There is an old adage which says 'never judge a book by its cover'. Well, I don't know how a book with such an attractive cover could fall so short. Granted, the writing style is fluid, fast, and highly readable, and the organization is good; yet the content of Jamison and Gold's treatise on ecommerce seems to be missing something. Jamison and Gold do get to the point quickly in their text, but one has to wonder if there is something more to the internet and ecommerce than just sales and security as they boldly assert.
Organized into eight light and readable chapters, the book takes the reader on an in-depth tour of sales and security on the internet while at the same time introducing other vital areas such as website creation, maintainance, and promotion. The first five chapters, each roughly twenty pages long, are devoted to a skim tour of website development, marketing and promotion. By the end of the first chapter, the reader is thoroughly indoctrinated in all of the obligatory hype and marketing spin the internet is infamous for, and is encouraged by all means to jump on the modern incarnation of the American Goldrush. The second chapter outlines the internet selling process in twenty three steps, while chapters three, four and five are devoted to the various processes, strategies, and tools necessary to implement these twenty three steps. Chapters six and seven deal with the real meat of the book, sales and security issues respectively. Chapter eight profiles what Jamison and Gold believe to be ecommerce success stories; bear in mind that more than a few of these companies have yet to show a profit even after several years of operation. Four appendices containing useful information, such as a glossary of key terms, companies that are eager to get other companies on the eselling bandwagon, online transaction processing companies, and contact information for Jamison-Gold, round out the book.
On the plus side, the book did contain a very good overview of security related issues on the net, some of them even new to me, in a very understandable and non-technical fashion. The book was definitely written with an eye for the non-technical executive who is not very tech savvy, yet has money to spend.
On the minus side, on top of the usual marketing spin to be found in any internet book, the authors also include several shameless promotional plugs (some of it quite informative, but most of it annoying) for a variety of software companies. In more than a few cases, the authors merely grafted the marketing hype, advertising and promotional literature of the software companies featured in the book liberally throughout the text.
Finally, though the book is dated, and the terrain has changed drastically in the last two years, it does serve as a good introduction to and reference on sales and security issues related to ecommerce for those executives who are not in tune with the potential usefulness of the web in business. Bear in mind that the potential uses of the web and the internet are not solely limited to increasing sales, revenues, and ultimately profits, but also encompass increased productivity, efficiency, and faster communication and turn-around time in business- four significant and vital areas the authors failed to cover completely. A better book in the same category with well-rounded information is Phaedra Hise's Growing Your Business Online.
