Sort Out Your Site Bookshop
Often it helps to read a good book to get you thinking before you start on making changes. Here are some recommendations for good publications which will help.
| Want to know how it all works? Dreamweaver is a popular editing tool and this SAMS series book is a good source of help to familiarise yourself with it. Note that it's not a question of sitting down with the book and 24 hours later you're an expert though! Actually it's divided up into 24 one-hour lessons. Takes longer than the magic wand, but more realistic. | ||
This is a classic. Too many people make the mistake of thinking it is obvious how their shiny new website works, when actually their users are tearing out their hair and wondering why they can't have their old website back please. Here you will find useful information on how to plan for a site that really is as user-friendly as possible for your expected visitors. Bear in mind that this is vital information for owners of inter and intranets. Poor intranets create frustration and lead to sub-optimum productivity. Poor external websites may be losing you customers. |
||
| This book is good for making you think about a website as an alternative to print publications. It provides lots of examples of real-life websites to illustrate its themes, and gives a down-to-earth practical guide to people who want to do their own editing. It is also useful for anyone who feels like getting a bit creative with the look and feel of their site but doesn't want to lose function for the sake of of Art. | ||
| Helpful to get started in Dreamweaver and Fireworks (its complementary web image editing software). Although written with earlier versions of the software in mind, it is still a useful guide even if you've invested in the latest CS4 versions. The pages are well laid out with clear screenshots, and genuinely useful projects are structured in a logical way to help you learn whilst creating something you can make use of. As both Dreamweaver and Fireworks are complex and full of features, this is an excellent guide to finding out just what you can do with your new toys. Includes sections on working with CSS and with Frames. | ||
It is essential to really know what your objectives are for your website. This is a handy booklet that will help you to frame your objectives clearly and in a way that sets you up to measure them and hence the success of your website. Although it was designed with people management in mind, the content is highly applicable to all kinds of objectives. For more information see the author Nancy Slessenger's website Vinehouse essential
|
||
Once your website is launched, an excellent way of increasing traffic to your site is by using Google Adwords. Howie Jacobsson is an acknowledged expert in use of Adwords. What is more, he's an entertaining writer who, much to my surprise, has produced a book on a computer-related subject that made me laugh! This is a very good introduction to the subject. Of course, if you would rather someone else did it all for you, contact us to ask for help... |
||
Perry Marshall has a knack of pulling together interesting entrepreneurs in a room, getting them talking, and inspiring conversations and flow of ideas which results in them going off and making lots more money using Adwords and other internet tools. He charges a substantial fee for this service, and the entrepreneurs are happy to pay it because they know that he knows what he's talking about, and that he has created his own successful business using those tools. For those of you not quite ready to fly to Chicago and meet Perry, his book is another good way into using Adwords. Once you're convinced it's a great tool but realise you'd be better spending your time building other parts of your business, contact us to do the implementation for you. |
||
The authors of this book understand that some people work in big organisations where being able to create understandable reports for other people from your data is important. Google Analytics is capable of providing so many different reports, for many purposes, that it can be confusing. This is good guide to use of Analytics and complements the books on Adwords. Naturally Sort Out Your Site can provide reports for you if you'd prefer not to do them yourself. Contact us to discuss. |
||
| Starting up your business or looking to expand? Here's a highly readable account of a couple of entrepreneurs who set up a successful coffee shop chain from scratch. It has some very practical suggestions, and is a good case study of a business developing from the ground up. | ||
This is a great book for helping you to tell the world what a wonderful business you run, or what a fantastic service you can provide, without sounding like a megalomaniac. It contains sound advice which can be extrapolated to many situations, from networking face-to-face, to web content planning.
|
||