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Books by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Dr. Wilson is the author of hundreds of articles and numerous books.

Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) is still in print. Read more about this book and its reviewers.  This book helps you get an overall view of what's involved in developing an online business strategy. Helps you set goals for your e-business, differentiate your company's products and services, position your company in the consumer's mind, master product strategy, placement, promotion, and pricing (the 4Ps), budget, and implement your plan. Available through Amazon.com.

Dr. Wilson wrote and published many of the first-in-category books in the pioneering days of Internet marketing, more than a dozen in all. They are now out of print. 

The E-Mail Marketing Handbook (2003, 2005) was published in two volumes to accommodate its 874 pages of information. The first volume provided a comprehensive guide to e-mail marketing. The second volume detailed about 250 e-mail marketing software vendors and services, with reviews and customer feedback.

The Shopping Cart Report (2002, 2004). This massive 766-page volume described the basics needed in shopping cart or e-commerce software, surveyed the specialized types of carts available, and then provided reviews and customer-feedback on the most popular of the 225 programs listed. Its comprehensive scope has not been duplicated since.

Guide to Search Engine Optimization (2004, 2006, 2007) is brief and clearly-written, designed to non-experts understand how to do basic SEO to make search engine-friendly webpages and navigation system, develop an effective linking campaign, and outsource SEO to another firm. Originally titled Dr. Wilson's Plain-Spoken Guide to Search Engine Optimization (2004), wasn't intended to be comprehensive, but provide short and sweet,  basic, actionable steps to help to struggling small businesses get better rankings.

How to Promote Your Local Business on the Internet (2005) was one of the first books to explain strategies to promote local businesses online. Since then local search marketing has become a major specialty within search marketing.

How to Develop a Landing Page  (2002, 2004, 2008). One of the very first books on optimizing a landing page to get the highest conversion rate. Later editions explained A/B and multivariate testing to tweak landing pages for the best results.

How to Promote Your Site through Article Marketing (2007) was one of the earliest books on getting links to your by distributing top-quality content to e-zines and websites across the Internet.

Report on Affiliate Management Software (2001, 2005). Probably the earliest and most comprehensive book on software that powers affiliate programs. It describes the various functions needed and reviews both the ASP hosted services as well as licensed software on a merchant's server.

How to Write an Ad that Clicks  (2008) explains the how to write a short Internet ad that gets results. Outlines the basics of copywriting, then gives specific instructions for writing headlines as well as the peculiarities of writing ads for Google AdWords text ads, banner ads, and e-mail ads.

Report on Pay Per Click (PPC) Bid Management Software (2006) provided a comprehensive look at software designed to automate and refine bidding on pay per click ads.

Social Bookmarking and Marketing (2007) explained the rise of Web 2.0 social bookmarking and tagging and offered suggestions on how marketers can encourage readers to bookmark their sites -- offering important links. Only later did the Facebook "like" phenomenon take hold.

Research Guide to Online Niche-Finding: Methodology and Software (2005) explained how to find promising online niches in which a new business might flourish, and reviewed several software programs that assisted in that research process.

A Merchant's Guide to E-Commerce Payment Gateways (2001), the first and perhaps the only comprehensive book written that described e-commerce gateways in detail and cataloged all the available gateways at the time in the US and around the world.

Reciprocal Linking Tools (2004) provides a guide to software programs that were developing in that era to manage linking programs designed to boost search rankings.

E-Mail Marketing: Software Survey 2004. A survey in 2004 of users of dozens of e-mail service programs and software, giving ratings plus pros and cons of each.

Making and Marketing E-books (2004) explained how you can develop content, format, market, and sell a PDF e-book. This explained how to get in on the self-publishing revolution, prior to Kindle e-books and print-on-demand.

PayPal Buyers Survey 2004, an objective study of the advantages of using PayPal for e-commerce. It was written in an era when PayPal was loudly criticized as unsafe and a rip-off for users.

12 Ways to Give Your Web Store a Sales Boost (2001). This is probably the very first book written on how to optimize sales in an online store. Since then a whole science of maximizing product pages and carts to get the sale has developed.

10 Steps to E-Business on a Shoestring (2002). Written for small businesses that wanted to learn how to begin selling online at the lowest possible cost. This book helped hundreds of online businesses get off the ground.

How to Optimize Your Landing Pages Scientifically (2004) is one of the earliest books on online A/B split testing, multivariate testing, and webpage optimization  every written. Later the core of this book was incorporated into How to Develop a Landing Page.

Demystifying Viral Marketing (2000), a collection of seminal articles on viral marketing, including one of Dr. Wilson's most popular articles of all time.

Web Marketing Basics (1997-2000) an introductory compilation of Internet marketing articles and principles that formed the basis of Dr. Wilson's popular one-day Internet marketing seminar series.