Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good - Mostly plain old common sense
Review: "Wisdom" has been defined by at least one person as "common sense in an uncommon degree." If that's true, then perhaps Seth Godin is a sage for our time.I'm the CEO of a web consultancy (www.mwi.com) and so I was curious to see if this book would bear out what I already know about designing websites. When it comes down to it, a lot of what Seth says isn't anything revelatory, but it makes sense. If you already have considerable experience designing on the web, I'd say it's a good read because you might learn one or two things that will help you improve what you do, and at least you can then tell people "Experts say the way we do this is the right way." If you have no experience on the web, then this book will be something more than just a review and I would highly recommend it. Best of all, it's short and to the point. You can read it in about a half hour.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a tutoring session with Seth Godin
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343) There are already lots of books out there about HTML and basic web design, and this book won't teach you how to write code or adjust the RGB settings of your graphic files. The Big Red Fez is the book to read after you have learned the technical nuts-and-bolts (or hired them out to someone else) and you are ready to focus on making your site more profitable. The book's methodology is to examine various real ecommerce sites, and point out their flaws and strong points. While this may sound simple, Godin's insights are extremely perceptive. Everyone who has ever planned or built a commercial website will recognize at least one of their own mistakes in the Big Red Fez. Most of all, I like the practical tone of this book. It was written in the aftermath of the Internet bubble. Most of us inevitably absorbed some of the overblown pretenses of the Internet boom years (ex: a focus on flashy multimedia content). The Big Red Fez is therefore a good debriefing for the entrepreneurs and marketing execs who are ready to move forward into the "New" New Economy.
Rating:
Summary: Like a tutoring session with Seth Godin
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343) There are already lots of books out there about HTML and basic web design, and this book won't teach you how to write code or adjust the RGB settings of your graphic files. The Big Red Fez is the book to read after you have learned the technical nuts-and-bolts (or hired them out to someone else) and you are ready to focus on making your site more profitable. The book's methodology is to examine various real ecommerce sites, and point out their flaws and strong points. While this may sound simple, Godin's insights are extremely perceptive. Everyone who has ever planned or built a commercial website will recognize at least one of their own mistakes in the Big Red Fez. Most of all, I like the practical tone of this book. It was written in the aftermath of the Internet bubble. Most of us inevitably absorbed some of the overblown pretenses of the Internet boom years (ex: a focus on flashy multimedia content). The Big Red Fez is therefore a good debriefing for the entrepreneurs and marketing execs who are ready to move forward into the "New" New Economy.
Rating:
Summary: Like a tutoring session with Seth Godin
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343) There are already lots of books out there about HTML and basic web design, and this book won't teach you how to write code or adjust the RGB settings of your graphic files. The Big Red Fez is the book to read after you have learned the technical nuts-and-bolts (or hired them out to someone else) and you are ready to focus on making your site more profitable. The book's methodology is to examine various real ecommerce sites, and point out their flaws and strong points. While this may sound simple, Godin's insights are extremely perceptive. Everyone who has ever planned or built a commercial website will recognize at least one of their own mistakes in the Big Red Fez. Most of all, I like the practical tone of this book. It was written in the aftermath of the Internet bubble. Most of us inevitably absorbed some of the overblown pretenses of the Internet boom years (ex: a focus on flashy multimedia content). The Big Red Fez is therefore a good debriefing for the entrepreneurs and marketing execs who are ready to move forward into the "New" New Economy.
Rating:
Summary: Quick read on web marketing do's and dont's
Review: Another web marketing book? Yup. And this one is light on theory and full of real world examples - exactly what's needed by anyone struggling to perfect a successful web marketing strategy. Seth Godin critiques dozens of web sites and email newsletters, looking for strong calls to action and customer friendly content. When he finds it he says so. More often he finds something wanting -- and tells you exactly how to fix it. Screen shots make it easy to see what he is talking about. Read it and you will feel like a marketing expert yourself. All in all, it's a must have. This was originally an E book, but is now available in paperback. I've read that one, too and it's just as good - better because you don't have to fool with Adobe's E Book reader!
Rating:
Summary: Back to the basics...
