Customer Reviews

Start Your own E-Business

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

 

 

Usually the only time you hear this many dot-com cliches, is when someone is making fun of dot-com cliches.

Here are some quotes :

"It's war on the monitors, and more web sites will die than will survive. What will yours do?"

"The internet is for real, and in the 21st century, if you're not on it, you're not in business. That is today's reality byte."

OK, fine, so they use some cheesy language. Does the book do its job at teaching you to "Start Your Own E-Business"? In a general way, yes. You go through the process of identifying a niche market and then acting quickly to meet their needs.

This is a pre-Google book, so many of the specific details are obsolete. For example, it advises getting websites indexed in search engines by "Add URL", and it never mentions the possible uses of PayPal or Google AdSense. Critical technology for a modern website.

Finally, understand this- the book is somewhat targeted towards people who want to try and build the next $100,000,000 company through venture capital. At least 50% of the book is dedicated to discussions about investors, and it unfortunately has a pie-in-the-sky feel to it at times.

Overall, I give it 3 stars, which is fair, because there are legitimate shortcomings that other reviewers have neglected to tell you about.

I am a marketing major and found this book to be helpful in developing a website for our family business. I think the book is a little misleading because I thought it would not only talk about technical and marketing aspects of e-commerce but explain at least the starting point for coding a website or at least scratch the surface of the actual web design. I also think there could have been fewer interviews and more content. I recommend Website Design Made Easy by Dennis Gaskill aka Boogie Jack if you are really interested and serious about building a good website. He offers great free resources to enhance your site.

The fine thing about this book is that it meticulously presented a general overview of starting a conventional business, before delving into its e-business specialty. It harbours valuable information on how to assiduously refine and fine-tune a business idea, before structuring-out a befitting business plan for it. Clear and cogent explanations abound in it. And, the addition of a number of examples, in the form of case-studies, provide its reader with real life scenarios of what embarking on this direction really entails.
In addition to analyzing various approaches for getting-up and running in no time, it provided useful insights into the specific requirements of both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer e-commerce.
The author of this book used clear and simple terms to explain important start-up issues like: planning, finance, market-entry, publicity, item or service pricing, customer management, general logistics and organization. She also provided useful website-links wherever necessary.
I found the chapters of this book quite engaging. All their narrations were straight to the point. They did a plausible job in translating good ideas into comprehensive pieces of information. I am sure that most aspiring e-business entrepreneurs will find it very useful.

I believe the authors did an outstanding job in disseminating the information. What could appear to be a number of complex topics were presented clearly in real word terms and examples. The use of both popular and not popular websites from the present and the past helped me to understand clearly the topics of discussion. I purchased 4 additional copies of this book for members on my development team and since it is full of notes I do not suggest you wait for my copy on any used book list. All kidding aside, it's a Great Read!!!

eBusiness supposedly refers to all business processes that take place across electronic networks. I'm not sure this book is really about starting your own ebusiness. It clearly is not a step-by-step guide to success. Instead, it is a wonderful book on just about all aspects a business should consider when establishing an Internet presence.

The issues covered are:

1. Should a business sell goods and/or services via a Web site while also doing so through a bricks and mortar storefront? Will one distribution vehicle steal business from the other? Will they complement each other? Is one better than the other?

2. What is involved in putting together a simple Web site yourself? How about paying someone else to put one together for you?

3. The nuts and bolts of Web hosts and domains.

4. Are affiliate programs good?

5. Search engines: their purpose, and how to get indexed by them.

6. Having credit card payment options.

There was some coverage of getting your small business financed. Should you go it alone, contact angel investors, or deal with venture capitalists? I thought this material was well presented.

I also thought the real world examples and the interviews of people who have been successful with having an Internet presence was great.

I've been studying Web sites and online marketing since 1998 when I purchased a copy of Frontpage 98. A lot of what I have learned over the years is covered in this book. Sure, there could have been more written about affiliate programs and other pay-per-click schemes, but at least this book covered the subject. There could have been more about low cost Web hosting solutions, but at least this books covered the subject. And there could have been more about the need to understand graphics programs if you decide to build your own simple Web site. But all in all this was a wonderful book and I highly recommend that small business owners definitely give this one a read. It's getting 5 stars because its content is great.

I am a few weeks away from buying a very expensive website to launch and e-commerce business and this book has come in very helpful in making some key choices for the project. I like the interviews and success stories from actual businesses.

It has a few to many interviews by people that made it big and not so big. Some are interesting but mostly it takes away space for other good material. The book also points to other good information and overall it is a great place to get started.

Start Your Own e-Business is a good place to begin if you are considering doing something solid on the Internet. I don't mean trying to make money by selling ''get-rich'' schemes or ''secrets of the wealthy'' plans. That's not what this book is about. It's a how-to book for people who are serious, whether it's someone who is expanding a business onto the Internet or setting up something that is an online only business.

I think this book has a lot of solid advice and a good step-by-step guide. Is it the only book you'll ever need? Probably not. But it's certainly a very strong starting place.

I knocked one star off the rating because there's a section on venture funding that just seems like filler and there are far too many Question-and-Answer interviews with entrepreneurs. They get a bit repetitious.

For more on this book, see my review on squidoo.com by searching for goldenrulecomics.

This book contains a few good tips and the rest is interviews with people about their specific situation which might not pertain to yours. It certainly did not pertain to mine. Very disappointing.

I bought this book for a college course. It was 5 classes in 9 days so we were advised not to really read the book but to skim and I hardly did that. I am sure I will read it eventually but I can't say whether it's great or not at this point.