Serious Business Strategies with Serious Free Information

books:


	• Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers David Meerman Scott Information Today, Inc., 2005 - 280 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Attract Website Visitors with Rich Content

Cashing in With Content is about attracting visitors to your website, so that you can sell them something or sign them up as a client, member, subscriber or donor. You attract them not with gimmicky entertainment or self-serving puffery, but with rich, valuable, and constantly updated information that they can't get anywhere else -- and by making that information easy to read, navigate, save, and print.

Most companies "build their websites based on design, rather than content." Instead, you want people to rely on your website as a "trusted resource."

The author presents 20 "case studies" in a wide variety of industries and non-profit orgs, sorted into three categories: (a) e-commerce, (b) business to business, and (c) nonprofit, education, healthcare, and politics. I put the term "case studies" in quotes because they're not true studies in the academic sense -- they're just puff pieces in which the author interviews the website managers without adding any critical analysis, without challenging the interviewees' self-serving claims and opinions, and without trying to verifying data or independently measure effectiveness. Most of the people being interviewed are tooting their own horns.

The penultimate chapter is a summary of 12 best practices that the author drew from the case studies. This is the most valuable part of the book. They include:

** Before you build or rebuild a site, conduct a comprehensive analysis of visitors' needs.
** Use landing pages and blogs to provide specialized content to targeted market segments.
** Make proprietary content freely available (just do it).
** Include interactive content to get user feedback.

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Serious Business Strategies with Serious Free Information

I read a lot of books on Internet marketing, some useful, but many are too confusing to be practical.

Not so with David Meerman Scott's Cashing In With Content (CyberAge/Information Today, 2005). Scott shows how to make money by giving away good information strategically. He provides strategies-by-example for the kind of win-win that seems to drive successful Internet marketing these days.

Scott tours 20 organizations' successful free content strategies. (He says he searched about 1000 sites to find the stories.) They are as varied a lot as one could hope for--from 100+ year old Alcoa to CARE International to popular rock band Aerosmith. Each example is explored through the same format: "What's for Sale," "What's So Interesting," "Why You Should Care," and "Cashing In." In each case, he shows how seriously useful, free information can induce visitors to complete a sales process.

The last chapter summarizes 12 best practices. Example: "Push users with content to pull them back to your site." Another example: "Consider making proprietary content free."

As I read, my imagination popped with ways to cash in with my own content. Highly recommended.

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Not a lot of insightful ideas

I'm afraid I have to agree with some of the reviews that suggest there is no real explanation of "how innovative marketers are using digital information to turn browsers into buyers". The book is written in a very journalistic style such that you feel you are reading a collection of newspaper articles. Sadly, the information provided is about as high-level as you would read in a newspaper.

For example, the chapter on Alcoa's website insists that the company is providing supplies for the Apple computer, but it does not specify what kind of content attracted Apple causing them to do business with Alcoa. The chapter mentions an article explaining how aluminum is manufactured, but I'm doubtful that was the cause of the new business.

At least, in the chapter on a small college, the author does suggest that they put a button on their site saying "Give Now" and an article explaining how to put the college in your will. I'm certainly glad the college is doing that, but I have to wonder who wouldn't put such a button or an article on their site. Analogistically, it would be like Amazon allowing you to put things in the cart but never providing a way to buy things.

Like others here, I had purchased the book hoping to get suggestions on how to create and benefit from website content as an author myself and a consultant. I feel that the book was not worth the cost, but more importantly, it wasn't worth my time. And please look at my other reviews. I rarely feel bad enough about a book to give it a low review. Being an author, it's hard for me to do that to another author, but this book just didn't deliver for me.

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Good book depending on your needs

First off, I really feel inclined to say this book isn't for people who are looking to get rich off of the Internet. Please do not buy this book if you are just looking for a get rich quick by shoving content online, and hoping that google adwords will pay off. This book will not assist you in this.

What this book does well is describing effective websites, and sharing good points for developing websites that people will want to use and return to for a long time. He uses commerical websites, non commerical ventures, as well as e-commerce websites to demonstrate good techniques. This book will assist in those who are wanting to really work on high qualtity sites.

I think he does a good job of giving solid techniques and ideas on developing websites that will serve the readers well. So if you are looking to develop websites for the long term, and just want to know what best business practices are in terms of websites, I really think this book is ideal in helping with website development.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

In failing to provide visitors with great information content, most of today's Web sites are missing a golden opportunity to create loyal customers-and leaving a fortune in new and repeat business on the table. According to Web marketing expert David Meerman Scott, too many marketers focus on style over substance. While a site may win awards for graphic design, Scott demonstrates that the key to Web marketing success is compelling content, delivered in new and surprising ways. In Cashing in with Content, he interviews 20 of today's most innovative Web marketers, sharing their secrets for using content to turn browsers into buyers, to encourage repeat business, and to unleash the amazing power of viral marketing. The book features a diverse range of content-savvy organizations from the worlds of e-commerce, business to- business, and government/not-for-profit, including the Wall Street Journal Online, CARE USA, Kenyon College, Alcoa, Tourism Toronto, Weyerhaeuser, Booz Allen Hamilton, and United Parcel Service.

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