As a web consultant and SBDC Technology Advisor, one of my services is to provide web audits for small business clients. A web audit consists of a thorough website review including review of first impression, design, navigation, usability, content, SEO, etc. I’m always on the lookout for articles to share with clients. [Updated January 21, 2011, February 8, 2011]

Here’s my recent collection of Best Resources to Review before You Design (or Redesign) Your Small Business Website:

1. I heartily recommend these two excellent books as an easy way to learn and/or review some of the basics of web design and web content:
2. • Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Steve Krug)
   • Letting Go of the Words – Writing Web Content that Works (Janice Ginny Reddish)
3. Here’s my collection of Best SEO Search Engine Optimization Resources: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/10/16/best-seo-resources/
4. Here’s my collection of Great Social Media Resources — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twtiter, Blogging: http://saraisenberg.com/2010/07/22/social-media-resources-linkedin-facebook-twitter-blogging/
5. 8 Best-Practices for Small Business Websites (DIYthemes):
   http://diythemes.com/thesis/best-practices-small-business-websites/
6. What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business? (Mashable): http://mashable.com/2010/12/13/small-business-web-design/
7. 10 Questions You Should Ask Your Web Designer to Get Tangible Results (DIYthemes): http://diythemes.com/thesis/web-design-results/
8. The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page (Formstack):
   http://www.formstack.com/the-anatomy-of-a-perfect-landing-page
9. How to Choose – And Hire – a Web Designer (DIYthemes): http://diythemes.com/thesis/how-to-hire-a-web-designer/
10. Building an Online Marketing Plan: http://blog.hotdesign.com/2011/01/building-an-online-marketing-plan/
11. The Benefits of Wireframing a Design (SixRevisions):  http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/wireframing-benefits/
12. (I’ll keep adding resources so check back later.)

Here’s  my current list of business books that I recommend over and over again:

1. Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Steve Krug)  Perhaps not a business book per se, but it is THE book I recommend more than any other.

2. The No Asshole Rule, Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (Robert I. Sutton, Phd)

3. Letting Go of the Words – Writing Web Content that Works (Janice Ginny Reddish)

4. The One-Page Proposal, How to Get Your Business Pitch Onto One Persuasive Page (Patrick G. Riley)

5. Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes (David Straker)

6. Peak, How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (Chip Conley)

7. The Non-Designer’s Design Book (Robin Williams)

April 29, 2009, 7-9 PM, at NextSpace, Santa Cruz

NextSpace, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Geeks and Girls in Tech are proud to bring Prof. Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program and acclaimed author to NextSpace for a reading and signing of her latest book: WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World.

One crucial bit of career advice that Tina Seelig offers her students at Stanford University is this—never listen to career advice. This may seem odd, coming from the woman charged with teaching the best and the brightest to succeed in the business world. And yet this tip, together with the other insights she’s shared in her highly popular course at Stanford, has allowed Seelig’s students to become leading figures in the most innovative and successful business in the world, from Google to Intel to Adobe to Apple.

Now, in Seelig’s WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World (HarperOne; April 2009; Hardcover; $23.99; ISBN 9780061735196), we can all get inside access to one of the most sought after business school professors in the country. With provocative lessons gleaned from Seelig’s tenure in both the corporate and academic worlds, and with some untraditional advice inspired by leading business figures like Apple creator Steve Jobs (his Mac design was based on a calligraphy course he took as a college dropout) and JetBlue founder David Neeleman (it took being fired by Southwest to come up with his new airline), the book provides tangible skills and invaluable guidance that will allow readers to achieve unprecedented success in any field.

Tina Seelig has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford and is the Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, which is the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University School of Engineering. In addition, she also teaches a course in the 
Department of Management Science & Engineering on Creativity and Innovation, and has written several popular science books for adults and children.

The smartest business school students in the world take Tina Seelig’s classes to learn how to transform their creativity into credibility and their ideas into business realities. And now that her course is available in the form of WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY, readers of all ages, and at any point in their careers, we can do the same.

“Tina Seelig is one of the most creative and inspiring teachers at Stanford. Her book ought to be required reading. I wish I had read it when I was 20 . . . and again at 50.” — Robert Sutton, Stanford University Professor and author of The No-Asshole Rule

“Anybody who wants to live an entrepreneurial life filled with purpose and passion needs to read this book. It’s chockfull of practical tools and tips to bring out the best in each of us.” — 
Steve Case, Chairman of Revolution and The Case Foundation, and co-founder of AOL

*You will be able to purchase Tina’s book at the event.

**Please RSVP for this event

News Update:

The 2009 Bernard M. Gordon Prize is awarded to Thomas H. Byers and Tina L. Seelig “for promoting engineering leadership by developing and disseminating technology entrepreneurship educational resources for engineering students and educators around the world.”

I attended a meeting at NextSpace this morning where the guest speaker was Patrick G. Riley, author of The One-Page Proposal.  This is my kind of business book!  I’m going to write my first 1-pager this week.  This is not our NextSpace, IP Society, Patrick Reilly.

I’ve been meaning to mention my favorite business books.  Here’s a start… These are business books that I continue to recommend to colleagues (and one or two are sitting on my bed side table waiting to be read):

1. Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Steve Krug)  Perhaps not a business book per se, but it is THE book I recommend more than any other.

2. The No Asshole Rule, Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (Robert I. Sutton, Phd)

3. The One-Page Proposal, How to Get Your Business Pitch Onto One Persuasive Page (Patrick G. Riley)

4. Rapid Problem Solving with Post-it Notes (David Straker)

5. Peak, How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (Chip Conley)

6. A Whole New Mind, Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future  (Daniel H. Pink)

7. Free Agent Nation, How America’s New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live (Daniel H. Pink)