Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual, by Matthew MacDonald

Back in the 1990s, someone once said that, 'soon everyone will have their 15 megabytes of fame', a paraphrase which lent itself to the internet. Blog technology has allowed a lot of that to happen, and for those of us who have been in the trenches for over 10 years, there's a lot we just know by being involved. Some of us even get paid for that knowledge. Some of us write books. Some of us write book reviews. Matthew MacDonald wrote a book. Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual (Missing Manual) wasn't written for me - it was written for the complete beginner, or 'newbie' as some of us oldtimers call them. I actually had to 'reboot' myself and read parts of the book again because the book was not written for someone like me - it was written for someone who is just getting started. This isn't a technical book. This is a book that gives one enough technology to create a (hopefully) good website that does something. You have to bring with you what you want the website to do.

My first problem with reviewing the book was that I had just reviewed 'Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML'. And part of that problem was relating the two in my mind, and thinking of the audiences that each book is targeting. When I compare the two, I prefer 'Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML (Head First)' - but that doesn't mean it's a better book for you. Instead, I had to consider why I thought of the book this way. And I had to really bang my head against the keyboard a few times to give a review - not because of the book, but because I forgot how much I know.

There are things in the book that up to last year I would have liked to have a headstart in - like the section on Google Adsense or Amazon.com affiliate links. The PayPal section I glossed over, though I don't support PayPal because they don't support me. But it doesn't serve these dishes up cold; the chef first tells you how to create the dishes that attract people (or, at least, search engines).

There are ten light chapters on HTML and building web pages before the author discusses what you're going to do with them seriously. People with short attention spans will go directly to the 'make money' section, and end up at the front - that's the way it works with a lot of people. That's not a bad thing. Do that. Go crazy. But realize that until you read the first 10 chapters, you may not have anything to make money with. Don't worry. The book isn't too big, and if you follow the instructions in the book you can probably wade your way through the basics in a week at about 2 hours a day - if you're completely new to doing this stuff. That means if you start on Monday, next week Monday you'll be looking at the bigger picture stuff. It's well written, easy to read, and the humor keeps you going through the rougher parts.

Part Three - Chapters 11 through 13 - is where most people will get excited, buy the book, run home and try things out immediately. This is the section with Google AdSense, Amazon Associates and PayPal Merchant Tools. It's a good section, well written and filled with things that I honestly take for granted nowadays - not that they are unimportant, but because I learned things the Hard Way^Beta way. Recommending the book on this section alone would be great, but it's a dangerous section too - picturing one's self as an Internet Moghul, having lots of scantily clad people of the sex you are interested in doing your bidding and people drawn to your sheer wonderfulness... if you're buying the book for that reason, by all means do so - but a lottery ticket may be cheaper and have better odds if you plan to buy it and stick it on the shelf. You have to 'earn' this section, and to do that you do need to go through the chapters that came before. No shortcuts, sorry.

The cool stuff with JavaScript and DHTML in Part Four is in context - it's about growing your own site at home, adding buttons and menus, and even the Audio and Video.

Part Five is the Blog section, which sort of seems out of place. It walks you through starting a Blogger.com blog, which really has very little to do with the context of the rest of the book - at least for me.

So I thought about it this way: If my 19 year old niece, who knows very little about the web, needed a book - I would buy her this book. If my 23 year old cousin in the U.K., who thinks he knows a lot about the web but is still learning things, needed a book - I would buy him this book because it would complement what I know that he does know. If I had to teach web design to a class that had the basics down, I would use this book as a complementary reference.

This is a non-geeky book. Geeks all over the world have to work harder now because the level has been raised. And yet it allows the geek to get more information on marketing and business with websites - practical information. So maybe it is a geeky book. Again, mixed feelings. A 12 year old and a 56 year old could enjoy this book equally - my problem is that I'm smack dab in the middle.

Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual (Missing Manual) is a book for either absolute beginners or people who are missing parts of the stuff that they need to know - and the latter know who they are, usually. It covers a hard area to cover - introducing technology to the non-technically minded, introducing business to the technically minded, and pulling it together in a very neat package.

If you're curious about web design, or want to know the basics as a business person who wants to hire a web designer - this is a really good book to give you the language and concepts to deal with them and focus on the business end of things.

However I measure this book, Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual (Missing Manual) is a good book - I just don't know where to place it for readers. I have a feeling, though, that it will call out to the right readers, and the wrong ones will look it over.