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ISSUE #25
13-July-99
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WebWord.com Newsletter
"Usability & the Internet"
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List Owner
John S. Rhodes
John@WebWord.com
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July 13, 1999 Newsletter #25
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Table of Contents
1. Book Review: Writing for the Web
2. Amazon.com: Customer Driven to the Core
3. 103 Best Songs You've Never Heard, Vol. 2 (Free)
4. Response to Server Side Includes (SSI) Report
5. "Make My Site Sell"
6. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?
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ITEM #1
A new WebWord.com Report is now online:
<http://webword.com/reports/killian.html>
Book Review: Writing for the Web
There are not many good resources available to help
you understand how to write effectively for the web.
It takes different thinking and different skills to
develop online textual content (and other content).
Crawford Killian recently put out a book on writing
for the web that is excellent. I decided to write a
review of it for you. Also, Crawford used one of my
Moving WebWord articles <http://webword.com/moving>
as a case study. I know that much attention is paid
to the usability aspects of web writing too, in case
you were wondering.
Read the report:
<http://webword.com/reports/killian.html>
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ITEM #2
Amazon.com: Customer Driven to the Core
What follows is part of a letter that was sent out today
from Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com. Many
people have talked aobut how Amazon.com has been so
successful on the web. There are many factors at work,
in my opinion. However, the most important factor has
been that Amazon has been 100% customer-driven. This is
not a simple thing that the company says it does -- they
do actually it. They do everything they can to focus on
you. They relentlessly personalize their work for you.
Now, let's take a quick look at part of what was sent:
"Since we sold our first book in 1995, we've been
committed to being the most customer-obsessed
company in everything we do. We try to start with
customers and work backwards from there."
And so on...
The letter was part of an announcement that Amazon.com
is moving into the sales of electronic goods and toys.
Can they keep spreading out, beyond books, beyond music,
and beyond auctions? I really think they can do it. They
are taking the time to build a web presence that serves
you. You are the target. You are the drive.
I think that one reason that they have not yet turned a
profit is that they are concentrating on capturing your
attention. They are taking the time, energy, and capital
to focus on usability. I think that it will pay off.
As you might guess, I think that the usability approach
will be the key way to develop competitive advantage as
the economy goes more and more digital.
Do you agree that usability is absolutely crucial? Do
you think I am missing the boat? Why will Amazon.com
sink or float?
Feel free to visit Amazon.com. If you buy a book, you'll
be supporting WebWord.com
<http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/wedwordcom>
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ITEM #3
103 Best Songs You've Never Heard, Vol. 2 (Free)
I've been through the MP3.com site several times and
finally decided that this is a great promotion that I
must pass on to you. You can get a free CD with tons
of music in exchange for a small (and reasonable)
amount of your personal information.
Here's the sign up form:
<http://chooser.mp3.com/cgi-bin/promo/103songs-reg.cgi>
Now, if you plan on running a promotion yourself, this
is definitely the way to do it. First, they are giving
away something for free, they even pay shipping and
handling. Second, they don't ask for much information
at all. In fact, they ask for much less information than
many offline promotions do. MP3.com does it right. Good
job, thumbs up, and all that jazz.
By the way, in an older Moving WebWord article I
generated 8 simple e-commerce tips. You can find
them at <http://webword.com/moving/8quick.html>.
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ITEM #4
Reader Response to Server Side Includes (SSI) Report
David Jao sent me an email about my SSI report. There
is some excellent information to pass along to you. I'm
going to simply reproduce the email that he sent to
me. If you do work with SSI, there are some things that
will be important to you. Here's David's email:
I feel compelled to respond to Jill Metcalfe's
suggestion on your SSI report at
<http://webword.com/reports/ssi.html>
Basically,
Jill's suggestion is a bad idea and there is a much
better alternative.
[This was Jill's comment in the report]
> You don't need to use the .shtml extension at all.
> Simply put this line in your .htaccess file:
>
> AddType text/x-server-parsed-html .html
>
> This means that the server will look for SSI in all
> files with an .html extension. I use "html" for all
> files that contain an SSI call and "htm" for
> non-SSI files. I think that's neater, and less
> confusing for users.
Jill's last sentence is dead wrong. Using different
extensions "html" and "htm" for SSI and non-SSI html
files is sure to cause no end of confusion for users.
Do you really want users guessing whether or not a
given page has an html or htm extension? What if you
make a change to a page, adding or removing SSI ...
are you going to change the extension from htm to
html, and break a boatload of existing bookmarks and
links?
