freshmeat-businesses that have been profitable virtually from day one. Drawing on his own experience and the hard lessons learned by thousands of companies, he has delivered a practical, streetwise guide to cutting your costs and raising your revenues until you're making a healthy, sustainable profit.

Miller shows how to avoid disastrous mistakes; how to accomplish more with less; how to anticipate trends without wasting scarce resources; and how to use the Internet to support all your business activities, both online and off. This book is not about technology or "e-commerce": It is about business success.

* The rules of profitable business online

What works now-and what never works

* Driving costs out of your online business

Reducing the cost of hosting, software, coding, and more

* Using your site to support your offline business

Dirt-cheap ways to increase your in-store traffic and profits

* The do's and don'ts of email, chat, and community

Connecting with your customers-one-on-one

* The myth of the "abandoned shopping cart"

What you can-and can't-learn from incomplete transactions

* Powerful promotion without the expense

And expensive techniques that are utterly worthless

Foreword by Rich Jaroslavsky, former technology editor, The Wall Street Journal

The streetwise guide to online profits.

• Increase your online revenues and reduce your costs-one step at a time
• Build business-focused Web sites that work
• Use email and chat to build profits without alienating customers
• Information layering: clearing away the clutter that keeps people from buying
• Practical solutions for brick-and-mortar companies, Internet companies, and click-and-mortar hybrids
• By Robin "Roblimo" Miller, leader of one of the Internet's most successful businesses

Why have so many companies lost a fortune on the Internet, accomplishing nothing—while others have made far smaller investments and earned millions? In The Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits, leading Internet entrepreneur Robin "Roblimo" Miller illuminates the crucial rules that make the difference between success and failure online.

Miller's successful Internet ventures have ranged from the legendary Slashdot community to one of the world's first profitable online limousine services. In this book, he offers no-nonsense advice for building your online profits in the only way possible: by driving revenue up and costs down.

Discover how to make sure your Internet presence supports your entire business, both online and off. Learn which low-cost site promotion techniques work-and which expensive techniques don't. See your site as customers see it, and fix the problems that keep them from buying. Learn how to use email, chat, and "community" features to support your site-and how not to. From low-cost software to effective advertising, Miller shows you what's working for thousands of companies online-and how to make it work for you.

About the Author

ROBIN "ROBLIMO" MILLER is Editor-in-Chief for the Open Source Development Network, publishers of Slashdot, Freshmeat, NewsForge, SourceForge, and other leading online technology community sites. Before founding Slashdot, he owned one of the Internet's first profitable limousine services (hence "Roblimo").

Prior to becoming a successful Internet entrepreneur, Miller served stints as an electronics technician, taxi driver, copyeditor, taxi dispatcher, limo driver, auto mechanic, and cook.

Foreword by Rich Jaroslovsky, former managing editor, The Wall Street Journal Online

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st edition (October 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130668427
• ISBN-13: 978-0130668424
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,624,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sanity Reigns, October 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits (Hardcover)

Any fan of Slashdot knows that the site has never embraced the kind of silliness that led some people to fool investors into believing that the road to riches was in selling cheese graters on-line at cheese-graters.com. Part of this reason is Robin Miller, one of the steadiest hands on the tiller. This guy used to drive a limo and that taught him how to manage a real business. Now, he's written down all of the secrets that has kept Slashdot from following cheese-grater.com into Chapter 11.

This is really a practical book that contains none of the new economy mumbo jumbo. Keep your costs low, says Miller, and he suggests a number of ways to use free or very low cost software to accomplish that. If you want to dream of infinite growth, endless revolutions, or shattering paradigms, look somewhere else. It's all about balancing the books and keeping costs in line with revenue.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Information YOU can use!, December 30, 2002

By 

Robin Smith (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Online Rules of Successful Companies: The Fool-Proof Guide to Building Profits (Hardcover)

Miller is an exceptionally blunt, honest, straight-forward writer. I like that in a writer from whom I am seeking business advice. Fanciful stuff is great in science fiction, but this is the real world, the harsh, unforgiving world of business today. I need to be able to trust the writer to relate facts, not fiction, and to do so in a way I can easily understand and quickly apply to my own business plans. I highly recommend this book, and this writer. You can rely on the information to help you move your business forward.