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WanderingOak · 12-28-2006, 02:00 PM

I finished the book last night, and I definitely think it was worth my while. The author, JD Frazer, AKA Illiad, is the cartoonist who created the web-comic strip User Friendly, and his book concerns itself with the business side of running a website. While the advice given in the book might not be anything new to somebody who already has a successfull website (such as Steve), for a newcomer such as myself (so new, I don't even have a site yet) it is invaluable. Basicly, the book covers dealing with advertisers and sponsors, and explains what the content provider (that would be you) and the advertiser (the guy with the money) require and expect from one another in order to work together. It also covers subscription based and gated websites, as well as various legal issues and running forums. He advises against the 'donate' script, which Steve says works for him, so you can take that with however many grains of salt as you would like. The author also doesn't care for either RSS feeds, or 'webscraping', which he views as theft of content in his faq. His logic for that is rather simple: if you can view his cartoon without going to his site, you don't see his sponsor's advertisements, so he doesn't get fair compensation. Of course, this is from a cartoonists perspective, so it makes sense for him. You can't sample part of a cartoon in an RSS feed, then go to his site to read the rest.

Anyhow, I think this book is a good overview of the business side of things for a web-based creative content provider who would like to monetize their website.

12-28-2006, 02:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
WanderingOak Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 846	I finished the book last night, and I definitely think it was worth my while. The author, JD Frazer, AKA Illiad, is the cartoonist who created the web-comic strip User Friendly, and his book concerns itself with the business side of running a website. While the advice given in the book might not be anything new to somebody who already has a successfull website (such as Steve), for a newcomer such as myself (so new, I don't even have a site yet) it is invaluable. Basicly, the book covers dealing with advertisers and sponsors, and explains what the content provider (that would be you) and the advertiser (the guy with the money) require and expect from one another in order to work together. It also covers subscription based and gated websites, as well as various legal issues and running forums. He advises against the 'donate' script, which Steve says works for him, so you can take that with however many grains of salt as you would like. The author also doesn't care for either RSS feeds, or 'webscraping', which he views as theft of content in his faq. His logic for that is rather simple: if you can view his cartoon without going to his site, you don't see his sponsor's advertisements, so he doesn't get fair compensation. Of course, this is from a cartoonists perspective, so it makes sense for him. You can't sample part of a cartoon in an RSS feed, then go to his site to read the rest. Anyhow, I think this book is a good overview of the business side of things for a web-based creative content provider who would like to monetize their website.