Review: As the saying goes, common sense is not so common. While, at first glance, this book may appear to be too basic to be of value, further consideration reveals otherwise. Many of the do's and dont's are supported by examples that I see every day on the web. As amazing as it may seem, it is rare these days for a marketer, engineer, executive, salesperson, etc. to look at their business through the eyes of the customer and to think about the customer's experience. Give this a try...call your company's customer service department and experience it for yourself. Essentially, that is what this book does...forces us to stop and look at the (would-be)obvious things as our customers would. It's well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: An Appealing Concept
Review: Author of several brisk, witty, and informative business books, Seth Godin has a unique gift for locking in on a core concept and then explaining why and how it can guide and inform thinking about an important business issue. In this volume, he focuses on "how to make any Web site better." His dual metaphors explain the meaning and significance of the title. Preferring a marketer's version of a Web site to that of an engineer, he suggests that "One of the best ways to remind yourself about what's really going on [when someone visits a Web site] is to think of a monkey in a big red fez...The best way to motivate the monkey [to take a desired action], of course, is to use a banana. Whenever a monkey walks into a new situation, all it wants to know is, 'Where's the banana?' If the banana isn't easy to see, easy to get and obvious, the monkey is going to lose interest. But if you can make it clear to the monkey what's in it for him, odds are he'll do what you want." Obviously, the monkey is the Web site visitor and the banana is the incentive mechanism. Godin uses a number of different real-world Web sites to illustrate what is and is not effective; he also explains why. (Presumably many of those responsible for the ineffective Web sites have read this book and made the necessary revisions since it first appeared about 18 months ago.) One of the book's most interesting points concerns the quite different mentalities of the engineer and the marketer. The former assumes that smart people have plenty of time, know precisely what they want from their online surfing, and can make a considered decision if provided with sufficient data. In stunning contrast, the marketer assumes that people are busy, ill informed, impatient, not very thoughtful and eager to click on to something RIGHT NOW. The marketer also believes that if you don't give the visitor the right object (or objective) to click on to immediately, the visitor will hit the "Back" button and leave. I presume to add another difference: I think that most visually complicated Web sites resemble the front page of the U.S.A. Today newspaper (especially the Friday/Saturday/Sunday edition) whereas the most effective Web sites resemble the most effective billboards along a highway. Percentages vary but research studies suggest that online surfers spend about 90% of their time visiting the same ten Web sites Also, that after a unsatisfying experience, the percentage is even higher; that is, approximately 95% of online surfers never return to that Web site. One substantial benefit this book provides which I did not anticipate when I began to read it is that the same principles which Godin recommends to increase a Web site's effectiveness are also relevant to the design of marketing and sales collateral materials such as direct mail solicitations and printed brochures. Because of the immense clutter through which messages of various kinds struggle to reach their destination, and because this clutter is certain to become even greater, Godin's concept of what he calls a "purple cow" (explained in a book of the same name) has compelling importance: become and then remain remarkable for as long as possible. Web sites, letterhead, business cards, products, services...indeed contact and communication in any form...must attract and reward attention or are certain to fail. Period. Those who are responsible for Web sites or who heavily depend on Web sites to help achieve their business objectives are strongly urged to check out all of those which Godin features in his book. Also be alert to various lists of award-winning Web sites, especially those selected by online surfers rather than by technicians. For example, the finalists in competition for the 1st Annual Web Site Award sponsored by WIRED magazine. One final point: This year's Purple Cow may well be a Plaid Kangaroo in 2004.
Rating:
Summary: Old Wine, E-bottle
Review: Cool site-by-site analysis. Its this section that makes this e-book worth the exhorbitantly huge dough you cough up for it :) But seriously, you can see Godin exhalting (albeit in undertones) the concepts he's propounded in his earlier work. A very good read though - the real life examples add that perspective and make you reflect upon mistakes you've made on your site but failed to notice. Also, information from this book had heavy quotational value. You have hoards of information to throw around while socializing or in public (to look brighter than you actually are). A very good read overall and an absolutely splendid deal. Hell, you can't get Godin's hairstyle for that much, you can get whats in his head though. I would have given it a full 5* if it wasn't for my extremely conservative professional background (I'm a bean counter).
Rating: 
Summary: All about the banana
Review: Here's a good start if you're looking for some quick and pithy insights into what works on a web site and what don't. Lacking in depth but not in perspective, Seth Godin delivers on his promise of giving 45 brief critiques on web sites, good and bad. Two quick equally brief observations: 1. Mr. Godin has a wealth of direct marketing knowledge using both online and more traditional techniques. Both the reader and the writer would be better served if there was more substance in this book. A terribly quick read, this book misses the opportunity to tell more. That said, the Internet is the greatest direct marketing medium ever, but that ain't all it is. While the direct marketer in me understands the need for the banana, sometimes the site needs to do something other than sell. Some of these sites and emails look much better as informational programs than they do as sales pitches. 2. How could Adobe take its ubiquitous, powerful and intuitive Adobe Reader product and mangle it into this "eBook Reader?" Ugh! We'd all be better off with a standard PDF version of this book (like "Unleashing the IdeaVirus). I'd pay more than the three bucks for a truly readable copy.
Rating:
Summary: i think this is How ebooks should look like
Review: I am still in love with the classic shape of hardcover books ,when i first heard about the ebook thing imagined it wont me good with all kind of books unless they make it really useful with hyperlinks stuuf or multimedia or addons of any kind ti the book , so that we all could leave the romantic shape of the classic book to turn to the more practical, useful , and accessible way : the ebooks . but actually most of my experiences was frustrating except with this book ; it really must me created ONLY as an ebook and it looks so sweet in this red e-dress buy it just to see how beautiful an ebook could be.
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