REVIEW:Poor Richard's Internet Marketing and Promotions

Internet Business News, May 1, 2001

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Your website is up and running, but how do people/possible clients know where to find you? Like any other product or service you need to promote yourself. Peter Kent and Tara Calishain have produced a book, 'Poor Richard's Internet Marketing and Promotions', with the specific intent of helping readers promoted their services on the Internet and attain more traffic.

Kent's and Calishain's book is part of the 'Poor Richard's' series, which aims to provide the reader with straight forward, easy-to-understand information on a broad range of computer topics. The techniques incorporated throughout the book have been undertaken by the authors, therefore the information they are providing is proven to work, or in some cases should definitely be avoided.

There is loads and loads of valuable information included throughout this book and the majority is useful for all types of audiences, be this a profit or non-profit website. The book covers various aspects including how to register with search sites and other places; obtaining certifications and awards; promoting in newsgroups and mailing lists; creating newsletters and discussion groups; grass root marketing and real world promotions, to name just a few.

The book incorporates many references in the form of URL's, unfortunately these are displayed in the same format as the rest of the text making it hard to pick them out while skimming through the information. To get around this problem all of the mentioned URL's are listed as links at the book's accompanying website (http://PoorRichard.com/Promo). This website also provides you with further information concerning the book, like a table of contents, sample chapters and further reviews.

There is a fairly detailed section in the book covering domain names. It discusses how you can obtain a domain name, choosing a name that is easily recognisable, how and where to register your domain and the importance of having your own domain name rather than space from your Internet service provider.

The information is very useful and the authors leave no stone unturned. There are good examples of ways you can display your domain name in advertisements, allowing people to easily recognise and remember your website. For example incorporating colours and capitalisation.

An example is the Poor Richard site -- http://poorrichard.com -- as you can see there are two 'r' consecutively, therefore one of the 'r' may often be left out, to get around this problem you can add capitalisation to the domain name -- http://PoorRichard.com. Thus making it easier to spot both the 'r's.

The authors do try and explain all of the processes in the same easy to digest format as the examples above. You may find yourself re-reading many of the techniques in different sections of the book. Some readers may find the language and writing style used patronising, however I would personally prefer this style rather than a book which is filled with jargon and takes a lot of effort to understand.

Overall I feel that this book will successfully help the reader to promote their services on the Internet or at least give them a push in the right direction.

CONCLUSION:Excellent 'How to....' book, packed full of sound advice and techniques to steer you in the right direction where web site promotion is concerned.

Title:Poor Richard's Internet Marketing and Promotions Author:Peter Kent/Tara Calishain Published by:Top Floor Publishing ISBN:1-930082-00-2 Price:USD29.95 Reviewer:Caroline Turner

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