Press releases

Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual: Create Websites That Draw Traffic with Latest Tech

Press release: November 11, 2005

Sebastopol, CA--"With the real-world tips and tricks throughout this book, any reader can build a web site that looks like a 21st-century web site," promises Matthew MacDonald, author of the new Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, US $29.95). This practical and comprehensive guide explains web site fundamentals and the best techniques and tools for easily creating and maintaining a personal or small-business site that is visitor-friendly, thoroughly modern, and brimming with the slickest new features.

Whether creating a first page from scratch, or resurrecting an existing site that's decidedly uncool, readers will learn the best way to build great web sites--from concept phase through to web hosting, and make it stand out with modern formatting practices. In fact, everything about the book is modern: it uses style sheets (CSS) from the beginning, devotes a whole chapter to blogging, and takes into account the hottest new browser (FireFox).

MacDonald's Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual is a down-to-earth tutorial that quickly brings even the most non-technical readers up to speed on web language and the how-to's of web site building with the following:

  • The Basics--Includes a basic primer on HTML, working with JavaScript, and incorporating useful services like Amazon's associate program, and Google AdSense and AdWords
  • The Applications--Covers top web page design applications Dreamweaver and FrontPage, and delivers advanced tricks for structuring text, adding graphics, linking pages, and making the most of layout and frames
  • Attracting Visitors--Discusses how to attract visitors and identify and connect with a site's audience and use cool JavaScript tricks and clever ways to add audio, video, Flash animation, and other dynamic content
  • Web Hosting--How to assess needs, find a good web hosting company, and transfer files to a web server
  • Making Money--Shows how to use innovative offerings from companies like PayPal and Yahoo! to create simple shopping carts and take online orders--without a stitch of programming
  • Web Interactivity--Learn how to use blogs and host online forums to build a community and let visitors talk back
  • Most importantly, Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual is practical, assures MacDonald: "The book doesn't cover every nook and cranny of HTML if it's not useful or widely used--after all, who has time for a history lesson? It does answer the questions that ordinary people really need answered."

    This witty and intelligent Missing Manual comes with all the vital information, clear-headed advice, and detailed instructions people need to make their ideas and vision a web reality.

    Additional Resources:

    Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual
    Matthew MacDonald
    ISBN: 0-596-00842-2, 559 pages, $29.95 US
    order@oreilly.com
    1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

    About O’Reilly

    O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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