Making SSI files .html and non-SSI files .htm is no
improvement over the previous situation where SSI
files were .shtml and non-SSI files were .html. In
fact, the old situation may be positively better than
the new one. Many users, including myself, are
accustomed to the convention of using shtml for SSI
files and html for flat files. By contrast, I have
never heard of anyone using html and htm for this
purpose until today.
Things which differ only in a small way are likely to
cause the most confusion among end users. Let us rid
the web of the MS-DOS induced blight of two subtly
different extensions for html files.
You might think you could just follow the first part
of Jill's advice and not the second, by using .html
for all your html files. But this approach has
problems too: All your html files end up being parsed
by the server for SSI, not just the ones with SSI
calls. While any server can handle the task of parsing
a few files marked as containing SSI, a server can
quickly get bogged down if it is required to
server-parse every single html file leaving the gate.
A much better alternative is to turn on the XBitHack
option and set the execute bit for those .html files
which you wish to be parsed for SSI. That way, all
your html files have the .html extension, whether or
not they are server parsed. At the same time, only the
files that need to be parsed will have the execute
bit set, so the server only parses the files that
need parsing.
Granted, the XBitHack directive has no effect on
Windows systems, but the vast majority of Apache and
NCSA server installations are on Unix machines, and
the configuration directives in Jill's quote only
apply to Apache and NCSA.
[End of David's email message]
I think that this is some excellent advice. I especially
think that we all need to pay close attention to the
URLs that we use for our pages. We want to be consistent
and as simple as possible for our users. Switching
between .htm and .html can be a load of trouble. On
WebWord.com, all files end with the .html extension.
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ITEM #5
"Make Your Site Sell"
So, a trusted friend of mine tells me to visit a site
that is about web promotion and a whole lot more
<http://www.sitesell.com/thinkbig.html>.
I expected
the usual "song and dance" where I am told I can make
it big in two minutes, with no money down. I expected
the worst. Instead I was pleasantly surprised. The site,
while somewhat flashy for my usability eyes, still had
interesting bites of information.
Then I downloaded the first two (free)
chapters of the
e-book that Ken Evoy offers his visitors. Much of what
I read was old news, but some was fresh and new. Then,
I found out that the book sells for about $17 or $18.
Reluctanly, I bought the book (I try to spend very few
WebWord.com dollars). I'm glad I made the purchase.
I am about 2/3 through the 800+ pages of material that
Ken packs into the e-book and related material.
I'm also an affiliate now. In the past, as an experiment
I joined several programs to see if any would fit with the
general goals of WebWord.com. Most fail to impress me.
"Make Your Site Sell"
is an exception. It is a solid
associate program with reasonable benefits for members.
Visit the site for details.
In any event, the book is worth the money. Ken Evoy
covers everything from web writing to usabilty to
offline promotion. I obviously don't agree with
everything he says, and some of it goes against research
I've seen. But, that might mean his advice, tools, and
resources work for you. You never know unless you try.
<http://www.sitesell.com/thinkbig.html>
One last thing. I have gone back and forth on this issue
and I decided I'd go for it. Here's my offer in a
nutshell. Ken offers you a rock-solid, unconditional
money back guarantee on Make My Site Sell. If you don't
like it, you get your money back with no questions
asked. I'm going to extend Ken's offer by another 100%.
I would feel very bad if I recommended something that
you don't like and can't use. I'm also an affiliate so
I have a vested interest in satisfying you. So, if you
buy the book and you don't like it, you'll get your
money back from Ken and *I* will send you a check for
the amount you paid. No questions asked.
Let me know what you think of this approach. Also, if
this kind of content annoys you, tell me about it. I'm
trying something new, and your comments are very, very
important to me <mailto:john@webword.com>.
And, what do
you think of Make Your Site Sell?
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ITEM #6
What Can You Find at WebWord.com?
Articles (Moving WebWord)
<http://webword.com/moving/>
Expert Interviews
<http://webword.com/interviews/>
Recommended Books
<http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html>
Newsletter Archive
<http://webword.com/archive>
Usability Reports
<http://webword.com/reports>
Recommended Web Sites
<http://webword.com/hotsites.html>
Free Stuff
<http://webword.com/freestuff.html>
Friends
<http://webword.com/friends.html>
---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #25 ------
(c)1998-99 by John S. Rhodes. All rights reserved.
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