I was a little taken aback by the quality of the printed copy... we use these books at work and when I compare it to earlier orders of the publication, this one and the Style Guide look like photocopies.

This reader-friendly book provides a useful overview of the pertinent issues involved in Web content development. Its main argument is that traditional publishing principles should be applied to Web content development. The authors maintain that the quality and effectiveness of Web content can be ensured by using the same approach in online content as is used in print publishing. With regard to persuading the reader of the importance of quality of Web content, the book is effective. However, it falls short of its second goal which is to help the reader gain the skills to develop quality content. One of the main reasons for this shortcoming is the book's lack of depth. By addressing such a broad subject area, the authors neglected to provide the reader with any deep insights. Nonetheless, for anyone new to content development the book would be useful in providing a general idea of the all the elements involved in developing effective Web content. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is looking for in-depth information.

I picked up this book based on the strong reviews here. Perhaps at one time this book was more relevant than it is now, in late 2005. It is most certainly not a book for web designers or developers. It might still be useful for someone in marketing, newly assigned the task of maintaining a site, who hasn't ever thought about web content before.

The book pounds a few ideas repetitively throughout: "content is king! Long live the content editors!" But in terms of actually delivering on that message, it falls far short.

Other reviews mention the book provides "solutions" to content issues -- this is certainly not true. It barely provides a methodology for approaching content issues on the web. When he tire hits the road, the "solution" is often along the lines of "it's important to do the hard work to figure these issues out." Well, huh.

It must be noted that the production quality of this book is terrible: some pages, and graphics, were of fax quality. I'm not kidding. The entire book seems photocopied. Reading about "high quality content" through such a poorly produced book was ironic enough.

In sum: had I seen this book on a shelf and flipped through it momentarily, I most certainly would not have bought it.

Please note: English is not my mother labguage. So, my review may a bit hard to read. But I really want to share my idea.

Summary:
Good introduction for anybody who really want to understand how to be a good web editor and how to manage content to make the benefit for your business. However, this book need more example or case study to fulfill reader's need.

Overview:
Content critical generally reveals the important of content and how can we enhance the user (which author define his user as a 'reader') experience with content. I recommend anybody who interested in information architecture (IA), User experience (UX) to read this book since it explore deep into the area of content.

Good things and not really good things:
Content is quite broad terms. It is not easy to conclude every perspective about content into only one book. But author has the journalism background which is one of the most suitable career to write this book. He descrbe which kind of 'e-content' is good for 'reader' with simple language and without any IT jargon. He also have done a good job on creating the ROI calculation formular. Yet, good comparison between traditional publishing and electronic publishing. This book might be a good reference for students who attend the e-publishing class. If I have a chance to change the name of this book. I think it should be "How to be a good web editor".

Nevertheless, this book still need more case study diagram and picture to make it more easy to understand.

Who should buy this book?
If you are in e-content business already; you may not enjoy to read it because it is too general and lack of case study for you to apply it with your work. But, if you think content is very important (and critical) and you still need to learn more about e-content. This is a great introduction for you.

This is an excellent book that teaches about styles and contents. I find it very helpful for deciding how to provide quality information on my client Web sites. What can be improved about this book is a good discussion on RSS, the tool that get your site contents syndicated and distributed on the Web instantaneously. I also recommend "Free Prize Inside" and "101 Ways to Boost Your Web Traffic, 3rd Edition." These two books address the missing points in the book.