101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site

By Susan Sweeney

Published by Maximum Press, 2000
Paperback, 540 pages
ISBN: 1-885068-45-X

This book has a powerful title and I couldn’t wait to use it and dip in and out to discover all the tips and techniques promised. Yet when I started reading through the book I wasn’t quite sure if I should be disappointed or not!

For a start, there are not 101 ways set out here and the numerical reference appears to finish as soon as you open the book. However, as the author herself says in the Introduction, there are ‘hundreds of proven tips, tools and techniques’ contained in the book. Perhaps having come up with such a great title, the author Susan Sweeney may have realised that the best way to impart all her knowledge and experience was to revert to a more traditional internet marketing book!

So what makes this different to other similar titles on the market? Well, it’s packed full of useful marketing information and advice, loads of weblinks and illustrative screenshots. Although the book is not written in the informal conversational style of the Poor Richard books on the same subject, it is well-structured with bullet-point summaries and you soon begin to feel that it couldn’t pack more information into the 500 pages if it tried!

The book begins by covering the marketing principles of launching a website and some essential design considerations. Then a series of chapters cover search engine placement in some depth, although the focus on RealNames seems somewhat disproportionate to the other areas covered.

Sweeney then moves on to provide advice on using newsgroups, e-mails and mailing lists (including creating your own). There are some excellent chapters on building links and affiliate programmes, plus a useful guide to the pros and cons of banner advertising. One chapter also focuses on that all important ‘stickiness’ of a website and offers lots of ideas to keep users coming back to your site.

This is an excellent marketing reference source, whether you are starting out with a new website or just need some fresh ideas or a different perspective. In many ways the 101 title undersells just how much is in this book and the packed content is supported by a useful set of Appendices and an extensive Index. As an extra bonus, purchasers of this second edition have their own special password to access the updated website that accompanies the book, no doubt keeping the information current before a third edition appears.