Book Review: Mommy Where Do Customers Come From?

There are times when you read a book that is based on some sort of technology or software, etc and you always worry that it’s going to be bland. You don’t have to worry when it comes to Larry Bailin’s book “Mommy, Where Do customers come from? How to market to a new wold of connected cutomers.”

Larry’s no nonsense approach to reviewing techniques and tools is a refreshing change from the melba toast “I don’t want to offend anyone” approach. For example, “fly out menus suck”. You don’t really have to wonder what Larry means by this. If you’re looking for more opinion there is plenty to go around. He talks about flash, frames, e-mail lists, search engines, usability, and more. One of my favorite points is that search engines don’t by products customers do. We get so hung up on getting good placement that when we do get a visitor on the page it doesn’t address their needs.

The other thing that I really liked about this book is the stats that Larry brings to back up his comments. For example if someone offers to list you in 10,000 search engines, Larry points out that there are really only 11 search engines you should worry about. His information on e-mail lists, guarantees, and other staples of websites has me rethinking a lot of what I am currently doing.

The best thing about the book is the style. It’s as if Larry is sitting across the table talking to you and trying to stop you from making the most common mistakes on the Internet. This is a cliché, but I had a hard time putting down the book. It was not only educational but entertaining as well. If you have some marketing specialist at your heels telling you that they can get you number positioning n Google by tweaking your keywords, you REALLY need to read this book.

But the book at Amazon.com