I had not planned on reading eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business by Corey Perlman. But I needed a short book to review on my train to NYC and was thinking about updating my online marketing plan. So I was delighted to find it in my “possible review” stack.
I found the book written exactly for my level (and a little below). This means that I could skim the sections on social networks, blogs, e-mail and article marketing, and other topics that fall within my expertise. That’s not to say that I didn’t make a note here or there about things I could be doing better.
However, for the uninitiated, Perlman provides some general, easy-to-follow guidance on those topics. The bulk of the book is about explaining organic search, i.e. how to make sure people find your website, even if they don’t know they are looking for it when they sit down to browse Google. While reading this book (which took less than a Boston-NYC Acela ride), I simultaneously did a website audit and will be making some changes based on what I learned. Here are some of the parts that caught my attention:
Choosing a website designer
Someone who can create a website and make it look attractive does not always have expertise to make a site search-engine-friendly. Says Perlman, “The litmus test question is: ‘How important is it to create metatags for my website?’ If the designer doesn’t say ‘very important,’ then I’d consider finding another web designer.”
The challenge with many websites is that the web designer built the site for you, his customer. He or she didn’t take into account the importance of meeting the needs of your customers. For this reason, some sites look attractive but lack the important content your users are seeking. Others convey the perfect message, but that message is lost within too many images or pictures that dominate the site. Hmmm. I think I recall discussing this in an earlier review where we noted that some of our favorite sites are not visually well-designed (i.e. Craigslist and Google.com).
Title tags and metatags
I knew these were important, but I’d put title tags at the bottom of my to-do list. Nevertheless, this is one of the best sections of the book because Perlman really explains their importance. In fact, I stopped reading and typed out title tags for all of my website pages that include key words and descriptions. What I like most about eBoot Camp is that Perlman understands that his audience is not technical. This means he doesn’t talk down to you and actually includes a draft e-mail you could send to your web designer about the title tags you want to include.
Things to think about when designing your home page
While he references one of my all-time-favorite books, Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, Perlman gives a few good guidelines:
- Colors: White background with black text and no more than three primary colors.
- Main navigation bar: Five to eight links, and the links should be descriptive enough so users will know exactly where they are going (I learned this the hard way in an early version of the Downtown Women’s Club website, where my cutsy titles were too confusing.)
- Most important content: Above the fold. This means the “Buy now” button.
Top Shelf Bottom Line. If you have a website, you should do a yearly audit for search engine effectiveness. Even if you hire someone to do this for you, I recommend reading this book first so you can understand and evaluate the SEO services you are getting. And for the do-it-yourself types, it’s a good, easy-to-understand primer.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.3 Responses to “It’s Time to Go to eBoot Camp”
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July 5th, 2009 at 5:10 am
This is a good review. It definitely makes me want to purchase the book. I learned some pointers by just reading the review.
July 5th, 2009 at 5:11 am
A good one. Makes you want to buy the book. The review itself provided me with a lot of pointers that I can use on my very primitive website.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:55 am
What a great review for the book!
That actually enticed me to check out that book and thanks for giving out some of the important points that you got from the material.
I’m actually an online-based entrepreneur and this one really helped me with those things that some of us might consider as “basic”. We’re not really aware that these basics are the mere foundation of an online business.
Now, I can apply more effectively the system that I got from Internet Business Box. Let me just share a little something about that – that’s a software, procedure and date set that made me start an internet business easily. You may actually check their site that’s http://internetbusinessbox.com/
And with this book review, I can now actually understand basics in connection with REAL and BIG DEAL business.
Thanks.
Marie Claire