Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book, Made Me Regret My Prior Ads!
Review: I am a small business owner who has been writing his own ads for the past dozen years or so. Simply put, if your ad is not effective, you are throwing away money -- quite literally. Mr Bly's book made me realize that I had been throwing away a lot of money, unfortunately.I highly recommend this book. If you write your own ads, you may think (like I used to) that writing copy is "no big deal". Maybe it isn't, but there are still rules that need to be followed for maximum effectiveness, and Mr Bly does an excellent job of explaining them. If I had to suggest improvements to this book, it would be 1. a new and updated edition, and 2. the use of some graphics. Mr Bly goes to some length to explain textually the layout of an ad, which is silly when a picture or graphic is worth a thousand words (pun intended). But my real gripe is this: the printing is of such poor quality that I found myself washing my hands after every reading session. No kidding, it's worse than some newspaper print. This may sound a like a superficial gripe to some, but what good is great copy if the customer is left with a yucky feeling?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book, Made Me Regret My Prior Ads!
Review: I am a small business owner who has been writing his own ads for the past dozen years or so. Simply put, if your ad is not effective, you are throwing away money -- quite literally. Mr Bly's book made me realize that I had been throwing away a lot of money, unfortunately. I highly recommend this book. If you write your own ads, you may think (like I used to) that writing copy is "no big deal". Maybe it isn't, but there are still rules that need to be followed for maximum effectiveness, and Mr Bly does an excellent job of explaining them. If I had to suggest improvements to this book, it would be 1. a new and updated edition, and 2. the use of some graphics. Mr Bly goes to some length to explain textually the layout of an ad, which is silly when a picture or graphic is worth a thousand words (pun intended). But my real gripe is this: the printing is of such poor quality that I found myself washing my hands after every reading session. No kidding, it's worse than some newspaper print. This may sound a like a superficial gripe to some, but what good is great copy if the customer is left with a yucky feeling?
Rating:
Summary: Bob Bly does it again
Review: I can always count on Bob Bly to cut through the mumbo-jumbo of marketing communications fluff, and provide good, solid advice on how we can get our messages across successfully. He did it in "Business-to-Business Direct Marketing." And now he does it for this wonderful new medium, the Internet. Bob never forgets that the objective of marketing communications is to move customers and prospects to action. He explains how to write Internet copy that sells. Covering all the Internet media--websites, email, banner ads, newsletters--Bly gives us detailed tips and techniques on how to craft and adapt our messages to be maximally effective. And, naturally, he delivers his message with absolute clarity. Bravo to Bob Bly.
Rating:
Summary: Bob Bly does it again
Review: I can always count on Bob Bly to cut through the mumbo-jumbo of marketing communications fluff, and provide good, solid advice on how we can get our messages across successfully. He did it in "Business-to-Business Direct Marketing." And now he does it for this wonderful new medium, the Internet. Bob never forgets that the objective of marketing communications is to move customers and prospects to action. He explains how to write Internet copy that sells. Covering all the Internet media--websites, email, banner ads, newsletters--Bly gives us detailed tips and techniques on how to craft and adapt our messages to be maximally effective. And, naturally, he delivers his message with absolute clarity. Bravo to Bob Bly.
Rating: 
Summary: the title of the book is misleading
Review: I have always wanted a guide for writing online. Unfortunately the closest I have come up with is usability's guru: Jacob Nielsen.
Thinking of this book as "copywriting online guide" I thought I have found my solution. Unfortunately, I realized soon that this book is more about marketing online that about writing for the web. It will help you sell, but its only chapter "writing for the Internet" is not the ultimate guide of writing online.
Rating: 
Summary: Subject matter written time after time
Review: I'd recommend this to novice internet entreprenuers looking for advice, but this likely won't be the end-all text goldmine you're hoping for. If you're one who reads as many online business and marketing books as possible, this information presents nothing new or innovative. It *may* pose an interesting read while at your local bookstore, but not necessarily something worth keeping on your home/office shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak, Lacking Depth and Dated material
Review: I've read many books in this segment and I would strongly recommend reading Hot Text: Web Writing that Works or Networds. Robert Bly is a "print guy" that thought it would be interesting to write a book on electronic copy. I would say that the first half of the book is written by supposed experts in on-line marketing. The book is crowded with all sorts of references to other people's work. This leads to a very choppy style of reading in my opinion. The author uses case studies from work that he has already completed but rarely does the content match the electronic world. For a book that is written in 2003, the data is incredibly dated. The author is comfortable with using data from 1996 in a book that talks about the ever changing environment of On-Line marketing. Most of the data regarding internet statistics was incredibly dated. The author talks about the principals of good copy writing but rarely goes into any depth with regards to examples of the principals. I found the writing to be lazy to say the least. Clearly this author is capitalizing on the interest of electronic copy. Take out the experts that know about on-line marketing, you're left with an incredibly weak book. Although there are is a lot of expert reference, rarely do the experts go into any depth with regards to their arguments or points. If this book is the only book that you are exposed to within this segment; you might be left thinking that you read an average book. When you compare the book to other books in the same segment, it simply doesn't compare. Not a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Out of date...
Review: This book is totally out of date for 2003 and 2004!
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