Online Marketing Guide

Author: (USA) Bud Smith/Frank Catalano
Translator: Wang Sinin/Qu Kang/Pan Hu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-04-02
Features: Marketing is often described as the "art of seizing opportunities," and the online world is a hot topic today. It brings people more and better business opportunities to expand their businesses, strengthen relationships with customers, and spark new customer competition. This book will show you how to create an engaging and positive online presence, helping you navigate and succeed in the digital world! The book is rich in content and easy to understand, covering marketing, online sales, web publishing, and other Internet technologies, yet it remains clear, concise, and engaging. You don’t need to be a professional marketer or an Internet expert to benefit from it.
Detailed Description: This book is not just about the Internet or marketing—it’s about how to market effectively online. It is divided into five parts and an appendix, including:
- Introduction to Online Marketing: Covers basic online marketing knowledge, how to find marketing information online, and how to conduct effective online marketing.
- Marketing on the WWW: Discusses web basics, domain management, creating and operating web sites.
- Marketing Other Internet Services: Explores other services vital to online marketing, such as email, mailing lists, and newsgroups.
- Internet Site Directory: Lists many useful web sites for online marketing, categorized for easy reference.
- Top Ten Rules for Online Marketing: Summarizes the pros and cons of online marketing.
- Appendix: Guides on installing and using the software included on the accompanying CD-ROM.
The accompanying CD-ROM includes software that can help you get online and establish a strong online presence. Some examples or illustrations in the book use these programs.
Excerpt:
Advice for Readers
When reading technical books, readers are often expected to have some prior knowledge—experience with operations, education, or prerequisite courses. However, this series of books aims to make the content accessible to as many readers as possible, and this book is no exception. You don’t need to be a computer programmer or a marketing expert to understand and use it. Additionally, it’s best if you have a computer and a modem, of course, and know how to use them. You should also have an Internet connection to browse the web. If you don’t have an Internet connection yet, you can use the MindSpring software on the accompanying CD-ROM (ordering instructions are in the table of contents) to get one (installation instructions are in the appendix).
Finally, it’s helpful to imagine a company or product you’d like to publish online. However, this book can’t cover everything, and some detailed information may require consulting other Dummies series books. These related topics include:
- Marketing: If you want to know what marketing is and how to do it well, you should read Marketing For Dummies by Alexander Hiam. The book provides a thorough explanation of all aspects of marketing.
- Going Online: The book shares many tips for using online services, which are indeed the easiest ways to get online. Currently, the largest online service is AmericaOnline. If you use AmericaOnline, you might enjoy AmericaOnline For Dummies (3rd Edition) by John Kaufeld.
- Online Sales: The difference between sales and marketing can sometimes be blurry, so IDG Books published Selling Online For Dummies. Its author, Leslie Lundquist, is an excellent online sales expert. If you plan to implement online sales, Leslie Lundquist will tell you everything you need to know.
- Learning the Internet: To better use the Internet or understand its history and how it works, refer to Internet For Dummies (4th Edition) by John Levine. To learn about the latest browsers that support more features like email and newsgroups, check out Internet Explorer 4.0 For Windows For Dummies by Doug Lowe or Netscape Communicator 4 For Dummies by Paul Hoggman.
- Web Publishing: If you want to create web pages easily and simply, you can refer to Creating Web Pages For Dummies by Bud Smith and Arthur Bebak.
All the above books are published by IDG Books Worldwide. You can also find more Dummies series books at www.dummies.com.
Regarding computer platforms, we noticed that not everyone uses Windows 95, so we also tested on different platforms like Apple and Unix to ensure most of the book’s information isn’t limited by your computer type. As long as your machine can connect to the Internet and run a web browser like Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape Navigator 4.0, you’re good to go. However, many Internet users run Windows, and most Internet software is first released for Windows before being adapted for other platforms or even never being adapted at all (though, as mentioned in this book, some professional software was initially Unix-based. If you’re a dedicated web expert, you might try Unix, but that’s beyond the scope of this book).
Therefore, most of the software on the accompanying CD-ROM is Windows 95-based, with some Macintosh versions as well. Most illustrations show a Windows 95 PC in use, with a few examples of Macintosh setups. In some sections, you’ll need to follow specific steps, which are written and tested for the Windows 95 environment. Steps for Macintosh or Unix may differ, and results may vary.
The accompanying CD-ROM includes software to help you get online and establish a strong online presence. Most programs are Windows-based, but there are also some excellent Macintosh programs. Some examples or illustrations in the book use these programs. For detailed information about the CD-ROM and how to install the software, see Appendix A.