Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Many fine books have been published within the last several years on the topic of starting online businesses. Most of them deserve high praise for helping people to get started. One of the better ones in my opinion is Jason Rich's book, The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online.

This slightly larger-than-pocketsized handbook contains a wealth of solid business information within its covers. Jason Rich offers a panoramic view of what it takes to start an online business today. He thoughtfully details essential matters that will contribute to an effective enterprise. He is quick to point out steps and facts of information that can save time and money - two important factors to consider when setting up and operating a business!

Readers will learn, for instance, that it is not necessary to register (or pay someone to register), their business Websites with literally thousands of search engines and other Websites to get noticed. Rich points out that 90% of the Web surfing public uses the top ten search engines to find what they are looking for!

Readers planning to set up shop are provided timely information about selecting and buying computer equipment, software titles, home office equipment, and necessary supplies. Web browser plug-ins, Webcamming, streaming audio and video technologies, and other Web development tools are covered to provide readers with ideas they should consider incorporating into their business sites to enhance performance and profitability.

Jason Rich does a commendable job warning his readers about some of the sham operators who offer those get rich quick schemes that are nothing more than scams perpetrated upon the unwary. Rich lists the top 12 scams, according to the FTC, that arrive in our e-mail boxes on a regular basis, such as the endless number of business opportunities, multilevel marketing and pyramids, sending bulk e-mail, chain letters, and those work-at-home schemes that sound too good to be true!

Readers are treated to the dialog that takes place between Jason Rich and his team of interviewed guests. Questions asked and answered involving Web development strategies include Website hosting, ISP's, key design features, creating and using Web graphics, creating online stores and catalogs, and software recommendations. Plenty of advertising and marketing advice is given as well to guide readers. These are not short answers - they are well thought out and deliver detailed solutions!

This book will help readers lay the groundwork necessary for establishing their own online businesses, to fine-tune their business plans and online presence, to effectively promote themselves, and to take advantage of a variety of resources to launch and maintain successful businesses. It's must reading for anyone desiring to start an online business. Get a jump-start with this book today. It will help you make the right business decisions!

This is a good book to read before you start your online business. Obviously it won't make you successful, but it will keep you sane over the many little details of running a business, esp. an online business. Written in easy-to-understand language, the book is highly readable and the information highly useful and also up-to-date. The small physical format also makes it easy to carry around and read it any time.

The book covers things like how to prepare to do business online (what business to go into, financing, etc.), getting online (hosting, domain...), promoting online, etc. There are many tips provided in the margins.

This is a useful book for someone who is thinking about starting an online business. The book gives a good overview of e-commerce. I liked the margin notes. The resource guide at the back of the book listing all the websites referred to in the book is useful. I found the chapter with interviews of sccessful e-commerce merchants to be the most interesting. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to start a business on the web. The experienced e-commerce entrepreneur, however, will find this guide too elementary. As an "Unofficial Guide," the book purports to give the inside scoop. I found nothing that I hadn't already read elsewhere. This volume is a solid beginner's guide and reference but don't expect to learn any secrets that will put you ahead of the many other businesspeople flocking to the internet.

I bought the book on the strength of the excerpts on the back. It is a waste of paper. The information is shallow an very dated. It does not provide any valuable information, even the rhetoric is thin and pale. The "trends" are old guesses from the DOTCOM era. AND the "money saving techniques" are stale. And I figured this out and I'm just starting a web business. Try TechTV's Starting an Online Business. It's FAR better. Better yet try multiple books and do some deep diving on the web. You know the 3rd 4th and 5th pages when you do a web search. Good Luck.

I have read a few more books on this subject. All of them share many concepts. However each of these books add useful ideas of how to start an online business. I recommend to read not only this one but others like: "Starting an Online Business" by Frank Fiore, "Mompreneurs Online" by Patricia Cobe and "Making Money in Cyberspace" by Paul and Sarah Edwards. Do not stop only on one book, search other sources and you will have a better idea about Online Bunisness. This book have some chapters that will be very basic to some readers but the overall idea of this publication is worth to read it. You will find interviews with succesful e-commerce entrepreneurs. I loved the interviews with Chris Gwynn in Chapter 16 (founder and president of Fridgedoor.com) and Tim Brady and Paul Graham in Chapter 15 (Vice President of Production and Executive Producer of Yahoo Stores). Dont't miss this book! you might be the next successful e-entrepreneur...

I started my own business and have been selling books online for over 5 years (and doing very well thank you), and I also volunteer in my free time as an outplacement counselor for a local non-profit training facility, so I have had a little bit of experience in business; and I have to tell you after reading the dreadful reviews I picked up a copy of this book just for grins... not! This book has some really good ideas. True there is no magic bullet, but that's just it, this book gives good direction and if you have a half-way decent brain and some ambition you will do the rest. My biggest problem as an outplacment counselor (whose job it is to help people to go out there and look for a job) is motivating them. I give them the direction but they want the easy fix. This book will not give you an easy fix, but if you want some good solid ideas ... read this book.

This book provides step-by-step guidance in starting an online retail business. There is a ton of information crammed into this book which is divided into six sections and many chapters:

1. In Business, Preparation is Everything
2. Getting Your Business Online
3. An Internet Presence for Existing and New Businesses
4. Promoting Your Site
5. Improving and Analyzing Your Site
6. The Experts Speak

As someone who has read many books on virtual businesses, online presences, Internet marketing, and online retailing I could appreciate all that the author covers in this book. Unfortunately I doubt someone with my background is the intended audience for this book. I think someone with less knowledge on the subject would be the person to want to read this book. And such a person is probably going to be disappointed with it.

I found the book to emphasize online retail businesses to the exclusion of online service businesses. That's fine and dandy if the title of the book had specified that the material related to "Online Retail Businesses." There was a lot of talk devoted to shopping cart aspects of Web sites and to eBay topics. If I wanted to read about eBay, then I would have picked up an eBay book.

My favorite part of the book was where the author at page 96 told me about how to easily add shopping cart functionality to a Web site that I had built using Microsoft Frontpage. Supposedly there is an outfit called Richmedia Tech that provides help in doing that.

The slant on the type of business the author was talking about in his book showed itself particularly in Section 4 regarding how to promote your Web site. There was no mention of writing articles, giving seminars, or becoming a public speaker which are normal ways to promote a Web site that helps market services rather than products.

If you are planning to use eBay in your business in ANY way, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. It is a great supplement to any reading you do on the subject of eBay. However, if your business idea or existing business has no need for an online retail storefront, then skip this book. There are other books available that are more on point for you to read. 4 stars!

This "Unofficial Guide" is officially not worth the time. I read the entire book, hoping to find a jewel of applicable information, but I was very disappointed. The basic approach taken by the author is to have us look at successful online business web sites for good ideas-we need a book to tell us that? You are much better off using your browser and a search engine than wasting your time with this book. Reading the bio on the author should be enough to convince you-his claim to fame is "one of the country's leading experts on video games, computers games, and interactive entertainment." Why is he writing this book? The information was simplistic, out of date, and occasionally inaccurate.

The only thing to be learned from this book is if you have a catchy title and access to bookshelf space, you can sell anything, even 414 pages of filler.

Among the pearls of wisdom is the advice that you can compare features of different computer brands by shopping at your local computer store. I'm not kidding!

I was so insulted by the banality of this book that I was moved to write this review.

Good stuff! I looked through a lot of books to help me, new to ecommerce, get going. This book looked promising and was better than expected. Start here and you won't go wrong. It helped me out a lot!